Teng Yuzhu Judy, The College of Saint Rose, Albany

Gui Ying, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics

Allen James, The College of Saint Rose, Albany

Online education/elearning along with its benefits has become more and more popular in both developed and developing countries. It has become one of the alternatives for learners to acquire their education. Language education requires direct interactions between learners and instructors and among learners due to the nature of language learning. Yet with the development of recent technology it seems possible for language learners to participate in online learning or a hybrid mode which requires both online learning as well as face-to-face instruction. This paper will report two studies done in the past year. One of the studies investigated the online language learners’ demographic information in one of the largest online institutes in China. The study also examines whether students understood the nature of online education. A separate study examines the relationship between students’ autonomous learning skills and their achievement in online learning. A positive relationship was found. The students having greater autonomous learning skills obtained higher grades. In addition, the paper provides several suggestions for ways to better support students’ learning in online learning environments. This paper will prove to be informative for policy makers to make decisions toward going online. Meanwhile it will provide valuable information for online course designers and instructors to provide effective online learning environments for students. Additionally it will help students who plan to take online courses to prepare themselves regarding issues of online learning.

Hameedy Mansoor A., Alzahra University

Alizadeh Zakieh, University of Alzahra

Rezaapasand Tooraan, University of Alzahra

The development of reading and writing skills are among the fundamental objectives of all educational systems, as these skills are the logical continuation of the linguistic skills the child acquires, naturally and socially, prior to entering this system. From a dialectic constructivist perspective, the development of new writing and reading skills in school is contingent upon the oral speech and its internalization (verbal thought) that develop in earlier years. Hence, the instructional language policies of countries where a duality of language between home and school exists need to be reconsidered and adjusted accordingly. One such country is Iran that has a diverse linguistic population and yet a single official language.

Naturally the first language of many Iranians is not Farsi, yet it is the official language of instruction throughout the educational system. In the past, PIRLS data have been used to show the disadvantage experienced by some of the non-Farsi speaking students. Although the absence of linguistic continuity between home and school among Azari-Turkish speaking Iranians necessitates a different overall curriculum, but as a minimal intervention, the methods used in the Farsi-dominated curriculum need to be adjusted for non-Farsi speaking students. To assess any such adjustments, an evaluation of teaching methods in reading and writing from a constructivist point of view was undertaken in both Farsi and Turkish speaking schools. The reading and writing skills of the two groups were also assessed in order to see if the previously recorded disadvantage persists over the years of schooling. The findings show that the one language- one method policy does not lead to one level of achievement among Farsi- and non-Farsi speaking students. However, those teachers who use constructivist methods help their students to have better reading and writing skills.

Lu Cheng-Hsiung, National Hualien University of Education

Through fifteen years’ teaching practice at a university, this author constructs the RAR English teaching model which consists of three elements: rationale for the topic; assignments in the class; and reflective journals. The first element means that teachers may interpret reasons why they design certain projects, activities, or events in their instructional context. For the second element, it purposes that teachers give students assignments in the class to promote English learning activities. The last element stands for the reflections from students’ and teacher’s written journals based on the classroom’s real situation.

The action research method was adopted to fulfill the needs of this study. A total of 65 students from two classes were selected as the research subjects, and data from reflective journals, classroom assignments, the author’s field-notes, and a questionnaire were collected and analyzed to accomplish this one-year study. According to the results of the findings, this model has been proved to obtain a promising instructional effectiveness, and English teachers may implement a successful teaching by adopting this instructional approach. Overall, the advantages of the RAR teaching model can be summarized as follows:

(1)Teacher’s living experiences can be utilized as the source for constructing English teaching materials; (2) The selection of the teaching materials emphasizes the local cultural phenomena and globalization trend; (3) Assignments in the class require students to perform hands-on English learning activities and encourage them to be active participants, rather than silent recipients; (4) The concrete contents of the reflective journals enable teachers to revise their teaching strategies and achieve better teaching effectiveness; (5)Students’ presentation corresponds to the promotion of communicative nature of the contemporary English teaching methods, and (6) The interaction between the teacher and students is excellent, and students express positive attitudes toward English learning accordingly.

