A word, even when considered monosemic, generally has a cluster of meanings, depending on the mental representation of the referent by the speaker/writer or listener/reader. The variation is even more noticeable across cultures. This paper investigates the different ways in which cultural knowledge helps in the interpretation of English lexical items. After a brief review of the traditional World Englishes structural perspective, the paper analyses the various ways in which the schema helps in the construction of lexical meaning: it helps to decode the denotative meaning of some words with possible multiple interpretations; to perceive the referential boundaries; to understand the connotative meaning; to modulate meaning, demoting some features and promoting others; to understand the physical elements which contribute to the mental representation of some words; to perceive the bodily movements and other paralinguistic elements which contribute to the construction of the meaning of some words; to perceive the salience of a word within a cultural community; to perceive and predict collocates; to perceive cultural assumptions; to perceive political politeness and taboos; to distinguish transactional language from interactional language, and so on. The study is shown to have implications for lexicography and for English Language teaching.
[Copyright of Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01434630802147882]

This paper reports on a study undertaken in Hong Kong, addressing the way that resources are deployed in grammar schools to provide a curriculum for sixth-form students. The crucial resource in this analysis is time. An analytical technique that allows modelling of the allocational effects of alternative educational decisions is used. This technique also permits the direction and magnitude of cross-subsidizational flows among school activities to be identified The results of this analysis and their implications for Hong Kong schooling are discussed.
[Copyright of Education Economics is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09645299700000002 ]

A review is provided of recent research literature on the topic of troublesome classroom behaviour, published over the past decade or so with particular reference to research carried out in Australian schools. Nine Australian studies are reviewed, as well as a further seven from the USA, Hong Kong, Jordan, Greece and Malta. Seven of the studies deal with the early years and primary level of schooling, with six studies at the secondary level, and three that span primary and secondary levels of schooling. The following main themes are elucidated: the prevalence of behaviourally troublesome students; time spent managing troublesome behaviour; gender differences; and types of classroom (mis)behaviours, their severity and their frequency, Recent research confirms earlier findings that classroom misbehaviour is of widespread concern to teachers but that the main causes of disruption, while being frequent, are often relatively trivial in nature ('talking out of turn' behaviours in particular). While prevalence rates for troublesome students across classes are variable, boys are consistently identified as being more troublesome than girls.
[Copyright of Australasian Journal of Special Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10300110701189014]

This essay explores the nature of the curriculum content of liberal studies--a core school subject in the new senior secondary curriculum in Hong Kong--with reference to the curriculum- making processes entailed in the formation of that subject. The central thesis is that a school subject is introduced to schools and classrooms as a distinct representation of content embodied in curriculum materials, entailing a theory of content--a special way of selecting, organizing, and framing the content for social, cultural, educational, curricular, and pedagogical purposes. Knowing the content of a school subject thus entails knowing more than the content per se; it entails an understanding of the underlying theory of content, which is necessary for disclosing and realizing the educational potential embodied in the content.
[Copyright of Journal of Curriculum Studies is the property of Routledge . Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00220270902767311]

Despite the imperatives of policy and rhetoric about their integration in formal education, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are often used as an "add-on" in many classrooms and in many lesson plans. Nevertheless, many teachers find that interesting and well-planned tasks, projects, and resources provide a key to harnessing the educational potential of digital resources, Internet communications, and interactive multimedia to engage the interest, interaction, and knowledge construction of young learners. To the extent that such approaches go beyond and transform traditional "transmission" models of teaching and formal lesson planning, this paper investigates the changing requirements and new possibilities represented by the challenge of integrating ICTs in education in a way which at the same time connects more effectively with both the specific contents of the curriculum and the various stages and elements of the learning process. Case studies from teacher education foundation courses provide an exemplary focus of inquiry in order to better link relevant new theories or models of learning with practice, to build upon related learner-centered strategies for integrating ICT resources and tools, and to incorporate interdependent functions of learning as information access, communication, and applied interactions. As one possible strategy in this direction, the concept of an "ICT-supported learning activity" suggests the need for teachers to approach this increasing challenge more as "designers" of effective and integrated learning rather than mere "transmitters" of skills or information through an add-on use of ICTs.
[Copyright of Language Learning & Technology is the property of Heinrich-Heine-University in Düsseldorf.
Access via Directory of Open Access Journals: http://llt.msu.edu/]

This study draws upon an ecological perspective to examine parental involvement in homework and its relationship with primary school children's educational outcomes within the Chinese sociocultural context of Hong Kong. Data were collected using homework diaries and questionnaires administered to 1,309 pairs of students and parents spanning all six primary grade levels in 36 primary schools in Hong Kong. Results show that primary children across grade levels devote a substantial amount of time each day after school to homework assignments and revision, while parents' involvement in the homework process varies. Such variation in parental involvement is found to relate to the child's grade level as well as the parent's educational attainment. Gain in children's academic efficacy with higher parental involvement level is observed among junior primary students as well as those with parents of lower educational attainment. Implications for the school's role in involving parents in the homework process are discussed.
[Copyright of School Community Journal is the property of Academic Development Institute.
Access via Directory of Open Access Journals: http://www.adi.org/journal/]

This study examines the extent to which South Asian students in Hong Kong are gaining fluency in Chinese and the impact of this on their educational outcomes in the postcolonial context of an official shift to a trilingual (Cantonese, English, and Putonghua) and biliterate (Chinese and English) society. It focuses on the teaching and learning of Chinese in secondary schools 'designated' for minority background students. Data are drawn from student language proficiency testing and teacher interviews. The study found low proficiency in Chinese due, in part, to teaching methodologies based on approaches to learning Chinese as a first language. There was evidence of inadequate teacher preparation, inappropriate curriculum, structural issues, and a cycle of low student motivation and performance. The study concludes that educational outcomes for these students will not improve without a seismic shift in policy thinking and improvement of educational provision for minority students.
[Copyright of Diaspora Indigenous and Minority Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15595690903442256 ]

Little research has been done on the choices of mentors when they are offered a comprehensive range of roles. The mentors in this study were in their first attempt as mentors and did not have an assigned 'role'. They were involved in a mentoring course that sought to facilitate the placement of in-service teachers and school-institute partnerships. Findings suggested that there was a tendency of the mentors to take an authoritarian role on the rights and wrongs of protégés' teaching while managing to maintain trust and warm relationships. A particular interaction pattern between the mentors and protégés emerged. There were signs of a clear preference for performing the role of guiding teaching evaluations and the mentor teachers had a very positive attitude towards providing 'assistance' to the less experienced teachers. Nevertheless, room for the development of flexibility, creativity and initiative on the part of the protégés was limited by a number of contextual factors.
[Copyright of Teacher Development is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13664530903043970]

In this paper, we report on an inquiry exploring the experiences of 10 mainland Chinese student teachers of English so as to understand why they came to Hong Kong for a teacher education programme. The study revealed that these students were largely attracted to teaching in Hong Kong because of its extrinsic benefits such as professional stability, the prestige associated with the English language teaching profession and the opportunities to acquire valued skills transferable to other professions including English competence. Facing challenges as non-local students, they were also uncertain of becoming teachers in the new context. As 'elite' Chinese students were often unwilling to become teachers, we found it strategic to attract a large number of talented non-local students to the teaching profession and retain them. We conclude the paper with recommendations for various stakeholders to support these non-local students' adaptation and development as committed and competent teachers in local schools.
[Copyright of Journal of Education for Teaching is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02607470902771037]