Catalysts leading experienced primary teachers to modify the ways they teach students to read Chinese. Catalysts modify teachers’ pedagogy

A report is presented of experiences that persuaded a group of experienced Taiwanese Chinese Lan-guage primary school teachers who had visited Hong Kong to observe how the subject they were re-sponsible for teaching was being taught in Hong Kong to change their practice on returning to Tai-wan. Overseen by Taiwanese and Hong Kong university academics, the Taiwan and Hong teachers ex-changed professional experiences and ideas, and school visits were arranged to allow the Taiwanese teachers to see for themselves how reading comprehension was being taught in Hong Kong primary schools. On returning to Taiwan, retrospective impressions of the visit by the Taiwanese teachers were reported to colleagues, and seminars, follow-up focus group meetings and online forum discussions were organized. A group of Hong Kong teachers later visited Taiwan to see how their Taiwanese col-leagues were teaching reading. The visits, exchanges of ideas and the follow-up activities were very productive, all serving as catalysts causing the teachers to change their pedagogy on returning to Tai-wan, one of the most important being the experience of seeing at first-hand the strategies used by Hong Kong teachers to improve the reading comprehension of their students and another being the way the students had responded.published_or_final_versio

An investigation of efective teaching strategies in enhancing Non-Chinese speaking students’ Chinese character learning abilty (In Chinese)

Session 2根據志願機構的統計數字，生活於香港的非華語家庭，大部份的經濟環境並不富裕。香港政府提供十二 年免費教育（小一至中六），並不包括幼兒教育，因此幼兒教育的學費十分昂貴。香港的非華語家庭較 難負擔年幼子女的幼稚園學費，故此過去較少非華語家庭送他們的年幼子女就讀幼稚園。近年，香港推 行「幼稚園學劵制」，政府為幼兒就讀幼稚園提供學費津貼，於是愈來愈多非華語家長送他們的年幼子 女到幼稚園學習中文。由於這些幼兒的母語並非中文，中文是他們的第二語言，因此他們的學習需要和 困難都與本地學生不同；教師教導這些學生時遇到很多困難。 本研究參考「綜合高效識字」課程，並按照非華語幼兒的學習需要和困難，為他們設計適合的中文識字 課程、教材、教學法、評估等；是香港第一個大規模及有系統的非華語幼兒識字研究。參與本研究的幼 稚園共有三間，參與人數約110人。 本研究的課程設計，以幼兒常用的口語詞彙類別及頻率作為指標，安排教學主題的次序，並教導他們認 識簡單的漢字結構。此外，教師透過運用不同的識字教學法，包括遊戲識字、部件識字、基本字帶字識 字法、字根識字法、韻語識字、生活經驗識字、情境輔助識字法等，幫助幼兒有系統地學習漢字，提高 他們對學習漢字的興趣，加強他們對漢字字形結構的感敏度，從而促進識字學與教的成效。此外，通過 讓幼兒寫字和閱讀兒童故事，進一步鞏固和擴闊他們的識字量。本論文將報告是次研究的結果，並提出 促進非華語幼兒識字的方法。published_or_final_versio

Differential influences of affective factors and contextual factors on high-proficiency readers and low-proficiency readers: A multilevel analysis of PIRLS data from Hong Kong

This study examined the impact of the reading-related affective factors home environment and school environment on predicting the likelihood of students being either high-proficiency or low-proficiency readers. Data from 3,875 Hong Kong SAR Grade 4 students participating in an international comparative assessment were analyzed. Multilevel regression analysis was used to model the relationship between affective factors (i.e., reading attitude, reading motivation, and reading self-concept) peer bullying, family context (i.e., home socioeconomic status/SES), and school context (i.e., school SES, school bullying, and school safety and order). The likelihood of being a reader with high proficiency was found to be associated with reading attitude, reading motivation, reading self-concept, peer bullying, school bullying, and school SES, whereas the likelihood of being a reader with low proficiency was associated with reading self-concept and peer bullying only. These findings suggest that reading-related affective characteristics and school context may be more likely to promote rather than limit reading success.published_or_final_versio

Supporting ethnic minority students learning the Chinese language in multilingual Hong Kong

This paper examines progress made in four schools in Hong Kong over a two-year period in providing for students with markedly different language backgrounds and competence learning Chinese in the same classrooms. It centres in particular on ways of delivering the curriculum to classes containing immigrant and local children, a growing issue in Hong Kong where the number of non-Chinese speaking school-age children has doubled since the year 2000. The Hong Kong Equal Opportunities Commission has ex-pressed concern about the impact on the indigenous local students of steps taken to integrate their non-Chinese speaking immigrant peers into Hong Kong’s schools. This paper considers a number of intervention strategies, including streaming by ability, grouping students according to their mother tongue, providing differentiated instructional materials and learning objectives and deploying resources specifically designed for linguistically disadvantaged students. Shortcomings in provision are discussed as well as problems faced by children who speak a “foreign” language in school and go home to envi-ronments in which only their mother tongue is spoken. Comment is directed at opportunities for non-Chinese speaking students to learn their mother tongue in school and at steps taken by schools to engi-neer multicultural environments.published_or_final_versio

Is the expressive vocabulary of young Cantonese speakers noun or verb dominated?

