Many tertiary educational institutes are adopting English as the medium of instruction (MOI) globally. In 2014, a publicly funded university in Hong Kong introduced a new language policy that marked a major shift in practice by switching the main MOI to English from Classical Written Chinese and spoken Cantonese, the predominant local language. The new policy caused some anxiety among staff and students as to how the change might be implemented effectively.This chapter analyzes this transitional process through a case study including surveys and interviews. After the introduction of the context in terms of the language-in-education policies and other changes, the case study findings are presented in terms of the perceptions of the reforms and challenges experienced by the staff and students. It then reports how these challenges were addressed through different support measures with some success, and the principles pinning down those initiatives. It also analyzes how the reform created impacts in unintended areas, such as potential mission drift. It concludes with a reiteration of the evolutionary nature of MOI and other educational reforms, and some suggestions on planning and managing those reforms to minimize the reform costs. Copyright © 2021 selection and editorial matter, Lily I-wen Su, Hintat Cheung, and Jessica R. W. Wu; individual chapters, the contributors.

Due to the competitive edge it confers on students, educational institutions, and non-English speaking nations in a globalized economy, English as a medium of instruction (EMI) has been gaining popularity in tertiary education in non-native English-speaking (NNES) countries. Institute-wide EMI implementation has often been imposed by top-down decisions, in combination with the optimistic view that the horse should always be placed before the cart. However, emerging evidence suggests that the delivery of such programs to NNES students has led to new pedagogical challenges and learning problems that go beyond the scope of language learning and teaching and deserve immediate attention. For example, how would an instructor respond to situations in which students’ learning of content is compromised by their limited language proficiency? This book draws on the current practice of EMI in diverse disciplines and university settings and examines how these new pedagogical and learning issues can be addressed. The discussion also involves a reflection on the essence of EMI in relation to the use of the first language (L1) as the medium of instruction in tertiary education. In addition, the book includes discussion about how to ensure and maintain the quality of EMI programs and assess the readiness of stakeholders for such programs, which include administrators, teachers, and students. The discussion is led by exemplars in Hong Kong and Taiwan, where the majority of students are native Chinese speakers, in the hope of developing critical perspectives and practical guidelines as references for EMI in other NNES settings. Copyright © 2021 selection and editorial matter, Lily I-wen Su, Hintat Cheung, and Jessica R. W. Wu; individual chapters, the contributors.

As a multilingual society, three major languages co-exist in Hong Kong: Cantonese, English, and Putonghua. After the political transition to Chinese rule in 1997, the Hong Kong government adopted the Biliterate and Trilingual policy, which aims to make citizens of Hong Kong trilingual in Cantonese, English, and Putonghua and biliterate in Chinese and English. However, there are no clear government guidelines on which language should be used as the medium of instruction (MoI) for which subject in primary schools. In order to gain a clear picture of how trilingual education is being implemented in Hong Kong primary schools, a survey was carried out across 155 primary schools and detailed case studies were conducted in three of the surveyed schools to find out the extent to which the MoI policies instituted in each school facilitated students’ trilingual learning. The findings suggest that the principals’, teachers’, students’, and parents’ views towards the use of different MoIs vary, as do the ways trilingual education is implemented. It is hoped that this chapter will help readers to gain a better understanding of trilingual education in Hong Kong primary schools, and of which methods of trilingual education best serve the interests of the students. Copyright © 2021 selection and editorial matter, Peter Siemund and Jakob R. E. Leimgruber; individual chapters, the contributors.

Research reveals that although teachers in English as second language (ESL) classrooms are often good at teaching language forms and skills, many are less confident about the cognitive engagement required to develop critical thinking skills. However, little research has been done to examine the development of critical thinking in the context of second-language learning and teaching. In this article, I report the results of a study that assesses the effectiveness of a program called Philosophy in Schools (PIS) in developing students’ critical thinking and English proficiency in Hong Kong. In the study, I provided training and support for five teachers in two schools so that they could teach PIS to their secondary 3 and 4 ESL students during integrated humanities and English lessons respectively. I found that PIS played an important role in promoting the students’ critical thinking and enhanced the development of their English proficiency to a significant extent. Copyright © 2020 by Francis W. Parker School, Chicago. All rights reserved.

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.

