This study investigates whether demographics, L2 enjoyment, L2 anxiety, psychological well-being, or informal digital learning of English (IDLE) affect willingness to communicate in L2 (L2 WTC) at trait or state levels. Across two weeks, 16 Hong Kong EFL students completed pre-and post-trait-level surveys and generated 1,120 state-level responses via the experience sampling method (ESM). The survey findings revealed that students who were older, had higher language proficiency, or had higher pre-WTC digitally reported higher L2 WTC in the classroom. Students who had studied English longer, had higher language proficiency, had higher pre-psychological well-being, had a higher standard deviation L2 WTC over 14 days, or had higher teacher appreciation showed higher L2 WTC outside of class. Students with higher language proficiency, higher pre-WTC digitally, or higher post-psychological well-being reported higher L2 WTC in digital settings. The ESM findings revealed that students with higher teacher appreciation, currently engaged in productive IDLE or both receptive and productive types of IDLE, currently experienced greater L2 enjoyment, or currently experienced greater well-being had higher L2 WTC now. Our findings are relevant to: (a) L2 WTC, informal language learning, and positive psychology theories, and (b) strategies that can be used to enhance students’ L2 WTC overall and at a particular moment. Copyright © 2024 The Author(s).

This study investigated the perceptions of second language (L2) English learners from Hong Kong on the speech produced by third language (L3) English learners from the Greater Bay Area (GBA) of China. Twenty L2 learners from a local university were asked to listen to speech recordings from two L3 learners, and then complete an online survey, which focused on comprehension of the speech and four dimensions of language attitudes, namely Appropriateness, Solidarity, Status, and Dynamism. Results showed correlations between the phonological performance of learners and the perception of listeners. Specifically, vowel replacement and addition, as well as consonant addition were found to have a negative correlation with the learners’ actual comprehensibility. Replacing /ə/ with Chinese ‘er’ /ɚ/ only affected their perceived comprehensibility. For perceived attitude, the presence of vowel replacement and addition had an adverse effect on the rating of Dynamism. These two features, along with consonant addition, also negatively affected the rating of Status. Moreover, consonant addition was the sole factor that negatively affected the rating of Solidarity. These findings provided pedagogical insights for learners to communicate in English as well as social implications for language paradigm, particularly in a multilingual and multicultural context such as the GBA. Copyright © 2024 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Quantitative research on the linguistic acculturation of sojourners in non-Western and multilingual social contexts remains scarce. Revising the Framework of Acculturation Variables (FAV), we propose a parsimonious model exploring the effect of acculturation conditions (trilingual language usage and perceived discrimination), orientations (social connectedness to mainstream and minority community), and outcome (psychological well-being). In particular, we examined the alternative paths enabled by non-local languages in the acculturation process, revealing the complexity of multidimensionality in trilingual linguistic acculturation. The findings highlight the crucial mediating role of acculturation orientation in the acculturation process. The effects of Cantonese, Mandarin, and English usage on the acculturation process of Mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong (N = 798) were examined. Copyright © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Students’ development of multilingual competence has attracted increasing attention from language researchers and educators. However, research on students’ interaction strategy use in group discussions across different language settings remains scarce. In this study, therefore, we examined interaction strategy use in Cantonese as a first language (L1) and Putonghua as a second language (L2) during group discussion tasks among 42 primary school students in Hong Kong. We also investigated the effects of interaction strategy use on performance in respective tasks. We discovered that students employed significantly more interaction strategies in L1 than in L2, with a higher contribution to L1 task performance. Specifically, three of the five strategies identified—Strategy 2 (S2) asking for opinions, S3 expressing attitude, and S5 non-verbal language—were employed more frequently in L1 than in L2. Furthermore, we found that strategy use had various effects on oral performance between the two languages. In the L1 task, S1 expressing actively, S3 expressing attitude, and S4 giving clarification significantly predicted students’ group discussion performance, whereas this effect was only observed in S1 expressing actively in the L2 task. Pedagogical implications for primary students’ learning of interaction strategies for group discussions in both L1 and L2 are discussed. Copyright © 2024 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Negotiation of meaning (NoM) has played a facilitative role in second language acquisition. However, the existing studies have primarily focused on adult English language learners. This study investigated the impact of task type and task complexity on NoM strategies among young learners of Chinese as a second language, an underexplored group. The participants were 110 students in Hong Kong aged 10-12, mainly from Pakistan, India, Philippines, and Nepal. They were asked to perform four tasks with different task types and levels of task complexity in Cantonese (the primary Chinese dialect spoken in Hong Kong). In terms of task type, the study found that required information exchange tasks (i.e., information gap tasks) produced significantly more clarification requests, confirmation checks, self-repetitions, and other repetitions in terms of total numbers and numbers per 100 Chinese characters than the optional exchange tasks (i.e., decision-making tasks). Complex tasks, on the other hand, elicited significantly more confirmation checks than simple tasks. These findings provide useful insights for designing tasks that can promote greater use of NoM strategies in classroom practice. Copyright © 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston.

