The advent of the concept of communicative competence in English Language Teaching (ELT) over thirty years ago signalled a shift from grammar‐based pedagogy to Communicative Language Teaching. It was generally accepted that, in addition to grammar rules, language teaching needed to take account of social context and social rules of use. The concept of communicative competence, initially developed for ethnographic research, appeared to offer an intellectual basis for pedagogic broadening. The transfer of this concept from research to language teaching has, however, produced abstracted contexts and idealized social rules of use based on (English language) native‐speakerness. Drawing on recent work in the fields of World Englishes, English as a lingua franca and Second Language Acquisition, this article argues that it is imperative for ELT to take notice of real‐world social, cultural and language developments in contemporary conditions and to re‐engage with a set of reformulated ethnographic sensitivities and sensibilities.

TESOL practice in the schooling sector in England has implicitly assumed that ESL students are linguistic and social outsiders and that there is a neat one‐to‐one correspondence between ethnicity and language. This perspective has tended to conceptualise L2 learners as a linguistically diverse group (from non‐English‐speaking backgrounds) but with similar language learning needs. However, demographic and social changes in the past 30 years have rendered such assumptions inadequate and misleading, particularly in multiethnic urban areas. In this article we seek to (a) offer an alternative account of the classroom realities in contemporary multilingual schools where the linguistic profiles and language learning needs of ESL students are not easily understood in terms of fixed concepts of ethnicity and language; (b) draw on recent developments in cultural theory to clarify the shifting and changing relationship among ethnicity, social identity, and language use in the context of postcolonial diaspora; and (c) question the pedagogical relevance of the notion of native speaker and propose that instead TESOL professionals should be concerned with questions about language expertise, language inheritance, and language affiliation.

Teacher-based assessment (TBA) is increasingly being promoted in educational policies internationally, with English language teachers being called on to plan and/or implement appropriate assessment procedures to monitor and evaluate student progress in their own classrooms. However, there has been a lack of theorization of TBA in the English language teaching fi eld, with researchers pointing to much variability, a lack of systematic principles and procedures, and a reliance on traditional, but now outdated, psychometric assumptions. This article provides an overview of some of the current issues in TBA, including its defi nition and key characteristics, and the complex but signifi cant questions which its implementation pose for our understandings of language, learning, and assessment.

Compared with steroid injection, open carpal tunnel release resulted in better symptomatic and neurophysiologic outcome but not grip strength in patients with idiopathic carpal tunnel syndrome over a 20-week period.

There is a strong association of the occurrence of HO with subsequent loss of movement of the implanted cervical artificial disc. We have found that sex and age are two possible risk factors in the development of HO after cervical disc replacement.

This article investigates Hong Kong employers’ views on graduate competencies that facilitate new graduates’ success in the workplace. The methodology involves the use of a questionnaire to elicit responses from business employers on the importance of specific competencies contributing to the success of fresh graduates at work. The findings indicate that all of the competencies examined are important to a degree. ‘Ability and willingness to learn’, ‘teamwork and cooperation’, ‘hardworking and willingness to take on extra work’, ‘self-control’ and ‘analytical thinking’ are the five highest-ranking competencies measured, although all are clearly necessary for success. Hard and soft skills are rated equally important by employers overall. Recommendations for developing competencies among university students prior to their entry to the workforce are discussed. As the competencies are of a practical nature, it is suggested that universities work together with industry to develop workplace-oriented programmes. This is the first research, to the authors’ knowledge, that approaches desirable graduate competencies from the perspective of the skills gap in the context of Hong Kong.

Sox9, an SRY-related HMG box transcription factor, is a progenitor/precursor cell marker of the liver expressed during embryogenesis and following liver injury. In this study, we investigated the role of Sox9 and its molecular mechanism with reference to stemness properties in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Here, we observed upregulation of Sox9 in human HCC tissues compared with the non-tumorous liver counterparts (p < 0.001). Upregulation of Sox9 transcript level was associated with poorer tumor cell differentiation (p = 0.003), venous invasion (p = 0.026), advanced tumor stage (p = 0.044) and shorter overall survival (p = 0.042). Transcript levels of Sox9 and CD24 were positively correlated. Silencing of Sox9 in HCC cells inhibited in vitro cell proliferation and tumorsphere formation, sensitized HCC cells to chemotherapeutic agents, and suppressed in vivo tumorigenicity. In addition, knockdown of Sox9 suppressed HCC cell migration, invasion, and in vivo lung metastasis. Further studies showed that Sox9 endowed stemness features through activation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling, which was confirmed by the partial rescue effect on tumorigenicity and self-renewal upon transfection of active β-catenin in Sox9 knockdown cells. By ChIP and luciferase promoter assays, Frizzled-7 was identified to be the direct transcriptional target of Sox9. In conclusion, Sox9 confers stemness properties of HCC through Frizzled-7 mediated Wnt/β-catenin pathway.

There is a strong association of the occurrence of HO with subsequent loss of movement of the implanted cervical artificial disc. We have found that sex and age are two possible risk factors in the development of HO after cervical disc replacement.