HKU CAES Annual Report 2022-2023

English Language Support for Research Postgraduates CAES offers research postgraduate students an intensive course to support speaking and writing, six English language workshops, and a Postgraduate Writing Support Service (via the Graduate School) as part of its mission to improve students’ academic literacy skills. This intensive English course for selected students from non-English medium universities aims to develop students’ ability to produce coherent academic texts with grammatical accuracy and appropriate choice of vocabulary. This course also helps students improve their speaking skills by focussing on their confidence, fluency, pronunciation, and knowledge of effective communicative strategies. The course also enhances students’ competencies in communicating their research effectively to a non-specialist audience. The Graduate Writing Support Service assists research postgraduates by providing each student with up to four hours of free individual consultations during their candidature. Students were also invited to visit the Writing Centre of the Communication Support Services (CSS) to improve their writing skills. CAES offers six workshops focusing on either speaking or writing skills: Writing Right: Writing Accurately and Clearly This workshop helps students with specific language issues that have been observed to cause the most difficulties in writing a thesis and highlights language use which is of particular relevance in reviewing the work of other researchers. Effective Academic Speaking Skills This workshop supports research postgraduate students to communicate the focus and importance of their research to non- specialist audience; challenges the speaker to share their research in a clear, concise, and complex presentation; and provides opportunities of interacting with the whole class and in groups/pairs. Getting Published in Academic Journals (Humanities) This workshop introduces students in the humanities and related disciplines to the basics of converting their research findings into publishable form, focusing on both the writing and the process of getting published. Getting Published in Academic Journals (Sciences) This workshop introduces students in the sciences and related disciplines to the basics of converting their research findings into publishable form, focusing on both the writing and the process of getting published. Managing Your Confirmation Seminar and Viva This workshop helps students prepare for their confirmation and viva by introducing the procedures, examiners' roles, expectations and offering tips on handling questions with a view to maximizing communication effectiveness. Effective Conference Preparation and Participation This workshop provides guidance on effective writing for and participation in conferences. GRSC6027 Intensive English for Postgraduate Students Workshops PostgraduateWriting Support Service ANNUAL REPORT 2022-2023 21 22 Centre for Applied English Studies