Reflective Playwork

A collection of personal and reflective essays that mark the first English translation of author ...

Books about cities can open pathways to discover new places, and familiar places anew. Hong Kong is a much visited place. Over 50 million people stream through its hotels, restaurants and shopping malls each year. That is a lot of first impressions! This book, written by fourteen reflective scholars about living and learning from Hong Kong, builds on the growing interest of using “place” as text while providing a model of deepening cross-cultural encounters. Each chapter is written in a personal and experiential style, exploring Hong Kong through the lenses of a range of disciplines that shaped individual author's perceptions and encounters. The city is like a text one reads and deciphers, linking one’s sense of other cities with one’s present experiences of this city in this moment of time. In reading the city, readers discover not only what is “out there” in the ever moving surround of Hong Kong’s urban life, but also what is inside oneself as newcomer and as from another city and

This authoritative collection contains writings by some thirty of the most significant Chinese writers of the period between 1919 and 1949. The three decades from which these pieces are drawn encompass most of the Republican period, a tumultuous era in Chinese history in which modernization and republicanism coexisted with classical culture. Thematically, these xiaopin wen, or modern Chinese essays, differ significantly from the more social and political fiction of the May Fourth movement. Their scope varies, from ruminations on broader existential issues to more personal contemplations on everyday life, often delving into issues of morality and interpersonal relations. Although described as "essays," they are not restrained by the formal, expository connotations of this English term; rather, their tone is more intimate, reflective, and at times witty or tinged with melancholy.

ESL/EFL Cases: Contexts for Teacher Professional Discussions is designed to provoke conversations on language teaching from multiple perspectives. The format of the presentation of cases allows the reader to gain insights on teaching from the vantage point of the students’ proficiency, the teacher’s perspective, the writers’ questions and suggested answers and finally the critical commentary. Readers are treated as thinking professionals who are capable of analysing the acts of language teaching through the teaching excerpts and the dynamic lesson transcriptions. The questions and critical commentary encourage deeper and more critical processing rather than a superficial interpretation of the teaching act. The cases, derived from authentic teaching contexts, encourage readers to appreciate the rich tapestry of teaching with all its complexities. Designed to promote professional discussions and deeper reflective and more effective practice, this book is a must for the teacher education