Teaching English as a second language in Hong Kong has been undergoing considerable change in the last two decades, from the Oral-structural Approach to the Communicative Approach, and more recently the Task-based teaching and learning. Hong Kong ESL teachers are having to rethink classroom strategies. This poses a particular problem for student teachers who have limited understanding of what this involves. Moreover, the only experience they can rely on is their own as pupils, and this has been rendered largely irrelevant at a time when the standard of English in schools in Hong Kong is said to have been declining. The speaker explores how eight student teachers who consider themselves linguistically deficient develop their professional knowledge in learning to teach ESL. Results show that the thinking, knowledge and practices of these student teachers who entered teacher education with an 'empty disk' did change critically on the course. Implications are drawn for developing TESL programmes for teaching candidates who are less competent in English.

The contents of nature of science (NOS) in science curriculum have been changed in the past few decades. In the sixties, the contents were mainly about science process skills. Later, the tentative, replicable, probabilistic, humanistic, historic and empirical natures were included in the seventies and psychological and social factors were included in the eighties. In the recent science education reforms of many countries, students' adequate understandings of NOS were explicitly stated or required. In order to achieve similar educational goal in the current curriculum reform in Hong Kong, we must first develop a valid, reliable, practical and easy-to-analyse research instrument for large-scale probing of students' understanding and views of NOS. The present paper reports on how we have made use of 3 cases from history of physical science (to wit, biography of Galileo Galilei, Thomson and Rutherford's atomic models, and observation of "canali" in Mars) plus three other historical cases and issues from the biomedical field (to wit, Jenner's use of vaccination for immunization against smallpox, discovery of SARS virus in Hong Kong, and discovery of the mosquito's role in transmitting the malaria disease) to develop two new sets of questionnaire research tools. The major criticisms on past paper-and-pencil NOS questionnaire instruments had been properly considered and addressed during the design process. Subsequently, questionnaire surveys were administered to about 640 students at junior secondary level in 6 Hong Kong schools and about 450 science students at senior secondary level in another 6 schools in Hong Kong. Those surveyed data were triangulated with the group interviews of a few randomly selected students in each class. Some key findings on the students' attitudes and misconception towards NOS will be presented in this conference paper together with a brief discussion on their implication in science education.

This colloquium addresses the issue of the effectiveness of content teaching and learning through English in Hong Kong secondary schools in the context of the current moves to change the eligibility of schools to adopt English as their medium of instruction. It brings together some recent classroom-based research and development on teaching and learning through English in Hong Kong secondary schools in order to promote debate as to how this can be improved. Cummins will present an overview of the value of integrating second language and content learning. Kong and Hoare will focus on the use of English by teachers and students in the local English medium classrooms, based on data drawn from two studies on teacher explanations and student writing. Man will discuss some adaption issues of Secondary 1 English medium students switching from Chinese medium primary schools and will examine some support measures for their content learning. Walker will report on some of the difficulties students face using English for content learning in S4 and the role of an enrichment programme in supporting them. The colloquium will include an extended time for discussion on ways forward in English medium teaching and learning.