Chinese ESL Students' Learning Strategies: A Look at Frequency, Proficiency, and Gender.

When students and instructor have been socialized in different educational systems, they often hold divergent views of the learning process. Such mismatches in instructional expectations can have significant effects on the participants’ satisfaction with their interactions in the foreign language classroom. This paper describes a year-long study of two classes of university English students in Taiwan and contrasts the students’ customary approach to learning with that promoted by their American instructor. Through ethnographic participant-observation by the instructor, combined with informal written feedback and brief oral interviews with the students, the study documents the process through which the participants renegotiated their expectations and adjusted their classroom social and linguistic behaviors during the course of the year. The paper suggests that international university English as a foreign language programs can better meet the sociocultural and linguistic needs of their students by basing their initial instructional approach on students’ locally-held attitudes towards learning, rather than by imposing exogenous models of language instruction often promoted in English language teaching. The Labyrinth of Exit Standard Controls K.C. Li The Open University Hong Kong Abstract In view of mounting dissatisfaction with graduates’ language proficiency, tertiary institutions in Hong Kong are seriously considering adopting exit controls over their students’ language proficiency. There are three parts to this paper. The first part outlines major theoretical issues involved in implementing any such controls. These issues include the indeterminacy of the targets for controls and the question of how such targets can be controlled. The second part attempts to offer an overview of the major practicalIn view of mounting dissatisfaction with graduates’ language proficiency, tertiary institutions in Hong Kong are seriously considering adopting exit controls over their students’ language proficiency. There are three parts to this paper. The first part outlines major theoretical issues involved in implementing any such controls. These issues include the indeterminacy of the targets for controls and the question of how such targets can be controlled. The second part attempts to offer an overview of the major practical issues. It outlines possible implementation means and compares the key pros and cons of the means. By delineating the complexity of the major issues involved, the first two parts highlight the fact that institutions should answer a large number of important, yet difficult, questions before proceeding to control their graduates’ exit language proficiency. The third part presents four approaches that may help overcome the difficulties in implementing exit controls. They are taking the bull by the horns, accepting a plurality of practices, focusing on communication, and producing different results for different audiences. Chinese ESL Students' Learning Strategies: A Look at Frequency, Proficiency and Gender Christine C.M. Goh and Kwah Poh Foong Abstract This article reports on a study of language learning strategies used by 175 ESL students from the People’s Republic of China. The aims of the study were to survey the frequency of strategy use and to determine how it is influenced by the learners’ proficiency level and gender. The SILL questionnnaire (Strategies Inventory of Language Learning) by Oxford (1990) was administered. It consists of 6 categories: memory, cognitive, compensation, metacognitive, affective, and social. Results from the survey indicated that metacognitive strategies were most frequently used, while memory strategies were least frequently used. Statistical analysis showed that significant differences were to be found in the use of cognitive and compensation strategies among learners at three proficiency levels. Gender also played a role in influencing the kinds of strategy used; female students were found to use compensation and affective strategies significantly more often than male students. Findings from this study could help teachers identify appropriate strategies to facilitate the learning of a second language by Chinese learners.This article reports on a study of language learning strategies used by 175 ESL students from the People’s Republic of China. The aims of the study were to survey the frequency of strategy use and to determine how it is influenced by the learners’ proficiency level and gender. The SILL questionnnaire (Strategies Inventory of Language Learning) by Oxford (1990) was administered. It consists of 6 categories: memory, cognitive, compensation, metacognitive, affective, and social. Results from the survey indicated that metacognitive strategies were most frequently used, while memory strategies were least frequently used. Statistical analysis showed that significant differences were to be found in the use of cognitive and compensation strategies among learners at three proficiency levels. Gender also played a role in influencing the kinds of strategy used; female students were found to use compensation and affective strategies significantly more often than male students. Findings from this study could help teachers identify appropriate strategies to facilitate the learning of a second language by Chinese learners. An Independent Learner’s Guide to Cantonese Instructional Materials 1 Geoff P. Smith University of Hong Kong Abstract This article reviews some available instructional material for learning Cantonese, particularly from the point of view of the independent learner. These materials include introductory courses consisting of printed texts and audio tape recordings, as well as dictionaries and glossaries and academic descriptions of Cantonese. The more successful materials for self-study are identified and some possible ways of avoiding the usual pitfalls involved in learning Cantonese are discussed. Some suggestions for future instructional materials are made. Communication Apprehension of Chinese ESL Students Barley Shuk-Yin Mak Cynthia White Language Centre Hong Kong Baptist University Dept. of Linguistics and SLT, Massey University, New Zealand Abstract Anxiety research in language learning has been carried out largely with English-speaking foreign language learners of Indo-European languages, and, more recently, of Japanese. This article reports the findings of a study into the sources of one type of language learning anxiety, known as communication apprehension (CA), among Chinese ESL students in New Zealand secondary schools. The relative importance of a number of sources of CA (educational, social and cultural) is investigated by means of interviews and a ranking exercise. In addition, a questionnaire and classroom observation session explore the sources of CA in relation to certain in-class practices, such as questioning, voluntary speaking and pair work. Results indicate that the language distance between Chinese and English contributed strongly to CA among Chinese ESL students. Within the classroom, an emphasis on voluntary speaking, insufficient preparation for speaking and fear of negative evaluation wereAnxiety research in language learning has been carried out largely with English-speaking foreign language learners of Indo-European languages, and, more recently, of Japanese. This article reports the findings of a study into the sources of one type of language learning anxiety, known as communication apprehension (CA), among Chinese ESL students in New Zealand secondary schools. The relative importance of a number of sources of CA (educational, social and cultural) is investigated by means of interviews and a ranking exercise. In addition, a questionnaire and classroom observation session explore the sources of CA in relation to certain in-class practices, such as questioning, voluntary speaking and pair work. Results indicate that the language distance between Chinese and English contributed strongly to CA among Chinese ESL students. Within the classroom, an emphasis on voluntary speaking, insufficient preparation for speaking and fear of negative evaluation were important sources of CA. The article concludes with a number of suggestions for future avenues of research into CA and language learning anxiety. From Graphic Literacy Across Languages to Integrating English and Content Teaching in Vocational Settings Gloria M. Tang University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada Abstract This paper is about integrating the teaching of English and specific content areas in vocational settings. It supports the recently established Hong Kong (HK) medium of instruction policy which "is designed to encourage schools to move away from mixing and switching between Chinese and English in each subject of the curriculum towards the consistent use of one language or the other across the curriculum for any one particular class" (Bird, Harris & Ingham, 1993, p. x). It aims to contribute to the HK government’s initiative to improve the use of language in the workplace by advocating a model which employs knowledge structures and graphics. The paper suggests that knowledge structures and graphics can be used to promote the use of one language, English, for teaching vocational subjects by integrating the teaching of English and content. It reports on the findings of research conducted in a prevocational school in Hong Kong (HK) which show (1) that knowledge structures and graphics are common across English and Chinese, and (2) that HK students were aware of knowledge structures and could interpret graphics presented in an unfamiliar language. It demonstrates how a content unit taken from HK vocational materials, in English or Chinese, can be planned according to Mohan’s categorization of knowledge structures indicating that language and content knowledge can be taught simultaneously.This paper is about integrating the teaching of English and specific content are