Research Highlights

Immersion Experiences

• Learning, teaching, and constructing identities
  The impact of preservice teacher’s overseas immersion experiences on their professional teacher identities is problematized in this study of an international experience programme in Australia.

  Abstract ...

  Short term international experience programmes are a common element of English second language (ESL) teacher education in many countries. This study problematizes the belief that such programmes necessarily result in beneficial changes in preservice teachers thinking about themselves as teachers - their beliefs, habits, and values - by exploring the experiences of six preservice ESL teachers from Hong Kong as they undertook a short term international experience programme in Australia. Drawing on a theory of identity construction, Dr. John Trent found that identity conflicts impacted how the student teachers experienced this programme as they struggled to reconcile past, present, and future trajectories of teacher identity. In particular, the student teachers constructed rigid divisions between different types of teachers and teaching they experienced at home and abroad, that were reflected in antagonistic relations between the types of English language teachers and teaching they aligned their own teaching activities and practices with and the teacher identities that they perceived to be available to them within the Hong Kong education system. Implications for addressing such identity conflicts throughout international experience programmes are considered and implications for future research are discussed.
  
  Trent, J. (2011). Learning, teaching, and constructing identities. ESL teacher identity construction during an international experience programme. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 31(2), 177-194.

• International field experience – What do student teachers learn?
  This inquiry aimed to examine the benefits of having international field experience for a group of Hong Kong postgraduate student teachers who joined a six-week immersion programme in New Zealand.

  Abstract ...

  This inquiry aimed to examine the benefits of having international field experience for a group of Hong Kong postgraduate student teachers who joined a six-week immersion programme in New Zealand. Through participants’ reflections, interviews and programme evaluations, the present investigation found that the overseas field experience not only enriched their cultural understanding, pedagogical knowledge and skills, but also enhanced their language awareness, classroom language and recognition of different English varieties.
  
  Lee, Jackie F. K. (2011). International field experience – What do student teachers learn?. The Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 36(10), Article 1.

• ESL student teachers’ perceptions of a short-term overseas immersion programme
  The aim of the investigation was to address our dearth of knowledge as to the impact of such a programme on student teachers, and the benefits that they could derive from it.

  Abstract ...

  In recent years there has been an increasing demand for teachers to develop the international knowledge and skills necessary to help promote their students’ global perspectives. The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government has seized the initiative to provide mandatory overseas immersion programmes for pre-service English teachers to enhance their language proficiency and cultural understanding. This study involved a group of Hong Kong English language student teachers who joined a six-week immersion programme in Auckland. The aim of the present investigation was to address our dearth of knowledge as to the impact of such a programme on student teachers, and the benefits that they could derive from it. Several obstacles that might hinder maximal benefits were also identified.
  
  Lee, Jackie F. K. (2009). ESL student teachers’ perceptions of a short-term overseas immersion programme. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25(8), 1095-1104.

Language Testing

• Assessing second language speaking, task-based performance
  

  Abstract ...

  This article examines the interactional work in which two groups of secondary ESL students engaged to achieve and sustain participation in group oral assessment, which is designed to assess a student’s interactive communication skills in a school-based assessment context. The in-depth observation of the ways in which participants co-constructed talk-in-interaction led to the discovery of the particular pattern of speech exchange within each group. Within the higher-scoring group, the students engaged constructively and contingently with one another’s ideas, demonstrating a range of speech functions such as suggestions, agreement or disagreement, explanations, and challenges, which resulted in opportunities for substantive conversation and genuine communication to be engineered. Within the lower-scoring group, the resulting interactions appeared more structured, apparently as a result of the pre-set prompts that were originally set for the purpose of facilitating within-group discussion. However, a picture emerges of lower-scoring group members naturally engaging in negotiation of meaning over linguistic impasses, which turned out to serve as the stimulus to collaborative dialogue. There is also evidence of lower-scoring group members assisting each other through co-construction both to find the right linguistic forms and to express meaning. The nature of these interactions suggests that the group oral assessment format, as operationalized in this context, can authentically reflect students’ interactional skills and their moment-by-moment construction of social and linguistic identity. However, the lack of contingent development of topical talk within the lower-scoring group implies that the assessor’s good intentions in providing pre-set prompts may end up restricting students’ performance. The risk of such task/topic-related effects on the quality of student discourse and interaction warrants further research.
  
