Research and Professional Development Committee

In 2008-2009, the Centre conducted a wide range of projects, but a major focus has been on English in the disciplines:

The nature of academic and professional discourse:

• Authorship as understood by students: An exploratory study (Y. Loong)
• The construction of ESL-medium tertiary language policy in Hong Kong: Unpacking the educational discourse of government, university and legal education stakeholders (N. Bruce)
• Merging corpus linguistics with collaborative knowledge construction (L. Cheung)
• Genre acquisitions, identities and roles in placements‟ communities of practice (K. Lau)
• Interaction in problem-based learning (PBL) in Clinical Medicine: A discoursal inquiry into the development of professional participation (A. Storey)
• The development of an English for academic purposes course at the University of Hong Kong: From needs analysis to course evaluation (M. Legg)

English in the disciplines:

• Developing Pilot “English in the Major” courses for 3 major faculties – Arts, Engineering, & Social Sciences: a collaboration between the Centre for Applied English Studies and Faculty teachers (N. Bruce, T. Au (Psychology), C. Cheng (Psychology), S. Cole, W. Cristaudo (European Studies), P. Desloge, K. Lau, J. Lee, M. Legg, E. Martyn, S. Matthews (Linguistics), K. Shih (Civil Engineering) A. Storey, E. Tan, R. Vogt: Arts (European Studies), B. Wo, and L. Wong)
• Identifying the English language and communicative demands of bedside learning on students in the clinical years (L. K. Chan (Institute of Medical and Health Science Education), L. K. Tse and A. Storey)
• A pilot English in the Discipline (ED) project with the Faculty of Dentistry (L. Cheung, Y. Loong, L.K. Tse, and C. McGrath (Dentistry))
• A pilot English in the major project with the Faculty of Science (D. Gardner and D.L. Phillips (Chemistry))
• A pilot project for the development of a business communication assessment mechanism for the Faculty of Business and Economics (Y. Loong, P. Smyth, E. Christopher (Business and Economics), and A. Lau (Business and Economics))
• Piloting English in the discipline project and applying outcomes-based teaching and learning to a final year project course in the Faculty of Education (S. Chu (Information & Technology Studies, Education), N. Fong , D. Kennedy (Information & Technology Studies) and E. Martyn)

Language acquisition:

• The interaction of implicit and formulaic explicit feedback in the acquisition of English as a second language. (W. L. Tsang)
• An investigation of the learning of Chinese characters and its effects on learning other aspects of Chinese by non-native Chinese learners (C. Wong)
• The L3 acquisition of null arguments in Mandarin Chinese (I. Leung, Linguistics, HKU; W. L. Tsang and V. Yip, CUHK)
• The L3 acquisition of null arguments in Japanese (I. Leung, Linguistics, HKU; W. L. Tsang and V. Yip, CUHK)

Computers, self-access and language learning:

• Integration, implementation and preliminary evaluation of VELA (Virtual English Language Advisor) into HKU VEC (Virtual English Centre) (P. Voller)
• The integration of information and communication technology in Hong Kong primary English lessons (N. Fong)
• Web-based learning / Exit e-portfolio project (E. Martyn, W. Chow, L. Wong, P. Desloge, L. Cheung, N. Fong, J. Lee, C. Ngai, A. Storey, P. Smyth and C. Wong)
• Innovation and change: Information technology and in-service teacher professional development (L. Wong)

Literature in language learning:

• Contemporary Asian poetry in English: The development of poets and their voices (A. Lam)

Funding

Funding for the projects comes from various sources including the Research Grants Council, the Teaching Development Grant, the Committee on Research and Conference Grants, Seed Funding Programme for Basic Research, and the University Grants Committee.