published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / abstract / Education / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / abstract / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

published_or_final_version / abstract / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Social Service Management / Master / Master of Social Sciences

This study is a qualitative case study which aims to investigate teachers’ conceptions of Liberal Studies teaching in a case study school after Liberal Studies became compulsory in the Senior Secondary curriculum. A list of aspects of teaching were compiled based on previous research studies and were used to identify teachers’ conceptions. Data were collected from three participating teachers with two research tools, namely, lesson observations and semi-structured interviews. The teachers came from different educational backgrounds but they taught students at the same secondary level. The findings reveal that participating teachers possess multiple conceptions and there are discrepancies between what they think Liberal Studies teaching should be and their real classroom practices. They also do not have complete understanding of what an issue-enquiry approach is. The reasons participating Liberal Studies teachers gave in response to the formation of their conceptions are found to be related to their major subject taught or major subject completed at a degree level. It is also found that when they attended Liberal Studies related training courses, they tended to use their educational background to selectively pick up teaching strategies introduced in the courses. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Learner autonomy has been asserted by many scholars as essential to learning, and that the teacher’s role in fostering autonomy is of great importance in the institutional context of learning. In the field of language education, previous studies have looked into teachers’ beliefs in promoting autonomy mainly in the university setting in different regions of the world, such as Omen, Turkey, some countries in Europe and Hong Kong. The teachers were from a range of nationalities and cultures. A certain group of teachers in the primary education field or in a homogeneous cultural context has not been touched on. This study attempts to fill these gaps and focuses on the context of Hong Kong primary schools, aiming to find out Chinese teachers' beliefs about learner autonomy and the possible factors that influence the form of their beliefs. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Recent sociolinguistics research in the study of English has shifted from focusing only on Inner Circle English varieties in Kachru’s (1985) sense to include Outer and Expanding Circle varieties, the phenomenon of which is captured by the term ‘world Englishes’ (WE). This paradigm shift to include WE as acceptable norms has immediate impacts on English language teaching (ELT) as it is suggested that what students learn should approximate the reality of English use worldwide. Research in applied linguistics and language education has discussed the position of WE in ELT (e.g. Jenkins, 2009a), investigated teachers and learners’ perceptions about WE (e.g. Andrews, 2002; He & Li, 2009), and developed curricula that incorporate WE features (e.g. Jenkins, 2002). However, not many studies have looked into how contextual factors have impacted on English teachers’ perceptions about WE and their pedagogical practices. This thesis presents an in-depth, qualitative study that seeks answers to research questions regarding: (i) the relationship between the cognitions and pedagogical practices of WE of a group of Hong Kong English teachers; and (ii) contextual factors that may influence their reported cognitions and observed practices. Borg’s (2006) schematic conceptualisation of language teacher cognition is adopted as the theoretical and analytical framework, which postulates that language teacher cognition and practices are shaped by their schooling experience, professional coursework, contextual factors as well as their ongoing pedagogical practices. Guided by an embedded-case study approach, data were collected through semi-structured interviews, observations of lessons and activities, stimulated recall interviews and documentation analysis. This research takes a Hong Kong secondary school as a single case with five English teachers as embedded cases who participated as the main informants over a period of one school year. To obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the context, additional data were collected from other sources including school administrators, students, and education officials. An analysis of the data using Borg’s (2006) framework revealed that the informants’ cognitions of WE had been shaped by their experiences as learners, teachers and users of English. The informants’ perceptions were ‘ambivalent’: expressing an embracing view towards WE, but at the same time attaching only to British English in teaching due to local examination and curriculum requirements. The informants’ observed classroom practices also manifested such ambivalence: they were willing to teach a text containing WE features but continuously reminded students to avoid using WE in examinations. This ambivalence seemed to have rooted from their pedagogical focus only on meeting examination requirements and formal English use. Furthermore, this exclusive focus was shared not only among the English teachers, but also by their students, school administration of the case School and education officials, together forming the overarching context shaping the English teachers’ cognitions. The implications of this study are twofold. First, the informants’ exclusive preference for British English over WE for ELT seems to diverge from WE research suggestions to introduce non-Inner Circle varieties as acceptable norms. Second, their ambivalent view towards WE manifested a tension between maintaining English standards and exposing students to the sociolinguistic reality of English. The findings reveal the teacher informants’ predominant focus on teaching uses of English for examinations, which tend to focus on standard Englishes and formal genres. It is suggested that English teachers should go beyond an uncritical adherence to nation-based English varieties to develop a broader understanding of language variation that takes into account the users, uses and modes of communication (Mahboob, 2014). This study calls for (i) the inclusion of a wider range of language variation in the English curriculum; (ii) more attention to teacher education programmes in strengthening English teachers’ awareness of language variation; and (iii) raising awareness of education and assessment officials towards a broader conceptualisation of language variation. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Education