An Investigation of how lecturers' teaching strategies promote productive classroom interaction

Both the Mainland and Hong Kong have witnessed the trend of educational internationalisation since the handover. The recruitment of non-local students is regarded as an important strategy to internalise universities in Hong Kong. Within Hong Kong's western-style educational setting, an increasing number of Mainland students attracted by the English-medium education and widely adopted western-oriented pedagogy have become the majority non-local students. Studies explored the adjustment experiences of Mainland students to study in Hong Kong and found evidence that the adjustment of the host group was as difficult as the sojourning group did in classroom interaction. Nevertheless, limited research examines the role of teachers in promoting interaction between diverse learners from pedagogical perspective. Effective teaching strategies can enhance positive classroom interaction. There is substantial literature within disciplines, such as healthcare, economics, and teacher education, but there is little investigation of effective strategies in English that studies as a discipline, particularly, in the new context of the HKSAR (Hong Kong Special Administrative Region), PRC (People's Republic of China). This paper attempted to investigate how lecturers' teaching strategies promoted productive interaction through surveys in the discipline of English. The results should have implications for other worldwide institutions other than Hong Kong involved in enhancing quality teaching and learning in higher education.