This exploratory study attempts to provide a novel and overarching perspective on the teaching and learning situation in Hong Kong, a territory with a high degree of autonomy sandwiched between Chinese and Western influences. To do so, it employs the key concepts of 'cultures of learning' (Cortazzi and Jin 1996a) and 'cultural synergy' (Jin and Cortazzi 1995). After introducing current conceptions of culture and their growing significance for language teaching and learning (Chapter one), the thesis reviews the literature on the Chinese and British 'cultures of learning' and predicts their likely impact on Hong Kong (Chapter two). The Hong Kong educational context itself is then described (Chapter three). Next, the research questions are set out and the multi-method research methodology, involving both qualitative and quantitative data, is presented and justified (Chapter four). The salient features of the Hong Kong 'culture of learning', their likely cultural origins and their effects on curricular and language teaching reforms and classroom practice are then researched through a detailed documentary analysis of official and scholarly publications. The degree of cultural sensitivity with which externally motivated change has been introduced is also assessed in 'cultural synergy' terms. Insights provided by this new perspective are then complemented and strengthened through a content analysis of both In-service assignment extracts and sample In-service lesson plans. Finally, quantitative evidence from a questionnaire survey, whose sentence stems derive largely from the preceding thesis text, is presented (Chapter five). The combined data permit a conceptualisation of the Hong Kong 'culture of learning' and indicate the minimal attention paid to 'cultural synergy', particularly by government agencies. Government sponsored reforms tend, therefore, to remain formally adopted rather than practically implemented and culturally more familiar language teaching methodologies persist largely unchanged. The personal, professional and academic significance of the research is then discussed (Chapter six).

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Carrying out the speech act of complaining in one‘s mother tongue might not require a great amount of effort. Nevertheless, it tends to be problematic when it comes to the case of second language learners. This study, therefore, explores the characteristics of the interlanguage complaints of Thai learners of English who are in different contexts of studying. The data, based on the DCT (Discourse Completion Task) questionnaires, is taken from four groups of informants: (1) native Thai speakers (2) native English speakers (3) Thai learners of English in Thailand and (4) Thai learners of English in the UK. The findings are analysed within three main aspects namely, the complaint strategies, the complaint lengths and patterns, and the complaint internal modifications. The elicited data reveals that in general the learners of English in Thailand tend to have similar complaint patterns to those of native Thai speakers. On the other hand, the complaint patterns uttered by the learners of English in the UK tend to be close to those of native English speakers. Nevertheless, it seems that neither the learners of English in Thailand, nor in the UK use downgraders properly. The insufficient use of internal modifications, such as downgraders results in the learners‘ weighty complaints compared to those of native English speakers. In other words, the learners‘ complaints might be less appropriate from the native speaker‘s point of view. The findings might be interpreted to conclude that the studying abroad context is one of the influential factors in language learners‘ improvement, although the divergence of learners‘ complaints still exists in some aspects. The findings give implications to language educators, particularly in Thailand, in that textbooks and pedagogical models provided for learners should be supplied with real-language in use and also other supplements regarding the sociopragmatic rules of the target language in order to enhance the learner‘s pragmatic ability.

This thesis reports on research to develop the first adaptive learning system for the Arabic language. The research also develops the first robust translation of the Felder-Soloman Index of Learning Styles (ILS) instrument into Arabic. Literal translation of the ILS applied to a pilot study resulted in lower internal validity in the instrument than found in the English language versions. The research discusses the development of a translation protocol undertaken to improve the validity and internal reliability of the Arabic version of the ILS. The new Arabic version of the Felder-Soloman Index of Learning Styles (ILS) instrument has been applied to two Arabic speaking groups in different Faculties at the King Abdul-Aziz University in Saudi Arabia: The Arts and Humanities Faculty and the Economics and Administration Faculty a total of 1204 students. Further analysis indicates that the Arabic version of the Felder-Soloman Index of Learning Styles (ILS) seems to be an appropriate psychometric instrument to identify learning styles in Arabic speaking communities. The second major part of the research was to use the Felder-Soloman Index of Learning Styles (ILS) instrument to develop an adaptive learning styles system and evaluate its effectiveness. The Teacher Assisting and Subject Adaptive Material System (TASAM) was tested out on different cohorts of students. Results showed that students taught using the learning style adaptive system performed significantly better in academic achievement than students taught the same material without adaptation to learning style. The feedback of student’s Survey overall students seemed to have enjoyed using the TASAM system and there seemed to have been a positive impact on learning performance. The thesis also provides guidance on translations of psychometric instrument and developing adaptive learning system.