Language choice and code-switching are commonplaces for peer interaction among bilingual children from various language backgrounds in Hong Kong. However, few studies concern these linguistic practices of immigrant children proficient in Mandarin and English. This study adopted a qualitative research approach to investigate three Mandarin-English preschoolers’ language choice and code-switching by analyzing their conversations in interaction with a Cantonese–English bilingual peer under the framework of translanguaging. The findings reveal that these Mandarin-English preschoolers’ priority language for interaction is English, indicating that choosing a shared language is an essential communicative strategy for integrating with their Cantonese–English peers. The factors for those language choices include social environment, interlocutor’s ability, and sense of identity and belonging. Both inter-sentential and intra-sentential code-switching are adopted in verbal interaction. However, intra-sentential code-switching occurs more frequently and with greater diversity in Mandarin-based sentences, where nouns are the most easily switched component, followed by verbs and adjectives. This study enriches the study of bilingual children in Hong Kong, extends the application of translanguaging to peer interaction outside the classroom in multilingual contexts, and provides pedagogic implications. Copyright © 2024 Informa  UK  Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Critical content and language-integrated learning (CLIL) has been advocated to attest raciolingusitic ideologies in plurilingual educational settings. However, little is known about how to help students in contesting inequalities about other structures of domination in bilingual education programs. This study aims to address this gap by examining the construction of gender identities in Secondary 4 (Grade 11) English-medium Liberal Studies lessons, which aimed to enhance awareness of gender equality and subject-specific English skills about the topic. The study shows that gender was constructed and reconstructed by conflicting multilingual and multimodal gendered discourses, including the formal curriculum, school lesson materials, and classroom interaction. The paper reveals that teachers and students jointly constructed masculinities of “real men,” “good men” and “gay men” in CLIL classrooms imbedded in curriculum contexts infused with gender dualism and alternative gender values began to emerge after the CLIL lessons. The results suggest that CLIL teachers can facilitate development of critical literacies about gender by enabling encounters of different voices in translanguaging and trans-registering spaces created by students’ familiar L1 everyday discourses and multimodal practices. Pedagogical implications were also discussed. Copyright © 2023 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

More and more students are exploring overseas destinations and English-Medium Instruction (EMI) environments for their postgraduate studies. While it is known that students can often struggle in an EMI environment, the challenges faced by postgraduate students, and the support they receive or need, are not fully understood. By adopting a two-stage qualitative sequential data collection approach, this study explored the experiences and perceptions of full-time postgraduate students from Mainland China studying in a one-year Master of Education programme at a Hong Kong university during their first semester. Data were collected through an online survey ( N = 73) and three in-depth group interviews ( N = 12). The analysis of data offered a holistic understanding of the students’ challenges, needs, and struggles. The findings provide suggestions for support that teachers and programmes can provide to postgraduate students, as well as student self-help support strategies. Several sustainable support strategies are proposed to assist students in adjusting and succeeding in the EMI context at the postgraduate level. © 2023 by the authors.