Abstract: In the digital age, all the K-12 teachers will confront with the challenge of how to integrate technology into teaching all over the world, of course including the Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) teachers. To explore the knowledge structure which K-12 teachers should acquire in the digital age, this study constructs four dimensions as follows: clarity, compatibility, direct guide to practice, and student-orientation. Aligning with the content analysis method, authors evaluated and analysed nine typical technology integration models and frameworks, such as TPACK, RAT, SAMR, etc. The findings indicated that different models and frameworks are: (1) partly the same and different in afore-mentioned four dimensions; (2) having inner relationship such as staying on different development stages and having different focal points. And we found that the knowledge type involved in technology integration with instruction of K-12 teachers is constantly changing and there are obvious phase characteristics. Future research and practice of technology integration of CFL teachers should combine different models and frameworks from a holistic perspective, grasping rules of different stages to encounter the challenge of technology integration and teacher professional development in the digital age.

Keywords: K-12 teachers, technology integration, knowledge, models, frameworks

Abstract: This paper attempts to investigate the clustering effect of the emerging intensifiers "chāo (超)", "jù (巨)", "kuáng (狂)", "bào (暴)", "bào (爆)", "qí (奇)" and "zhēnxīn (真心)" through hierarchical cluster analysis. The findings are presented in dendrogram. It is found that these seven intensifiers can be divided into two major categories according to their similarity: "qí" forms its own category, while the other six form a separate one, which can be divided into two subcategories: "chāo" and "zhēnxīn" as one, while "bào (暴)", "bào (爆)", "jù", and "kuáng" as the other. The latter subcategory can be further divided into two groups, "bào (暴)" and "bào (爆)" into one, while "jù" and "kuáng" into the other. It can be seen from the serpentine curve that the disyllabic modified components behind "chāo" and "zhēnxīn" are more likely used to express positive semantic prosody, while "jù" and "kuáng" are more likely to express negative and neutral semantic prosody. The modified components behind "bào (暴)" and "bào (爆)" are more monosyllabic and mostly static. In addition, compared with other adjectives, the adjectives "měng (猛)", "dà (大)", "kuài (快)", "hǎo (好)", "cháng (长)" , "qiáng (强)" , and "duō (多)" have stronger co-occurrence with emerging intensifiers.

Keywords: Intensifiers, hierarchical cluster analysis, semantic prosody, dendrogram, serpentine curve

Abstract: The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) has recently implemented a series of curriculum changes in its Diploma Program (IBDP). Among these, teachers are concerned with the requirements of concept-driven curriculum. For second language courses, the concepts, including "audience, context and purpose", are important ideas in language acquisition theories. This paper provides the relevant theories, and presents feasible teaching steps for curriculum design that were elicited from the experiences of a few Hong Kong international schools. From teachers' and students' reflection and observation, we have found that concept-driven curriculum can effectively help students organise discrete knowledge, improve students' thinking skills, and allow the transfer and application of knowledge to new situations.

Keywords: Concepts, concept-driven curriculum, International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IBDP), curriculum design

Abstract: Since the outbreak of COVID-19, schools in Hong Kong have for several times suspended in-person classes. Consequently, local pupils experienced fewer than 100 days of in-person teaching and learning in the 2020/21 school year. In response to the gradual easing of the pandemic restrictions, the Hong Kong Education Bureau has announced that schools should resume half-day face-to-face classes for the first semester of the 2021/22 academic year. To meet students' educational needs during the pandemic, schools followed the "suspending classes without suspending learning" guideline and adopted diverse teaching methods to offer online learning opportunities to students studying at home. However, as online learning in the school setting is relatively new, educators have raised concerns about its effectiveness. This paper employs primarily a qualitative approach to examine the effectiveness of Chinese learning for Non-Chinese Speaking (NCS) junior primary students in Hong Kong during the pandemic, by analysing the summative assessments of NCS children from two primary schools that used a hybrid teaching method to combine face-to-face classes and online learning. This research has found that the NCS students' inability to read Chinese characters or to understand Chinese vocabulary is the major hindrance for these students to develop a good grasp of the language. It further reveals that, as e-learning resources for Hong Kong primary school students are still relatively scarce, the effectiveness of online Chinese learning for NCS children has been adversely affected during the pandemic, with the learning of Chinese characters impacted most negatively.

Keywords: COVID-19, Hong Kong, mix of face-to-face and online learning, non-Chinese speaking students, Chinese reading and writing