Volume 49 in the Second Language Acquisition series.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 166-176) and index.

About the Author: "Xuesong (Andy) Gao is an assistant professor at the Department of English, Hong Kong Institute of Education. His research interests include language learning strategy, learners' learning narratives and teacher development. He has published over twenty journal articles and book chapters in these areas." (Book Cover)

"This monograph reports on a longitudinal inquiry into mainland Chinese undergraduates’ language learning experiences in an English medium university in a multilingual setting with a focus on their strategic language learning efforts. This book examines the issue as to what extent language learners’ strategic learning efforts depend on their ‘choice’, if ‘the element of choice’ is the defining characteristic of language learners’ strategic learning behaviour. The inquiry, using a qualitative and ethnographic research approach, reveals dynamic interaction between learners’ agency and contextual conditions underlying the participants’ strategic learning process. Such understanding informs pedagogical efforts to foster individual learners’ capacity for strategic learning and their capacities in opening up and sustaining a social learning space for exercising their strategic learning capacity or utilizing their strategic learning knowledge.

In this engaging study combining both quantitative and qualitative approaches, Gao makes extensive use of a sociocultural research perspective to investigate second-language learner strategies. With theoretically-grounded rigor, he demonstrates how contextual realities (such as the threat of a given exam) mediate the language learning and use strategies of college students. A highlight of the study is his comparison of the same learners’ strategies and discourse about their experiences in studying in mainland China and then at an English-medium university in Hong Kong. What lends credibility to the study is that the author himself experienced challenges similar to those of his subjects, and that he was a participant observer by rooming for a year in a student dorm with one of his subjects.- Andrew Cohen, Second Language Studies, University of Minnesota, USA

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1. Introduction
Overview of the Inquiry
Methodological Approach
Enhancing Trustworthiness
Organization of the Book

2. Towards a Sociocultural Perspective on Strategic Learning
LLS Research: A Brief Review
The Shifting Language Learning Research Landscape
Sociocultural Perspectives and LLS Research
Sociocultural Perspectives in Language Learning Research
Sociocultural Perspectives and Empirical LLS Research
Criticisms of Sociocultural LLS Research
Structure and Agency in LLS Research
Conclusion

3. Mainland Chinese Students' Migration to Hong Kong Education on the Chinese Mainland
Learning of English on the Chinese Mainland
Mainland Chinese Students in Hong Kong
Conclusion

4. On the Chinese Mainland
Study in Phase 1 (August - September 2004)
Participants' Strategy Use on the Chinese Mainland
Discourses about Learning English
Mediating Agents
Cultural Artefacts (Examinations)
Agency in the Participants' Strategy Use
Mediation of Contextual Conditions
An Understanding of the Participants' Emerging Strategy Use
Conclusion

5. Learning English in Hong Kong
Hong Kong for Mainland Chinese Students
The Study (Phase 3, April - July 2006)
Participants' Strategy Use
Participants' Discourses of Learning English
Contextual Mediation on the Participants' Strategy Use
Overall Learning Progress
Enhanced Agency
Contextual Mediation
Conclusion

6. Four Case Studies
The Longitudinal Follow-Up Study (September 2004 to July 2006)
Liu
Zhixuan
Yu
Mengshi
Context and Agency in the Participants' Narratives
Conclusion

7. Agency and Context in Strategic Learning
Overall Findings
Agency, Context and Strategic Learning
Recommendations
Further Research
Conclusion

Appendix 1: Interview Guide for the Arriving Mainland Chinese Undergraduates

Appendix 2: The Exit Interview Guide for Mainland Chinese Undergraduates