Case Study of Good T&L Practices > Cases > English Across the Curriculum (EAC) Team
English Across the Curriculum (EAC) Team
Awardee of 2022
(Category: Collaborative Team)
Team Leader
Dr Julia CHEN
Director of Educational Development
Associate Professor (courtesy), Department of English and Communication
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Dr. Julia Chen, PFHEA, is the Director of the Educational Development Centre at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and courtesy Associate Professor at the Department of English and Communication. Her research interests include leveraging technology for advancing learning, English Across the Curriculum, and using learning analytics for quality assurance and enhancement. Julia has won numerous awards, including her university’s President’s Award for Excellent Performance twice, First Prize of the Best Paper award in Learning Analytics, the UGC Teaching Award 2022 in the Collaborative Teams category (team leader), and the QS Reimagine Education Awards Silver Prize in the category of Breakthrough Technology Innovation in Education.
Team Members
Dr Grace LIM
English Language Centre
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Grace Lim is a Teaching Fellow at the English Language Centre of Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Her professional interests include writing and speaking across the curriculum, discipline-specific English, and English for professional development in higher education. Grace has been the Project Leader of several institutional grants on English for higher education and the Co-Leader of English across the curriculum in her university. She is currently working on multimodal literacies and an AI interview platform for undergraduates.
Ms Christy CHAN
Senior Tutor
Chan Feng Men-ling Chan Shuk-lin Language Centre
City University of Hong Kong
Christy Chan has over 20 years of ELT experience in Australia and Hong Kong. Her professional interests include English across the curriculum, dissertation writing, and entrepreneurship education. She was the Project Leader of two institutional grants on entrepreneurship education (2015-2018) and Co-Leader of two UGC grants on English across the curriculum. She also established a professional development hub for Hong Kong university English teachers (2017-2021). Her recent research projects cover undergraduates’ multimodal literacies and hybrid intelligence in rubric-driven teaching and learning enhancement.
Ms MAN Ching Han, Vicky
Senior Lecturer
Language Centre
Hong Kong Baptist University
Dr Elza TSANG
Senior Lecturer
Centre for Language Education
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Our team consists of an educational developer, curriculum providers, and English language teachers from four UGC-funded institutions in Hong Kong. We have extensive experience in inter-disciplinary and inter-institutional collaborations for improving students’ English language and communication abilities. We work with teachers across a wide range of disciplines (hereafter discipline teachers) to implement English Across the Curriculum (EAC), which is an effective approach to increasing students’ exposure to timely English resources without imposing on valuable curriculum space. EAC is embedded in discipline and content courses, and it offers targeted, discipline-related, and timely English learning resources to students, particularly in semesters that do not include English language courses or when a high level of English is required (e.g., in the final year).
Our observations and concerns
Our Passion
We care about student learning. We view English language acquisition as important for developing students’ thinking skills, improving their academic performance, and enhancing their communication abilities, which can benefit them during their academic studies and prepare them for the future. Effective communication is an essential skill in the ‘post-COVID-19 world of work’ (Forbes, 2020) and in the digital domain (Niesner, 2020).
We resolve to create affordances that offer timely solutions to support student learning. When faced with the fact that increasing the number of standalone English language courses in the curriculum was not possible, we were not willing to give up and say ‘Okay, let it be. We are busy enough already.’ We saw that many students had difficulty completing their disciplinary course assessments in English, and we resolved to find interstitial space to do what we could to offer them timely discipline- or course-related English support.
We are determined to try our best for our students despite the previous difficulties in developing WAC in Hong Kong. Unfortunately, the additional English writing support outside of the formal curriculum that was offered for several years in two universities in Hong Kong in the late 2000s and early 2010s was not sustained. Although we appreciate that this initiative was difficult to implement, we saw how some institutions in North America and Europe managed to apply Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) and Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), and we were thus determined to lead the effort ourselves, learn from others’ past experiences, and make it work. We decided to call our approach English Across the Curriculum (EAC) rather than WAC, as we aim to help students in other areas in addition to writing skills.
Our joint vision for education
We have a common teaching philosophy concerning language skills. We share a deep conviction that language is best learnt when students see its practical relevance, as this increases their instrumental motivation. We believe that ‘writing instruction should happen across the academic community and throughout a student’s undergraduate education’ (Purdue University, 1995-2018), and thus it is not the sole responsibility of English language teachers and their courses to improve students’ academic literacy. English teachers and discipline teachers should instead collaborate to create language training opportunities that result in a win-win solution for both students and teachers.
We believe in meeting students where they are via a proactive exploration of creative approaches. We actively search for opportunities to (i) increase student exposure to the target language skills they need (e.g., capstone project writing and presentation skills) and (ii) reach students via multiple learning channels and increase their instrumental motivation via English learning and usage connections.
