In view of the popularity and continuous expansion in the scale of shadow education (private supplementary tutoring) all over the world, research in this field has recently received more attention. However, the study of English language learning in this context has been rather limited although it is the subject having the greatest demand in Hong Kong. This study aimed to fill part of the research gap by focusing on the experience of learners of English under shadow education in Hong Kong. It investigated, from the learners’ perspective, why they received English tutoring, the strategies tutors used and how their motivations and attitudes were influenced. It also explored what learners ‘wanted’ and ‘needed’ in English learning under shadow education, and whether their ‘wants’ and ‘needs’ were satisfied. A qualitative study was carried out. Data were collected using background questionnaires and one-to-one semi-structured interviews. Fourteen Year One university undergraduates were recruited as interviewees to narrate their experience of English learning through tuition in their whole life before they were admitted to university. The data showed that learners participated in four types of tutoring, namely one-to-one, small-group, large-group and star-tutoring. The frequency, duration, costs, learners’ attitudes, motivation and reasons for receiving tutoring changed in different periods. A theoretical framework was developed to investigate how learners were motivated under shadow education. The data also suggested that learners’ ‘wants’ and ‘needs’ overlapped to various degrees in different periods. The study has indicated that shadow education has had a significant impact on the mainstream education system. While shadow education seems to be developing in an opposite direction to the current education reform, there is clearly something that mainstream schoolteachers and curriculum developers can learn from it. It would be wise to look at the issue seriously instead of ignoring it. / published_or_final_version / Applied English Studies / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

The literature on autonomy in language education has primarily focused on the development of a theoretical basis for the construct of autonomy and the implementation of educational initiatives aimed at fostering it. Research on the efficacy of autonomous learning has examined the more accessible aspects such as self-access learning and a range of factors that influence its development. Comparatively speaking, the evaluation of autonomous learning initiatives remains on the peripheral limits of research in the field. This study was aimed at addressing this perceived gap in the literature. In evaluating the autonomy-enhancing initiatives offered at the English Language Centre of a major university in Hong Kong, the study adopted a grounded theory approach to understand the social world of the Centre in which participants’ behaviours and practices contribute to a particular culture of learning. The evaluation was informed by data from interviews, observations, questionnaires, and learner portfolios documenting tutors and learners’ experience of autonomous learning. It was designed to gain an understanding of participants’ perceptions of programme reality and of how the programme itself was situated towards achieving its goal of fostering learner autonomy. Evaluation outcomes have created a composite picture of the socially constructed nature of the construct of learner autonomy. The insights gained into the value systems that exist in this social setting have shown how, despite the lingering influence of beliefs ingrained in past experiences, individuals’ perceptions have evolved with exposure to new learning environments. Learners have exploited the freedom extended within this social context to create personally relevant and meaningful learning experiences that have enabled them to examine existing understandings and progress towards developing new identities as proactive individuals. Tutors have functioned as reflective professionals and created their own spheres of influence to stimulate understanding of learning processes and position their learners favourably towards the self-management of learning. Constraints characteristic of innovation introduced in institutional contexts have resulted in tensions arising at the interface of beliefs and engagement for both tutors and learners. However, they have been able to conceptualise the freedom that autonomy pre-supposes in terms of negotiating situational constraints and working with the possibilities within their context and have progressed towards establishing some control over their practices. The study has substantiated the notion of autonomy as a socially embedded phenomenon. While psychological ideals such as motivation, willingness and ability influence its development, the social environment which is organised to extend a range of meaningful options that develop and support an individual’s autonomy is also of significance, as it ensures that the exercise of autonomy has value in terms of what an individual needs to achieve in life. It thus highlights the importance of providing learning experiences that are personally relevant and meaningful, as they position the learner not only for autonomy in learning, but also towards the overarching concept of autonomy in life. Finally, the study also provides some useful insights into the evaluation of autonomous learning schemes. / published_or_final_version / Applied English Studies / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

