in the Teaching of Linguistics
Asian Journal of English Language Teaching. 2008, 18(1): 17-40.
This article highlights the benefits of multimedia and other activities through the examination of their effects in the on-going development of a first-year, teamtaught module entitled “Introduction to Linguistics and Language Awareness” (ILLA) offered on an initial teacher education programme at the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd). After briefly introducing the educational and cultural context, the limited impact of government reforms on pedagogical practices in the upper secondary school is illustrated through a small-scale survey comparing the previous learning experiences and preferences of the HKIEd firstyear students to data from Littlewood and Liu's 1996 study. The strategically located ILLA module, its purposes and range of pedagogically “innovative” activities are then described and student responses gauged through a review of Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) data (2002-2006). A further survey, which allowed students to rate the module activities in terms of liking and relevance, together with interview data concerning personal learning and future pedagogical practice, are next presented. The findings confirm the beneficial effects of the module activities on both students' own learning and their professional perspectives, suggesting the application of similar approaches in other countries where the “culture of learning” (Cortazzi & Jin, 1996) is largely traditional.