The spontaneous utterances produced by 492 Cantonese-speaking children aged 36-60 months in 30-minute toy play contexts were collected. The incidence and percentage of different lexical classes, the ratio of noun and verb types and tokens were calculated. A statistically significant predominance of verb usage was found in the expressive utterances of the children. No similar predominance was found for nouns. Linguistic, cultural and contextual variables possibly underlying these outcomes are explored and discussed.postprin

The acquisition of Cantonese classifiers by preschool children in Hong Kong

The Cantonese language has a complex classifier system and young learners need to pay attention to both the semantics and syntax of classifiers. This study investigated the repertoire of classifiers produced by 492 Cantonese-speaking preschoolers in three age groups (3 ;0, 4 ;0 and 5 ;0). Spontaneous utterances produced in 30-mmute toy-play contexts were collected and transcribed. Analyses identified a productive repertoire of 73 classifiers in the utterances, which could be appropriately classified into the typology proposed in the present study. An age-related increase in the number of classifier types per child as well as the repertoire size of each group was found. g03 (CL) was widely used as the general classifier by the young children. It was also discovered that the three-year-olds were already showing signs of grasping the basic syntax of classifiers. Cognitive, linguistic and contextual influences presumed to shape the evidence are discussed. © 2007 Cambridge University Press.published_or_final_versio

Adapting western pedagogies for Chinese literacy instruction: case studies of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Singapore preschools

Research Findings: Western ideas and progressive pedagogies have been introduced to China (including Shenzhen), Hong Kong, and Singapore to replace traditional Chinese pedagogy. But these imported ideas are not congruent with traditional Chinese culture and thus have encountered resistance from Chinese teachers. The present study observed and analyzed 18 early childhood classrooms in the 3 localities and questioned the class teachers about their respective teaching practices to see how those ideas were actually turned into practice. Whole-class direct instruction was found to be the predominant Chinese pedagogical mode. This indicates that Chinese traditional pedagogy still dominated those Chinese preschool classrooms. Slight societal differences in classroom practice were also found, reflecting the spectrum of openness and Westernization of the 3 cities. Practice or Policy: The findings suggest that people should adapt rather than adopt those pedagogical innovations developed in other sociocultural milieu, as different societies have different social, cultural, and educational traditions. Cultural appropriateness should be seriously considered when choosing the pedagogies to be adapted. Moreover, influences from the culture, language, teachers, parents, resources available, and the prevailing education system should also be taken into consideration when planning for pedagogical reforms. © 2012 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.postprin

The influence of the language that Hong Kong primary school students habitually speak at home on their Chinese reading ability in school

This study examines how the language used at home, Putonghua or Cantonese, has influenced the Chinese reading attainment of 4335 primary school students in Hong Kong. Also examined was the influence of the birthplace and home background socioeconomic status (SES) of the reader. Although the indigenous Hong Kong population uses Cantonese, a dialect of Chinese, for everyday communications, the Chinese written in school is Modern Standard Written Chinese (MSWC), the written equivalent of Putonghua, the spoken language of the people of China. Many of the numerous families migrating from China to Hong Kong in recent years have brought with them children educated in Putonghua in China and with extensive experience of MSWC. It was hypothesised that the reading attainment of these students would be superior to that of classmates born in Hong Kong and using Cantonese habitually. This would apply particularly to students from advantaged SES homes. The children born in China indeed had superior reading attainment. But children speaking Cantonese at home and Putonghua 'sometimes' had the highest reading scores, regardless of their birthplace or SES. The writers reflect on assumptions about the influence of the language used at home on language attainment and the implications for educational planning. © 2007 S-k. Tse et al.published_or_final_versio

Carriage niches and molecular epidemiology of Staphylococcus lugdunensis and methicillin-resistant S. lugdunensis among patients undergoing long-term renal replacement therapy

We collected nasal, axilla, and groin swabs from 252 adult patients from 2 nephrology centers in Hong Kong. Staphylococcus lugdunensis carriage was detected in 51.6% patients (groin, 39.3%; axilla, 19.8%; nose, 17.9%). The carriage rates of methicillin-sensitive S. lugdunensis and methicillin-resistant S. lugdunensis (MRSL) were 46.0% and 8.3%, respectively. Independent risk factors for S. lugdunensis carriage included male sex (odds ratio [OR], 4.4), hemodialysis (OR, 2.2), and aged 18–50 years (OR, 2.4). The isolates belonged to 10 pulsotype clusters (n = 129) and 8 singletons (n = 8). All MRSL and most gentamicin- and tetracycline-resistant strains were found in a predominating sequence type 3 clone, designated HKU1, which accounted for 51.8% of all colonizing S. lugdunensis strains. The 21 MRSL isolates had SCCmec type V (n = 18), type IV (n = 2), and type I (n = 1). The finding highlights the potential for dissemination of multidrug resistance through successful S. lugdunensis clones.postprin

Do unexpected land auction outcomes bring new information to the real estate market?

Land and real estate are intrinsically related but generally traded in two different markets. Vacant land, being a major "raw material" for development of real estate, is traded by developers who actively manage development risk for profit. Real estate, being a long lived final product, is traded by end-users or investors for use or investment in the secondary market. This study examines price discovery between the two markets. The key question is whether land transactions, in the form of public auctions, convey any new information to the secondary real estate market. Our results suggest unexpected land auction outcomes have both market-wide and local effects on real estate prices. However, the impacts are asymmetric. We found that lower than expected land auction prices have a significant negative market-wide and local impact on real estate prices while higher than expect land auction prices have little or no impact. © Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2009.published_or_final_versionSpringer Open Choice, 01 Dec 201