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Chinese Numeral Classifiers (NCs), which are obligatory in the quantification of nouns, have been observed to pose serious challenges to learners of Chinese as a second language. Learners typically have difficulties generalizing the use of classifiers to new nouns and produce collocation errors due to: (1) the inherent complexity and inconsistencies of the Chinese NC system and (2) insufficient exposure to input containing classifier-noun collocations. The current study adopted a pre-testpost-test randomized group design to investigate whether implicit instruction using the stimulus equivalence (SE) paradigm (Sidman, 1971) would have a positive impact on the learning of Chinese NCs and whether the variability in classifier category membership (determined via typicality ratings of native Chinese speakers) would influence the learning process. Eighty-Seven native-English speakers, assigned to one of two learning conditions (an implicit learning [i.e., SE] group or an explicit learning group), were systematically exposed to four Chinese NCs. Only the group that learnt Chinese NCs using the SE paradigm showed a significant improvement in overall classifier retention one week after training. More fine-grained analyses revealed that the implicit-learning (SE) group was significantly more accurate in generalizing the use of the classifiers to new objects than the explicitlearning group when matching classifier-object pairs with lower typicality ratings. In the case of classifier-object pairings with high prototypicality ratings, the overall effectiveness of implicit learning of Chinese NCs (based on the SE paradigm) was comparable to the explicit instruction condition. The results highlight the SE paradigm’s success vis-à-vis explicit instruction in facilitating the inferential learning of fuzzy rules based on less prototypical classifier-object pairings. The findings of the study contribute to our understanding of the Chinese NC system as well as semantic categorization from a cognitive linguistic perspective and have significant implications for the development of effective instructional methods to optimize language learning.

Background: The focus of this study lay with whether the checklist peerevaluation method can enhance students' self-regulated performance and interest in self-evaluation of writing and thus whether the method is suitable for application in junior secondary in Hong Kong. Aims: This study investigated the effects of the checklist peer-evaluation method of evaluating Chinese composition on S1 students' self-regulated performance in terms of writing quality and their attitudes towards self-evaluation. Method & Sample: A sample total of 37 students from one S1 class of an aided secondary school in Hong Kong was used. Results: The results indicated that both the teachers and students agreed that significant improvement was made in three aspects: "content", "handwriting/ wrong words/ punctuation", and "total score". According to the student interviews, the students showed a favorable attitude towards this method and perceived it was beneficial to their writing quality. Conclusion: Providing the opportunities of self-evaluating Chinese composition to students would be helpful to develop their self-regulated disposition and ability and promote their learning motivation and confidence [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past few decades, an abundance of research effort was drawn to investigate the role of external change agents bringing about positive changes to school in the context of university-school partnership. No matter what titles given to external change agents, their roles have been widely recognized as "experts" and "partners," with the former mainly as figures of authority and the latter as working affiliates with shared goals and accountability. School teachers' expectation and perception of these roles are also found to be influenced by various factors, and would evolve along the course of collaboration. This article examines the process of role negotiation of school development officers in collaborating with schools under the Quality School Improvement Project (QSIP), a large-scale university-school partnership project for school improvement in Hong Kong. In the form of narrative inquiry, the article attempts to provide a contextualized basis in Chinese setting for further discussion of the roles of "expert" and "partner," which is of crucial importance both to the enrichment of recent literature, and the success of any university-school partnership project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the summer and autumn of 1650, Chen Hongshou (1599-1652) made over forty paintings for Zhou Lianggong (1612-1672), a former exemplary Ming official who turned to serve the Manchu regime. Only two paintings have survived: Scenes from the Life of Tao Yuanming in the Honolulu Academy of Arts and To Serve or to Withdraw in a private collection. During the last twelve years of his life, Chen painted quite a few Tao Yuanming (365-427) portraits for Zhou, often juxtaposing Tao with Zhuge Liang (181-234). Apparently he recognized a spiritual bond between Zhuge Liang, Tao (zi Yuanliang), and Zhou (zi