Bulletin Number One 1986

In addition to these duties, the professional staff of the Unit serves on the boards and committees of the Hong Kong Examinations Authority, the official government body responsible for all the public examinations in Hong Kong. Members of the Unit also help students prepare for job interviews which are generally conducted in English by firms in Hong Kong requiring bilingual graduates. The staff of the Unit also advises on letters of application and assists students who are planning to attend graduate school overseas where English is the language of instruction. Research Responsibility Although the staff of the Unit is busy with service and teaching commitments, academic research in the area of education and applied linguistics is definitely encouraged. The Unit is in an enviable position as it can do applied linguistic and educational research in an authentic pedagogical environment. Members of the Unit see themselves as both practitioners and researchers, a blend which makes for more realistic judgements about their own research theories and findings as well as those of other scholars. Many of the research projects undertaken by the staff have involved other disciplines because of the interdisciplinary nature of language research. Funding for these projects has come from the Institute of Social Studies, the Office of Instructional Development, and from the various funds administered by the three constituent Colleges of the University. A partial but representative list of the research projects recently completed or in progress follows: 1. A search for explanation in the written errors of Chinese learners 2. A preliminary survey on the reading level of first-year students at CUHK 3. Survey on remedial English language teacher training in Hong Kong junior secondary schools 4. Phonetic problems of Cantonese-speaking learners of English: pedagogical implications 5. An analysis of the Placement Test for Arts, Social Science, and Business Administration students 6. Evaluation and standardization of language tests for first-year Science students at CUHK 7. Towards a model of linguistic description in spoken discourse 8. Encouraging oral activities for Chinese students at the tertiary level 9. The personal computer as an invaluable tool for the writing teacher 10. A study of success in foreign language learning 11. Management of the ELT classroom: a training programme 12. Self-access materials dealing with linguistic accuracy Facilities For its teaching endeavours the Unit has access to three well-equipped language laboratories for its students to use. Although much of the unwarranted enthusiasm for language laboratories that the profession felt twenty years ago has worn off, the Unit still makes creative use of the laboratories to teach both correct pronunciation and listening comprehension. Members of the Unit can make their own professional language laboratory software in these facilities. In addition to tape recorders, members of the Unit are using the University's video facilities to enhance language learning. The Unit is also making use of the microcomputer to teach writing and speed reading. At present the Unit has its own small microcomputer laboratory equipped with six personal computers which are for the exclusive use of students enrolled in writing and reading courses offered by the Unit. The decision to integrate the computer into language learning has come from research which indicates that the computer in fact does motivate students to spend more time on their prose and does stimulate their interest in reading. The result is that they understand more about the writing process, produce better prose, and are able to read faster. A staff member and four senior students from the Department of Computer Science are cooperating with members of the Unit to produce an integrated word-processing programme customized for Chinese learners of English as well as some CAI (computer- assisted instruction) language simulation exercises. The Unit is an institutional member of CALLNET, the computer-assisted language learning network in China, and is now cooperating with colleagues in various institutions within China. Professor Huang Jun, the Vice-Secretary of CALLNET and the Guangdong Foreign Language Society, will spend three months in the Unit as an adviser and colleague during the spring of 1986 as part of the United College Resident Fellow Scheme. In connection with the computer in education, Professor Cynthia Selfe ， Chairman of the Computer Interest Group of the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) conducted a forty-hour workshop on computers and composition in December 1985 for the Unit. This was done under the auspices of the academic specialist programme run by the State Department of the U.S. Government. This workshop enabled participants with little or no knowledge of the computer to see the great potential there is in RECENT DEVELOPMENTS 17