In traditional politeness theories, disagreements are face threatening acts, regarded as dispreferred options from a conversation analysis approach. However, in the classroom context, specifically in Language Education, it is often necessary for teachers to disagree with students. Previous studies of classroom disagreement have shown that teachers use linguistic markers to mitigate the face threat inherent in disagreements. In Hong Kong, we would also expect a significant use of mitigating lexical strategies as Asian cultures are typically regarded as being conflict-avoiding. However, as hand gestures and head movements have been observed to accompany negative linguistic markers to stress the lexical or pragmatic meaning of the utterance, they could be an alternative modality to communicate disagreement in the Hong Kong classroom. This study analyzed teacher disagreements in 10 h of Language Education classroom teaching in a Hong Kong higher education institution. The results suggest that disagreements are indeed dispreferred options in this particular context and that the salience of the act itself is minimized by avoiding negative gestures or head movements. As this behavior was observed among all teachers who disagreed, it is proposed that this behavior has been conventionalized within this community of practice.
[Copyright of Journal of Pragmatics is the property of Elsevier BV.]

Over the past decade, Chinese language teachers in Hong Kong have experienced a series of educational reforms. They are now expected to design and implement their own school-based Chinese language curriculum, and adopt innovative pedagogies and customized materials in the classroom. The current literature suggests that some teachers are not ready for or even resist changes amid new challenges and paradigm changes. This case study highlights the role of emotionality as a key factor for successful teacher change by proposing a local adaptation of the classic model, while pointing out that a combined mode of support inclusive of collective lesson preparation and teaching demonstrations/practical sessions in professional development programs is a key element that helps facilitate teachers' change and provides teachers with experiential learning opportunities and enhanced confidence, leading to their voluntary adoption of the approach and gradual change in their beliefs and attitudes after witnessing the feasibility and effectiveness of the newly introduced concepts.
[© 2017 Teacher Development]

Social diversity is now commonplace in many communities in today's globalised world. This diversity can be seen in any classroom of learners, and international studies have shown the complex ways in which disabilities, race, ethnicity, gender and social class can determine a child's opportunity to succeed or fail in the education system. In Hong Kong, like in many educational contexts around the world, teachers are grappling with increasing diversity amongst their students, including teaching students with special educational needs (SEN) and non-Chinese speaking students (NCS) living in Hong Kong. This paper examines how three primary TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) teachers are constructing identities as inclusive practitioners as they grapple with enacting the inclusive education policy recently introduced into Hong Kong schools. The data are drawn from a small-scale collaborative reflective inquiry for teacher professional development. Drawing upon a sociocultural and critical framing of identity theory, we trace the three teachers' identity construction as EFL teachers and inclusive education practitioners. We view the role of discourse, self-positioning and social context as key processes in teacher identity formation. Implications for furthering the development of inclusive education in EFL classrooms are offered.

This inquiry aimed to examine the benefits of having international field experience for a group of Hong Kong postgraduate student teachers who joined a six-week immersion program in New Zealand. Through participants' reflections, interviews and program evaluations, the present investigation found that the overseas field experience not only enriched their cultural understanding, pedagogical knowledge and skills, but also enhanced their language awareness, classroom language and recognition of different English varieties.
[Copyright of Australian Journal of Teacher Education is the property of School of Education, Edith Cowan University. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2011v36n10.4]

There is a growing interest in research on language teacher identity as relevant research suggests that language teacher self-identification has an impact on their language teaching. The present paper explores the self-identification and subsequent effects on their actual teaching vision and practice of 16 Chinese language subject teachers teaching Chinese as a second language to South Asians in Hong Kong. Data collected from classroom observations and interviews with the teachers demonstrate that Chinese language subject teachers negotiate with South Asian learners and construct their teaching in ways that enable them to create an environment where they see themselves as linguistic torchbearers and cultural transmitters while acquiring a strong feeling of success professionally. This research implies that teacher identity is a kind of pedagogy through which language teachers can reproduce or counteract hegemonic discourses and ideologies that oppress South Asians as non-native language minorities.
[Copyright of Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2011.622558]