課堂學習是香港一種廣受歡迎的校本研修模式,其特色就是運用「變易理論」來作為研究的框架。本文以兩個在香港地區進行的英語教學的課堂學習研究個案，探討如何運用「變易理論」來促進美語教學的成效。本文會先簡述「變易理論」的理念，然後探討此理論在英語科教學運用的潛力。

變易理論自20世紀90年代被瑞典著名學者馬飛龍教授提出之後，被廣泛應用於香港課堂學習研究，作為教學設計和課堂分析的策略。本文介紹變易理論的精髄思想，並結合香港英語科課堂學習研究的經驗，探討該理論對中國中小學英語教學的啟示。

本文以英語一個有關代詞的課堂學習為研究個案闡述香港小學英語教學的情況，借此探討如何利用課堂學習研究這種校本研修新模式以擴展英語教師對英語教學的觀念，並分析這種模式對英語教師專業發展的影響。

The present study investigated the relationships between socioeconomic status (SES) and word reading in both Chinese (L1) and English (L2), with children's cognitive/linguistic skills considered as mediators and/or moderators. One hundred ninety-nine Chinese kindergarteners in Hong Kong with diverse SES backgrounds participated in this study. SES explained unique variance in English word reading even after age, phonological processing, vocabulary and working memory were controlled. However, the effect of SES on Chinese word reading became nonsignificant when these control variables were included. Moreover, phonological awareness showed a full mediating effect on the relationship between SES and Chinese word reading. Both phonological awareness and vocabulary were found to partially mediate the association between SES and English word reading. These findings complement our understanding of the relation between SES and reading development in Chinese societies and may have policy or intervention development implications.
[Copyright © 2015 UKLA.]

In this paper, I review the four articles in this special issue, elucidate the main challenges faced by bilingual teachers when helping their Cantonese-dominant students learn both the content and target language (English) through content and language integrated learning-compatible pedagogies, and give a critical appraisal of their respective contributions to good practices and theory-building in research on translanguaging or classroom code-switching.
[Copyright © 2015 Taylor & Francis.]

Hong Kong is linguistically complex and diverse with three principal languages: Cantonese, English and Putonghua. A substantial debate on the language policies governing the three principal languages has continued for more than two decades among policy-makers and educators. The political transition in 1997 has greatly affected Hong Kong society, including language education. Since then, the HKSAR government has made a series of language policy reforms trying to create a reasonable balance among the three languages in Hong Kong. The policies of ‘biliteracy and trilingualism’ and ‘mother-tongue teaching’ are two of the most significant in terms of controversy and impact. They are now guiding the curriculum design in Hong Kong language education. The goal of the former policy is to train Hong Kong people to be truly biliterate (written English and Chinese) and trilingual (spoken English, Cantonese and Putonghua). However, Hong Kong primary schools presently do not have an agreed method for the implementation of trilingual education. After a comprehensive historical review of the development of language education in Hong Kong schools, this study aims to find out how the ‘biliterate’ and ‘trilingual’ language policy is currently implemented in Hong Kong primary schools. 155 Hong Kong primary schools participated in a questionnaire survey on how trilingual education is implemented in the schools. The findings suggest that the implementation of trilingual education varied significantly from school to school, and the effectiveness of the trilingual education models varied as well. It is hoped that the findings will help us to gain a better understanding of trilingual education in Hong Kong, and the study could lead to some insightful and theoretical contributions to multilingual education in general.
[Copyright © 2015 Wang and Kirkpatrick; licensee Springer.]

The present study explored the home literacy environment for Chinese ESL kindergarteners and examined the relationships between home literacy practices and language and literacy skills. Ninety Hong Kong Chinese ESL kindergarteners were assessed for English vocabulary, phonological awareness, letter knowledge and word reading. Their parents completed a questionnaire about home literacy practices. Results showed that these practices can be classified into three aspects: shared reading, exposure to English materials and home teaching. Shared reading uniquely predicted receptive and expressive vocabulary, syllable awareness and word reading in English. Exposure to English materials predicted expressive vocabulary and home teaching predicted letter knowledge.
[Copyright © 2015 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.]

為配合香港教育當局以「用普通話教中文」的遠程目標，不少學校已陸續於中國語文課程中加入普通話 (國語) 的學習元素，甚或直接採用普通話為教學語言。對大部分以廣州話為母語的本土師生而言，教育變革不但影響課堂互動，而且衝擊語文教學的效益。 通過觀察五位限學語文教師的課堂，一項質性研究嘗試探討在香港實施以普通話教授中文的具體情況及成效。

本論文介紹一個光盤，是結合資訊科技教學、學生創意與母語教學的製作。光盤由學生編寫十五個與新修訂的初中科學 (基礎教育) 課程單元配合的故事。並同時由學生製作插圖、練習及配音，讓學生發揮創意，自我增值。由於本光盤製作著重學生投入參與，故獲香港政府優質教育基金撥款資助。

香港的中文教學近年進行重大改革，從理念到課程，從教材到教學，都力求突破常規，回應新時代對語文素養的新要求。其中要求同時改變教學語言的呼聲，更是越叫越響。由於歷史因素，香港的中文教學一直以粵語為教學媒介，其優點在於通過母語學習，可以提高效率，但由此造成口語與書面語的落差，一直對傳統以寫作作為評估學習成果的中文教學，造成困擾。 隨著97回歸，教學誘因得到政治誘因的助力，「用普通話教學 (中文)」(Putonghua as a Medium of Instruction，下文簡稱PMI) 成了不少學校一個吸引的選項。然而，語言作為重要的教學媒介，任何改變勢將引起極大疑慮，不能輕率行事。前幾年，香港一些大學受政府委托，就相關課題進行大型研究，為一些細緻的教學策略和操作，尤其教師教學語言與學習成效的關係，都探討不多，也就不容易把種種建議落實到具體的教學裡去。因此，微觀的PMI課堂分析，對於整個「用普通話教中文」研究，顯然是不可缺少的延續和補充。 作者去年與幾位同行開展了一項相關研究，以五位經驗不同和表現各異的小學語文教師為對象 (其中兩位教師表現優異，被評為可作範式研究)，考察「用普通話教中文」的實際操作，並進行全面和細緻的分析，期望從中把各種成功要素歸納出來。研究既以課堂教學為核心，除重視觀課評量外，還通過與教師和學生訪談，結合學生的學習表現，作為論斷PMI教學效能種種具說服力的根據。 本文是整個研究的其中一環，將針對教師的語言表現，探討它與教學效能的聯繫。研究發現，成功的PMI教學，教師的語言表現呈現強烈的一致性，同時由此引起學生的學習行為反應 (包括情意和語言反應)，也異常相似。概括而言，優秀的PMI教師，都同時具備照顧者 (caretaker) 和教者 (teacher) 的語言特徵，並成功吸引學生在聆聽和回應教師話語時，高度集中，積極扮演學習者 (learner) 和運用者 (user) 的角色。 論文題目的「兩點思考」，指的就是這教師和學生的兩個思考角度。通過考察教師的語言表現和學生的學習回應，結合細緻的話語分析和相關教學策略的探討，期望為「高效的教學語言」找出具體涵義。由此而言，也為香港中文教學進行教學語言改革，思考如何重新啟動一種有效的教學互動時，提供一系列更具操作性的答案。