Professor and Head of Department of English and Director of the Centre for Popular Culture and Education: -
"My experience in language education tells me that good language learning begins with language learners and ends with language users. It also tells me that language learning does not only happen in the classroom, but above all in the world of the learners’ experience and life."
Area of expertise:
- Autonomy in language learning
- Life history and narrative research
- Popular culture and education
Recent research projects:
- Second Language Identity and Study Abroad: a Hong Kong Based Study
In the light of recent interdisciplinary research on identity, this study uses narrative research methods to investigate the interaction of study abroad experiences with the development of second language identities among Hong Kong English as a Second Language (ESL) students. The study has three main objectives:
(i) to document the development of second language identities in the context of Hong Kong ESL, with a focus on study abroad experiences;
(ii) to analyse the ways in which identity factors influence study abroad experiences, and the way in which these experiences, in turn, influence the development of second language identities; and
(iii) to identify aspects of the experience of study abroad that are shared across different study abroad conditions in Hong Kong, and those that are unique to individuals.
As the first large scale study of study abroad experiences among Hong Kong ESL students, and among ESL students internationally, the study is expected to have a significant long-term impact on the field of second language teaching and learning.
- Public pedagogy and informal learning in globalised online spaces
Recent technological developments associated with Web 2.0 have led to the rapid growth and globalisation of web sites based on user-generated content. Some well-known examples are YouTube, Flickr, World of Warcraft, Facebook, Etsy, and FanFiction.net. Our interest in these web sites lies in their function as new globalised spaces for informal cross-cultural communication and the development of new literacy practices on a global scale. The broad questions that we are asking in this project concern the senses in which these globalised online spaces also function as sites for public pedagogy and informal learning. Our work to date has focused on language and culture learning and involves both text-based case studies of informal learning ‘events’ on the web and individual case studies of active users of globalised online spaces.
- Recreational Language Learning: Adults Learning Languages Other than English and Putonghua
An exploratory study of adults learning languages other than English or Putonghua, mainly for reasons of interest or pleasure. The study investigates the following questions:
(i) What is the scope and scale of recreational foreign language learning and how has it developed in recent years?
(ii) What motivates adults to take up additional languages and what do they gain from the experience?
(iii) What do they value in the instruction offered by private sector institutions?
(iv) In addition to attending language classes, what strategies do they use to learn additional languages in their everyday lives?
(v) In what senses are their learning efforts self-directed and/or other-directed?
- Hong Kong English pop: Fashioning multilingual identities in the informal curriculum
Viewing pop music as an important component of the informal curriculum for English language learning in Hong Kong, this project investigates the local production and consumption of English language pop music from the 1950s to the present day. In the light of the often ambivalent attitudes of young people towards English, we focus on the role of English-language pop in the formation of multilingual identities in an increasingly globalised city. The project draws on archive resources and interviews with local producers and consumers of English language pop and will lead to the publication of a book-length history of Hong Kong popular music, focusing on issues of language, multilingualism and identity.
Professor Philip Benson’s profile
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