Considerable worldwide research has investigated incidental vocabulary learning from L2 reading, yet so far nothing has been published about the actual learning that comes from reading various texts. This study investigated incidental lexical growth and retention by Libyan university EFL majors who were involved in a two-month ER programme. Their vocabulary gain was measured 1 week after the participants completed the Extensive Reading (ER) programme, 2 weeks later and 9 months later. The value of this study is that it used an innovative approach, which was developed from a research design by Horst (2005). This included the electronic scanning of books and lexical frequency profiling, helping the researcher to create individualised corpus profiles from the entire set of different texts the participants read. This data was then used to select target words for each participant. The methodology was an experimental case study, which entailed an experimental and control group design. The participants were EFL learners who studied English as their subject of specialisation in one of eight Libyan state universities. An original number of 80 participants were randomly selected from the entire population in the English Language Department and assigned equally between the experimental and control groups. However, due to the fact that this study was carried out in very anomalous circumstances (during the Libyan uprising, which started on 15/02/2011), the number of participants who successfully completed the ER programme was affected (18 participants in each group). The study showed that by using a corpus analysis strategy, it was feasible to measure learners’ individualised pre-post treatment acquisition of the vocabulary they encountered in a large number of ER graded texts. The findings of the study demonstrate that ER significantly improved the Libyan EFL learners’ incidental vocabulary acquisition. By the end of the study, it was found that about the third of the target words had been acquired by the participants at both receptive and productive levels of knowledge. The findings further indicate that word repetition was an important factor for an incidental pick up of vocabulary from the ER. In relation to long-term retention rate of learning, the findings suggest that incidental word knowledge, acquired through ER, significantly declines over time.

The key purpose of this thesis was to study how vision and possible selves motivate second language (L2) learners in their learning, and the way non-linear and dynamic patterns are exhibited in motivated L2 behaviours. The thesis consists of four studies that investigated the motivation of different target populations (secondary and university learners, and Christian Language Professionals) by using a variety of research methodologies, including retrodictive qualitative modelling (RQM), mixed methods approach, qualitative in-depth interviews and intervention. In Studies I and IV, the motivational trajectories of secondary school students and Christian Language Professionals were explored through the lens of dynamic systems theory (DST). In Study I, using retrodictive qualitative modelling (RQM), in which the conventional research data collection methodology was reversed, the results showed that seven learner archetypes exist in the teachers’ minds, and different unique motivational trajectories known as signature dynamics (with different combinations of attractor states) are present in the learners’ systems. The strength and weaknesses in applying the RQM model were identified. Study IV explored the developments of vision in four CLP through in-depth interviews and three different vision integration patterns were revealed: ‘fully integrated as a person’, ‘fully integrated Ideal CLP Self’, and ‘partially integrated CLP Self’. Study II examined the interrelationships among various sensory capacities (visual and auditory), imagery capacities, future self-guides and criterion measures in two target languages (English and Mandarin) in 172 Year-8 secondary school students in Hong Kong. Using both questionnaires and post-survey focus group interviews, it was found that learners’ future self-guides are endowed with visual, auditory and imagery capacities as the main components. Study III investigated the effects of an imagery-training intervention on the quantitative and qualitative change of possible L2 self-guides in 80 second-year science university students. A significant increase in the Ideal L2 Self and a significant decrease in the Feared L2 Self were shown, which suggested that the intervention has positive effects on learners’ future self-guides. In summary, the results from the collection of studies showed the different characteristics, effects, and motivational forces of vision and possible selves in the complex world of L2 learning and teaching. Along with the insights of the complex dynamic interplay between the factors in L2 learning and teaching, I have built a strong case for vision and possible selves as key motivational tools in the L2 classroom.

This thesis explores the implications of high frequency collocation for adult second language learners. It addresses three main questions. First, it asks to what extent high frequency of occurrence in a corpus indicates that collocations are independently represented in the minds of native speakers. A word association study indicates that high frequency of occurrence is a fairly reliable predictor of mental representation, though this methodology does not allow us to determine the precise strength of the relationship. A series of lexical decision studies also show a relationship between frequency and representation, but effects are limited to those collocations which are sufficiently salient to also register as associates. This suggests that psycholinguistic 'priming' models may not be the best way of understanding collocation. Second, the thesis examines the idea that adult second language learners usually fail to retain the collocations to which they are exposed. This is tested through a lab-based training study and a learner-corpus study. Results suggest that adult learners are capable of learning collocations from input, but that 1) the relatively low levels of input to which most learners are exposed mean that they nevertheless tend not to attain native-like profiles of collocation use, and 2) input which provides repeated exposure to collocations can dramatically improve learning. Third, the thesis asks whether a useful pedagogical listing of frequent 'academic collocations' can be compiled. Results suggest that an academic collocation list is viable, but that important caveats need to be made concerning the nature of the collocations included and the range of disciplines for which such a listing will be useful. Moreover, listings of two-word collocations should be seen only as a starting point for more comprehensive phraseological listings. Suggestions will be made for ways in which we might go beyond such two-word listings.

