The exam-oriented education system in Hong Kong has created a language learning environment that is largely confined to traditional classroom settings, which may not take best advantage of students' abilities to relate what they have learnt in class to real-life scenarios. Such learning environments may have implications for the way second language learners learn a new language. Numerous studies suggest that drama activities used in language classrooms can enhance second language learning. These studies put forward tasks that generate pleasant and rewarding experiences, enhance confidence and subsequently increase motivation to learn a language. By focusing on students studying in a beginning French course at a tertiary institution in Hong Kong, this article reports on how drama activities make a target language more enjoyable and easier to recall. Classroom observations and interviews with students (N = 30) revealed that learning French via drama had a number of positive effects on second language learners especially in terms of their confidence. The learning of French through drama may provide a language learning environment that enables students to apply their French language skills more effectively in real-life situations. Copyright © 2019 Adam Mickiewicz University Press. All rights reserved.

In Hong Kong children aged 4-6 years old are taught Chinese characters writing in local preschools. Non-Chinese speaking (NCS) preschool children are affected by the differences between their mother language and Chinese when they are given similar Chinese writing exercises in the preschools. This study aimed to investigate how Chinese preschool teachers taught Chinese characters writing in local preschools and how NCS preschool children learnt to write Chinese characters in an authentic classroom. Three parts of ‘Object of Learning’ were employed in this phenomenographic study. The first part was ‘Intended Object of Learning’, in which data were collected through semi-structured interviews with participating teachers. It aimed to study the teachers’ understanding of the teaching of character writing to the preschool children. The second part was ‘Enacted Object of Learning’, whose data were recorded by the researcher about how the teachers implemented their character writing activities in the class. The third part, ‘Lived Object of Learning’ concerned how the NCS children, who were 5 to 6 years old, performed after they had experienced the character writing activities. This study investigated the mentioned experiences of teachers and NCS children of upper level in 3 local preschools. A total of 4 preschool teachers and 12 NCS preschool children participated in this present study. The time period was twice a week, especially during their daily Chinese character writing demonstration times, for twelve consecutive weeks. The researcher used various methods to collect data, including video- and audiotaping, field notes, photographic documentation, collection of lesson plans and interviews. The findings were compiled using ‘Categories of Descriptions’, which reflected the preschool teachers‟ and NCS preschool children’s ways of seeing Chinese characters writing in their daily classroom experiences. In the first part of the findings five teachers’ conceptions from their understanding

The literature on how to develop competence in giving academic presentations (AP) (e.g. Zappa-Hollman, 2007) shows that apart from basic communication skills (i.e. the ability to speak accurately, fluently and appropriately), university students are expected to perform specific roles and develop advanced skills for intellectual exchange and the construction of new knowledge (e.g. skill in expressing their personal voice through evaluation). However, these advanced speaking skills are often neglected by English as a Second Language (ESL)/English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students in Asian contexts, such as Hong Kong, as generally observed by English for Academic Purposes' (EAP) instructors (e.g. Bankowski, 2010). Although there has been some discussion on factors that potentially inhibit the development of ESL/EFL learners (e.g. Confucian education values and an exam-dominated culture), more research is needed on the design of EAP courses to cater for learners' needs. To fill this gap, this article reports the results of a needs analysis of a group of undergraduates (N=81) in Hong Kong. The study was based on a triangulation of data which included sources, and included questionnaires administered to both students and the course instructors of their major subject disciplines to identify the perceived importance of specific AP skills/features and learning needs, semi-structured follow-up interviews, and a diagnosis of students' AP competence using a research-based assessment rubric. The findings reveal gaps in students' understanding of their required roles and performance in both EAP and content courses, gaps in expectations between the students and their content course instructors, and gaps in their AP competence (e.g. ability to use linguistic and discourse features to structure interpretations and facilitate the audience's understanding of the information they present). An EAP instruction course design framework is then proposed to develop ESL/EFL learner competence

Classroom instructions in Hong Kong secondary school context often involve code-switching/code-mixing, with textbooks in English yet the lessons being taught in Cantonese (A variety of spoken Chinese) or a Cantonese/English mix. The code-switching/code-mixing instruction has been a common practice in Hong Kong classroom teaching. However, the Education Commission of Hong Kong considered code-switching/code-mixing instruction as the primary reason for students’ inadequate levels of English and Chinese. Therefore, the Government adopted the policy of ‘mother-tongue teaching’ to promote Chinese-medium instruction so as to reduce code-switching/code-mixing instruction. In this paper, firstly, a summary of the historical background of the Hong Kong language polices will be introduced. Secondly, the role of code-switching/code-mixing instruction in classroom teaching will be discussed by illustrating examples from a case study in a Hong Kong secondary school. Finally, the reasons behind using mixed code and its impact on student learning will be analyzed and discussed. A number of research methods were employed: questionnaire survey, student focus group interviews and classroom discourse analysis. The research findings show that students in the case study school found the use of mixed code beneficial even though the school language policy does not encourage code-switching/code-mixing instruction. We anticipate that this study will shed some light on the study of code-switching/code-mixing. Copyright © 2019 GRDS Publishing.

