HKU-CAES-Annual-Report_2021-22

MA PROGRAMMES CAES runs a Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics (MAAL) and co-runs a Master of Arts in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages [MA(TESOL)] with the Faculty of Education. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the two programmes remained highly competitive, notably with a very low acceptance rate which was below 20% and 10% for full-time places in MAAL and MATESOL respectively in the 2021-2022 academic year. While the two Masters programmes were taught entirely face-to-face for Semester 1 in the 2021-2022 academic year, in alignment with the University’s guidelines, the courses in Semester 2 had been taught online since late January 2022 amid the fifth wave of COVID-19 in Hong Kong. Despite various challenges, our courses continued to receive high satisfaction ratings from students. Mode of Delivery The MAAL Programme offers a full-blown advanced academic literacy workshop series and one-to-one consultations. The one-to-one consultations, allowing students to discuss language-related issues with in-house MAAL teachers, have been proved to be a much-demanded service. Over half of available consultation sessions were booked in both semesters in the 2021-2022 academic year, with a 57.5% and 55% enrolment rate in Semester 1 and 2 respectively. 97.8% of students who sought consultation in Semester 1 decided to revisit, and 99% of students who sought consultation in Semester 2 decided to book another session for consultation. MAAL Academic Literacy Support to Students The MAAL has been highly regarded by our stakeholders largely because of the high standard of teaching and learning that has been upheld. In the 2021-2022 academic year, nine students graduated with an overall distinction, accounting for 19.6% of the 2022 Winter graduating cohort. Two top-performing students were selected to receive the Peter Cheung Memorial Prize. Five other students from the previous cohort graduated in summer 2022, one of whom received an overall distinction. Another outstanding graduate will begin his PhD journey to further advance his knowledge of Applied Linguistics in our Centre starting in September 2022. Academic Achievements In the 2021-2022 academic year, the MAAL programme was expanded with its cohort size doubled up to 62. In order to cope with the expansion, course arrangements were revised with having two classes for each core course and more capstone project supervisions. Additional manpower was also projected into the workload allocation to ensure the financial and operational feasibility of the expansion. MAAL Programme Expansion Having been postponed twice because of the pandemic, the visit of MAAL External Examiner (EE) Professor Li Wei took place in May 2022. While EEs normally pay an official visit physically in the penultimate year of the term of appointment, the current pandemic situation prevented this from happening. Therefore, the EE visit was held virtually via Zoom in his final year of appointment. Four meetings were conducted: Professor Li was highly positive about all aspects of the programme and reported that MAAL students and graduates had been impressed with the offerings and professionalism of MAAL teachers. The details of the meetings with different groups will be incorporated in Professor Li’s forthcoming EE report. 1. Meeting with the Curriculum Team; 2. Meeting with Teachers and Supervisors; 3. Meeting with Students and Graduates; and 4. Reporting back to the Curriculum Team. Virtual Visit of MAAL External Examiner CAES WORK ANNUAL REPORT Centre for Applied English Studies 18 17