We believe in sharing our vision and passion with other language teachers and discipline teachers via continuous professional development (CPD). We engage in CPD ourselves and create CPD opportunities for others via training workshops and sharing sessions. We collaborate with language and discipline teachers to implement EAC and co-participate in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL).
Our coming together as a team
Initial independent efforts
The universities represented by the Team first independently addressed the above needs and gaps in modest ways. PolyU first implemented EAP with a CoP seed fund and involved various departments. CityU and BU supported dissertations in Applied Physics and video-resume script-writing for students in Physical Education and Recreation Management. HKUST decided the time was right to explore flexible approaches when providing high-level academic and discipline-related English support to students.
Coming together for the first time
Four universities (PolyU, CityU, HKUST, and CUHK) jointly received HK$1M from the first Teaching and Learning Related Proposals Scheme (UGC-TLRP) to co-develop EAC in specific disciplines (e.g., computer science and engineering). The support within the Team enabled the co-planning, development, review, and sharing of EAC resources for students and academic teachers, and the Team co-organized the first International Conference on English Across the Curriculum in 2015.
Coming together for the second time
Feedback from discipline teachers indicated that many students required language support mainly in their capstone/final year projects, which is the longest assessment in their undergraduate studies. Mobile apps were also becoming popular and attractive to students at the time. The Team, which BU had by then joined, applied for a second UGC-TLRP to develop a mobile app to support students’ language needs for capstone projects, and it received HK$7.7M in 2017. The second and third International Conferences on English Across the Curriculum were held in 2018 and 2022, respectively.
Now and the future
The Team has had an impact on supplementary English learning beyond the institutions originally involved, and it is actively planning other methods of developing EAC to offer timely language support to students.
Realising our joint vision and beliefs through the EAC model
Our English Across the Curriculum (EAC) approach broadly follows the Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) initiative implemented in North America, with the aim of increasing students’ exposure to timely English learning resources without adding significantly to the curriculum (Chen & Morrison, 2021). Our EAC model is aimed at involving discipline teachers who can then help to enhance students’ writing and speaking skills, as required in the various disciplinary contexts.
Our EAC model
Implementation strategies in our EAC model
1 Building a like-minded community of English and discipline teachers through personal outreach, professional development workshops, and vision-sharing sessions.
2 Understanding student requirements via needs analyses through three approaches:
- Teaming with discipline teachers to conduct situational needs analyses by exploring the requirements of their assessment tasks (e.g., case studies) and their perceptions of students’ challenges when fulfilling the tasks (differentiating fact from opinion).
- Conducting textual analyses of previous assessment performance (e.g., term papers and lab reports) to collect objective evidence on areas of weakness (e.g., structure, flow of ideas, language use in each section of a long report, etc.).
- Conducting student surveys to collect baseline data.
3 Developing multi-modal EAC resources (e.g. video, text materials, quizzes, games, checklists) with discipline teachers by emphasising (i) students’ disciplinary literacy needs (e.g., lab reports) that are not covered in standalone generic English courses and (ii) the challenges of disciplinary course assessments that require considerable literacy skills (e.g., capstone reports).
4 Discussing with discipline teachers how they can disseminate and apply EAC resources.
5 Offering briefings to students about how the EAC resources are relevant to their course assessments and how best to use them.
EAC mobile app: Capstone Ninja
For the second UGC-TLRP funded project, between 2017 and 2021, the Team produced Capstone Ninja, a mobile app to help students acquire the specific English skills they need for their capstone/final year projects.
The app was timely in view of COVID-19, as it became more difficult for students to obtain face-to-face English tutoring/support on campus.
Ours was the first app in UGC-funded universities to use the HK Access Federation’s single sign-on system. This allows us to push relevant EAC resources to students; for example, engineering students can learn how to describe hardware and software and how to use the IEEE referencing format, and social science students can view learning modules on how to report qualitative research methods and findings. The mobile app therefore offers engaging and relevant resources for ubiquitous, student-centered learning.
Our app offers a one-stop shop for both students and supervisors through its three main features:
- A set of learning modules
- A learning scheduler
- A chat function that does not require the disclosure of private phone numbers.
Our evaluation methods for the evidence-based enhancement of EAC
We applied empirical evidence throughout the process. Using triangulation methods, we collected both objective data(e.g., through textual analysis to establish the strengths and weaknesses in students’ English use) and subjective data(e.g., user feedback) to inform the further development of EAC resources.
Our findings indicate that the Team’s work has benefited both students and teachers. Students’ English performance in assessments improved, and discipline teachers commented that (i) they found it easier to grade these assessments after students’ involvement in EAC and that (ii) they observed sustained improvement in students’ communication abilities.
Our achievements and leadership
Our vision and accomplishments have propelled us to become leaders in the field of EAC for non-native learners of English. This is exemplified through (i) our achievements and scholarship and (ii) our impact on our teacher collaborators.