Qi Jie, Utsunomiya University

This paper explores the theories and practices in Japanese language education in order to problematize what have been taken for granted in notions of globalization in Japan. Moreover, this paper attempts to create new understandings of Japanese schooling, pedagogy, identity, difference and culture.

First, this paper examines the cultural distinction between the Japanese taught to foreigners -- Nihongo -- and that which is to native speakers -- Kokugo. The two different terms discursively distinguish foreigners from Japanese socially and politically. The main basis for this dichotomy to be discussed is the belief that foreigners are unable to learn “real” Japanese.

Second, this paper explores the way that the notion of Japanese language education has shifted over time. What is meant by Japanese language education in Japan is intricately embedded in Japanese society, Japanese culture and the Japanese educational system.

The third aim of this paper is to examine some of the pedagogical issues in the study of the diverse ways in which Japanese language teachers acquire and develop their teaching methods and classroom practices. Japanese teachers are expected to use their language classes to impart an understanding of Japanese cultural beliefs in their classrooms and facilitate their students behaving in ways that embody Japanese culture.

This paper concludes by pointing that Japanese language education is intricately and deeply embedded in Japanese society, Japanese culture and the particular Japanese discourses on globalization. It is hoped that this article will stimulate dialogue and debate about the interaction between cultures and about foreign language teaching.

Chik Alice, The Hong Kong Institute of Education

Following successive education reforms since 1997, many English language teachers face the challenge of interpreting and implementing curriculum reform policies at school level: medium of instruction, language enrichment programmes, task-based learning, e-learning, Language Arts, school-based assessment, and the newly proposed senior language education curriculum. Many of these reforms call for a reconceptualization and renewal of classroom practices and school culture. For many English teachers, continuing professional development remains one of the best solutions to equip themselves for the challenges.

This study critically examines the changing nature of teachers’ beliefs about professional development, classroom practices, school cultures and education system in reaction to reforms involving Language Arts imposed by the Education and Manpower Bureau. During the duration of a Professional Development Course on Language Arts taught at HKIEd, teachers expressed concerns about adopting and adapting the implementation of Language Arts at both junior and senior secondary levels. Five teachers participated in a 3-hour focus group discussion exploring the impact of reforms at personal and school levels. The participants also individually discussed their self-designed teaching units, successes and difficulties in implementing Language Arts in class and the effects on professional development. This study sheds light on the dynamic relationship and interdependence of all stakeholders in language education reforms: school management, teachers, students and parents.

Yang James H., The Kun Shan University

In the teaching and learning of English as a second/foreign language, the transfers of learners’ talk practices have been viewed as pragmatic 'errors' without considering where and how English is actually used in intercultural interaction. In fact, the interaction between two nonnative speakers without the presence of native speakers is rapidly increasing worldwide (Mattock, 2003). In addition, speech accommodation and cultural adjustment are the keys to effective international interaction (Jenkins, 2003). Since most English learning textbooks merely introduce American/British English and Western cultures, there is a need to raise English learners’ awareness about world Englishes and world cultures (Kachru, 2004; Trudgi, 2004). Such awareness will not only help students develop multi-cultural identities in the acquisition of English as an international language (EIL), but it will also enable them to deploy diverse cultural practices as strategies in the use of English as an EIL for effective and harmonious intercultural interaction. Accordingly, I would like to submit and present 10 learning activities for the teaching of EIL in the Taiwan context as an example in the hope of stimulating more ideas to help students use EIL to introduce their cultures to foreign friends, negotiate their ways of speaking, and also develop sensitivity toward other cultures.

Vanderburg Robert, Clalflin University

London Shakir, Clalflin University

The goal of this paper presentation is to improve cross-cultural literacy instruction. A student of mine from Trinidad has collaborated with me to mix reciprocal teaching (Palincsar & Brown, 1985), and dialogic instruction (Nystrand, 1997) methods with multicultural theory (Banks, 1990) and his personal experiences attaining literacy in another country.

