published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Education / Master / Master of Education

Reading instruction in China and that in the United States are so different that they are not compatible. In fact, they seem to go in opposite directions. This study examined some of the differences between Chinese EFL reading instruction and American ESL reading instruction through analyzing selected tape-recordings of reading classes from China and the United States, and comparing Chinese EFL reading textbooks with American ESL reading textbooks. This study was intended to answer the following questions. 1. Is a bottom-up method of reading really taught in China while a top-down method is taught in the United States? 2. Compared with the ESL reading textbooks used in the United States, do the Chinese EFL reading textbooks have a larger proportion of exercises dealing with vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation and fewer items in reading skills? 3. Compared with the American ESL subjects, what are the strengths and weaknesses of the Chinese EFL subjects in reading comprehension in terms of recognizing main ideas, understanding direct statements and drawing inferences?

This thesis examines the results of a large-scale sociolinguistic study on the use of English in two universities in China. The aim of the thesis is to determine the sociolinguistic realities of the use of English in higher education in China. The universities were selected on the basis of their unique status in China’s higher education hierarchy. One university was a private institute reliant on student fees for its income, and the other a state-funded university under the supervision of the Chinese Ministry of Education. A sociolinguistic survey was conducted involving some 490 respondents at these universities between early 2012 and mid-2013. It was specifically aimed at describing the use of the English language in the formal education of students. The study reports on the status and functions of English at the universities, as well as the attitudes of various stakeholders towards English (and other languages). It also examines their beliefs about English. English is considered in a number of contexts: first, the context of language contact, of English alongside other languages and language varieties on the two university campuses; second, of English as part of the linguistic worlds of Chinese students who switch between languages in their daily lives, both in their education as well as their private lives; and third, of the spread and use of English in terms of the physical and virtual movement of people across spaces. The findings of the study indicate that the increasing use of English in the formal education at these universities is having an impact on the ways in which Chinese students are learning their course materials, and even more notably in the myriad ways these students are using multiple languages to negotiate their everyday lives. As university students in China become increasingly bilingual, their ability to move across spaces is shown to increase, both in the ‘real’ world, as well as in their Internet and entertainment lives. / Linguistics / D. Lit. et Phil. (Linguistics)

黃晶榕. / Thesis (Ed.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 298-348) / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Huang Jingrong.