A comparison of lexical richness in samples of written and spoken English from a group of secondary six students in Hong Kong

1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary James Harfitt
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Spoken English ◽  
Lexical Richness

Hong Kong Tertiary Students' Attitudes and Proficiency in Spoken English

RELC Journal ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Littlewood ◽  
Ngar-Fun Liu ◽  
Christine Yu
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Spoken English ◽  
Students Attitudes

scholarly journals Thai hotel undergraduate interns’ awareness and attitudes towards English as a lingua franca

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 704-716
Author(s):  
Waraporn Suebwongsuawan ◽  
Singhanat Nomnian
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Positive Attitude ◽  
Job Training ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
English Teachers ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Spoken English ◽  
English Classes ◽  
Positive Attitudes

The study examines twenty-eight Thai undergraduate hotel interns’ attitudes towards the use of English as a lingua franca (ELF) in terms of its varieties of spoken English. Drawing upon the questionnaire, semi-structured interview, and verbal-guise test based on the eleven recorded voices whose accents obtained were from native and non-native speakers, the findings reveal that the students reflected the most positive attitudes towards American and Hong Kong accents while the Korean one was rated rather negatively. However, the students were well aware of the lingua franca status of their spoken English; and thus, the non-native accents were tentatively accepted. This study suggests that Thai leaners’ awareness and positive attitude towards varieties of English must be promoted in both English classes and on-the-job training. English teachers and trainers of hotel staff should also be aware of the significance of exposure to accents and introduce undergraduate interns to varieties of English in order to enhance mutual intelligibility for effective ELF communication at work.

//CAN i help you //

2005 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Winnie Cheng ◽  
Martin Warren
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Spoken English ◽  
Discourse Type ◽  
And Control

This paper examines the use of two tones by speakers across a variety of discourse types in the Hong Kong Corpus of Spoken English (HKCSE). Specifically, it focuses on the use of the rise and rise-fall tones by speakers to assert dominance and control in different discourse types. Brazil (1997) argues that the use of the rise and the rise-fall tones is a means of exerting dominance and control at certain points in the discourse and that while conversational participants have the option to freely exchange this role throughout the discourse, in other kinds of discourse such behaviour would be seen to be usurping the role of the designated dominant speaker. The findings suggest that the choice of certain tones is determined by both the discourse type and the designated roles of the speakers, but is not confined to the native speakers or determined by gender.

Checking Understandings: Comparing Textbooks and a Corpus of Spoken English in Hong Kong

2007 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 190-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Winnie Cheng ◽  
Martin Warren
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Spoken English

scholarly journals Lexical richness of Chinese candidates in the graded oral English examinations

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 511-533
Author(s):  
Jian Zhang ◽  
Michael Daller
Keyword(s):  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Elementary Level ◽  
Unique Contribution ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Spoken English ◽  
Proficiency Level ◽  
Lexical Richness ◽  
Grade 5 ◽  
Quantitative Results ◽  
Admissions Process

AbstractThe main purpose of this study is to explore the lexical richness of Chinese candidates of different proficiency levels in a graded examination in spoken English (GESE), which is an exam developed by Trinity College, London and administered in Beijing, China by trained local examiners. We compared 5 lexical indices and the mean length of utterances (MLU) of the GEGE candidates of three proficiency levels. The quantitative results first indicate that lexical richness plays an important role in these oral interviews and there are significant correlations between the lexical indices, the MLU and the proficiency level of the candidates. Furthermore, candidates who pass the oral exams have significantly higher scores for lexical richness. There are significant differences between the lexical richness scores at the Initial level (GESE Grade 2) and at the Elementary level (Grade 5). But only some measures show significant differences between the Elementary level (Grade 5) and the Intermediate level (Grade 7), which casts some doubt on the validity of the classification system. One reason for this result might be the fact that a Grade 7 certificate leads to higher chances in the admissions process for prestigious secondary schools and there is a strong interest by candidates and by private preparatory schools to get a certificate at this level. Some candidates might have enrolled on this level without meeting the criteria fully. Overall, our results show that measures of lexical richness and MLU are good predictors for success in oral interviews, but that factors other than proficiency play a role when it comes to the placement of students in Grade 7. The unique contribution of the present study resides in the fact that we use a large sample drawn randomly from a huge corpus of oral interviews. On this basis, we can gain further insights in the role that vocabulary knowledge plays in oral interviews.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document