This study used the concept of desire in language learning to explore the first-year English journeys of undergraduates at an English-medium instruction (EMI) university in Hong Kong. Desire in language learning is an underexplored area in EMI research but a relevant concept for gaining a multilayered picture of the incentives and pressures of…

This research delves into the washback effects of the Hong Kong Diploma of Education Examination (HKDSE) on the learning strategies employed by secondary school students in Hong Kong. By surveying 50 students to assess their English learning strategy profiles, this study seeks to identify potential biases in strategy selection indicative of…

Against the backdrop of declining motivation and growing social and emotional challenges in English learning experienced by Hong Kong primary school students, the study aimed to profile an interactive pattern between relevant motivational beliefs (i.e., self-efficacy, interest, and growth mindset), social and emotional learning (SEL) skills and…

Emotions have received widespread attention in the education field globally thanks to the greater emphasis on well-being in recent times. Against this backdrop and the fact that foreign language (FL) education is increasingly common from a young age, this study set out to investigate what FL "classroom activities" children find most…

This study investigated the impact of student-selected pairs on emotional engagement and language-learning opportunities generated during collaborative tasks. Sixteen learners of English at a Hong Kong secondary school performed collaborative tasks in two pairing arrangements: student-selected pairing and teacher-assigned pairing (mixed…

Listening strategies have mostly been investigated in contexts where learners listen to audio recordings. However, a much more prevalent and indispensable listening task in the classroom is listening to teacher input, particularly in the English Medium Instruction (EMI) classroom where the goal of learning is directed towards comprehension of…

This study investigated how English learners complete multimodal formative quizzes. Participants included 17,950 students enrolled in a mandatory English for Academic Purposes course at a university in Hong Kong. We retrieved data from Blackboard, a learning management system, and conducted a two-step cluster analysis to examine student…

The COVID-19 pandemic posed novel challenges to language teachers and learners, as 'emergency remote teaching' became a necessity in order for teachers and learners to isolate from one another. Much has already been written about the nature of those challenges and language teachers' response to them, which response frequently made use of…

Digital game-based vocabulary learning (DGBVL) integrates key game elements such as Challenges, Rewards, Human-Computer Interactions (HCI), Multimedia, and Fantasy. Although the overall effectiveness of digital games in enhancing English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) vocabulary knowledge development is well-established, the specific roles of…

This study explored forty-eight English as a second language learners' perceptions of and attitudes towards pre-task planning in synchronous video-based computer-mediated (SvCMC) and real-time face-to-face (FTF) communication. The participants, randomly divided into SvCMC and FTF groups, performed a planning tasl and a non-planning task in…

Although teachers have access to a great deal of scholarship on teaching academic vocabulary (AV), much less is known about the experiences and perceptions of English language learners regarding AV. To address this gap, we used an online metaphor elicitation survey and follow-up interviews to collect data from 432 undergraduates at a Hong Kong…

This paper reports on a qualitative study which investigated a group of student teachers' emotions in their second language (L2) learning experiences, with particular attention to the mediating role of language ideologies. The findings revealed that the participants reported both positive emotions (enjoyment and pride) and negative emotions…

With a focus on the neglected 'L2 learning experience' component in Dörnyei's L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS), this study investigated secondary students' L2 motivation in the context of online English private tutoring (EPT). Through narrative inquiry, students narrated their EPT experience online and reflected on it in comparison with that in…

Although research has always related e-portfolios to self-regulated learning, recently agency, which includes individual, relational, and contextual domains, has also been highlighted. Likewise, agency has been explored in technological environments that support collaborative and co-design learning processes. This study, investigating the…

Purpose: While most language departments of the university offer service-learning (SL) subjects based on language teaching, such as "Teaching Chinese as a Second Language in Local Schools" and "Serving the Community through Teaching English," this paper aims to argue that teaching students to teach language(s) is yet to be the…