This study investigated the difficulties encountered by a group of Hong Kong Chinese learners studying in an educational environment where English was used as the first language. Although language was widely perceived as a problem for these learners, the findings of the study showed that social, cultural, and affective aspects were also a cause of problems for the learners. These aspects were often interrelated and linked to the linguistic problems of the learners. Some implications are presented regarding ways to help raise the awareness in schools of the difficulties experienced by this particular group of ESL learners.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Arnold, J. (1999). Affect in language learning. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
2.
Bailey, K. (1980). An introspective analysis of an individual’s language learning experience. In R. C. Sarcella& S. D. Krashen (Eds.), Research in second language acquisition (pp. 58-65). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.
3.
Berry, R.S.Y. (1998a). A study of the strategies used by Hong Kong Chinese learners in learning English in an independent school environment in the United Kingdom. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Exeter University, UK.
4.
Berry, R.S.Y. (1998b, September). Conducting a piece of educational research: Choice of topic, adoption of suitable research, methodology and narrowing down of investigative focus. Paper presented at the annual conference of the European Educational Research Association, Ljubljana, Slovenia. Retrieved December 1, 2003, from http://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/000000846.doc.
5.
Berry, R.S.Y. (1999, September). Collecting data by in-depth interviewing. Paper presented at the annual conference of the British Educational Research Association, Brighton, UK. Retrieved December 1, 2003, from http://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/000001172.htm.
6.
Berry, R. (2003, November). Learner autonomy: Developing an innovative ESL curriculum for the newly arrived students from the Mainland China (NAS) to Hong Kong SAR. Proceedings of the 8th International Conference “Globalization & Localization Enmeshed: Searching for Balance in Education” (pp. 336-343) Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.
7.
Burr, V. (1995). An introduction to social constructionism. London: Routledge.
8.
Cummins, J. (2001). Negotiating identities: Education for empowerment in a diverse society. Ontario: California Association for Bilingual Education.
9.
Ellis, R., & Rathbone, M. (1987). The acquisition of German in a classroom context. London: Ealing College of Higher Education.
10.
Evans, S. (1996). The context of English language education: The case of Hong Kong. Journal of Language Teaching and Research in Southeast Asia (RELC Journal), 27, 30-55.
11.
Fortman, J. (2003). Adolescent language and communication from an intergroup perspective. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 22, 104-111.
12.
Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. L. (1968). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. London, UK: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
13.
Hong Kong Education Department (1989). Report of the working group set up to review language improvement measures. Hong Kong: Author.
14.
Horwitz, E. K.,& Young, D. (1991). Language learning anxiety: From theory and research to classroom implications. Eaglewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
15.
Kozulin, A. (1998). Psychological tools: A sociocultural approach to education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
16.
Lai, C. (1994). Communication failure in the classroom: An exploration of cause. Journal of Language Teaching and Research in Southeast Asia (RELC Journal), 25, 99-129.
17.
Lantolf, J. P. (Ed.). (2000). Sociocultural theory and second language learning. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
18.
Lee, S. K. (2001). English language and the construction of the sociocultural identities of ESL speakers. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Houston, Texas.
19.
MacIntyre, P. D., & Gardner, R. (1991). Language anxiety: Its relationship to other anxieties and to processing in native and second languages. Language Learning, 41, 513-534.
20.
McKay, S. L., & Wong, S. L. (1996). Multiple discourses, multiple identities: Investment and agency in second-language learning among Chinese adolescent immigrant students. Harvard Educational Review, 66, 577-608.
21.
Nieto, S. (2002). Language, culture, and teaching: Critical perspectives for a new century. London: Lawrence Erlbaum.
22.
Norton, B. (1997). Language, identity, and the ownership of English. TESOL Quarterly, 31, 409-429.
23.
Norton, B. (2000). Identity and language learning: Gender, ethnicity and educational change. Essex, UK: Pearson Education.
24.
Peirce, B. N. (1995). Social identity, investment and language learning. TESOL Quarterly, 29, 9-31.
25.
Poplin, M., & Weeres, J. (1992). Voices from the inside: A report on schooling from inside the classroom. Claremont, CA: The Institute for Education in Transformation at the Claremont Graduate School.
26.
Schumann, F. M., & Schumann, J. H. (1977). Diary of a second language learner: An introspective study of second language learning. In H. D. Brown, C. A.Yorio, & R. H. Crymes (Eds.), Teaching and learning English as a second language: Trends in research and practice, on TESOL ‘77 (pp. 241-249). Washington, DC: TESOL.
27.
Strauss, A. L., & Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
28.
Sullivan, P. N. (2000). Playfulness as mediation in communicative language teaching in a Vietnamese classroom. In J. P. Lantolf (Ed.), Sociocultural theory and second language learning (pp. 115-132). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
29.
Swanes, B. (1988). Attitudes and ‘cultural distance’ in second language acquisition. Applied Linguistics, 9, 357-371.
30.
Taba, H. (1955). School culture. Washington DC: American Council on Education.
31.
Williams, M., & Burden, R. L. (1997). Psychology for language teachers: A social constructivist Approach. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
