Dialogue journals are written conversations in which two partners communicate regularly. When practiced between a teacher and student, dialogue journaling has the potential to engage students in writing, and can lead to improved teacher-student rapport. In this "Innovations in Practice" article, we evaluate the use of structured dialogue…

Literature has long been used as a tool for language teaching and learning. In the New Academic Structure in Hong Kong, it has become an important element in the senior secondary English language curriculum to promote communicative language teaching (CLT) with a process-oriented approach. However, as in many other English as a second or foreign…

This article reports a case study of one local primary school in Hong Kong implementing a continuous professional development cycle for English-as-a-second-language teachers during a COVID-19 pandemic. The study focused on factors that impacted teacher continuous professional development and explored whether technology could be used to facilitate…

Perusall, a web-based collaborative reading platform characterised by its social annotation functionalities, was introduced in a postgraduate teacher-training language-awareness course in Hong Kong during the shift to online teaching and learning brought about by the global COVID-19 pandemic. Tasks were designed on Perusall to engage the…

In conventional written corrective feedback (WCF) practice, teachers spend an inordinate amount of time identifying every error in student writing. Research evidence suggests that such a comprehensive WCF approach is both undesirable and ineffective. Recent research has shown that focused WCF, where teachers respond to errors selectively, is a…

Many scholars and teachers in EFL education should agree that compared with reading and writing, listening has received much less attention. This brief article discusses important gaps existing in EFL listening and overall proficiency development. It presents the case for a greater focus on sounds and actual listening in the classroom and spoken…

Icy Lee is Professor in the Faculty of Education at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where she is currently serving as Chairperson of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Her main research interests are in the areas of second language writing and second language teacher education. Icy is best known for her research on feedback in L2…

In view of the considerable and growing number of non-native EFL/ESL teachers across the globe, which has been reported to surpass that of native English teachers (NETs), much controversy has been aroused globally, especially in the Asian context, over issues concerning the language proficiency of these Non-Native English Teachers (NNETs). Further…

This study investigates the perceptions of stakeholders on the impact of a high-stakes assessment of English language teachers' proficiency--the minimum language standards Language Proficiency Assessment for Teachers (English) [LPATE], which was introduced in 2000. Given that the test has now been in place for 17 years, the study investigates the…

As content-based instruction (CBI) programmes involve certain degrees of integration of second language (L2) and content learning, collaboration between L2 and content subject teachers has been strongly advocated. Whether this type of teacher collaboration can be successfully implemented will depend on many factors, one of which is teacher beliefs…

While it has been proposed that language teachers' beliefs could filter the way they perceive their teaching and influence their practice, few studies have investigated how their beliefs interact with their teaching decisions and why some beliefs override others. When EFL teachers adapt the Western-based Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) model…

In 1999 a critical thinking syllabus was issued by the education authority to all junior secondary school English language teachers in Hong Kong. Different from the earlier curriculum guidelines, the syllabus highlights the importance of thinking in English language teaching and learning, and developing students' critical thinking through the…

The paper reports on parental involvement in Chinese students' language learning which has emerged as a major finding from an interpretative enquiry into their English-learning experiences. The data confirm that Chinese parents and other family members are closely involved in the study participants' language learning, in particular, their…

Hong Kong English teachers were surveyed as to their beliefs, goals, practices, and judgments about their teaching and the teaching of English in Hong Kong secondary schools. Results are discussed in terms of their view of the English-as-a-Second-Language curriculum, language teaching, classroom practices, teacher role, and teachers' view of their…