Reciprocal teaching is a style of instruction in which teachers and students engage in dialogue about texts. It is broken into four main strategies: summarizing, question generating, clarifying, and predicting. The summarizing strategy helps students identify and incorporate the most salient parts of a text. The generating questions component helps enforce and develop the comprehension part of reading. The clarifying strategy is an important component because it helps students develop from just reading the words correctly to understanding the meaning of the sentence, paragraph, or text as a whole. The predicting strategy is when students hypothesize about future parts of a text. Dialogic instruction uses students’ personal experiences to create literary dialog. It is a teaching methodology that centers on the interactions between students and teachers to make meaning of texts.

We plan to present how dialogic instruction through stories and experiences of students from different cultures can increase students’ literacy in a foreign culture. We will give examples of how one Trinidadian used his experiences to maintain literacy in the United State of America and extend these examples so educators can use similar strategies in the instruction of literacy to multicultural students. The paper presentation will then elaborate how dialogic instruction can be mixed with reciprocal teaching methods to create in-depth questions and analysis around complex texts for multi-cultural students. The mixture of these methodologies will help students maintain advanced literacy skills in cultures different from their own.

Mohamad Noor Abdul Manaf, Chongzheng Primary School

Oliveiro Fiona, Chongzheng Primary School

There is a small group of pupils who enter the primary education system without sufficient reading skills. Without intervention, these pupils’ reading deficit will accumulate over the years. As reading is the key to academic success, in January 2006, a one-year reading intervention programme is designed to enhance these children’s reading ability.

17 Primary 2 pupils, who are about 8 years old and 15 Primary 3 pupils, who are about 9 years old, were selected to undergo this intervention programme. Using Schonell Word List, the reading ages of these pupils were determined before the commencement of the intervention programme. In order to be admitted into this programme, the pupils’ reading ages must be below their chronological ages. The other determining factors were their school-based oral and written examination results and teachers’ recommendations.

The class sizes for the intervention programme are smaller compared to the mainstream. For Primary 2, the class size for the intervention programme is 17 compared to 30 for the mainstream. For Primary 3, there are 15 pupils who are participating in this programme, as compared to 40 per class for the mainstream.

The selected pupils are taken out from their mainstream classrooms during English periods; 17 periods per week for Primary 2 and 13 periods per week for Primary 3. During these periods, the intervention programme focuses on decoding skills. This paper examines the effects of teaching phonics, building up pupils’ phonological awareness and lexical store and repeated readings on the pupils’ reading ages. The mid-year results of the intervention programme show that all pupils have benefited from this programme as all reading ages have increased. For Primary 2, 13 pupils registered a double-digit increase in their reading ages, while only 6 Primary 3 pupils are able to do so. The paper also shares other findings and the implications of these findings.

Shin Jongho, Seoul National University

Chang Yu-Jin, Seoul National University

Yu Seungmin, Seoul National University

The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of expository-text structures on interest and memory. Three methods of structuring texts used in the study were elaboration, situation-providing, and question-providing strategies. Elementary-school students in grade 5 participated in the study. Results of the study showed that students selected the text constructed by the situation-providing strategy as the most interesting as compared with the other two. The reason for the first selection was that students felt the text practically relevant to their real lives outside the classroom. In addition, text memory was higher in the texts made by the situation- and question-providing strategies than the other. The results of the study provide practical implications on how to structure expository texts commonly used in school learning to enhance learning motivation and outcomes through texts. Specifically, the results suggested that it should be considered to make readers know contents of texts are relevant to them and to create cognitive conflicts to readers.

Lee Wai Keung Alpha, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Morrall Andrew, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

This paper reports on the design, development, implementation and evaluation of Manga, an edutainment platform on profession-related language training with focus on the interface of virtual reality technology and pedagogy. The aim of Manga is to provide a contextualized and immersive environment for learning English as a foreign language. Manga provides interactive and customized modules for learning English for disciplines including logistics, accounting, hotel and tourism management, nursing, and marketing.

