Ruth Wong

The sustainability of change in teacher beliefs and practices as a result of an overseas professional development course

This article examines whether there are changes in students’ teaching practices as a result of their experiencing an overseas professional development course (PDC); the process of any such changes; and whether any changes found are sustainable in the long term. Three forms of data gathering are used, lesson observation, in-depth interviews, and email correspondence, in order to compare and capture the fluidity of changes over time. Results indicate that the teachers’ fundamental belief in certain concepts of teaching and learning did indeed change, but ultimately certain teaching practices could not be altered in the teachers’ home country due to the reality of its assumptions about teaching.

An investigation of strategies for student motivation in the Chinese EFL context

Teachers employ various strategies aimed at enhancing student motivation, yet there is scant empirical evidence to support their effectiveness. Based on an investigation of 30 EFL classroom observations involving 10 teachers and more than 900 learners (including 90 learners at different levels of English proficiency who completed questionnaires), several motivational strategies in Chinese ESL classrooms are analyzed in this paper. The effectiveness of motivational strategies is measured using three different research tools: lesson observations conducted by the researcher, a post-lesson teacher evaluation scale, and a student motivation questionnaire. Before lesson observations, the questionnaire was rated by 80 EFL teachers and 10 in-depth teacher interviews were conducted to outline the motivational strategies employed in class. During lesson observations, a motivational strategies effectiveness (MSE) observation scheme was used for assessment. The student questionnaire, which was completed after the lesson observation, served as a source to validate the results of the MSE and teacher self-rated questionnaires.

User‐initiated resource sharing in Hong Kong universities: planning to reality with HKALL

Purpose – To describe the introduction of a collaborative, user‐initiated, unmediated, interlibrary loan service for returnables between initially three and then all eight universities in Hong Kong.Design/methodology/approach – Historical narrative combined with user and staff evaluation.Findings – The introduction of the service has been a great success.Originality/value – This article describes in detail the introduction of a service that will be of interest and relevance to many other libraries facing declining budgets and the need to share resources in an efficient and effective way.

How a one-year overseas teacher education programme improved a teacher’s motivation strategies

Abstract This longitudinal study investigates how in-service study abroad can improve the professional skills of teachers in regard to the strategies and attitudes they use to better motivate their students to learn English. The subject of this study is an in-service English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher from China who undertook a one-year teacher training course in Hong Kong and Australia, including taught modules, school attachment and teaching practicum. A series of interviews and classroom observations were conducted as the course progressed in order to collect the participant’s views and practical strategies she plans to employ to enhance student motivation. Benefits of the one-year overseas training course are that the participant has become more sensitive to individual student potential, can more effectively tailor relevant teaching approaches to students’ levels of understanding and will better comprehend that a teacher is of critical importance in motivating students to learn English. These three benefits, it is argued, will not only make the teacher more effective, but also tend to further draw out the potential in each student, resulting in better student performance.

Profiling language and culture strategy use patterns of ESL student teachers in study abroad by using self-reported data

This paper addresses a niche in studies on immersion programmes for English as second language learners. While studies on the impact of the experience of studying abroad are replete with reports about the enhancement of participants’ language proficiency or intercultural skills, the present study investigates the types of language and culture strategies used by a group of student teachers on an overseas immersion programme by coding their interview responses and documenting the types of strategies reported. It also traces changes in the participants’ perceptions of their strategy use before, during and after studying abroad. The findings show that while participants reported using speaking strategies and listening strategies much more than other language strategies, only a narrow range of both strategy groups are reported. Similar findings are found in their use of culture strategies. Different changes in strategy use before, during and after the immersion are reported. The paper interprets the findings. Both short-term and long-term pedagogic implications for strategy development on study-abroad programmes are proposed.