Faculty Publications and Conference Presentations

<p>This paper reports an attempt to enhance the continuous professional development of English language teachers by setting up a computer network, TeleNex. The paper first proposes that the concept "teacher development" encompasses three important facets: the development of knowledge and skills, the development of a collaborative culture, and the development of the teacher as a person. It then discusses how the two components of the network, namely the database component and the communications component, enhance these facets of development. Briefly, the database component provides, through its grammar database and teaching ideas database, a body of subject matter knowledge and a bank of teaching resources to help teachers to develop their knowledge and skills. The communications component focuses on the other two facets of teacher growth. It provides a platform for teachers to initiate cross-school collaboration, build confidence in themselves as autonomous professionals, and share reflections on their classroom practices with others, thus enhancing their collaborative and personal development. Messages sent in by users show that participating teachers have been using the network to enrich their knowledge base and to share ideas and frustrations. These messages demonstrate that the network is providing valuable support to teachers in their development as autonomous professionals.</p>

Collins COBUILD English Language Dictionary is the third major English language learners' dictionary to appear on the market for learning or teaching English as a second/foreign language (the other two are the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary and the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English). With its many innovations, the COBUILD dictionary has aroused a great deal of controversy since its publication in 1987. In this discussion, I examine two distinctive areas of the COBUILD dictionary: definitions and examples.

<p>As questioning is an important method of teaching, it has received much research attention for many years. However, the studies that have been conducted have so far not exhausted this area of investigation. The present study aims to investigate the relationships among these four variables in the ESL classroom in Hong Kong: (1) question types, (2) questioning strategies, (3) student attitudes, and (4) patterns of interaction. The questions of four ESL teachers in Hong Kong were analyzed. The findings indicate that the overwhelming number of responses generated by these questions are restricted rather than elaborate, irrespective of the types of question that elicited them. In addition, referential and open questions are less effective than display and closed questions in eliciting responses from students. This study suggests that in Hong Kong, ESL students prefer to be modest rather than to show off by giving lengthy responses to teacher questions. In this situation, the use of appropriate questioning strategies, e.g. probing, deserves special attention if teachers want their students to produce longer and syntactically more complex answers.</p>