Park KwangJong, University of New Mexico

Language acquisition is often taken as a biological inheritance which is interpreted as a natural process (Fishman, 1988). This emphasizes the equation of language and biological inheritance. It may apply to the traditional context that has one language in one culture, where people do not encounter linguistic or cultural boundaries. However, people encounter multiple linguistic and cultural contacts with others and it has been difficult to apply the equation of language and biological inheritance. As Lynch (2003) and Wiley (2001) discuss, the profile of heritage language learners has become complicated and diverse. We cannot expect the ancestral heritage as the sole characteristic of heritage language learners anymore. Researchers emphasize the importance of membership and the degree of affinity between one’s own identity and the ancestral language for defining heritage language learners (Carreira, 2004; Kondo-Brown, 2003; Wiley, 2001). Due to this reason, this study particularly examines a sense of ethnic identity of students with mixed heritage since their ethnic identity as Korean is often challenged because of limited linguistic and cultural knowledge and even appearance. The study of students with mixed heritage helps us see sociocultural factors that discourage their potential for multiethnic identities, multilingual and multicultural competence. Through emic voices of students and their family, educators will have better understanding about struggles that minority families have to encounter for their heritage language maintenance. This research suggests implications for teachers and schools to help students have the positive identity and to develop their multilingual and multicultural competence.

Gu Mingyue, The University of Hong Kong

Second language (L2) motivation, as an emergent and nonlinear construct, is found to have relationship with learners’ imagined communities. However, few motivation studies have been conducted to investigate the interrelationship between motivation, participations in mother and target language ‘tangible’ communities, and imagined identities. Even fewer studies are taken to investigate how learners with different identities and motivations would linguistically behave differently.

This paper reports on a longitudinal qualitative study that investigates learners’ identity negotiation, English learning investment transformation, and their linguistic behaviors in a systematic dyadic interaction program with English first language (L1) speakers. For better understanding L2 ‘motivation’, the notion of ‘identity’ (Ochs, 1993), ‘investment’ (Norton, 2001) and ‘communities of practice’ (Lave & Wenger, 1991) are employed. The paper examines how L2 learners negotiate their identities and participations in a mainstream mother language community and one target language community, investigates how their communities participation, imagined identities and investments are related, and explores how learners with different identities and investments linguistically behave differently in dyadic interactions with English L1 speakers. This paper concludes by discussing the theoretical and methodological implications for future work.

Chien Grace Chin-Wen, Chung-Hu Elementary School

In Taiwan elementary schools, English instruction to fifth and sixth graders became compulsorily in the fall semester of 2001. In the fall of 2005, Taiwan began English education in the third grade. The MOE has announced three major goals in elementary and junior high school English education: for the students to obtain basic English communication skills, to cultivate learning interests and positive attitudes, and for the students to learn more about foreign and domestic culture and customs. English teachers are required to design curriculum plans and submit them to the education authority.

This paper will mainly discuss elementary school English curriculum plans from the third to the sixth grades in Taipei County during the fall of the academic year 2005. First of all, what percentage of English curriculum plans were exactly the same as the English curriculum plans provided by the textbook publishers? What percentage of English curriculum plans was designed based partially on curriculum plans provided by textbook publishers, but adapted by English teachers based on a school-based curriculum? Did the situation vary from region to region? Secondly, what kinds of modification were made to these adapted English curriculum plans? Were songs, drama, picture books, or holidays integrated into the adapted English curriculum plans? Third, what major problems did English teachers encounter while designing curriculum plans? Next, examination of on-line English curriculum plans aims to compare and contrast the practicality, diversity, originality, completeness, and uniqueness of these curriculum plans. The end of the paper provides in-depth suggestions on writing English curriculum plans. Samples of noteworthy English curriculum plans are included.

Kirkpatrick Andy, The Hong Kong Institute of Education

The emergence of English as the international language for the dissemination of knowledge is well-attested. It is ‘by far the most important language of scientific and scholarly conferences’ (Ammon 1996:260). The European Science Foundation’s working language is English and its journal Communication is exclusively in English (Ammon 1996). Over 90% of the information contained in influential databases such as the Science Citation Index (SCI) ‘is extracted from articles in English taken mostly from English language journals’ (Truchot 2002:10). It is also a time when more and more students seek a tertiary education in English and more and more universities in non-Anglophone countries seek to provide courses through the medium of English. It is surely time for us to heed Swales’ call of a decade ago that we ‘reflect soberly on Anglophone gate-keeping practices’? (Swales 1997:380).

