A study analyzed the discourse in a variety of Hong Kong newspapers to assess how an individual takes on the role of reader in relation to the rather complex public discourse of a daily newspaper, particularly in a multicultural, politically charged context. Four categories of newspaper (Hong Kong English, Hong Kong Chinese, non-Hong Kong Chinese,…

Two experiments were undertaken in Hong Kong to examine sociocultural factors in the speech acts of making apologies in Cantonese. The first experiment involved ten men who were given role cards describing various situations with minor to serious problems for which they must apologize. The influence of certain situational variables on the…

Discusses two surveys conducted at the University of Hong Kong that measured students' willingness to adopt active speech roles in second-language classrooms. Findings reveal that students expressed a liking for communicative work at school and a preference for classes permitting students to do most of the talking, but that they had a low…