The present research investigates the causal influence of phonological awareness and oral language proficiency on beginning reading and spelling development of Chinese kindergarteners learning English-as-a-second-language (ESL). Three inter-related studies using correlational and intervention design were conducted to examine (1) the role of phonological awareness in English reading and spelling; (2), the contribution of oral language proficiency to English reading and spelling; (3), the efficacy of the phonological awareness instruction led by kindergarten teachers in classroom settings, and (4) the cross-language associations of metalinguistic skills and reading between English and Chinese. In Study 1, 50 children from two Hong Kong ESL kindergartens were assessed on measures of general intelligence, English and Chinese phonological awareness, English and Chinese oral language proficiency, and English word reading. With age and general intelligence statistically controlled, both English oral language proficiency and English phonological awareness (phoneme awareness) accounted for unique additional variance in English word reading. In Study 2, the effects of phonological awareness instruction were examined on 59 children from two local kindergartens. The phonological awareness instruction, which taught syllable awareness and rhyme awareness, was compared to a treated control group. The instructional programme was able to enhance phonological awareness skills at the rhyme level but not at the syllable level. Word reading was not significantly different between the instructional group and the comparison group during the posttest. The results suggest that instructional programme that solely focuses on phonological awareness skills might not be able to enhance reading skills of Hong Kong Chinese ESL children. Study 3 investigated the effects of a 12-week language-enriched phonological awareness instruction on 76 Hong Kong young ESL kindergarteners. The children were randomly assigned to receive the instruction on phonological awareness skills embedded in vocabulary learning activities or a comparison instruction which consisted of vocabulary learning and writing tasks but no direct instruction in phonological awareness skills. They were tested on oral language skills, phonological awareness at varied levels, reading, and spelling in English before and after the program implementation. The results indicated that children who received the phonological awareness instruction performed significantly better than the comparison group on English word reading, spelling, phonological awareness at all levels and expressive vocabulary on the posttest. In addition, regression analyses on both pretest and posttest data showed that phonological awareness (phoneme awareness) and oral language proficiency (expressive vocabulary) are significant predictors of English reading and spelling. Cross-language transfers of phonological awareness were found. The present research suggests that both phonological awareness, particularly phoneme awareness, and oral language proficiency (expressive vocabulary) play a causal influence on English reading and spelling among Chinese ESL children. The efficacious language-enriched phonological awareness instruction indicates that kindergarten teachers with sufficient training and support are able to implement instruction that aims to teach phonological awareness directly and explicitly. The significant cross-language associations suggest that phonological sensitivity is a common competence that children need to acquire in learning to read two writing systems. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Education

The aim of this study is to problematise the social practice of school-university collaboration in the context of assessment reform in Hong Kong English Language teaching. Hong Kong’s education system has been undergoing major reforms since 1997 and collaboration between tertiary institutions and schools has been negotiated in education policy discourse as a way to improve teaching and learning. In the key policy documents shaping professional development practices for Hong Kong teachers, school-university collaboration is neatly packaged as achievable and unproblematic. In reality, however, school-university collaboration is frequently characterised by tensions and complexities. The objective of this research is to critically examine how particular worldviews about school-university collaboration and partnership are negotiated, reproduced and/or contested in one particular sociocultural context, that of secondary English language teaching in Hong Kong. Drawing on the work of Michel Foucault and the concepts of discourse propounded by Norman Fairclough, a theoretical framework was constructed to examine how collaborative practices in this case study were constituted through discourse. Textual data were collected from the case study. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) was used to examine how teacher-researchers and university facilitators co-constructed and negotiated systems of beliefs and knowledge, interpersonal relations and intrapersonal subjectivity whilst engaged in collaborative action research (CAR). The analysis of the textual data (emails, interviews, transcripts of face-to-face meetings) revealed collaborative practices were mediated through language (verbal and non-verbal). The study also indicates that the collaboration enacted in this case study was highly complex and ambiguous because the practice was predominantly shaped by social, political, ideological and pragmatic factors in the wider sociocultural context, including changes in the assessment of speaking skills of senior secondary students in the English language education curriculum. The discourse of collaboration was thus problematised to identify how all these factors shaped the construction of beliefs, interpersonal relations and identity in the practice of collaborative action research. The