scholarly journals EXPLORING THE RELATION OF STUDENTS’ LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY, ONLINE INSTRUCTOR GUIDANCE, AND ONLINE COLLABORATION WITH THEIR LEARNING IN HONG KONG BILINGUAL CYBER EDUCATION

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-132
Author(s):  
Simon Wong
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Online Collaboration ◽  
Cyber Education ◽  
Online Instructor

Language and Interpersonal Resource Predictors of Psychological and Sociocultural Adaptation: International Students in Hong Kong

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 572-588 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baohua Yu ◽  
Peter Bodycott ◽  
Anita S. Mak
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
International Students ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Cultural Adaptation ◽  
Stress And Coping ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Sociocultural Adaptation ◽  
Cross Cultural Adaptation ◽  
And Coping

Hong Kong, along with other Asian societies with universities with top world rankings, has in recent years attracted an increasing number of international students, mainly from Asia. Previous research in English-speaking Western countries has indicated the importance of resources, including language proficiency, positive intergroup relations, and social support, in understanding international students’ stress and coping in cross-cultural adaptation. Guided by a similar acculturative stress and coping framework, we investigated predictors of psychological and sociocultural adaptation in a survey sample of 726 international students (62% female and 73% Asian-born) from Hong Kong public universities. We found that English language proficiency, social support, and a low level of perceived discrimination fostered both types of cross-cultural adaptation, while contact with local students and proficiency in the local dialect further enhanced sociocultural adaptation. Implications for future acculturation research and higher education internationalization policies and practices are discussed.

scholarly journals English-Medium Instruction in Self-Financing Tertiary Institutions in Hong Kong – Views and Practices from the Students

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 28
Author(s):  
Marine Yeung ◽  
Vic Lu
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
English Language ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Medium Of Instruction ◽  
Tertiary Institutions ◽  
British Colony ◽  
English Medium Instruction ◽  
Group Interviews ◽  
University Lecturers

The medium of instruction (MOI) has been a bone of contention in Hong Kong, a former British colony, since its colonial days. Despite the Hong Kong government’s effort to promote the “biliterate and trilingual” language policy, advocating Cantonese, English and Putonghua as the three official spoken languages and emphasizing the importance of literacy in both written Chinese and English, most tertiary institutions today still adopt English as the medium of instruction (EMI). However, with the expansion of tertiary education in the early 1990s and the decline in the general English language proficiency of university students, some university lecturers have found it difficult to teach in English as required. This raises the issue of the practicality of the indiscriminate adoption of the EMI policy at tertiary level, particularly at the self-financing tertiary institutions where students are generally known to have under-performed in the English subject. In order to understand whether or how the EMI policy is upheld in these institutions, focus group interviews were conducted with students from various programmes of five self-financing tertiary institutions in Hong Kong. The findings indicate these students’ strong preference for English-medium instruction with the belief that it can improve their English proficiency, though their actual approaches to coping with the demand on their limited English and how they view and use the three languages in class deserve policy makers’ serious consideration.

Much Ado About Nothing? Do Foreign Domestic Workers in Hong Kong Benefit From Capital Accumulation?

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (6) ◽  
pp. 823-840
Author(s):  
Yuying Tong ◽  
Niantao Jiang
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Human Capital ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Domestic Workers ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Rights Protection ◽  
Foreign Domestic Workers

The accumulation of human and social capital plays a significant role in influencing migrants’ earnings and economic integration in the host society. Although the effects of foreign domestic workers’ bargaining power on their labor market outcome is constrained due to their unique migrant status, domestic workers may still strive to make use of various resources to secure “ideal” jobs as much as possible. Using a randomly selected unique data set collected in Hong Kong in 2017, this study examines whether foreign domestic workers’ human and social capitals are associated with their salary scale, working conditions, and work rights protection. We use education, previously held jobs, migration duration, and language proficiency to measure human capital, and friendship networks and church attendance to indicate social capital. We found that previously having middle-level job experience can reduce the likelihood of experiencing underpay and increase the likelihood of having overpay, taking the legal minimum salary as a reference. English language proficiency could also give them some leverage to access a better pay scale. Previous human capital accumulation is associated with having a private room in the employer’s home. It is also associated with better protection of work rights such as being less likely to experience a “no pay” month. For social capital, frequent participation in Sunday gathering with friends is mainly associated with rights protection. These findings indicate that although foreign domestic workers may be constrained in using their capital accumulation to improve their market value substantially, the capital accumulation can still give some leverage for them to bargain for a slightly improved salary, better working conditions, and protection of their rights.

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