The contribution of teacher knowledge to learning outcomes at the beginning stages of literacy acquisition is of growing concern because the ability to provide quality instruction is central to successful literacy acquisition, particularly for pupils with dyslexia. To date, the majority of research has focused on teachers of English as a first language. Yet, English is the most widely taught foreign language today. The present study extends the exploration of teacher knowledge by probing two heretofore unexamined groups of teachers who are responsible for teaching beginning stages of literacy in English as a foreign language: regular class teachers who are non-native English-speaking (N = 96) and native English-speaking teachers (N = 24) working in the kindergarten setting in Hong Kong. As these two teacher groups serve as gatekeepers of beginning English as a foreign language literacy for kindergarten children in Hong Kong, it is crucial to gather information about the depth and quality of their teacher knowledge. This information can be instrumental to improving the quality of beginning literacy instruction in English and assisting early identification of dyslexia. Both groups completed the basic language constructs survey (Binks-Cantrell, Joshi, & Washburn, Annals of Dyslexia, 62, 153–171, 2012a). Results showed while native English teachers performed significantly better than non-native English teachers, total percentage correct scores were below 50%, except for phonological awareness tasks. All teachers scored higher in items requiring syllable as opposed to phoneme manipulation. Only teacher type predicted teachers’ performance on the survey. The need for quality instruction, particularly for children at-risk for dyslexia or those struggling at the beginning stages of literacy acquisition, is addressed. Copyright © 2020 The International Dyslexia Association.

Following years of pre-service teacher education, novice teachers are often enthusiastic about embarking on the journey in the teaching profession. However, they may not always possess the internal capacity and institutional support to take effective control of their teaching. This paper reports on a case study of the teaching lives of two novice secondary school ESL (English as a second language) teachers in Hong Kong, drawing on qualitative data gathered through individual face-to-face interviews, and supplemented by email exchanges and telephone conversations, over a one-year period. The study investigates how novice English teachers develop their teacher autonomy, and what factors contribute to their development as autonomous English teachers. The paper concludes that novice English teachers in Hong Kong possess the capacity and are also ready for autonomy, and that an invitational, supportive and collaborative school environment plays a decisive role in affording ample opportunities for novices to develop their autonomy in language teaching. The study suggests that novice teachers should become critically aware of the affordances (opportunities, possibilities, invitations, enablements) in their working conditions, and should meanwhile exercise their teacher agency to act on these affordances to pursue their personal-professional development.
[Copyright of Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics is the property of Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.]

This article mobilises story-telling to narrate the authors lived experience of teaching English as a minority academic in one Australian university. Positioning himself as living 'in- between' two cultures and as an 'Other', the author tells his story of how he has been 'racialised' and 'Othered' because he does not look White, and his spoken English is distinctly accented; hence, his legitimacy of teaching English is held suspect. The author's story contributes to the theorising of the sociology of the in-between with the argument that while living in-between culture can be a space of negativity, it can also be a space of empowerment if one exercises choice and agency by forging new spaces. The authors ends his story-telling with a happy ending by presenting a contrasting story of how his run-away from Australia to (a new space in) Hong Kong to teach English has reaffirmed his cultural capital as he morphed into a different 'Other'.
[Copyright of Discourse is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2012.666073]

There has been increasing research on the study of discourse markers (DMs) in terms of their pragmatic use. However, their pedagogic use in the ESL classroom has received less attention. This paper explores the attitudes of Hong Kong teachers towards the pedagogic values of DMs using a questionnaire (N=132), a reliability test, factor analysis, and interviews (N=3) with NS and NNS teacher-informants. Both the quantitative and qualitative results indicate a very positive perception of the pragmatic and pedagogic values of DMs by the subjects, where students at the intermediate-advanced level are challenged to acquire DMs for both receptive and productive purposes. The findings also 200 reveal the underrepresentation of DMs in existing teaching materials and in subjects' teaching. The study proposes the need to develop learners' linguistic awareness of this aspect of spoken features to facilitate communication and suggests that DMs can be included as part of the lexical input in the ESL/EFL syllabus. The results have implications for utilizing corpora to exploit the polyfunctionalities of DMs in different contexts and across registers, modifying existing teaching materials and promoting professional involvement in preparing learners to develop more effective communication.
[Copyright of Asian EFL Journal is the property of Nanzan University.
Access via Directory of Open Access Journals: http://www.asian-efl-journal.com/]

Elements of popular culture, in particular the film and song genres, have already been integrated into the senior curriculum in Hong Kong. While academic researchers advocate the inclusion of online social networking and video gaming as curricular alternatives to connect learners to digital literacy practices, its reception by teachers has yet to be fully explored. This paper reports on an action research carried out by 34 Hong Kong English teachers on video gaming and social networking. Though the teachers believed their students frequently engaged in such popular activities, they had strong reservations concerning classroom application, in particular the values of online gaming and the dangers of online social networking. Through a survey, interviews, lived experience, online journal entries and responses and reflection, these teachers explored the two popular cultural practices for personal experience, pedagogical potential and professional development. The teachers' own private engagement with such popular cultural activities did not necessarily favour pedagogical consideration. The paper also discusses the pedagogical implications of seeking alternative popular cultural activities for language learning and teacher training.
[Copyright of Pedagogies: An International Journal is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1554480X.2011.554625]