In this paper I want to consider some of the consequences of this extraordinary shift to English as the language of international scholarship and education for those for whom English is not a first language and who are thus not familiar with Anglo rhetorical styles and for the status and prestige of other, particularly Chinese, rhetorical styles.

May Judy Jackson, Bowling Green State University

“It has been decided that for the sake of uniformity English and Afrikaans will be used as media of instruction in our schools….” These words uttered by South African Minister of Bantu Education and Development, MC Botha, in 1974 made the use of Afrikaans as medium of instruction in black schools compulsory. The policy was implemented despite cries of defiance from the African Teachers Association. The policy stated that English and Afrikaans was the medium of instruction for major subjects with the mother tongue used only for instruction in religion instruction, music, and physical culture. Although it was recognized as the language of empowerment for black South Africans it was consistently received with hostility and associated with oppression.

The goal of the National Education Policy Act of 1996 in the new South African Constitution was to promote multilingualism through the use of the student’s mother tongue as an early medium of instruction, but the system continues be deeply troubled with policies that educators believe remain discriminatory. With eleven languages, a more than 50% illiteracy rate, a dearth of qualified, English proficient teachers and administrators, a lack of materials and adequate facilities and a Department of Education in its democratic infancy developing policies that are neither effectively implemented, monitored, or evaluated, the poorest provinces continue the struggle for equality in education.

This qualitative investigation utilizes open-ended interviews to study the impact of South Africa’s Language in Education policies from 1948 to the present. The study queries teachers, administrators, and Department of Education personnel from South Africa’s Kwazulu-Natal Province as to the (a) historical impact of South Africa’s language policies on successful matriculation through the system, (b) the implementation of current policies integrating the student’s mother tongue as a medium of early instruction, and (c) the paradoxical nature of theory into practice.

Lau Man Chu, University of Toronto

The immediate impact of globalization on English language education in Asian countries like HK is that the access to this world language is seen as indispensable for the maintenance of its position as an international business center and a knowledge-based economy. “English as a Superior Language” (ESL)-status (Pennycook, 1998) has hardly changed even after the end of British colonial rule, except that now the discourse is no long fueled by colonialism per se, but rather by a neo-colonial capitalist rhetoric on a globalized economy. This aggravates the asocial and functionalist approach to English language education that long existed in the colonial period, despite the recent curriculum reforms. The information-extraction approach (Lin, 2001, p. 83) used in most reading lessons is a good example to show the pragmatic attitude of training students for exam success and to be an English literate labor force. Little attempt is done to encourage students to relate their own social realities and experiences to the reading text for negotiation of meaning.

This paper argues for the educational and cultural necessity of implementing critical literacy in English language education in postcolonial countries like HK. Critical literacy--- the ability to critically analyze cultural texts, both print and non-print--- aims at students’ better understanding of how different cultural forms construct their knowledge of the world and the different social, economic and political positions they occupy within it. This higher-order language work will not only help cultivate knowledge workers and critical problem solvers (Gee, Hull, & Lankshear, 1996) to meet the demands of the new economy, but more importantly, a generation of young critical minds who, amidst the day-to-day global information flow, media messages, consumerism, and social assumptions, will become active readers and writers of cultural texts and create their own meanings to shape and transform their social conditions (Shor, 1992)

Leong-Chan Pek Ha Terri, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

The study investigates learners’ experience in mastering English speaking and pronunciation skills through the Web-based English Pronunciation Programme (WEP). The data was mainly collected from teachers’ feedback and an online survey completed by students who participated in a 22-hour pronunciation course of the English Language Enhance Programme, offered by English Language Centre, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

The study looks into the three aspects of the WEP framework from users’ perspective. The three aspects are sound-level, word-level and sentence-level training and learning. For each aspect there are tasks, tutorials and quizzes that help: raise awareness, apply knowledge, and boost confidence of learners.

Findings indicate majority of the participants found the WEP website efficient, helpful, effective, and satisfying. They also considered the site an ideal web learning platform to enhance pronunciation skills. Most of them liked the animations, audio files, images, graphics, charts, as well as the games. The drawbacks include some lengthy tasks and participants’ infrequent use of recording function and e-book facility. Another finding is the positive feedback on the illustrative use of the sound-wave graphics to facilitate the learning. The way to intertwine both phonemic and prosodic elements in pronunciation training can conclude the positive experience of participants.

