A 'Teach-as-you-go' Approach as an Alternative to Developing an Academic English Course for Senior University Students

Abstract

‘Dissertation writing for social sciences’ is a course firstly launched in 2014 for senior undergraduate students of the University of Hong Kong who intend to write a dissertation in their final year. The aim of the course is to enhance students’ advanced academic literacy through engaging them in an authentic research journey. It incorporates an exploratory approach that simulates the research process, featuring the identification of research topics, transformation from topics to researchable questions or hypotheses, data analysis and the final write-up of research findings. One major challenge faced by course developers who are also teachers of the course is students’ reservations about the relevance of teaching materials to their disciplinary writing needs. In response to this concern, the present study illustrates how we identify the specific problems of students at the initial stage of writing, and tailor learning materials according to their needs throughout the course. Findings of this study will also focus on students’ perceptions of the relevance and usefulness of the course to their disciplinary writing requirements. How students have tackled their writing problems according to teachers’ input will also be examined through a myriad of sources including analysis of their writing drafts and final written outcomes, post-course questionnaires, and focus group interviews. We hope the study will shed light on the possibility of introducing a flexible approach to teaching senior students who have already acquired a high degree of competence in academic writing.