Developing Four English-in-the-Discipline Courses for University Studies in Hong Kong

Abstract

This chapter discusses the development of English-in-the-Discipline (ED) courses offered to students of four disciplines: Education, Information Management, Speech and Hearing Sciences, and Applied Child Development at The University of Hong Kong. These courses aim to help students develop their critical reading, report writing, and oral presentation skills for disciplinary studies and academic purposes. Students conduct a small-scale research project on a self-identified topic in their discipline, interview information-rich professionals, and present their findings in the form of a research report and an academic oral presentation. As developers of these courses, we present the course design principles (e.g., genre and experiential learning approaches, and assessment for learning) and sample teaching materials. In light of student feedback, we reflect upon the strengths of the courses in developing students’ academic literacy for university studies and the challenges we experience in relation to (a) specificity in disciplinary communication, (b) collaboration with subject teachers, and (c) language teachers’ expertise in teaching ED courses.