Perspectives: Working Papers in English and Communication

Volume 17, Number 1                                                             Spring 2006

A corpus-based study of research grant proposal abstracts

Haiying Feng

Abstract: In response to the recent call for development of specialized and localized corpora (e.g., Flowerdew, 2004), a corpus of Hong Kong Competitive Earmarked Research Grant (CERG) proposals is now being compiled to better understand this occluded genre (Swales, 1996) in the Hong Kong context. The present study is based on some preliminary data of 37 Hong Kong CERG research grant proposal abstracts. The study aims to offer a generic description of this sub-genre of research grant proposal abstracts, which has so far received little attention. By using Wordsmith Tools (Scott, 1996), the study integrates lexical, pragmatic analysis with rhetorical move analysis. The method used provides an example, particularly for those genre analysts who have little computer background, of how to fully exploit computer software available to help with pragmatic and rhetorical analysis. The results of the study may also provide some useful insights for Hong Kong novice grant writers.

Effectiveness of using the process approach to teach writing in six Hong Kong primary classrooms

Belinda Ho

Abstract: The process approach to writing has been seen as an improvement over the traditional methods of writing instruction in recent years and has been widely implemented in Hong Kong primary schools. However, the effectiveness of using the process approach to teach writing is still inconclusive. This study investigates how effective process writing is in helping about 200 students at the upper primary school level and the lower primary school level improve their writing skills and their attitudes towards writing. Six primary school teachers, three in the lower primary school level and three in the upper primary school level, each implemented an innovative two-month process writing programme in their schools. The effectiveness of the programme was investigated through post-interviews and the comparison of a pre- and post-questionnaire, a pre-test and a post-test, and pre- and post- observations of the strategies used by the students in both their pre-tests and post-tests. It is found that the programme brought about positive results across all classes and in both the upper and lower levels, though the results in each classroom differed slightly. The process approach seems to be an effective approach even at as low a level as P.3 in the primary school. Process writing seems to be a feasible solution to heightening the writing abilities and confidence of students, especially those who have higher English proficiency and those at the upper primary level.

Framing AIDS: A Comparative Analysis of AIDS Coverage in U.S. and Chinese Newspaper, 2001-2004

Tong JingJing

Abstract: There is a growing acknowledgement that news plays an important role in the interpretation of epidemics and shaping public opinion. HIV/AIDS is a multifaceted phenomenon interwoven with biomedical, sociocultural, political, economic, religious, and ethical issues that raise myriad questions in the face of limited answers. This paper adopts a social constructionist approach to the analysis of HIV/AIDS coverage and examination of how the mainstream media in a given society frames AIDS in the 21st century. 523 articles in The New York Times and China Daily between 2001 and 2004 were analyzed for prominent frames, representations of world regions, and overall news volumes. The findings indicate a significant difference in news frames of HIV/AIDS coverage between the two papers. Human disaster themes and medical-scientific issues gained ground in The New York Times while a public health frame was dominant in China Daily. Both papers, which serve as the respective national elite press, focus on the world regions that the country belongs to by emphasizing local AIDS events. Different trends in AIDS news volume in recent years is also observed, where we can find a significant volume increase in the Chinese newspaper but a decline in the U.S. one. By comparing news coverage, this study attempts to unpack the underlying dominant ideologies and embedded meanings of the HIV/AIDS narratives in two newspapers in the respective countries. The implications of these news frames in shaping public opinion and influencing policy making are discussed.

Distance from Power and Media Slanting in China: A Bargaining Approach

Yang Yinjuan & Chin-Chuan Lee

Abstract: This paper applies a bargaining approach to examine the relationship between distance from power and slanting in Chinese media. One major feature of Chinese media is that they have to satisfy the contending needs of the state and the market. The bargaining metaphor is utilized to describe how media utility decreases and how state utility increases simultaneously when slanting moves from 0 to 1. A model is then proposed to show how the power distance and physical distance between the media and government determines media slanting. Two cases confirm the proposition generated by the model. Luoxi Bridge Event shows that when the distance between the media and government concerned is positive, the degree of slanting decreases, whereas when the power distance is zero or negative, the degree of slanting increases. The Niuniu Event indicates that when the physical distance between the media and government concerned is positive, the degree of slanting is reduced, whereas when the physical distance is zero, the degree of slanting is increased.

