Chun Lai

Enhancing learners’ self-directed use of technology for language learning: the effectiveness of an online training platform

Enhancing self-directed use of technology for language learning is essential for maximizing the potential of technology for language learning. Understanding how to construct learner training to promote this critical competency is of great significance. This study examined the effectiveness of an online training platform aimed at enhancing the willingness and necessary knowledge and skill set of learners to engage in self-directed use of technology for language learning through equipping them with the pedagogical rationales for self-directed technology use for learning, the strategic base for matching technology selection with learning goals and processes, and the tactics for using technological resources and tools effectively for language learning. A group of undergraduate students participated in the 12-week training. Analyses of students’ survey responses prior to and after the training indicated that the training program was effective in inducing a greater frequency of self-directed use of technology for language learning and in promoting a greater willingness and stronger knowledge and skill base in support of such learning behaviors.

Perceiving and traversing in-class and out-of-class learning: accounts from foreign language learners in Hong Kong

Learning takes place across different social contexts, and understanding how learners perceive and traverse different learning contexts enables educators to gain a more comprehensive view of their learning processes and to support their learning better. This study examined how undergraduate foreign language learners perceived their learning experiences inside and outside language classrooms, and how they bridged their learning experiences in the two contexts. Individual interviews with 11 undergraduate foreign language learners in Hong Kong showed that the learners perceived in-class and out-of-class language learning contexts as affording different functions, and they acted on the affordances of the two contexts to create complementary and synergetic learning experiences across the two. The study further revealed a list of resource features and learner factors that shaped how the learners perceived and acted on the resources. The findings suggest that educational structures should be set up to reinforce the integration of learning experiences across in-class and out-of-class contexts.

International mindedness in an Asian context: the case of the International Baccalaureate in Hong Kong

Background: Embedding the concept of ‘international mindedness’ in teaching across a range of subject matter is seen as increasingly important in today’s education. Understanding the situated challenges that teachers may encounter in doing this is critical to the development of effective professional development in different socio-cultural and instructional contexts. Purpose: This study examined the enactment of international mindedness in International Baccalaureate diploma programmes (IBDP) in the Hong Kong context, focusing on the subject of Chinese language teaching. Sample: Nine experienced Chinese language teachers in IBDP programmes from six International Baccalaureate schools participated in the study. The schools were selected on the basis that they had some variety in student demographic profiles and organisational structures and had been offering the IBDP programmes for several years. Participant teachers either had several years of teaching IBDP Chinese or were holding leadership roles in the Chinese department and were very familiar with IBDP Chinese teaching. Design and methods: Individual, semi-structured interviews of approximately an hour’s duration were conducted with participant teachers. A thematic analysis technique was used to analyse the interview data both deductively and inductively. Findings: Analysis revealed a set of internal and external challenges that were described as arising from the characteristics of the individual teachers, the curriculum and the teaching contexts. Challenges internal to the teachers included their educational experience, pedagogical beliefs and interpretations of the concept of international mindedness in teaching. External challenges included the characteristics of the IBDP curriculum, the subject matter and schools’ and parents’ expectations concerning international mindedness. Teachers and schools were found to utilise various strategies in order to enhance the perceived compatibility and relevancy of international mindedness in the curriculum. Strategies included balancing educational approaches and curriculum demands, enhancing communication with the school community around international mindedness, and providing school-based on-site training and monitoring. Conclusions: The study highlighted the need to take a localised approach which focuses on supporting schools and teachers to identify different models and pedagogies that are appropriate for their particular teaching contexts.

University student and teacher perceptions of teacher roles in promoting autonomous language learning with technology outside the classroom

Helping students to become autonomous learners, who actively utilize technologies for learning outside the classroom, is important for successful language learning. Teachers, as significant social agents who shape students’ intellectual and social experiences, have a critical role to play. This study examined students’ and teachers’ perceptions of the specific roles teachers may play in promoting autonomous language learning with technology outside the classroom. Interviews were conducted with 15 language learners and 10 language teachers at a university in Hong Kong. The study found mismatches between students’ and teachers’ perceptions of the degree of teacher involvement and the specific roles teachers could play. On the one hand, students expected teachers to play a greater role in supporting their autonomous learning with technology by recommending a variety of technological resources and sharing metacognitive and cognitive strategies for effective use of the resources. On the other hand, teachers expected to play a minimal role due to their overestimation of students’ capacities and their concern over their limited abilities to provide such support. The research findings indicate the importance of raising teachers’ awareness of the various roles their students expect them to play and of equipping teachers with the knowledge and skills to advise and support students in making use of technological resources outside the classroom for language learning.