In the light of the survey findings, various issues related to the overall design of the WEP will be discussed. The issues include ways to gain balance in the provision of the segmental and super-segmental contents to assist learners, ways to shift the practice of teacher ‘correcting’ mistakes to the provision of self-regulation facility for participants to monitor own performance, and ways to enhance the flexibility of the preset content-release dates to motivate learners to use the website.

Kinnear Penny, University of Toronto at Mississauga

Zhang Ning, Nanjing #27 Middle School

Zhou Qi, Nanjing #27 Middle School

The paper explores implications gathered from the preliminary analysis of a research project conducted in four middle school EFL classrooms in a “key school” in Nanjing, China. The findings reveal a tension between the ideal of educating students to communicate and students who can pass a language exam. This seems to mirror the tension between policy statements that promote communicative proficiencies and an exam system that tests discrete points of grammar, syntax and vocabulary.

Data were obtained from the use of regular, uncorrected, free writing, interviews with students and teachers, and classroom observations and analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively.

Huang Junsheng, The University of Hong Kong

Language learning strategies (LLS) have long been viewed as a variable of individual differences (ID), or as cognitive skills or processes. This study, focusing as it does on the data taken from a series of focus group interviews with 47 senior high school students in Mainland China, seeks new interpretations of strategy development and use from sociocultural perspectives. Evidence provided from the focus group discussions shows that in the mainstream culture of examinations in China, the grade-getting goal was prone to determine the general orientation of strategies on a variety of classroom learning tasks, and shape the genetic (or historical) changes in strategy use at different learning stages. The results also indicate that the processes of strategy development and use were mediated by learners’ personal discourse patterns reflecting their situated perceptions, by cultural artifacts (tasks), and by the interpersonal interactions with their teachers, peers and family members, and situated in their immediate communities of language learning practices and social cultural contexts. In addition, the study underlines the needs to take into account learning goals and the nature of learning tasks in the strategy research, and to create a situated strategy development community as an alternative option for strategy instruction or training programs.

Yogev Sima, Levinsky College of Education

Horowitz Michele, Levinsky College of Education

The recent tendency of schools in various non-English speaking countries to start teaching English at a young age may be attributed to globalization processes in education. Despite research indications regarding the futility and possible harm of early EFL teaching for future English learning, parents and local schools pressure education ministries to allow EFL programs for young learners in order to better prepare them for competition in the global economic market. The Israeli ministry of education adheres to the policy of starting formal EFL programs at age 10 (grade 4), but it succumbs to such pressures by allowing semi-formal EFL teaching in grades 1 to 3 and even in kindergartens. In 2005 31% of all elementary schools taught EFL programs in grade 1, and 90% in grade 3. Further analysis of the characteristics of these schools reveals the following: (1) Semi-formal EFL programs are more widespread within the sector of Jewish state (secular) schools than in the sector of Jewish state-religious schools, and are the least common in the Arab school sector.

(2) They are also more common in the urban central geographic districts (Tel Aviv and Center) than in other urban districts ( Jerusalem and Haifa), and are the least common in the peripheral Northern district. However, as an exception to this rule they are the most common in the peripheral Southern district, where the chief superintendent has particularly encouraged them as part of her plan to increase the success of southern students in the English matriculation exam at age 18. The findings thus indicate that the ministry's ambivalent policy mainly succumbs to pressures from families whose kids may benefit more from economic globalization as well as to local initiatives within the education system. We conclude by discussing the effects of this ambivalent policy on the non-professionalism of the semi-formal programs, particularly their administration by homeroom teachers with no training in English teaching and the non-existence of appropriate teaching materials.

So Margaret M.C., University of Toronto

The Language Proficiency Requirement (LPR) was introduced in 2000 for all teachers who teach English as a subject in the Hong Kong public school system. To fulfil this requirement, teachers in the profession can choose one of three routes: application for exemption; taking courses through approved course providers; or demonstrating proficiency in English through the Language Proficiency Assessment Test (LPAT). All teachers must fulfil the Language Proficiency Requirement by the 2006 academic year or will no longer be allowed to teach English. The results of the last LPAT were recently released in June 2006, marking an end in testing for currently appointed English language teachers.