Previous Issues

Volume 16, Number 2                                                             Fall 2004

AN INVESTIGATION INTO AN ALGORITHMIC APPROACH TO ERROR CORRECTION

Alice Y. W. Chan

Abstract: This paper reports on the results of a research study which investigated the effectiveness of using an algorithmic approach to error correction to help Hong Kong ESL learners overcome persistent, common lexico-grammatical problems. The approach is characterized by four main features: pedagogically sound input requiring minimal cognitive effort, proceduralized steps with instructive examples, explicit rules helping learners conceptualize the correction procedure, and reinforcement exercises. Experiments were carried out on a total of ten error types, such as the resumptive pronoun problem, the erroneous there has structure, and the pseudo-tough movement problem. One set of remedial instructional materials, including both teacher notes and student handouts, was designed for each error type. The materials were implemented by the author, her research collaborators, and six participating teachers with more than 450 students at both secondary and tertiary levels. Pre-tests, post-tests, and delayed post-tests were administered to test the effectiveness of the approach, and a plenary review meeting with the participating teachers was organized to gather feedback on the materials. Both the quantitative and qualitative results showed that the algorithmic approach adopted in the materials was versatile and effective, and that the students showed significant improvements for the items taught. It is argued that explicit error correction in the form of focused instruction is effective in enhancing learners’ language accuracy in their L2 output.

A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF PRINCIPLES OF ETHICAL CONDUCT: A REVISIT OF LEWIS'S STUDY

Bertha Du-Babcock

Abstract: Using Lewis’s (1989) 14 principles of ethical conduct as a framework, this study examines further the impacts of culture and work experience on individuals’ attitudes towards ethical decision-making. The current study investigates the inter-relationships of culture and work experience on the level of ethical conduct between business professionals and business students across two nations. Three research questions addressing issues of culture, work experience, and their interactive effects were put forward to examine whether there were differences in individual attitudes towards Lewis’s previously established 14 principles of ethical conduct. In total, 1,588 questionnaires were collected from business professionals and business students from the U.S., Hong Kong and China. The findings of the current study not only confirm the majority of the principles of Lewis’s (1989) study, but also expand it by accounting for elements of cultural influence and the interactive effects between culture and work experience.

MOVING WITH IT, MOVED BY IT: GENDER AND CANTOPOP

John Nguyet Erni

Abstract: In this paper, gender negotiations found in the production, musical forms, and consumption of Cantopop are taken as an exemplar for the social and political imagination of ambivalence that seems to be shaping popular life in Hong Kong. It has three focal points – musical forms and expressions of Cantopop (style, lyrics, iconography, affect), gender politics, and “everyday-ness”- which together reveal a notable cultural logic performing an enlarging sense of ambivalence about a city that has seen a shift from high moments of economic prosperity to the current postcolonial blues. Cantopop signals a shift in our sensibilities, our redrawing of the affective map of everyday life after an important historical and politico-administrative shift. In a sense then, this paper explores Hong Kong’s changing identity within the sight and sound of popular culture, by specifically tracing some of the ways in which gender politics are inscribed, coded, negotiated, performed, or simply flirtingly posed on the surface of popular culture.

RESEARCH GRANT PROPOSALS IN CHINA: A CONTRASTIVE GENRE-BASED STUDY

Haiying Feng

Abstract: Despite an increasing interest in the study and analysis of research grant proposals (e.g., Connor, 2000; Connor and Mauranen, 1999; Connor and Upton, 2004; Feng and Shi, 2004; Myers, 1990), the glocalization of the genre in China has so far not been addressed. This paper presents results of a genre analysis of nine Chinese research grant proposals written by nine Chinese scholars that have successfully obtained funding granted by the National Planning Office of Philosophy and Social Sciences (NPOPSS) of China. Proposals were analyzed in terms of the rhetorical moves and strategies, referential behavior, and hedges and boosters. Interviews with the grant writers were also conducted. The study reveals some distinctive features of Chinese grant proposal writing that are attributable to various local contextualities, such as “face” and “networking” concerns, research and literacy traditions, socio-political structure and economic conditions. It calls for further research on other academic genres in Chinese to look for Chinese writing patterns and investigate the underlying rationale on the one hand, and diachronic studies on the other to see how grant proposal writing in China may experience changes in this rapidly changing society.

