The use of English in international communication has focused scholarly attention on L2 learners' development of interactional competence (IC), that is, the ability to co-construct interactions purposefully and meaningfully in specific contexts. Under Hong Kong's bilingual education policy, students mainly learn and speak English in two classroom contexts: (1) English language and (2) English-medium-instruction (EMI) content-area subject lessons, which may contribute to their IC development. This study compared the English-speaking/learning experiences of students in these two classroom settings in three Hong Kong secondary schools. Task-based language teaching (TBLT) was the recommended teaching approach in the English language subject in all these schools, but they adopted different medium-of-instruction arrangements in content-area subjects. Their students also had different academic attainments. The investigation adopted a case study approach consisting of a questionnaire and semi-structured focus group interviews (N = 160). Our findings suggest that students generally lacked opportunities to speak English, regardless of the specific school-based policies. The higher-proficiency students were given more opportunities to speak English in group/pair activities both in English language and EMI content-area subjects. In contrast, the lower-proficiency students received more explicit teaching of the linguistic forms/structures required in English examinations. The paper concludes by highlighting several critical issues concerning students' IC development in bilingual education, namely, the effects of English-medium education on students' speaking ability, implementation of TBLT, the influence of examinations on teaching practices, and teachers' role in promoting students' interactional competence through classroom interactions. Copyright ©2023 Wiley.

This study sought to investigate the impact of world Englishes (WE) and English as a lingua franca (ELF) research on Hong Kong's ELT curricula and textbooks over the past four decades in three areas: (1) language standards, norms and models; (2) language and intercultural awareness; and (3) strategies for international communication. Based on qualitative and quantitative content analysis, the findings suggest that WE/ELF research has influenced Hong Kong's English language education mainly by accommodating to the changing role of English (from a colonial to international language) and the evolving language use contexts, but there has been little engagement with the pluricentric view of language varieties and variation. The paper offers suggestions to initiate changes that could better accommodate WE/ELF research in the gradual ELT development. Copyright ©Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Phonology in second/foreign (L2/FL) listening has not received much attention from scholars and teachers. This article reports on a mixed-methods study which set out to fill this gap by exploring the effectiveness of explicit instruction in phonology and the use of songs to enhance English-as-a-L2 (ESL) learners' listening abilities in Hong Kong. ESL learners (n = 92) aged 17-20 participated in a three-month experiment. Data from pre-, post-listening tests and semi-structured interviews were collated. The findings demonstrated the efficacy of L2 phonology instruction in improving learners' L2 listening. More remarkably, the positive effect was augmented when the instruction was coupled with phonological analyses of song lyrics. However, using songs alone for gap-filling exercises (as is commonplace in L2 classrooms) was not found to be effective.
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This study investigates students' perceptions about their teachers' adoption of a new way to use feedback in writing classrooms in two elementary schools in Hong Kong. The innovation comprises three feedback stages (i.e., pre-feedback, during-feedback and post-feedback) over the course of a teaching-learning cycle to maximize the potential of feedback to the learning effectiveness of the students. Data included student questionnaires, interviews with students and teachers, lesson observations as well as documentary analysis of teaching material. Results indicate that the students considered feedback delivery in the three stages as beneficial to their interest, confidence, motivation and self-perceived performance in writing. The article highlights the need to offer feedback in all three feedback phases to maximize its effectiveness and to offer a more positive learning experience to students.
[Copyright of International Journal of Applied Linguistics is the property of John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.]