Research shows that young children's understanding of death varies considerably by culture. The purpose of this study was to examine the concepts of death held by Chinese kindergarten children in Hong Kong. Eighty-three 4- to 5-year-olds were interviewed about their understanding of six death sub-concepts: inevitability, universality,…

This study aims to bridge the research gap in the humour comprehension problems of individuals with dyslexia in Chinese culture. We conducted a nonexperimental study to examine the differences between Chinese adolescents with and without dyslexia in visual humour comprehension as well as the group differences in the correlation of visual humour…

The relation to operands (RO) principles describe the relation between operands and answers in arithmetic problems (e.g., the sum is always larger than its positive addends). Despite being a fundamental property of arithmetic, its empirical relation with arithmetic/algebraic problem solving has seldom been investigated. The current longitudinal…

Children could internalise blame for a death, suffer as much grief as adults, and express as much emotion as adults. Research on young children's perceptions of death has been conducted primarily in Western cultures. This paper is an exploration of Chinese 5-year-olds' understanding of death. Data analyses are mainly based on children's drawings…

To successfully pull a practical joke on someone, children need to understand that their victims do not know what they themselves know, be able to intentionally manipulate others' beliefs, and maintain a straight face to safeguard the integrity of the joke. This study examined the relationship between children's developing theory of mind (ToM),…

This study investigated the effects of captioned videos on ESL primary school students' comprehension of video content. A total of 182 primary school students watched two short English story videos in one of three conditions: fully captioned videos (N = 62), keyword captioned videos (N = 63), and uncaptioned videos (N = 57). Each group included…

The flipped classroom approach is widely regarded to be able to enhance teaching and learning. Despite its many advantages, it is still in the early stage of implementing in Hong Kong. This may be due to the potential challenges such as learners' limited participation and adaptation problems. The purpose of this article is to discuss the…

This study tested relationships between foreign language (FL) reading and listening anxiety and learner variables in English as a foreign language (EFL). It tested links between foreign language anxiety (FLA) and its cognitive, affective and behavioral correlates in English (i.e. language learning strategies, learning motivation, and performance).…

Background: A teaching method to improve students' ability to communicate ideas in genetics across the macro-micro levels of organisation was investigated in this study. Purpose: It is designed to help students deconstruct the level of organisation of each tier of a genetic diagram, as the symbols used in such diagrams (i.e. lines and letters) can…

This study examined the interrelationships among second-order belief, interpretive theory of mind, inhibitory control, and the understanding of strategic versus white lies in 54 children approximately 5 years 7 months old. Results showed that second-order belief was associated with strategic-lie understanding, whereas interpretive theory of mind…

This study investigated the mental representations of metallic bonding and the malleability of metals held by three male students aged 14-15 (Year 10) who were attending a Hong Kong school. One student was selected by their chemistry teacher as representing each of the highest, the medium, and the lowest level of attainment in chemistry in a…

English-speaking children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are less capable of using prosodic cues such as intonation for irony comprehension. Prosodic cues, in particular intonation, in Cantonese are relatively restricted while sentence-final particles (SFPs) may be used for this pragmatic function. This study investigated the use of prosodic…

In different countries, the use of pictorial information symbols to convey warnings and instructions is becoming more common. An important reason for this is that people from a variety of cultures can understand graphical symbols. However, symbols developed in one culture may not have the same meaning for people from other cultures. This study…

There has been an increasing interest in and hence a growing number of research studies on content and language integrated learning (CLIL) over the past two decades. One of the on-going debates in CLIL is on bilingualism versus monolingualism, or the role of the first language (L1) in subject teaching. So far, very few research projects have been…

The present study adapted the "Blueprint of the Reader" in comprehending language by Perfetti [2000, C. M. Brown & P. Hagoort. (Eds.), "The neurocognition of language" (pp. 167-208). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press] as a framework for understanding Chinese language and reading comprehension in a group of 361 secondary…