This paper situates the LPAT within the discourse of educational accountability and teacher testing that is common in many parts of the world. The research draws on the work by McNamara (2000, 2001) and Shohamy (1998, 2001) in applying a critical perspective on the use and power of language tests and raises questions about the connection between testing and raising standards through measuring teacher proficiency.

In order to gain insight into the impact and effects of this test on English teachers in Hong Kong, a multi-case study of five English teachers was done. The teachers were interviewed between November 2002 to January 2003, and an analysis of their comments raises further questions regarding the equivalence of the different routes to fulfilling the LPR, the validity of the tests, and the impact of the results on the teachers’ perception of self and other colleagues.

Tang Sok Mei, Christabelle, Kong Hwa School

The importance of oral communication has never been doubted in the learning of a language. However, classroom practices in Singapore seemed to be geared towards the teaching of reading and writing and there is hardly much emphasis in the teaching of oral communication.

This paper describes a study conducted to investigate the place of oral communication in the Singapore classroom, the type of oral skills being taught in the classes and the strategies which are most commonly used. The paper also describes to what extent the National Primary School Leaving Examination influences and shapes the teaching of listening and speaking skills. Questionnaires and observations were administered to collect the data.

In addition, the paper also looks into the recent call by the Prime Minister of Singapore to “Teach Less, learn more” and interviews teachers to find out the impact on the way they teach listening and speaking. Interesting strategies and ideas will be put forward and shared towards the end of the paper presentation.

Vanderburg Robert, Clalfin University

I would like to submit an idea I use to instruct students in my Philosophy Education class. I present the notion of using dialogic thinking to enhance the academic level of discussions in English classes. These types of conversations help students foster their innate adolescent energy. In my experience teaching English students in New York, Arizona, and California, students are ripe for academic discussions. They just need a protocol to work under and free reign to express their own opinions opposed to the teacher’s opinions. Dialogic instruction is a teaching style that allows students to hold different opinions and ideas from their teachers as long as they adhere to the set protocols of the domain at hand. It is a teaching method that asks the teacher to stop thinking as a teacher and to start listening to the students. The teacher should establish a set of discussion parameters and then allow the students to express themselves as they saw fit as long as they maintain the parameters of the discussion. The premise of the teaching style is to have students adhere to a set of academic parameters (i.e., they must have a central thesis to their argument. Their arguments must be supported by personal evidence, evidence from the novel or evidence observed in media or in their personal lives). Conducting the class with this dialogic thinking allows the student to construct well defined arguments with evidence.

Yu Baohua, The University of Hong Kong

Watkins David, The University of Hong Kong

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between motivational factors, cross-cultural adaptation and Chinese language achievement. The data in the study were collected by Attitudes/Motivation Test Battery ( Gardner, 1997), Socio-cultural Adaptation Scales (Searle & Ward, 1990), Persistence/ Voluntary Dropout Decision (Pascarella & Terenzini, 1980), Face-saving Scale (Fu, 2005) and Demographic Information. The participants from Western or Asian backgrounds were learning Chinese at the university level in the People’s Republic of China. Two hundred and fifteen students were surveyed in the study.

The results indicated except that there is no significant relationship between Instrumentality and Socio-cultural Adaptation, all the rest key variables are either statistically significant or positively significant or negatively significant correlated with each other. Multiple regression analysis indicated that Saving Other Face, Integrativenss and Language Anxiety were major variables predicting Socio-cultural Adaptation; Saving Other Face and Integrativenss contributed to predict Academic Adaptation; Motivation seemed to explain the variation of Chinese Language Achievement; and Motivation, Instrumentality and Academic Adaptation contributed to predict Persistence.

Significant differences between Western and Asian student groups were found in terms of Motivation, Adaptation and Chinese Language Achievement. The Western student group tended to perform much better than the Asian student group in spoken, listening and overall level of Chinese Language Achievement and they seemed to have higher level of Integrativeness and better Socio-cultural Adaptation than the Asian student group. Recommendations were made to enhance motivation and second language acquisition.