Dr Julia CHEN, Department of English and Communication

Collaboration with discipline teachers, education technologists and students: Win-win partnerships. English Medium Instruction (EMI) Symposium 2023: Fostering Collaboration. University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 6 December 2023.

Abstract
An interdisciplinary approach to learning and teaching has become increasingly championed in higher education. Such an approach can create a beneficial symbiosis between departments, and involve teachers and students from different disciplines to explore perspectives from multiple angles for the advancement of student learning. English Across the Curriculum (EAC), based largely on the North America’s Writing Across the Curriculum model, actively promotes interdisciplinary collaboration via emphasising the importance of communication in the discipline in EMI institutions, i.e. in courses other than those taught by the English Language Centres. This talk will present how EAC has reached teachers from 30+ departments and 60+ courses to devise strategies for enhancing students’ English communication skills in discipline courses, including the revision of assessment rubrics and descriptors; and ways the inter-institutional award-winning EAC team has partnered with students in the process of gauging student needs and producing relevant learning materials. This talk will also touch on two other funded projects that leverage technology for students’ self-learning of English oral and writing skills, as well as the facilitation of an institution-level Community of Practice on the theme of enhancing staff’s English for professional needs. Together these initiatives demonstrate the building of win-win partnerships between English teachers and discipline teachers, education technologists and students.