Curriculum, Digital Resources and Delivery

The expanded capacity of digital technology brings new possibilities for planning and delivering curriculum. As a new medium for curriculum delivery, digital technology significantly increases the multimodality of curriculum. It also increases the interactivity between learners and content, enriches socialization among learners and instructors, and enriches resources for both teachers and learners. Digital technology is widely used in curriculum planning, implementation, and delivery. But in the meantime, digital-delivered curriculum raises new concerns.

The effectiveness of guided inductive instruction and deductive instruction on semantic radical development in Chinese character processing

This study compared the effectiveness of deductive instruction and guided inductive instruction for developing semantic radical knowledge of Chinese characters. The evaluation was conducted through a quasi-experimental 3-week intervention involving 46 intermediate learners of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL). The results indicated that guided inductive instruction generated significantly greater gains in learners’ use of radical information for radical form-meaning mapping and for Chinese character recognition and inferencing. This study further found that the effectiveness of inductive instruction in strengthening radical form-meaning mapping varied for semantic radicals of different complexity levels. These findings suggest that instructors should apply guided induction in teaching semantic radicals, but also be flexible in varying instruction in response to the complexity of semantic radicals. The findings suggest that the inductive-deductive nature of instruction and the complexity of semantic radicals are important variables to consider in future research on the learning and instruction of Chinese characters.

Belonging beyond the deficit label: the experiences of ‘non-Chinese speaking’ minority students in Hong Kong

ABSTRACT How migrants, refugees and minority groups acquire a sense of belonging in their adopted society is a concern for nations worldwide as they aim to balance the diversity and inclusion of growing numbers of migrants with ensuring harmony and cohesion across society. In postcolonial Hong Kong, the population diversity is accompanied with a swift change in the racialisation of Hong Kong where minorities in schools find themselves categorised as ‘non-Chinese speaking’ (‘NCS’) rather than a ‘Hongkonger’. The NCS label stigmatises young people as linguistically and academically deficit, de-legitimises acceptance by the local Chinese, Cantonese speaking majority designated as ‘Hongkongers’. Yet how minority youth interpret their status as ‘NCS’ and negotiate belonging in Hong Kong has received scant attention. This qualitative study is a substantive and theoretical contribution to the literature on how multilingual minorities can construct a positive sense of place-belonging to their adopted city. Reflecting the contentious nature of the politics of belonging, we found that students challenged and sought to redefine the narrow, prevailing identity of a ‘Hongkonger’. Rather, they stressed their multilingual identity, historical affiliations, emotional attachments and place-belongingness to the city in order to legitimate their entitlement to sociopolitical belonging in Hong Kong.

The relationship between ICT and student literacy in mathematics, reading, and science across 44 countries: A multilevel analysis

Abstract This study conceptualized ICT as multi-level (country-, school-, and student-level) constructs and examined their relationships with student mathematics, reading, and scientific literacy. Three-level hierarchical linear models (HLM) were employed to analyse the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2015 data of 305,414 15-year-old students from 11,075 schools across 44 countries. The findings indicated that (i) national ICT skills had a more positive effect on student academic performance than did national ICT access and use; (ii) students ICT availability at school positively associated with student academic success, whereas student ICT availability at home negatively associated with student academic success; (iii) student ICT academic use negatively correlated with student performance, while ICT entertainment use positively correlated with student performance; and (v) student attitudes toward ICT demonstrated mixed effects on student academic success – specifically, student interest, competence, and autonomy in using ICT had positive correlations, while student enjoyment of social interaction around ICT had a negative correlation with student academic performance.

Understanding the nature of learners’ out-of-class language learning experience with technology

ABSTRACT Out-of-class learning with technology comprises an essential context of second language development. Understanding the nature of out-of-class language learning with technology is the initial step towards safeguarding its quality. This study examined the types of learning experiences that language learners engaged in outside the classroom and the influencing factors. Three distinct types of technological experiences, with different incentives and different emotional and behavioral manifestations, were identified based on the interview responses of 21 university foreign language learners. Structural equation modeling analysis of 439 survey responses indicated that the three types of technological experiences were influenced differently by various attitudinal and support factors. Instruction-oriented technological experiences were influenced the most by learners’ perception of the usefulness of the technological experience for language learning, and entertainment- and information-oriented technological experiences were the only technological experiences that were influenced directly by perceived ease of the technological experience for language learning. Social-oriented technological experiences were influenced by myriad factors. Furthermore, it was found that the influencing factors for these experiences varied for learners with beginning and with intermediate proficiency levels. The findings underscore the importance of adopting differentiated approaches to supporting different types of technological experiences.