study concludes with an examination of the contribution that critical discourse analysis research can make in problematising the practice of school-university collaboration, and how this knowledge may be able to improve the planning and facilitation of future practices. While the existing literature about collaborative action research provides educators with information on how it is implemented in a Western sociocultural context, there are fewer studies which examine the notion of school-university collaboration in a more critical light, for example, by exploring how systemic and contextual factors in society play a significant role in shaping and constraining what people do through collaboration. This case study offers an insight into the complexities of constructing collaboration between two different institutional cultures in a non-Western sociocultural setting. The implications for policy, professional development and research in teacher education are also highlighted. The analysis of the textual data (emails, interviews, transcripts of face-to-face meetings) / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This thesis presents an in-depth, qualitative study that examines how a group of English teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and various sociocultural and institutional factors affect their integration practices of CALL in a private university in China. An activity theory (AT) perspective is adopted as both the theoretical and analytical framework for the research. AT in essence postulates that human activities shape and are mediated both at the individual and social levels, with the mediational tools and artifacts that link the processes together. Four College English teachers in a private university (two part-time teachers and two full-time teachers) participated in this one-year study. Adopting a qualitative multi-case study approach, data were collected from semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, stimulated recall interviews and related documents and artifacts. A key finding is that the teachers each espoused unique, compatible and incompatible systems of pedagogical belief regarding English teaching and CALL. While commonalities among the teachers’ reported beliefs about English teaching and learning are noticeable, there are significant divergences existing among their beliefs with regard to CALL. In contrast with the divergences in the teachers’ reported beliefs, however, classroom observations reveal a very similar pattern in the teachers’ CALL integration: CALL was applied primarily as a tool of input to support their teacher-centered and linguistic-knowledge-oriented method of instruction. With activity theory as the analytical framework employed for interpreting the mechanisms that link the teachers’ integration of CALL, their cognition and the sociocultural settings, the research findings suggest strong contradictory relationships among the various elements in the teachers’ CALL-integration activity systems. The cross-case analysis (in terms of the identified object and contradictions in the teachers’ activity system in particular) suggests that, regardless of their expressed pedagogical beliefs, the teachers’ practices in CALL were also strongly affected by their situated concerns for learners and for meeting the institutional expectations that they act as “qualified teachers”. In addition, their practices in CALL were also evidently shaped by the institutional part-time and full-time personnel structure, a fact manifested in the teachers’ unsystematic teaching arrangements, their heavy workload and the lack of community communication and professional development. The long-established teaching and learning culture in the Chinese context also had a role to play. In such a context, teachers are considered the major source of knowledge imparted to students, while computers as a distraction from learning. The significance of this study is threefold. First, the findings provide a comprehensive understanding of why and how College English teachers in a private university setting in China integrated CALL in their instruction. The findings suggest the institution needs to direct its efforts in promoting change in teachers’ conceptual and pedagogical beliefs while integrating CALL, and to emphasize alignment among teachers’ belief systems, curriculum design, pedagogy, technology affordances and the learning context. Second, the research findings provide pedagogical and policy implications for CALL integration in higher education in China. In addition, the findings may facilitate the development of teacher preparation and development programs in the area of educational technology in language education in higher learning institutes in China. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This thesis is on motivation. It is an action research case study of my own classroom practices coupled with the study of motivational forces that drive or inhibit students to learn or disengage. As Covington (1998) cited in McDonough (2007:370) offers: “the importance of the beliefs learners hold about themselves, and therefore their level of aspiration and the kinds of strategies they operate or can be taught to adopt, to achieve what they want for themselves”. It incorporates the instrumental planning, teaching and supporting that the teacher’s role in the classroom defines. The time frame, participants and research methods such as interviews and questionnaires are all outlined within. The findings showed that students in my classroom were intrinsically motivated and regarded learning English as important, useful, fun and participated in classroom activities with a sense of enjoyment. The implications of the research study indicates motivational strategies have their place in the classroom. With an increased understanding of these motivational strategies, their implementations and the motivational dynamics that interplay within the classroom, motivational levels can be raised further and with a concerted effort of building relationships between teachers and students, appropriate and relevant contents and contexts, a step towards the bridging of learning and language acquisition of English by students in local CMI schools can be envisioned and realized. