In 2017, the Curriculum Development Council (CDC) issued the latest secondary education curriculum guide with the highlighted theme “Learning to Learn 2+”, which introduced “Vocational English” for senior secondary level in the “Progression of VPET with Diversification” section, along with “Applied Learning as elective subject(s)” (ApL) and “Career-related Experiences in OLE”. To support this new initiative, the Education Bureau (EDB) launched a new Language Fund Project “Vocational English Programme” (VEP) Grant for schools to enrol senior secondary students on related vocational English courses, which commenced in the 2018–2019 school year. The programme aims to boost students’ confidence and interest in English learning and prepare them better for vocational education and jobs / occupations. In this new programme, each participating school can nominate about 20 students to attend courses administered by third-party course providers. From a macro-perspective, the introduction of the VEP is a step to implement vocationalization of English which complements the advocacy of Vocational and Professional Education and Training (VPET) outlined in the latest curriculum guide. However, from a micro-perspective, the impact of VEP on the senior secondary and post-secondary level does raise some questions and concerns worth further investigation – for instance, the connection of the VEP to other VPET-related components in the “Learning to Learn 2+” curriculum; the influence of the VEP on the current senior English curriculum; and the curriculum design, accreditation and articulation of the courses. This paper discusses the potential impact of the VEP based on a thorough review of relevant policy documents and literature, together with the analysis of data from interviews with students and teachers from both secondary schools and post-secondary level institutions to triangulate their views on the VEP. The paper ends with feasible suggestions and possible implications for the vocationalization

In this paper, we explored the primary students' after-class vocabulary behavioural learning patterns using a mobile user-generated-content (m-UGC) tool. A total number of 21 Grade 4 students from an elementary school in Hong Kong were recruited. Case study approach was adopted. Data collection included students' learning logs on the m-UGC tool. Content analysis and visualization were used to analyze data. Three sub-groups of primary students' after-class vocabulary behavioural learning patterns were identified and future studies were explored. Copyright © ICCE 2020 - 28th International Conference on Computers in Education, Proceedings. All rights reserved.

Previous research on comprehensive/focused written corrective feedback (WCF) has been dominated by the experimental/quasi-experimental tradition, with low ecological validity and limited pedagogical relevance, and without sufficiently recognizing the complex issues that influence teacher WCF practices in authentic classrooms. To fill this gap, this study adopts an ecological approach informed by a complexity perspective to investigate two secondary teachers’ attempts at focused WCF in the Hong Kong EFL writing context. Data were gathered for one academic year from interviews with teachers and students, classroom observations, students’ writing, as well as pre-and post-writing tests. The findings suggest that focused WCF is feasible in authentic classrooms when it is aligned with writing instruction and provided on preselected error types and selective errors based on individual students’ needs, providing an impetus for teachers to strengthen their writing pedagogy and freeing them up to enhance feedback on other areas of student writing. The study points to the potential of focused, student-specific WCF in enhancing written accuracy as well as students’ engagement with revision, and concludes with implications for the pedagogy of WCF in similar contexts. Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

When solving word problems, many children encounter difficulties in making sense of the information and integrate it into a meaningful schema. This is the fundamental phase on which subsequent problem solution depends. To better understand the processing underlying this fundamental phase, this study examined the roles of schema construction and knowledge of mathematical vocabularies in word problem solving. The participants were 139 Chinese third graders studying in Hong Kong. Path analysis showed that there were two kinds of pathways to word problem solving: language-related and number-related. In particular, reading fluency was related to word problem solving in two mediated language-related pathways: one via schema construction, the other via knowledge of mathematical vocabularies. In the number-related pathway, arithmetic concept was related to word problem solving via knowledge of mathematical vocabularies. These findings highlight the specific roles of schema construction and mathematical vocabulary in word problem solving, thereby providing useful implications of how best to support children in understanding and integrating the information from the problem. Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Comprehending native English connected speech is a daunting task for most non-native speakers (NNS) of English, who often misinterpret such input and result in poor listening comprehension in authentic situations. These misinterpretations of native English speech are critical to understanding the mechanisms underlying connected speech perception and the recovery strategies employed by NNS. In this study, we tested the perceptual errors of native English connected speech by 60 undergraduate learners of English as a second language (ESL) in Hong Kong and systematically classified their dictation responses. A total of 640 errors were identified and subsequently categorized into 9 main types and 20 subtypes of errors. The absolute number and relative frequency for each types and subtypes were reported. Our findings should inform teaching practices of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) educators and subsequently enhance the English connected speech listening comprehension skills of NNS. Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd.