  Gan, Z. (2010). Interaction in group oral assessment: A case study of higher- and lower-scoring students.. Language Testing, 27(4), 585-602.

Outcome-based Learning

• Designing and implementing outcome-based learning in a linguistics course: A case study in Hong Kong
  This case study examines how Outcome-Based Learning is designed and implemented in a linguistics course in the Hong Kong Institute of Education.

  Abstract ...

  Since the 1980s, Outcome-Based Learning (OBL) has been gaining popularity around the world. In 2006, the University Grants Committee (UGC) of Hong Kong decided that all higher education institutions in Hong Kong should adopt OBL formally stage by stage to enhance learning and teaching quality. As OBL is new to most Hong Kong higher education institutions, there is an urgent need for a close study of the design and implementation of OBL in the Hong Kong context. This paper reports on a case study of designing and implementing OBL in a linguistics course in the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd).
  
  Wang, L. (2011). Designing and implementing outcome-based learning in a linguistics course: A case study in Hong Kong. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 12, 9-18.

• Adaptation of outcome-based learning in an undergraduate English education programme
  This article reports on how outcome-based learning is adapted in an undergraduate English education programme in the Hong Kong Institute of Education.

  Abstract ...

  In recent years, Outcome-Based Learning (OBL) has gained increasing prominence in many parts of the world and, since 2008, has been formally promoted among all higher education institutions in Hong Kong by the University Grants Committee (UGC) of Hong Kong. A key concept of OBL is that teaching should be driven by outcomes that are desirable for students, and that greater clarity in relation to what is to be achieved simply involves adjusting teaching and assessment. This article reports on a project on Outcome-Based Learning in the English Department at the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd), and an OBL adaptation framework that has been developed. First, the development of a set of Programme Intended Learning Outcomes (PILOs) for the Bachelor of Education (English Language) Programme at HKIEd will be introduced. Second, the design of Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs) in the programme will be discussed. Third, the alignment of teaching and assessment strategies with learning outcomes will be illustrated through a sample course. It is hoped that this study will inspire some reflection on how effective teaching and learning among students in higher education institutions can be achieved through an outcome-based learning approach.
  
  Wang, L. (2011). Adaptation of outcome-based learning in an undergraduate English education programme. Research in Higher Education Journal, 12, 123-136.

Second Language Writing

• A survey of graduates’ use of electronic tools and resources in their writing assignments
  

  Abstract ...

  The current shift from a pen-and-paper environment to a digital one in which multiple electronic tools and resources assist the writer in both generating ideas and transforming them into words and sentences may represent a significant transition in the way we compose. Such a shift has implications for the cognitive processes used by student authors as they set fingers to keyboards. The present study explores the composing behaviors of 30 L2 graduate students who responded to a questionnaire inquiring about the extent of their use of electronic tools and resources as they wrote academic papers for their courses. Findings revealed that the students were heavy users of digital media and software as they composed and that such usage may be having an impact on their cognitive processes. Emerging from this understanding of how students compose in an electronic environment is a clearer picture about a variety of areas including how to best teach students to use the tools and resources and how to avoid plagiarism.
  
  Stapleton, P. (forthcoming). Shifting cognitive processes while composing in an electronic environment: A study of L2 graduate writing. Applied Linguistics Review.

• Composing in a second language: A case study on the impact of digital tools
  This case study examines how one graduate-level writer made use of electronic tools and resources to write a term paper.

  Abstract ...

