Author Description

This dissertation, "From the Chinese Mainland to Hong Kong: Understanding Shifts in Mainland Chinese Students' English Learning Strategy Use" by Xuesong, Gao,, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: ABSTRACT This thesis reports on a longitudinal ethnographic inquiry into mainland Chinese undergraduates' shifting strategic engagement in acquiring English competence on the Chinese mainland and in Hong Kong. Taking a sociocultural perspective, the inquiry had three research stages and adopted largely ethnographic data collection methods in research. In the first stage, twenty two mainland Chinese students were interviewed about their language learning experiences on the Chinese mainland, immediately after their arrival in Hong Kong. In the second stage, the study used a variety of means, including regular conversations, strategy checklist, observation, field notes, and email correspondence, to follow six case study students' language learning experiences in Hong Kong, of which four cases are presented in this thesis. In the third stage, fifteen out of the twenty two participants who were interviewed two years ago were interviewed for the second time about their language learning experiences in Hong Kong. This multi-method approach allowed the study to project a holistic picture of dynamic changes in the participants' strategy use in response to the shifting learning contexts. The inquiry identified that the participants' strategy use in both contexts was closely related to the mediation of various social agents, including family members, teachers, and peers, who attempted to transmit dominant societ