Yuanliang) that transcended time and space. Tao’s motivation of serving and withdrawing and his inclination toward Confucianism and Daoism have always been controversial among scholars. Since Huang Tingjian (1045-1105) pointed out that Tao adopted Yuanliang for his style-name out of a sense of affinity with Zhuge Liang, this view, persistently upheld through the Qing dynasty, has lent strong support to the perception of Tao as a recluse deeply concerned with the state and the common people. Based on the two Chen Hongshou paintings mentioned above, this article explores the nature of the bond between the three Liangs from the perspective of the political theory of people-oriented governance (minben sixiang) that throve in the late Ming period. During the harrowing dynastic change, Zhou Lianggong risked harsh historical judgment to serve the conquerors for the sake of the people. His priority echoes those of the politically engaged Zhuge Liang and the ostensibly detached Tao Yuanming. Here lies the bond between the three men. The article draws primarily on Li Zhi’s (1527-1602) historical philosophy in interpreting Chen’s paintings and Zhou’s action because Chen advocated Li Zhi’s idea in his poems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a Professional Development Progress Map (hereafter as Progress Map) and the rationale of "assessment for learning" which underpins its use in field experience assessment. It reports a qualitative study in which interviews were conducted to understand its trial use by 16 teaching supervisors and 21 teacher participants of in-service teacher education programs. Through understanding the initial experience of using the Progress Map, we gain insights on the following issues: (1) the design of and resource allocation in the field experience assessment scheme; (2) the change in assessment culture; and (3) the relationship between the Progress Map, "assessment for learning," and summative assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teaching practicum is an integral component of teacher education. This article presents a qualitative case study that explored the professional learning journey of six pre-service primary student teachers in Hong Kong. Student teachers' professional learning was examined from the perspective of the construction of the teaching self. It was found that the construction of the teaching self is closely related to (1) the challenges and support offered by the action context, the socio-professional context, and the supervisory context, (2) their interpretation of teaching and professional role; (3) their construction of knowledge. This study provides a deeper understanding of student teachers' professional learning and generates insights for the development of quality teaching practicum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I address Leung Ping-kwan’s oft-cited question “Why is the story of Hong Kong so difficult to tell?” from the angle of language. Owing to its cultural plurality and changing historical circumstances, Hong Kong is constantly searching for words to express its identities. This is encapsulated in “untranslatability”, the idea that new meanings are generated in the interminable exchanges between propositions, which is exemplified in Wong Bik-wan 黃碧雲’s “Nausea [au2 tou3] 嘔吐)” (1994). An homage to Jean-Paul Sartre’s La Nausée (1938), this short story demonstrates Hong Kong’s multilingualism, as it features characters from diverse ethnic, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds. Interweaving the foreign and local, “Nausea” foregrounds the conflicts between these characters, which are mediated through linguistic and cultural translations. Moreover, through the interpersonal translation of “vomiting”, dialogic sympathy across differences becomes possible. Lastly, set in 1984, the year when the Sino-British Joint Declaration was signed, “Nausea” portrays Hong Kong in a state of political precarity and translates its citizens’ profound identity confusion into an existential crisis. As such, “Nausea” re-interprets Sartre’s existentialist literature through a (post)colonial, gendered perspective, and compels its readers to reflect on Hong Kong’s identity after British colonialism. Ultimately, (un)translation not only animates the ever-evolving meanings in a literary text, but also has ramifications on the city’s present and future: it shows that “Hong Kong” is still formulating a language for its self-expression in an ongoing process of storytelling.

This study aims to provide a method of historical periodization based on digital humanities that could better combine qualitative and quantitative analysis than previous ones. This study singled out 3,203 news reports in the People's Daily, 1946 to 2016, whose headlines contained ＂Shenzhen＂ and respectively applied 1) artificial periodization, 2) peak number periodization, and 3) keyword cluster periodization to these Shenzhen-related news reports. The results show that three methods of periodization respectively have their limitations on objectivity. This paper thus suggests an automatic periodization based on quantitative datasets and this data-driven method could provide a novel perspective for the long-term historical analysis in the future.