The present study attempts to investigate discourse markers from a functional and attitudinal perspective. Based on the pedagogical sub-corpus from CANCODE and the audio-recordings of class discussion of 49 secondary pupils in Hong Kong, Part I explores the roles discourse markers play in spoken discourse on a contextual basis and compares the different use of discourse markers by British and Hong Kong speakers of English using quantitative and qualitative methods. Discourse markers are found to serve as useful contextual coordinates to structure and organise speech on interpersonal (marking shared knowledge, attitudes and responses), referential (indicating textual relationships such as cause, contrast, coordination, digression, consequence, etc. ), structural (summarising opinions, marking sequence, opening and closing of topics, transition and continuation of topics) and cognitive (denoting hesitation and thinking process, marking reformulation, self- correction or elaboration, and assessing the listener's knowledge about the utterances) realms, bearing a probabilistic relationship with the various role(s) on a multifunctional dimension in pedagogic discourse. Functionally, non-native speakers are found to display a highly restricted use of discourse markers, especially those interactive ones (e.g. initial and, yeah, you know, ), whereas native speakers tend to use discourse markers more for a variety of pragmatic functions. Part II contains a questionnaire survey (N=132) and an interview study (N=3) of Hong Kong teachers. Reliability test and factor analysis were conducted In the quantitative part. The results indicate a very positive perception of the pragmatic and pedagogic value of discourse markers by the teachers where students at intermediate-advanced level are challenged to acquire them for both receptive and productive purposes. The findings also reveal teachers' preference to conform to an exonormative speaking model and their less favourable attitude towards the Hong Kong variety. They are not certain regarding the representation of discourse markers in the existing teaching materials and their actual teaching. The study has implications for second language teaching in five areas: (1) introducing discourse markers as a communication strategy; (2) developing learners' linguistic awareness of discourse markers as an instructional strategy; (3) utilising corpus-based research for materials development; (4) equipping teachers with a World English perspective; and (5) creating space for the development of Hong Kong English to prepare learners to communicate in a dynamic linguistic world.

This study looks at the relationship between authenticity and motivation by specifically viewing the process of mutually validating the act of learning as social authentication, which in turn can often lead to positive motivational synergy between students and teacher(s). Authenticity and motivation are very common collocates in discussions surrounding language learning. However, these two concepts have rarely been the focus of empirical inquiry, largely due to their ambiguity and the difficulty of gaining evidence-based insights into the complex nature of their relationship. Similarly, it is commonly acknowledged that the teacher’s motivation has a bidirectional relationship with student motivation, yet again this idea is hard to research and difficult to examine. This inquiry utilises practitioner research in order to gain insights into these phenomena from inside the classroom. This inquiry examines how the concept of authenticity in language teaching relates to motivation as a complex dynamic process. Authenticity is seen as an emergent, multifaceted component of individual and social identity, which interacts with motivation at various levels. The main data was collected at Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan over the course of one academic year (two semesters) from April 2014 to January 2015. The research methods employed are Autoethnographic Narrative Inquiry, Exploratory Practice and evidence-based reflections on language teaching. The main focus of the inquiry comes from a course entitled Academic Communication, taught under the Centre for Language Education and Research. Qualitative data was collected in the form of classroom observations, teaching journals, students’ pedagogical materials (such as assignments and classwork) as well as classroom audio-recordings and Ad-Hoc interviews conducted with students during classes. Research methods which are designed specifically to investigate complex sociological factors unfurling in context were employed and the main findings emerged inductively through a process of narrative knowledging which occurred as a natural consequence of conducting the research. Due to this, the study is presented with entwined narrative data and analysis, as the two have become inseparable as a result of the research methodology. This inquiry sheds light onto the synergistic relationship between teacher and student motivation, examines the concept of authenticity in language teaching in relation to motivation as a complex dynamic system, and also provides a hybrid methodology which may be useful to teacher education and development.

Within concepts on intercultural language learning it is generally acknowledged that the ‘context’ of the individual learning experience plays an important role for the acquisition of a foreign language and intercultural learning processes. A detailed understanding of what it is we call ‘context’ is still missing – as are studies that focus particularly on the language learning environment outside the classroom and the role of everyday space and place for intercultural encounter. This thesis draws largely on spatial theory in addressing space and place as a site of geo-political and social-cultural change, and as a crucial element of intercultural language learning processes. Narratives, de Certeau (1984: 116) says, are “written by footsteps.” The methodological orientation of this thesis follows both the narratives and footsteps of language learners, and as such is anchored in and around the element of movement. In creating a spatial ‘method assemblage’ (Law 2004) that engages both mobile and visual elements, I am arguing for a methodological change in perspective while giving credit to the perspective of language learners and their everyday routes and learning environments. This argument correlates with the particular methodological tool of ‘guided walks’, in which researcher and language learner walk together on daily routes within places of significance. Giving walking a central methodological and analytic role within this thesis underlines those moments of intercultural experience, which are based on movement, transformation and the search for the ephemeral. The particular understanding of intercultural language learning as a ‘spatial-embodied practice’ emerges from an ethnographic study as well as from a detailed examination of the ‘intercultural field’. The various imbalances of the ‘intercultural field’ effect intercultural language learning through the body, as well as the senses and practices of diversity, and re-shape an awareness of space. Not only increased physical mobility, but the complex networks of flows and transnational interrelations, increasingly transform intercultural experience. From this perspective, this thesis argues that language learners weave their intercultural experience through practices of ‘place making’ (Ingold 2011), and by moving in between myriad borders and boundaries.