This paper considers issues in customising descriptions of English grammar in the context of creating an electronic database for secondary school teachers in Hong Kong. In developing the database, we have aimed to incorporate insights from functional grammar and corpus linguistics while keeping the information accessible and relevant to teachers familiar only with traditional approaches to grammar. This has involved exploiting the advantages of hypertext, explicitly foregrounding pedagogical concerns and developing a metalanguage that will allow discussion of areas such as transitivity and theme without alienating the teacher-users. We illustrate the kinds of compromises that are necessary in order to match the linguistic information to the needs and existing knowledge of the teacher-users.
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An in-depth investigation is currently being conducted into the metalinguistic awareness of a group of practising L2 teachers, all non-native speakers teaching English in Hong Kong secondary schools. The investigation focuses on teacher metalinguistic awareness (TMA) as it relates to grammar. As part of this in-depth study, a test was administered in order to explore the declarative dimension of TMA: the teacher's explicit knowledge of grammar and grammatical terminology. The test was based largely on Alderson et al. (1996), which in turn draws upon Bloor (1986). The present paper reports on the test performance of these serving teachers as an indication of the level and nature of their explicit knowledge of grammar and grammatical terminology. It also compares their performance with that of two groups of prospective teachers of EFL/ESL: one group of native-speakers and the other of non-native speakers. Comparison with the former helps to shed light on the native/non-native issue (see, for example, Medgyes, 1994) as it relates to explicit knowledge of grammar, while comparison with the latter offers some indication of the effects of post-secondary education and teaching experience upon such knowledge.
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This paper examines the out-of-class English language learning activities of student teachers in Hong Kong, using questionnaires, interviews and learner diaries. The study Found that while many of the students devoted considerable time to studying and practising English outside the classroom, much of this time was spent on more receptive activities such as Listening and reading, rather than speaking. Students had a tendency to locus on private rather than public activities which did not involve face-to-face contact. Two students' out-of-class learning activities and their feelings towards using in English are examined in more detail. It is suggested that the reasons for their avoidance involved both individual and social/political factors, principally the implications attached to using English and the fear of negative judgement. However, it is pointed out that despite their negative feelings about using English in public, these were successful English learners who actively sought opportunities to use English in their private domain. It is suggested that the private domain may be a valuable setting for out-of-class language learning, since it is both less threatening to identity and is also easier for the student to control.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09658410408667094 ]

This paper investigates L2 English learners' reactions to mixed personality in a pedagogic grammar. Personality refers to how authors represent themselves in a text and interact with their readers (e.g. personally via the use of personal pronouns or impersonally via the use of the passive, etc.); mixed personality occurs when an author switches from one option to another. In an experiment, 195 students from Hong Kong and Poland were asked to read a text in which the author switched from we to you. The expectation that this mixing would cause we to be interpreted as exclusive was not borne out; however, some students did attach negative attributes to you as a result of its proximity to we. Another finding was that awareness of the generic reference of we was higher than that for you. Writers of pedagogic grammars are encouraged to be more aware of the referential complexities of personal pronouns.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585170902763973]

This paper explores the sociolinguistic awareness in English of tertiary level students in Hong Kong and Wuhan (Mainland China). The language data consisted of specific instances when a native speaker presenter made changes, in the course of oral delivery, to the written text of a conference paper that she had prepared in advance. Matched pairs of sentences/utterances were selected and in each pair the written version was placed side by side with the spoken version. When native speakers were asked to judge which version had been written and which had been spoken, their responses indicated that the changes were based on sociolinguistic intuitions shared by other native speakers. For the present study, the same matched pairs of utterances were given to tertiary-level students of English in Hong Kong and Wuhan. The resulting data are used to explore the extent to which students have access to the same sociolinguistic intuitions as native speakers. Comparisons are also made between the responses of students in the two settings as well as between the responses of English and non-English majors in Wuhan.
[Copyright of Language Awareness is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09658410608668853 ]

The paper focuses on the development of teacher thinking, specifically L2 teachers' subject-matter cognitions, i.e. their Teacher Language Awareness (TLA) (see e.g. Andrews 2001, 2003). The study examines the evolving TLA, as it relates to grammar, of three teachers, each a graduate with more than 10 years' experience of teaching English in Hong Kong secondary schools. All three teachers took part in a previous TLA study conducted in 1996-97 (see Andrews, 1999a), when they were in their early years of teaching and had received no professional training. In the present study, these three teachers' TLA and cognitions about grammar were investigated once more (in 2004). The aim of this follow-up study was to tell the story of each teacher's evolving TLA and grammar-related cognitions. In both phases of the research a mixed methods approach was adopted. Data from the two studies suggested that the teachers' TLA and grammar-related cognitions had altered very little. Their underlying beliefs about grammar pedagogy and the role of explicit grammar teaching, and their knowledge about grammar (as measured by a test of LA) seemed largely unchanged. The main difference between the three teachers was in their interaction with the context in which they worked.
[Copyright of Language Awareness is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09658410608668846 ]

Codemixing of Cantonese Chinese and English is a common speech behaviour used by bilingual people in Hong Kong. Though codemixing is repeatedly criticised as a cause of the decline of students' language competence, there is little hard evidence to indicate its detrimental effects. This study examines the use of mixed code in the context of the home setting, school setting and leisure activities. The data are complied from a questionnaire completed by 160 Hong Kong teachers and students. Subjects recorded their awareness of their frequency and purposes of using a mixed code communication style. Results showed that codemixing was frequently used by the subjects. Findings suggested that codemixing performed certain communicative functions and was used for various practical purposes. Codemixing appears to be a customary component of a bilingual society. No matter whether people dislike or prefer it, codemixing continues to exist and satisfy bilingual speakers' communicative needs. Administrative sanctions may not be effective.
[Copyright of International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13670050608668640 ]