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Influenced by Robert Gardner’s socio-educational model, this research is focused on investigating the factors affecting the non Chinese speaking (NCS) students in learning English as a second language in a sociolinguistic perspective. This study aims to find out (1) the learning difficulties that non Chinese speaking students come across in English; (2) the sociolinguistic factors affecting the Hong Kong born NCS students in English learning in a multi-cultural primary school; (3) the sociolinguistic factors affecting the newly immigrated NCS students in English learning in a multi-cultural primary school and (4) to compare the similarities and differences of (2) and (3). Semi-structured interviews were the instruments used for data collection. Findings of the study showed that (1) the non Chinese speaking students are facing difficulties in their English learning; (2) the sociolinguistic factors affecting both the Hong Kong born and newly immigrated non Chinese speaking students are similar. Discussion on external influences and individual differences was made and practical implications for teaching and implementation of languages policies were suggested. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

This study was an attempt to search for tools which can encourage students with very low English proficiency level and low motivational force to participate in meaningful language-related activities in order to master basic grammatical rules in a dynamic assessment process so as to pave way for the implementation of Task-Based Learning and Teaching (TBLT) in classrooms. The study took place at a local Band 3 CMI secondary school. There were five S.3 participants involved and 3 S.6 students were invited to be the tutors for these S.3 students. The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of computer-mediated communication (CMC) as well as graduated and contingent instructions in helping weaker students learn English. Results of the study support that CMC together with graduated and contingent assistance in a dynamic assessment process do encourage weaker students to engage in language-related activities. At the beginning of the study, all S.3 participants demonstrated disinterest in learning English owing to their disconnection with their immediate learning context. Yet, the tools involved in the study changed their attitude towards learning English by helping these S.3 participants develop agency, which is deemed important in the learning process, during the course of the study. The study also reaffirms that the interaction between a mediator and a learner must be built upon a common ground. That said, the study reconfirms that the common ground should centre on the learner’s Zoneof Proximal Development (ZPD). In a nutshell, TBLT is beyond doubt a sound pedagogical paradigm to help learners develop their communicative competence. Notwithstanding, appropriate task-supporting approach should be adopted to help weaker students. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

This mixed-methods exploratory study of 34 ESL university teachers in Hong Kong sought to investigate the relationship between teachers’ beliefs about teaching and learning, their epistemological beliefs, and their classroom practice. Generally, findings indicate beliefs are formed though teachers’ past learning experiences, and professional education. Higher sophistication in teacher epistemology positively impacted classroom practice, probably facilitated through regular self-reflection and greater cognitive engagement, with teachers focusing more on student learning, and preparing students for independent study. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Research on participant perceptions of one-to-one mentoring and peer tutoring programmes is available although little empirical study exists of schemes which recruit English-speaking foreign exchange students as language ‘mentors’ for tertiary learners wanting to improve their spoken English. This paper examines mentor and mentee perceptions before and after experiencing an English Language Mentoring Scheme at a university in Hong Kong, as well as possible causes of mentee attrition and retention. Research aims are met through implementation of pre- and post-programme questionnaires as well as post-programme focus group discussions. Using a grounded theory approach to data analysis, three main categories of perceptions emerge, including: Improvement of English; Social, Cultural and Interpersonal Growth; and Mentee and Mentor Responsibilities. Programme strengths as reported by mentees include improvement of spoken English, friendship, enhanced cultural knowledge and strengthened confidence in using spoken English. Uncertainty regarding mentor and mentee roles was found to be a programme weakness and one possible cause of mentee attrition. As the programme is perceived as a platform for spoken English improvement, friendship and improved cultural awareness, this dissertation argues for stronger promotion of this and similar programmes to meet stated university goals of internationalization and whole-person development. / published_or_final_version / Applied English Studies / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics