3,498 research outputs found
Triggering the unlearning of null arguments in second language acquisition.
No full textby Yang Xiaolu.Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1994.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 134-140).Chapter 1. --- Introduction --- p.1Chapter 1.1 --- Parameter Model of Acquisition --- p.1Chapter 1.2 --- "Positive Evidence, Negative Evidence and the Catapult Hypothesis" --- p.5Chapter 1.3 --- The Focus of the Present Study --- p.7Chapter 1.4 --- The Organization of the Thesis --- p.9Chapter 2. --- Null Arguments: A Theory of Parameters and Language Acquisition --- p.10Chapter 2.1 --- A Theory of Parameters: the Null Argument Parameters --- p.10Chapter 2.2 --- Predicting and Explaining L1 Acquisition --- p.17Chapter 2.2.1 --- A Summary of Research Findings --- p.18Chapter 2.2.2 --- The Initial Setting --- p.21Chapter 2.2.3 --- Identification of Early Null Arguments --- p.22Chapter 2.2.4 --- Triggers in the L1 Acquisition of the Target Parameters --- p.25Chapter 2.3 --- A Review of L2 Acquisition Studies: Related Issues --- p.31Chapter 2.3.1 --- The Null Argument Phenomenon in L2 Acquisition --- p.31Chapter 2.3.2 --- The Initial Setting and the Role of L1 --- p.35Chapter 2.3.3 --- Identification of the Null Arguments in Interlanguages --- p.36Chapter 2.3.4 --- Parameter Resetting and Triggers --- p.37Chapter 3. --- The Formulation of The Present Study --- p.40Chapter 3.1 --- The Status of Null Arguments in Chinese --- p.40Chapter 3.2 --- The Null Argument Parameters in Chinese and English --- p.50Chapter 3.3 --- Resetting the Null Argument Parameters and Unlearning Null Arguments --- p.53Chapter 3.4 --- Suggesting Triggers in the L2 Acquisition of English --- p.54Chapter 3.5 --- "Predictions: Null Arguments, Triggers and ILs" --- p.57Chapter 4. --- The Present Study (I): The Experiment´ؤMethodology --- p.59Chapter 4.1 --- Subjects --- p.59Chapter 4.2 --- The Tasks --- p.61Chapter 4.3 --- Coding and Marking --- p.67Chapter 5. --- The Present Study (II): The Experiment´ؤResults --- p.70Chapter 5.1 --- An Overview of the Written Results --- p.70Chapter 5.1.1 --- Comparing Task Performance --- p.70Chapter 5.1.1.1 --- Comparing Task 1 and Task2 --- p.70Chapter 5.1.1.2 --- Comparing Task 2 and Task3 --- p.72Chapter 5.1.2 --- An Overall View of the Written Results --- p.73Chapter 5.2 --- Null Elements in the Interlanguages of Chinese Learners of English --- p.75Chapter 5.2.1 --- Null Subjects and Null Objects --- p.76Chapter 5.2.2 --- Null Expletives --- p.79Chapter 5.2.3 --- Null Subjects in Matrix Clauses and Tensed Embedded Clauses --- p.81Chapter 5.2.3.1 --- Null Thematic Subjects --- p.82Chapter 5.2.3.2 --- Null Expletive Subjects --- p.86Chapter 5.3 --- Infl and Null Thematic Subjects --- p.89Chapter 5.4 --- Expletives and Null Arguments --- p.92Chapter 5.5 --- Results: Oral Task --- p.94Chapter 6. --- Discussion --- p.97Chapter 6.1 --- The Expletives-as-triggers Hypothesis Reconsidered --- p.97Chapter 6.2 --- "There, Weather it and Raising it: Their Status as the Triggering Experience" --- p.101Chapter 6.3 --- Triggering the Unlearning of Null Arguments --- p.108Chapter 7. --- Conclusion --- p.112Appendix --- p.118References --- p.13
European sovereign debt crisis and linkage of long-term government bond yields
No full textBased on the robust cross-correlation function approach developed by Hong (2001),　this paper investigates the causality-in-mean and the causality-in-variance of long-term bond yields in seven countries including “PIIGS†(Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain), Germany, and France. A main contribution of the study is to assess the impacts of the recent European sovereign debt crisis on relationships of the bond yields. We find some evidence of the mean spillover effects, especially from Portugal and France before the crisis and from Portugal and Italy after the crisis. In contrast, the variance spillover effects from Germany interestingly strengthened through the debt crisis in particular despite the apparent lack of its mean transmission effects, whilst major sources of volatility spillover effects had been Portugal and France prior to the crisis.Volatility spillover, European sovereign debt crisis
Motivating students attending a teacher education programme in Hong Kong using quality learning teams
No full textPurpose. In 1995, the Government of Hong Kong amalgamated six independent, Government sponsored Colleges of Education, which offered Certificate in Education courses, into the Hong Kong Institute of Education. The remit of the newly-formed, autonomous Institute was to attain university status and to upgrade courses to degree and post-degree level. Many of the existing staff remained with the newly-formed institute while a recruitment drive resulted in an increase in international lecturing staff. This study results from action research, undertaken by the author, to develop pedagogy suitable for both the international lecturing staff and the Chinese student teachers. The research set out to take advantage of the diverse backgrounds of the lecturing staff. Of the various pedagogic strategies employed by lecturing staff, the Total Quality Management (TQM) approach emerged as the most effective, promoting as it does a way for the students to plumb co-operatively the often difficult depths of what they are studying, as well as motivating them in their chosen career. The stringent examination system in Hong Kong, the lack of university places and the economic situation all play their part in determining the student population in the Institute of Education where students whose first choice is to enter the teaching profession could well be outnumbered by those who consider themselves without more attractive alternatives. In addition, the lecturing staff from overseas became aware of the Chinese culture of 'Shame’ among their students - the students who had failed were castigated and further marginalized by their family and friends. It was hoped that the employment of a TQM approach through the use of Quality Learning Teams would help to combat this 'shame' and, hopefully, increase the self-confidence of these 'shamed' students. The project's aim was to introduce and role-model a different pedagogic practice and to utilise constructivist-based pedagogy so that two major outcomes could be measured: (1) that student teachers would become active and confident learners who would themselves challenge their own pupils and (2) that colleagues outside the project could observe the usefulness of this alternative pedagogy and make use of the innovation in their own lecture rooms. This involved investigation of diverse aspects of teaching and learning. Research on individual areas has been quite extensive, but little research has been done in this particular area with regard to student teachers in Hong Kong and it is, therefore, the purpose of this study to add to existing knowledge, with specific emphasis on Quality Learning Teams. The rationale for the study was, on the one hand, the Hong Kong Special Administration (HKSAR) Government Educational Reforms, but also - and more importantly for the lecturers concerned - the search for a means to inculcate a culture of co-operative learning within the student-teacher body, as well as a means for international lecturing staff to create an effective pedagogy, utilizing both mother tongue and English as languages of instruction. Major Findings. The findings of the study indicated that student learning was enhanced by using Quality Learning Teams. This was demonstrated by the overall module results which showed higher module grades for the groups who were subjected to the innovative pedagogy than for those groups who were subjected to the normal 'traditional' pedagogy. Student self-esteem, self-confidence, trust in peers, and a work ethos of self-sufficiency developed amongst the majority of student teachers. Language skills were enhanced and strategies for learning were improved. It is hoped that the results of this study will assist in the future planning of courses in the education of student-teachers and in creating a more 'risk-taking' culture within the lecturing staff at the Institute
Inflation-hedging Behavior of a Securitized Real Estate Market
No full textThis paper examines the inflation-hedging behavior of the Hong Kong securitized real estate market between April 1986 and April 2007. The monthly series of the Hang Seng Property Index (HSPI) is selected as the proxy of the Hong Kong securitized real estate market due to its comprehensive coverage and availability of rich data. We find that the vector autoregressive forecast error method, which is introduced by Den Haan (2000), outperforms the traditional linear vector autoregressive model and vector error correction model techniques in depicting the comovement between the HSPI and inflation rate. The comovement estimates show a positive correlation between the HSPI and inflation rate in the short-term and a negative correlation in the long term which indicates that the Hong Kong securitized real estate market can serve as an inflation hedge in the short term, but becomes a perverse inflation hedge in the long run. This inflation-hedging pattern differs from those of its neighboring major East Asian markets. This study demonstrates that the inflation-hedging capability of securitized real estate is not a static issue, but rather, depends on the length of the forecast horizon.Inflation hedge; Comovement; Vector autoregressive; Model forecast; Error-based model; Securitized real estate
Financial Security of Elders in China
No full textChina is one of the largest countries in the world in terms of both geography and population size, with lower economic levels compared to the developed countries, and great regional differences. This paper introduces the rapid demographic changes of the Chinese population and the current financial security of elders in China. The World Bank’s multi-pillar model is used to explain the financial security of elders in China, which includes the current pension and health care systems in urban and rural areas in China respectively. The important issues of financial security of elders which the Chinese government should address in the near future are also discussed. The paper concludes with a consideration of the results of social welfare system reforms by the Chinese government and future research interests from a geographer’s perspective.Financial security, elders, social welfare system, China
Long-term measurement of daytime atmospheric mixing layer height over Hong Kong
No full textLidar has unique advantages in temporal and spatial resolution to measure the atmospheric mixing layer height (MLH), which is important for analyzing atmospheric phenomena. However, long-term MLH information over several years, which has important significance in air quality and climate studies, is seldom obtained from lidar data due to the scarcity of long-running lidar observations. In this paper, we retrieve and analyze daytime MLH from a data set of a lidar that operated continuously over 6.5 years at Yuen Long, Hong Kong. A new algorithm has been developed for consistently retrieving MLH from this large data set, handling all possible weather conditions and aerosol layer structures. We analyze the diurnal, seasonal and inter-annual variation of MLH over Hong Kong and find a unique phenomenon that the afternoon MLH is higher in autumn than in summer, which is verified by radiosonde results and explained by thermal stability and humidity effect. Moreover, we find a slightly decreasing trend of the daily maximum of MLH, which implies a continually compressed air volume into which pollutants and their precursors are emitted, which is one of the possible factors leading to deteriorated air quality over Hong Kong region. Citation: Yang, D. W., C. Li, A. K.-H. Lau, and Y. Li (2013), Long-term measurement of daytime atmospheric mixing layer height over Hong Kong, J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 118, 2422-2433, doi: 10.1002/jgrd.50251.Meteorology & Atmospheric SciencesSCI(E)2ARTICLE52422-243311
Factors affecting motivation to learn English: the perspective of newly arrived Hong Kong students
No full textThe aim of the study is to examine and evaluate how socio-cultural factors and demographic characteristics of a group of newly arrived Hong Kong (NAHK) students affect their motivation to learn English in Hong Kong. This study is conceptualised based on Dornyei’s (1998) motivation framework and two additional components, parent and culture specific motivation components, are also added onto the framework in order to suit the purpose of this study. Data were collected from two complementary sources: questionnaire and interviews. Questionnaire items were constructed based on the modification of Dornyei's motivational framework and questionnaires were distributed to 109 NAHK students' to collect their views on learning English in Hong Kong. In- depth semi-structured interviews were also conducted with 10 students to further investigate their motivation to lean English. Statistical data found that teachers have the greatest impact on NAHK students’ motivation to learn English. This result poses important pedagogical implications and considerations to educators in Hong Kong when developing curriculum and choosing materials. Statistical results also revealed parents played the least significant role in motivating NAHK students to learn English. However, the semi-structured interviews revealed another side of the story although parents could not assist their children's English learning academically but they supported their children's English learning both spiritually and financially. Several demographic characteristics like gender, age and place of birth were found to be crucial in influencing NAHK students' English learning motivation. The study describes the NAHK students' motivation to learn English in the hope that lights can be shed on the current teaching and learning practices and suggest implications for practice so that learner diversity in Hong Kong English learning classrooms can be catered
HiQ: Robust and Fast Decoding of High-Capacity Color QR Codes
No full textYang, Zhibo.Thesis M.Phil. Chinese University of Hong Kong 2016.Includes bibliographical references (leaves ).Abstracts also in Chinese.Title from PDF title page (viewed on …)
Covariate-Adjusted Treatment Comparisons and Multiple Testing with Two Controls for Ordered Categorical Responses
No full textYang, Ping.Thesis Ph.D. Chinese University of Hong Kong 2016.Includes bibliographical references (leaves ).Abstracts also in Chinese.Title from PDF title page (viewed on …)
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