Past Seminars

Recent decades have witnessed an increasing spread of content-based instruction educational models delivering content teaching through learners’ second language. A principle of such models is that such instruction creates a naturalistic context that motivates language learners to use and learn target languages when learning subject content. However, the relationship between medium of instruction (MoI) and motivation specific to language learning is a relatively under-explored area. In the context of calls for theorizations of LLM to better respond to considerations of culture and context (e.g. Chen, Warden & Chang, 2005), this study seeks to contribute to the field through examining the interactions between LLM and micro (MoI classrooms) and macro (Hong Kong schools) contexts.

The present study adopted a mixed methods approach to investigate LLM among secondary school learners of English in Hong Kong, across Chinese, English and Mixed mode of instruction schooling. The focus here will be on quantitative data gathered through a motivation survey administered to students (N = 3877) aged 11-14. The survey examined a range of motivation constructs, including self-efficacy, academic motivation and eleven LLM-specific constructs.

Initial analysis suggests an effect of MoI on four of the eleven LLM constructs, in favour of EMI schooling. The study supports previous research showing that general academic motivation is higher among EMI learners, but the effect of MoI on this variable was negligible. Meanwhile, evidence from Hong Kong secondary school English learners seems to support Chen, Warden & Chang’s (2005) proposal of a ‘required orientation’ as better accounting for LLM in East Asian contexts. Findings are discussed in the context of existing understandings of the relationship between MoI and learning motivation, as well as in terms of broader questions about the theorization of LLM.

This study draws on the activity theory to explore how bilingual first-year secondary school students appropriate resources strategically in response to linguistic challenges in learning science through English in Hong Kong. The study explored 12 bilingual students’ self-regulated strategy use by conducting in-depth interviews, stimulated recalls, observation and analysis of learning materials. Through analyzing these data, we examined how and why they appropriated and used resources strategically for self-regulated learning. The analysis revealed that the participants had used various artefacts (e.g. dictionary) and rules (e.g. evaluation criteria) to negotiate their respective roles (e.g. subject content learners and language learners) in situated communities of learning that consist of subject teachers, classmates, family members, private tutors and friends. Similarities and differences were found between the high achievers and the underachievers with regard to the use of resource-mediated strategies and the underlying reasons. The results inform the development of pedagogical schemes to enhance bilingual students’ self-regulated strategic learning of academic subjects through English.

The educational potentials of social media both in the formal and informal learning contexts have been widely acknowledged. However, how social media use in the informal contexts might influence students’ learning in the formal contexts is still underexplored. Path analysis of 141 survey responses from secondary school ethnic minority students in Hong Kong revealed that voluntary access to Chinese social media in daily life influenced these students’ ideal L2 self and motivated efforts in learning Chinese both directly and indirectly via bicultural integration identity and bicultural competence. The findings confirmed that social media practices in the informal contexts may influence students’ motivated efforts in learning in the formal contexts. The study suggests promoting ethnic minorities’ extramural use of host culture social media to influence their acculturation into the host culture and motivation in learning the host culture’s language. It further highlights the importance of equipping ethnic minority students with the necessary socio-cultural and communication skills to facilitate positive intercultural engagement on these sites so as to safeguard the positive influences of informal social media use on students’ motivation for learning.

A majority of the global population is multilingual. Although studies have investigated the processes used to produce words in multilingual speakers, one criticism of this research is the emphasis on Indo-European languages including English as the dominant language. The question posed in this presentation is whether cognitive processes that have been assumed in all models of language processing (naming, reading and spelling) extend to multilingual speakers. This is not a trivial question. Multilingual speakers can use very different writing systems. Indeed, even within a language e.g. Japanese and Korean – two or more scripts must be learned to become literate (monolingual bi-scriptals). If the same cognitive mechanisms used to read, spell and write in one type of script have an impact on reading and spelling in different scripts then several clinical and pedagogical implications arise e.g. in diagnosis and treatment of aphasia, dyslexia and dysgraphia in multilingual speakers. One feature of the presentation will be cases of multilingual speakers who display reading and writing disorders in typologically different scripts. These cases highlight the many similarities across languages.​​

In English as the medium of instruction (EMI) schools, students learn some or all non-language content subjects through their second/foreign language (L2). Their content knowledge is also assessed in their L2. Since most of these students are still acquiring the target L2, they face the demands and challenges in both cognitive and linguistic aspects. Yet, there has been limited research exploring (i) the interplay between cognitive and linguistic demands imposed on students by EMI assessments, and (ii) whether and how EMI teachers, who are usually subject specialists, help their students cope with those challenges. This study seeks to address these two important questions. In the first phase of the study, over 4,900 questions in Science/Biology textbooks, workbooks and public examination papers in Hong Kong secondary education were analysed to examine their cognitive and linguistic demands. Differences between formative and summative assessments, and between junior and senior secondary levels were also explored. The second phase of the study then investigated the instructional and assessment practices of two science teachers in Hong Kong EMI schools to examine to what extent they incorporated language instruction in their science lessons, which may have affected how well students were prepared to deal with EMI assessments. These findings together illuminate pedagogical practices in EMI classrooms, particularly when considering the alignment among teaching objectives, instruction and assessment.