Volume 16, Number 1                                                             Spring 2004

THE CONCEPTION OF CHINESE JOURNALISTS: IDEOLOGICAL CONVERGENCE AND CONTESTATION

Chin-Chuan Lee

Abstract: The chief function of the modern Chinese press has been enlightenment and propaganda, not provision of information. This paper traces and compares the three prevailing models of Chinese journalism--Confucianism, Maoism, and Communist capitalism—with reference to press role, conception of journalists and audience, as well as source of media legitimacy. The Maoist model shares the Confucian emphases of elite (cadre) responsibility while fighting against elitism in the name of the “masses.” The post-Mao media in what Deng Xiaoping called “socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics” are, in effect, the media in “Communist (and post-Communist) state capitalism with authoritarian characteristics.” Despite their seemingly irreconcilable differences, all three models conceive of the press as an instrument of China’s century-old quest for national wealth and strength. They see the press as a means, not as an end. Their implications (barriers) to Chinese democracy are discussed.

Using error codes to help error correction

Belinda Ho

Abstract: This study investigates how error codes helped 43 second year Computer Studies students correct their errors. Sources of data included a revised proposal assignment, a questionnaire and interviews. Results showed that the coding of errors was useful for error correction. The types of codes which led to more successful error correction than others, the strategies used most often by the students to determine how to correct the coded errors and the reasons for the students’ choices of strategies are reported. Pedagogical implications of these findings are also discussed.

Redefining Local Interests: News Media in Hong Kong After 1997

Francis L. F. Lee, Joseph M. Chan, & Clement Y. K. So

Abstract: Between Hong Kong and Mainland China, political re-integration in 1997 has been followed by heightened economic and social integration in the past few years. The relationship between the local and the national has been undergoing constant redefinition and negotiation. Premised upon the argument that the news media play an important role in this process of identity and interest negotiation, this article examines how journalists and news organizations in Hong Kong have responded to the changing social and political conditions. Historical developments in the China-Hong Kong relationship are reviewed. Representative surveys on professional journalists are analyzed to illustrate how journalists have changed their understandings of the relationship between the interests of Hong Kong and China after the transfer  of sovereignty. The case of the July 1 demonstration in 2003 is then examined to demonstrate how news organizations dealt with a seeming conflict between the concern of national integrity and that of local civil liberties. The implications for the continual development of Hong Kong as a city of China are discussed.

Code-mixing, ‘race’ and ‘whiteness’: A triangulated analysis of the Neutrogena advertisement

Solomon Leong

Abstract: This article is a critical analysis of a locally produced television advertisement for Neutrogena Eye Radiance. It concerns the representation of a female Chinese character who mixes her Chinese speech with English words. Analyzing from a triangulated approach, this article critically interrogates the notions of ‘whiteness’, ‘race’, ‘self’ and ‘other’ and their relationships with the discursive formation of the character in the advertisement from three different perspectives. They are the analyst’s perspective, a Hong Kong focus group audience’s perspective and a UK focus group audience’s perspective. Through triangulating between these three perspectives, the complex and intertwined relationships between ideological presumptions of ‘race’, class and linguistic practices are explored.

Interdisciplinary Variation in Academic Discourse: Generic Moves of Cases in Accounting and Economics

Jane Lung

Abstract: The dynamic complexity of present-day workplace practices has led to a growing number of universities changing the nature of their academic programs, to make them increasingly interdisciplinary (Bhatia, 1999:129). Thus, one of the major issues in the teaching of Business English in the academy is to examine the complex nature and range of discursive demands placed on Business students within this increasingly interdisciplinary curriculum. Many traditional English courses appear to be insufficient to help students cope with the complexity of the communication demands required. Therefore, there is a need to rethink, revise and redesign pedagogical procedures to make them more effective. In view of these facts, this paper examines the ways in which Accounting cases differ from Economic cases, and highlights some potential disciplinary tensions by discussing textual evidence from cases associated with these two academic and professional contexts. This study shows that although cases have traditionally been associated with both these disciplines, giving the impression that they may be similar, actually they are different in a number of ways. As a result, this study also suggests some discipline-specific pedagogical issues relevant to the planning, design and teaching of Business English and reveals some cross-generic and cross-disciplinary issues that may create conflicts in the teaching and learning of English for Business Studies (whether English for Academic Purposes, or English for Specific Purposes).

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