Literature has long been used as a tool for language teaching and learning. In the New Academic Structure in Hong Kong, it has become an important element in the senior secondary English language curriculum to promote communicative language teaching (CLT) with a process-oriented approach. However, as in many other English as a second or foreign language (ESL/EFL) contexts where high-stakes testing prevails, Hong Kong students are highly exam-oriented and expect teachers to teach to the test. Because there is no direct assessment on literature in the English language curriculum, many teachers find it challenging to balance CLT through literature and exam preparation. To address this issue, this article describes an innovation of teaching ESL through songs by ‘packaging’ it as exam practice to engage exam-oriented students in CLT. A series of activities derived from the song Seasons in the Sun was implemented in the ESL classrooms in a secondary school in Hong Kong. Based on the author’s observations and reflections informed by teachers’ and students’ comments, the students were first motivated, at least instrumentally, by the relevance of the activities to the listening paper in the public exam when they saw the similarities between the classroom tasks and past exam questions. Once the students felt motivated, they were more easily engaged in a variety of CLT activities, which encouraged the use of English for authentic and meaningful communication. This article offers pedagogical implications for ESL/EFL teachers to implement CLT through literature in exam-oriented contexts. Copyright © 2021 The Author(s).

As an effective teaching approach that allows teachers and students to interact collaboratively and actively build on each other’s ideas, dialogic teaching can enhance classroom engagement and learning outcomes. This study addresses the use of dialogic teaching for improving English language learning among Chinese children with varied levels of English vocabulary. It focuses on the effects of dialogic teaching on vocabulary knowledge and phonological awareness. Seventy-two first graders from Hong Kong primary schools were tested on English vocabulary knowledge and phonological awareness and were assigned to control and experimental conditions. A 12-week dialogic teaching intervention was implemented in daily English lessons. Results from repeated measures ANOVA showed that students in the experimental condition with dialogic teaching implemented exhibited significantly greater growth in expressive vocabulary knowledge on textbook items in both low and high vocabulary groups, and greater gain in phonological awareness in the high vocabulary group, than those in the control condition. These results suggest that dialogic teaching in English-as-a-second-language (ESL) classroom enhances English language development in young ESL learners. In addition, when assessing the effectiveness of dialogic teaching in young children’s second language classroom context, it is important to consider its differential effects on children with diverse vocabulary levels. Copyright © 2021 The Author(s).

Access to private tutoring, or shadow education, significantly contributes to the increasing disparities in the attainment of language learners from different family backgrounds worldwide. In ESL/EFL contexts, many students subscribe to English private tutoring (EPT) in hopes of getting good English results in high-stakes examinations to secure a university place. This longitudinal narrative inquiry investigates the experiences of a financially disadvantaged student who managed to pay the tuition to subscribe to an EPT class in Hong Kong. Multiple sources of data collected throughout the year from six rounds of in-depth interviews with the student; three reflective essays; classroom observations and interviews with the student's tutor, schoolteacher and parent yielded thick description of the student's narrative. Informed by Norton Pierce's notion of investment, the analysis reveals how the participant invested in EPT to overcome existing educational inequalities. The tutorial class was perceived by the student as a place to expand her social network with students from prestigious schools, with a hope to ultimately gain the economic capital for escaping poverty. This study has implications regarding the effects of inequalities of educational opportunities in affluent societies. It indicates the need for further research on language learners' experiences in the shadow education context. Copyright ©Routledge.

Gender stereotyping has long been an issue for gender and language research from as early as the 1970s, and analyses on gender representation in English language textbooks have been frequently conducted. However, gender representation in assessment papers, another commonly occurring genre in education, remains unexplored in Hong Kong research. Therefore, this paper was aimed to explore how males and females are represented in Territory-wide System Assessment (TSA), a territory-level assessment administered in Hong Kong, to find out if gender stereotyping is still an issue. The data of the current study include the recent 10 years of TSA Primary 3 English Language Reading & Writing papers. A total of 33 sets of TSA Primary 3 English Language Reading & Writing papers was analysed by using content and linguistic analyses for their written texts and visual analysis for visual elements. The key findings include: males and females are represented similarly in the written texts and in the visuals, and females are portrayed as involving in occupational roles more frequently than males in both the written texts and visuals. However, it is always females who were drawn to be focused on family matters, and the marital status of a female is still distinguished by the use of either Miss or Mrs. Suggestions for test paper designers and examination authorities are given and implications for future research studies are drawn at the end of this paper. Copyright ©Springer New York LLC.

This study examined the use of first language in English reading lessons and the perceptions of teachers and students towards it in three Hong Kong Chinese-medium secondary schools. The data comprised three teachers and sixty-three Form 2 students' participation and responses in (i) 3 classroom observations about how L1 was used in actual teaching and learning settings, (ii) survey forms gathering the frequency of participants using L1 teaching and learning strategies (based on the three teachers and nineteen selected students from the pool), and (iii) subsequent in-depth interviews concerning their perceptions about using L1 in English reading lessons. The findings revealed that (i) the use of L1 bottom-up language focused teaching strategies and condition-oriented teaching and learning strategies were effective for teaching and learning in English reading lessons and (ii) there was a negative relationship between students' proficiency in English and the use of L1. The study concluded that the use of first language in English reading lessons brought positive effects on the second language learning in English reading, especially when students' English proficiency and teaching contexts were taken into consideration. Copyright ©International Journal of Instruction.