Given the increasing awareness of oral communication in this era of globalized collaborative learning trends, there is an imminent need to inform language educators of ways in which the under-researched oral interactional strategies are related to first language (L1) teaching. However, no consensus has yet been reached on the relationship between interactional strategy use and oral language proficiency. This study investigates the effect of oral interactional strategy use on group discussion performance in L1 Chinese for Primary 5 students (N = 140) in Hong Kong. Based on ANOVA and regression analyses of the data on group discussion performance, five strategies have been identified: expressing actively, asking for opinion, expressing attitude, giving clarification and non-verbal language. They all significantly predicted students’ group discussion performance, with overall strategies explaining 55.5% of total variation of the performance, where higher-proficiency students tended to use more strategies that enable comprehension and elaboration in the group discussions. The patterns of strategy use among students with different levels of discussion performance have also been identified. Implications of the findings are discussed with reference to the roles individuals play in the overall performance of group discussion. Copyright © 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston.

This research aims to explore a pedagogical strategy for the optimal use of free e-resources for supporting Chinese learners in Hong Kong to learn primary English grammar. Through a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, this research will progressively design, evaluate and then establish an effective pedagogical strategy that optimizes the use of free e-resources for learning primary English grammar. A twofold documentary analysis will be conducted for the design of a potential pedagogical strategy. To evaluate the effectiveness of the designed pedagogical strategy in the real classroom environment, two classes of local Primary 4 students will be subsequently invited to a one-month trial teaching. Students in the experimental group will learn primary English grammar under the designed pedagogical strategy; whereas their counterparts in the control group will receive no treatment during the trial teaching period. These two groups of students will sit for a pair of identical pre-test and post-test before and after the trial teaching, respectively, to investigate the impact of the designed pedagogical strategy on the learning achievement of students. Students in the experimental group will be asked to complete a questionnaire survey after the trial teaching to indicate their perceptions of the designed pedagogical strategy. One-fifth of the students in the experimental group will be further invited to attend individual interviews to share more in-depth opinions on the designed pedagogical strategy. This research will finally advise a model of the pedagogical use of free e-resources that optimizes the learning of primary English grammar among Chinese learners in Hong Kong. Copyright © 2010 The authors.

The research explores Hong Kong students’ dispositions towards higher education and employment in relation to understandings of their schooling experiences in English Medium of Instruction (EMI) schools in Hong Kong. The research draws upon Bourdieu’s theory of practice, Appadurai’s notion of the ‘capacity to aspire’, and Taylor’s concept of ‘social imaginary’, to help make sense of students’ aspirations for the future. Data included observation notes and interview transcripts with members of six focus groups across three distinctive schools in Hong Kong. Analytically, the research shows how aspirational dispositions and logics formed through specific configurations of the broader cultural and social milieu of Hong Kong, middle-class familial practices, non-elite EMI schooling experiences, and the place of English in Hong Kong, were complicit in fostering a sense of ambivalence about the future for these students.
[Copyright of British Journal of Sociology of Education is the property of Routledge.]

Fluent speakers of a target language choosing to enrol in beginner-level courses at tertiary institutes could be considered unfair. In this paper, however, based on data obtained from in-depth qualitative interviews with 12 students at a Hong Kong university, we show that fluent speakers of Japanese – a widely-spoken foreign language in Hong Kong – were motivated to engage in learning activities during beginner Japanese lessons, as those lessons constituted 'safe houses' in which the participants shaped subversive identities against the perceived institutional dominance (GPA-oriented system) of the university and negotiated security. Our key findings related to the participants' L2 motivations are three-fold. First, perceived ease pertained to the participants' motivations to enrol in the course. Second, the participants were motivated to 'outsmart' the university's dominant GPA-oriented system and 'cash in' their accumulated effort to achieve fluency in Japanese, 'converting' it into good grades. Third, the participants showed motivation because they believed beginning Japanese lessons to be sites in which they could feel secure, due to being able to speak Japanese and extend their Japanese-related social networks. This paper concludes with implications for L2 motivation research and suggestions for language teachers who are faced with such fluent speakers in beginner-level language classrooms.
[Copyright of Journal of Multilingual & Multicultural Development is the property of Routledge.]

Following years of pre-service teacher education, novice teachers are often enthusiastic about embarking on the journey in the teaching profession. However, they may not always possess the internal capacity and institutional support to take effective control of their teaching. This paper reports on a case study of the teaching lives of two novice secondary school ESL (English as a second language) teachers in Hong Kong, drawing on qualitative data gathered through individual face-to-face interviews, and supplemented by email exchanges and telephone conversations, over a one-year period. The study investigates how novice English teachers develop their teacher autonomy, and what factors contribute to their development as autonomous English teachers. The paper concludes that novice English teachers in Hong Kong possess the capacity and are also ready for autonomy, and that an invitational, supportive and collaborative school environment plays a decisive role in affording ample opportunities for novices to develop their autonomy in language teaching. The study suggests that novice teachers should become critically aware of the affordances (opportunities, possibilities, invitations, enablements) in their working conditions, and should meanwhile exercise their teacher agency to act on these affordances to pursue their personal-professional development.
[Copyright of Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics is the property of Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.]

Internationalisation of higher education greatly facilitates cross-border student mobility, which has been extensively researched. This comparative study focuses on the relatively under-explored field of intra-regional educational mobility. It compares attitudes towards learning and using English of M ainland Chinese students and Hong Kong Chinese students while studying side-by-side at an English-medium university in Hong Kong. Using a mixed methodology the study found that the two groups expressed a similarly strong need for, and acceptance of, English as an academic lingua franca but expressed significantly different attitudes, needs and desires in relation to the use of English for social intercourse. The weaker presence of a social lingua franca was accompanied by perceptions of a lack of inclusivity. If, as is suggested in the literature, both social and academic integration are integral to the university experience, the findings reveal a lacuna in the learning environment of this and potentially other similarly internationalised universities.
[Copyright of Compare: A Journal of Comparative & International Education is the property of Routledge.]