epartment of English Language Education 英語教育學系 D Public Lecture Series lmost everyone remembers studying English in school. For the most part in Hong Kong, that memory is of learning grammar, vocabulary, and how to read and write. Although you may have some pleasant memories of learning English in school, it was probably mostly hard work. Yet, after all that studying, you may still be somewhat dissatisfied with your ability to speak and understand English. This is partly because learning a foreign language is a lifelong endeavour. However, your dissatisfaction may also be because there was something missing in your education. Because language is composed of so many components and nuances, it is impossible to teach everything in school. Thus, the present lecture series provides participants with a taste for some of the other aspects of language learning that are seldom taught in school. Although it is impossible to fill in all those gaps in your learning on a few Saturday mornings, we hope to provide you with some insights into English and language learning in general. Date Topic Speaker 1/3/2014 English Spelling Really Does Make Cents Sense Dr. Paul Stapleton 8/3/2014 Accents in English Dr. John Trent 15/3/2014 Is English Pronunciation Really so Difficult? Ms. Jennie Wong and Dr. Rebecca Chen 22/3/2014 What's in a Word? History and Culture as Reflected in English Vocabulary Dr. Timothy Taylor 29/3/2014 Exploring Sex and Sexuality in Literature Dr. Bidisha Banerjee 12/4/2014 Language Learning and Technology Dr. Wang Lixun Department & Centre Highlights 8 Message from the Head The past year has been an exciting time for the Department of English Language Education (ELE), with initiatives from past years continuing, plans for new developments hatching. Our Saturday Seminar Series in the fall of 2013 in which teachers from primary and secondary schools attended sessions on language learning and teaching strategies, including EMI instruction, was held over six weeks with 300 participants. In the spring of 2014, we brought back our Public Lecture Series, "The English You Didn't Learn in School II" with five all-new topics. Last year, this series attracted 800 participants to the six lectures and this year's attracted about 700. Presently, ELE is exploring the possibility of offering two new scholarships. One is for fully paid tuition fees in the MATESOL for one student. The other scholarship will send students to an elite school in Australia during the summer as a mentoring attachment. ELE has also spearheaded a pilot Field Experience (FE) Semester for BEd (English Language) students to begin in the fall of 2014. If successful, this new form of FE may become standard practice in the years ahead. These are just a few of the developments ELE has contributed to during 2014. We look forward to continuing these ventures and expanding upon them in the future. Dr. Paul Stapleton Head, Department of English Language Education A
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