  Studies on second language (L2) learners writing in English have found that composing is a recursive process requiring planning, formulating and revising. Of particular note among the many studies that have explored the composing processes of L2 writers are two characteristics: 1) They examine the composing processes of writers in real-time while they respond to a prompt. 2) They have been performed on writers who compose using pen and paper. While such research has been valuable for advancing the understanding of the processes taken by L2 writers, both the task (an immediate response to a prompt) and the instruments (pen and paper) do not reflect typical approaches undertaken by L2 university students. This exploratory case study follows the composing processes of “Andrea,” a master’s student, while she wrote a 4000-word essay. Using in-depth logs, a questionnaire and interviews, starting from her receipt of a prompt to the assignment submission, Andrea’s composing processes were categorized and analyzed both qualitatively and temporally. Findings indicate notable differences between Andrea’s time allotment to composing behaviors and that of other studies, suggesting that the cognitive resources used by writers in an electronic environment may be different from those used when using pen and paper.
  
  Stapleton, P. (2010). Writing in an electronic age: A case study of L2 composing processes. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 9(4), 295-307.

Vocabulary Teaching and Learning

• In search of ways in which Chinese English teachers can come to change and improve their learners’ vocabulary learning strategy use
  This article examined how contextual and linguistic factors influenced Chinese EFL learners’ learning of lexis and reported an investigation on Chinese English teachers’ vocabulary teaching approaches. Some proposals were made which might lead to improvement in teachers’ teaching and students’ learning of lexis.

  Abstract ...

  Learning of English in China has met with very limited success, attributable in large part to contextual and linguistic factors. In respect of vocabulary learning, referring to the literature, we look first at the historical, cultural and traditional factors that have influenced students’ learning and made rote memorisation the dominant learning strategy. The use of this inefficient and only partially successful strategy is reinforced by the current examination system, the textbooks in use, as well as the very different grammatical and orthographic systems of the L1 and the L2, reflected in the dominant errors that occur. We report an investigation that we carried out at a university in central China into Chinese English teachers’ beliefs and practices regarding the teaching of vocabulary and conclude that, while some of the factors alluded to are slowly improving and others could be slightly improved, teachers lack much needed knowledge about the learning of lexis. Teacher training is called for. The essential elements of this training are briefly outlined and it is proposed that an experimental teaching programme be organised in the same institution where the investigation was held and the consequences of this training studied over time.
  
  Ma, Q. (2011). In search of ways in which Chinese English teachers can come to change and improve their learners’ vocabulary learning strategy use. In S. Breidbach, D. Elsner, & Y. Andrea (Eds.). Language awareness in teacher education - Cultural-political and social-educational perspectives (pp. 165-180). Frankfurt/M.: Peter Lang.

• Second language vocabulary acquisition
  This book offers readers a basic grounding in L2 vocabulary acquisition. In addition, it provides theoretical analyses and empirical data regarding Chinese learners of English: their specific learning difficulties, needs, strategies, etc.

  Abstract ...

  The book provides an overview of the research in L2 vocabulary acquisition in the last two decades. Linguistic, psycholinguistic, socio-cultural, neurolinguistic, and corpus linguistics analyses are considered. The book constructs a comprehensive framework for Computer Assisted Vocabulary Learning (CAVL). This is achieved by providing an overview of vocabulary learning in CALL and then proposing a big framework within which most vocabulary learning programs can be conceptualized. The author then gives a detailed account of how Chinese learners approach English vocabulary learning. She provides an up-to-date picture of the overall situation regarding the language policies adopted, the traditional, orthodox approach to language learning, and the recent reforms implemented in Chinese universities. General and specific vocabulary learning difficulties encountered by Chinese learners are documented and analysed and empirical studies are reported.
  
  Ma, Q. (2009). Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition. New York, Bern, Berlin, Brussels, Frankfurt am Main, Oxford, Wien: Peter Lang Publishing Group.