Brainwashing or nurturing positive values : competing voices in Hong Kong\u27s national education debate

This corpus-based discourse analytical study compares the use of collocations, semantic preferences, semantic prosodies and metaphors in the news reports and Hong Kong Government press releases concerning the introduction of the school subject Moral and National Education in Hong Kong in 2012. The analysis of word co-occurrences with the phrase ‘national education’ in the two corpora shows that journalists use various FIGHT metaphors to describe the attitudes and actions of protesters and the responses of the government. However, the government press releases are much more literal, showing a neutral to positive tone and implying that when the planned introduction was shelved, national education will be re-introduced in the future

A corpus study of bank financial analyst reports : semantic fields and metaphors

This corpus-based study compares financial analyst reports, collected during the Eurozone financial crisis in 2011, of the BNP Paribas and Bank of China (Hong Kong), which differ in corporate history and backgrounds. The study aims to describe, first, salient semantic and pragmatic meanings characteristic of salient topics in the financial analyst reports of the banks and, second, the patterns of use and function of metaphors specific to key semantic fields of each corpus to shed light on how the genre was exploited by respective banks to achieve organizational, professional, institutional, and sociocultural goals. Metaphors in each corpus were identified and meanings interpreted in the co-text of concordances, following the steps detailed in the metaphorical identification procedure (MIP). The website METALUDE (Metaphor at Lingnan University, Department of English;http://www.ln.edu.hk/lle/cwd/project01/web/introduction.html) was used as a source of reference. Analysis of key semantic fields shows that the two sets of reports were composed of different topics. Concordance analysis of frequent lexical words in the key semantic fields further reveals semantic and pragmatic meanings. Major findings include BNP Paribas using more empirical research and survey findings in their financial analyst reports to promote their professional image and sense of responsibility to stakeholders, and frequent use of human traits metaphors, depicting different aspects of health, motion, mobility, and injury, revealing the way and extent to which financial analysts describe different business and financial market performance and activities

Metaphors in financial analysis reports : how are emotions expressed?

This study critically investigates the use of emotion metaphors in a corpus of BNP Paribas financial analysis reports produced during the credit crisis from 2011 to 2012. The corpus was examined to identify constituent words in the semantic category of ‘Emotion’. Concordances for selected words in ‘Emotion’ were examined by adopting the Metaphor Identification Procedure in order to identify metaphors in the corpus. The emotion metaphors identified were then classified into different semantic domains, underpinned by Conceptual Metaphor Theory. The main findings of the study revolve around the conceptualisation of emotion words reflecting the market turbulence circa 2011. In addition, the findings show that BNP Paribas\u27 corporate culture is revealed by the use of emotion metaphors in their financial analysis reports. The bank also uses varied metaphors to describe the emotions of investors. The study concludes that the identification of emotion terms for a conceptual metaphor analysis can be more effectively carried out by combining the methods of corpus linguistics, semantic annotation and Metaphor Identification Procedure. The study suggests important pedagogical implications for both ESP teachers and members of the financial services profession

Students’ interaction anxiety and social phobia in interprofessional education in Hong Kong: mapping a new research direction

AbstractBackground Interprofessional education (IPE) has been promoted as a breakthrough in healthcare because of the impact when professionals work as a team. However, despite its inception dating back to the 1960s, its science has taken a long time to advance. There is a need to theorize IPE to cultivate creative insights for a nuanced understanding of IPE. This study aims to propose a research agenda on social interaction by understanding the measurement scales used and guiding researchers to contribute to the discussion of social processes in IPE.Method This quantitative research was undertaken in a cross-institutional IPE involving 925 healthcare students (Medicine, Nursing, Social Work, Chinese Medicine, Pharmacy, Speech Language Pathology, Clinical Psychology, Food and Nutritional Science and Physiotherapy) from two institutions in Hong Kong. Participants completed the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS-6) and Social Phobia Scale (SPS-6). We applied a construct validation approach: within-network and between-network validation. We performed confirmatory factors analysis, t-test, analysis of variance and regression analysis.Results CFA results indicated that current data fit the a priori model providing support to within-network validity [RMSEA=.08, NFI=.959, CFI=.965, IFI=.965, TLI=.955]. The criteria for acceptable fit were met. The scales were invariant between genders, across year levels and disciplines. Results indicated that social interaction anxiety and social phobia negatively predicted behavioural engagement (F = 25.093, p<.001, R2=.065) and positively predicted behavioural disaffection (F = 22.169, p<.001, R2=.057) to IPE, suggesting between-network validity.Conclusions Our data provided support for the validity of the scales when used among healthcare students in Hong Kong. SIAS-6 and SPS-6 have sound psychometric properties based on students’ data in Hong Kong. We identified quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods research designs to guide researchers in getting involved in the discussion of students’ social interactions in IPE.Key MessagesThe Social Anxiety Scale (SIAS-6) and Social Phobia Scale (SPS-6) scales have sound psychometric properties based on the large-scale healthcare students’ data in IPE in Hong Kong.Social interaction anxiety and social phobia negatively predicted students’ behavioural engagement with IPE and positively predicted behavioural disaffection. The scales are invariant in terms of gender, year level and discipline.Quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods studies are proposed to aid researchers to contribute in healthcare education literature using the SIAS-6 and SPS-6