This paper reports on a qualitative inquiry into language identities in English as a lingua franca (ELF) communication from the perspectives of a group of Chinese-English bilingual students at a Hong Kong university. Using eighteen university students' narratives of their lived experiences in ELF communication, the study revealed that the students oriented to multiple language identities closely associated with their self-perceived proficiency of English in their communication experiences. It was found that they acknowledged the co-existence of their dual identities as language users and language learners in ELF communication and made reference to their language expertise by way of explicit orientations to their self-ascribed identity as English majors. Furthermore, the students constructed and negotiated their language identities differently in relation to their interlocutors who were defined in terms of the native/non-native dichotomy. Taken together, the findings point to the multiple and variable nature of language identities that are implicated in ELF communication experiences and demonstrate the role of language ideologies in mediating language identities in ELF contexts. The paper also calls for more nuanced understandings of bilingual individuals' own – or emic – perspectives on their language identities in ELF communication. Copyright ©Routledge.

English medium instruction (EMI) is a growing phenomenon in many countries. Some researchers have investigated the difficulties and strategies students use to cope with EMI. However, the pedagogical challenges faced and strategies used by other key participants, teachers, have been surprisingly under-researched. This study utilizes questionnaire and interview data to identify the challenges and coping strategies used by secondary school EMI science teachers in Hong Kong. A number of challenges and strategies were reported. The authors argue that many of these challenges can be overcome with principles and strategies from ELT, as the 'English' in EMI is often the main issue. The most prevalent strategy reported is the use of L1. Two perspectives on L1 usage in EMI contexts are discussed. Two emergent realities are presented as possible solutions: the idealized reality and the immediate reality. Implications for teachers and suggestions for future research are provided. Copyright ©Oxford University Press.

This study presents a systematic review of previous research on e-book-based language learning. E-book-based language learning has been increasingly investigated in the field of language education, whereas previous review studies of relevant literature were relatively low in volume and incomprehensive from aspects of research participants and research perspectives. In the present study, we identified 52 relevant journal articles on e-book-based language learning published in the recent decade, coding them from three dimensions: methodology, e-book devices and features, and research issues and findings. The results indicated that: (a) most studies on e-book-based language learning were of a large sample size and one-session investigation; (b) pre-school children and university students were the most frequently investigated sample groups; (c) computers and tablets were the most frequently used devices; (d) multimedia, feedback giving, gamification and personalisation were the four features most frequently applied in enhancing the efficiency of e-book-based language learning; (e) researchers collected and processed data mainly through pre- and post-tests and group comparisons; (f) learning outcomes, learning behaviours and learners’ psychological states were investigated in most studies, whereby the findings indicated overall positive effects of e-book on language learning. Copyright © 2020 Laboratory for Knowledge Management & E-Learning, The University of Hong Kong.

In this article, the processes and patterning of translanguaging and trans-semiotizing in facilitating Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) are examined in Cantonese-English bilingual contexts. Classroom interaction data and students’ written exercises/assignments were collected to analyse the processes of feeling-meaning making among junior secondary students and their teacher in English-medium Integrated Humanities classrooms in Hong Kong. Discourse analysis on classroom data and student exercises/assignments shows that translanguaging and trans-semiotizing naturally emerge in the dynamics of feeling-meaning making and the teacher and students have challenged the dominance of English and contested the previous stabilized cultural patterns of academic and non-academic registers via orchestrating Cantonese and English, formal and social languages, visual elements and physical items in the immediate environment. It is therefore suggested that translanguaging and trans-semiotizing should not only be seen as a spontaneous, naturally occurring process but can also be incorporated in multilingual CLIL classrooms as planned systematic scaffolding.本文針對雙語環境中學科與語言整合式教學(CLIL)，嘗試探討以跨語際、跨符號實踐作為課堂教學鷹架的過程與模式。本文以香港初中英文綜合人文(Integrated Humanities)課堂為例，蒐集、分析課堂互動錄影及學生課後習作，剖析師生共同建構情感意義的過程。分析表明，師生為令課堂連貫流暢，協調粵語、英語以及正式和非正式語言的運用，調動視覺元素及課堂環境中的相關物件，自然地以跨語際、跨符號實踐表情達意。英語的主導地位以及關於學術及非學術語域的傳統觀念也在無意中被挑戰。因此本文提出除了作為即時的自發現象，跨語際、跨符號實踐還可作為有計劃及系統的鷹架支持，運用於帶有多語言背景的CLIL課堂中。 Copyright © 2020 National Taiwan Normal University.