English language remains an important learning component of all university students in Hong Kong. Regardless of their academic interests, all pre-service teachers whose specialisms are not English are also compulsorily required to study English during their first year of university years. Does it mean these non-English subject trained pre-service teachers will be de-motivated to learn English? How do they respond to English learning even if they do not expect to teach English in the future? What learning strategies do they adopt during English lessons? In this paper, we attempt to look at a group of non-English major pre-service teachers' motivation to learn English. Through the research instruments of questionnaire and in-depth interviews with teachers and students, data are to be collected to analyse their motivation and attitudes to learn English.

There have been three revisions of the HK Secondary School English language syllabus in the last 25 years, one in 1975, the next in 1983, and another currently underway. Changes in syllabus aims are analysed and evaluated for general context-compatibility by using a framework devised by Skilbeck (1982) and applied by Clark (1987) and Morris (1995) which takes into account changes in the sociocultural context. Between 1975 and 1998, English syllabus aims have been largely compatible with the socio-economic context. That is, they have moved from typifying "reconstructionist" to "progressivist" value systems. More specifically, in 1975, ELT aimed at providing opportunities for social mobility through developing minimal English oral proficiency and literacy for all children under 15. By 1983 social change through education was still a prime aim, and English syllabuses aimed to achieve functional competence in explicit, socially important domains of use. By 1998, the aims of the "Target Oriented Curriculum" already implemented in primary schools, typified "progressivist" values which are claimed to be more personally oriented. ELT in today's complex HK context aims at English development as a part of healthy whole person development.
[Copyright © 2000 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

The focus of teacher education research in recent years has shifted from a behavioural research paradigm (Beatie, 1995), which examines how teacher behaviour influences student learning, to one which studies teacher cognition, and its relationship with professional actions (Watkins and Biggs, 2001). Such a shift is premised on the belief that what teachers do is directed by what they think (Clark & Peterson, 1986), and that teachers' implicit theories which impact their behaviours are guided by a personally held system of beliefs, values and principles (Zeichner, and Liston, 1987). This paper explores the practicum experiences of a group of Chinese student teachers learning to teach English in Hong Kong. Data were collected through interviews, journal entries and field notes based on practicum teaching observations. Major themes emerging from the data reveal the interplay between the student teachers' conceptions of teaching and argue for a shift away from a didactic approach in teacher education towards a dialectic and reflextive approach in foreign language teacher education.

This study is an extension of a previous methodologically exploratory study which established several multilevel value-added models to identify how different student and school factors influenced student English reading attainment in the nested school structure. The present study moved a step further to compare effectiveness of the models and determined the one most efficient at estimating school effects on adding value to their students' English reading ability from Secondary 1 to Secondary 6. Effectiveness of the most parsimonious model at presenting and interpreting the substantive findings was further tested using the same set of data. The data was collected from 3,993 students of 66 Hong Kong secondary schools in 2006. Students' English ability was tested at Form 1 intake and tested again at Form 6. The background information, such as student and school demographic and contextual factual data, was also collected. Partialing out influence from student and school level background factors, the relative progress made by students from different schools was compared. Specific findings on value-added effects of the schools are plotted thus providing distinctive graphic information. The findings will provide some insightful indications to the authorities and educational practitioners for student improvement and school effectiveness.

本研究旨在了解學生能否利用科學知識來學習中文成語，同時探討科學概念如何影響他們理建詞義，以助提升學生語文及科學學習的成效。研究以問卷形式進行，調查香港小六學生對中文成語之間的相互影響。是次調查共有三間小學約400名小六學生參與。研究結果顯示，學生已有的科學概念，對其學習中文成語是有幫助的；相反，在學習中文成語時，亦有助於加深學生的科學概念，亦了解成語的比喻；二、認識成語的中文解釋，但不了解當中字詞的科學意義，這或由於教師在教授中文成語時，並沒有為學生仔細解釋字詞的科學概念；三、明白成語其中字詞的科學解釋，但並未能了解成語的引申意義。這是因為在教成語的時候，一般老師麵只注重詞語的比喻義或引申義，較少在字詞的本藝下工夫，這造成學生對詞語的認識住住是模稜兩可。因此，在掌握有科學概念的詞語時，可以在教學上加強字詞的本戡，給學生概念上更準確的意戡。這不但提高學生的學習興趣，也增強他們的科學知識，並訓練他們在跨學科概念上的互相應用。同時，教師應利用文字或語言特色設計教學活動，把科學學習與語文教學融合起來。