(a) Our achievements and scholarship
We are established EAC leaders in Hong Kong and Asia and our international profile has been recognised through the three international conferences we organised in 2015, 2018, and 2021. The edited volume entitled ‘English Across the Curriculum: Voices from around the World,’ published by the WAC Clearinghouse/University Press of Colorado in 2021, and seven other publications (with more upcoming) by team members also illustrate our achievements. The third EAC Conference attracted over 1,000 registrants from 48 countries on 6 continents.
(b) Our impact on our teacher collaborators
We have successfully encouraged 37 English teachers and 117 discipline teachers from 32 departments to collaborate in dynamic EAC teams that support students’ acquisition of disciplinary English. The attitudes of discipline teachers toward language support has been transformed, and our approach has led to more opportunities for English and discipline teachers to collaborate and improve students’ disciplinary literacy of. Teachers of disciplines such as business and engineering have led at least five funded projects focused on expanding EAC in their courses (indicated in green in the table below), and at least five EAC-related publications have been authored by or with discipline teachers.
Our Capstone Ninja app is currently used in eight local post-secondary institutions and in one university in South Korea, one in Japan, and two in mainland China, thus extending the impact of our work.
Two teachers from two UGC-funded universities focused on EAC in their doctoral theses after working on EAC projects.
The EAC Team firmly believes in the importance of evidence-informed teaching and learning practices, and it constantly strives to improve the synergy of research, teaching, and learning, through keeping abreast of the latest pedagogical advances in English language teaching, actively engaging in action research, and proactively creating professional development opportunities for fellow academics.
Engagement and Commitment in Continuous Professional Development (CPD)
The EAC team has undertaken various self-directed, structured, and reflective CPD activities to broaden our knowledge and develop our roles as scholar-practitioners in EAC and language education.
Self-Directed CPD Activities
- An ongoing review of the literature on WAC in North America and CLIL in Europe, which informs refinements to our EAC model and its implementation in Hong Kong’s tertiary sector.
- Continued awareness of EAC best practices through (i) close communication with leading WAC and CLIL scholars, such as Terry Zawacki and Martha Townsend, and (ii) inviting these scholars to lead workshops in our institutions and at our international conferences, as in 2015, 2018, and 2021.
- Active engagement in formal and informal exchanges with team members, discipline teachers, and student collaborators through needs analysis and focus group meetings to obtain an understanding of students’ language difficulties and requirements.
Structured and Reflective CPD Activities
- Proactively undertaking self-initiated and collaborative EAC research projects with discipline teachers [see Table 1].
- Regularly disseminating project findings via publications, conferences, keynote addresses, and invited panels, in addition to attending workshops and international WAC conferences.
- Organising international conferences and seminars to bring together international language professionals, educators, and discipline teachers so that they can share their insights.
- Leading needs-driven staff development workshops on how teachers can improve their research writing skills, develop assessment rubrics to improve students’ writing quality, and design subject assessments to support their writing and speaking skills. Some of these were co-organised with discipline teachers from departments such as Building & Real Estate, Design, and Engineering.
- Establishing Communities of Practice (CoPs) in EAC, in which we discuss and reflect on our successes and failures with discipline teachers, along with analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of authentic student writing samples and exploring pedagogic approaches to designing discipline-specific assessment criteria and English learning materials.
Impact of our Continuous Professional Development (CPD)
Our joint commitment toward CPD has improved our abilities as language educators, established our leadership role in supporting students and discipline teachers with their English needs, enabled us to develop research-based and user-oriented deliverables, and enhanced the SoTL and knowledge transfer. Our scholarly output, key project outcomes, and influence on teacher-collaborators illustrate this.
The knowledge acquired through CPD enables the EAC Team to remain up to speed with the latest pedagogical advances in language teaching and informs our evidence-based and tailored English learning materials aimed at improving teaching and learning. Our innovative Capstone Ninja app, which supports final-year project writing, has received positive feedback from students, as the examples below show.
- “The oral presentation videos provide vivid and practical examples. They make me confident for my next presentation.” —Metropolitan University student
- “The app provides necessary information on writing an FYP report. It is rare to see similar tools on the internet.” —Computer Science student
Our collective CPD activities have empowered discipline teachers to address their own English proficiency, made them aware of the need to improve students’ communication skills, and transformed their teaching practices. In their post-EAC project evaluations, they indicated that they have:
- benefited from the collaboration with and support from EAC (4.5 out of 5)
- applied the ideas generated from working with the EAC team (4.57 out of 5)
- drawn on the knowledge and skills gained from EAC to improve their practice (4.08 out of 5)
Practical pedagogical developments include the integration of communication into the assessment rubrics of a second-year logistics subject and the co-assessment of student work with the School of Nursing. Our commitment to CPD is also reflected in the number of research projects (co-)led by teacher-collaborators to further support students’ application of English within disciplines (Table 2).
