HKU CAES Annual Report 2022-2023

our intake for the MAAL programme, students expressed high satisfaction with the teaching and the contents of this provision. Looking ahead, we will continue to strengthen this provision and pilot a new way of delivering our teaching along with a further expansion of our cohort size next year to increase our revenue stream. Our SFEC provision developed several new courses and secured two tenders for Professional Development Programmes and Knowledge Enrichment on English Language Learning and Teaching for local primary and secondary school teachers commissioned by the Education Bureau, HKSAR. SFEC expanded the existing courses for the Faculties of Arts, Business, Dentistry, Education, Engineering, Medicine, and Social Sciences as well as Human Resources Section by increasing the number of sessions and class groups. As for our third revenue stream, CAES has developed a 30-hour Teaching EAP Professional Development Programme which was launched in May 2023 with 33 participants. A dedicated website for promoting the programme and recruiting participants has been developed. The implementation of a newly structured mentoring framework has shown a predominantly positive impact on those who engaged with it over the past 12-18 months. The continuation of structured mentoring within CAES appears to be a welcome proposition. The evaluation of mentoring indicates potential enhancements that can further improve the staff experience and engagement of mentoring in the future. A new Mentoring Coordinator has been appointed to carry out the recommendations made by Dr. Steve Colbert (Consultant and Honorary Associate Professor during the 2021-2023 academic year). During the 2022-2023 academic year, CAES continued to offer its own Summer Programme from 29 May to 9 June, 2023. We offered a total of nine courses (13 classes altogether) to 283 students. We also piloted three new summer courses which were very well received. The 2022-2023 academic year has been another successful year for CAES. Our main mission continues to be the provision of language support to develop English academic literacy skills among all UGC-funded students across nine faculties at the University of Hong Kong. The high quality of our teaching is once again reflected in our students’ achievements and the excellent feedback we received throughout the academic year, which also marked the Centre’s 30 th Anniversary with a number of celebration events culminating in an Anniversary Gala Dinner in May 2023. During the 2022-2023 academic year, CAES1000 enrolled 2,328 students in total. Other than this course for first-year undergraduate students, we also offered English-in-the-Discipline courses for 3,632 undergraduate students after their first year of study. A new elective course CAES2004 Communication and Podcasting was developed and successfully offered to 19 undergraduate students. Apart from regular language enhancement courses, our Communication Support Services (CSS) continued to support all undergraduate students and UGC-funded postgraduate students with one-to-one consultations. 2,649 one-to-one consultations were delivered by the Writing Centre, and 1,228 by the Speaking Studio. Our CSS Communication Advisors produced four new promotional videos during the year. The Speaking Studio delivered a Rap and Jazz Night, as well as a new series of workshops on common pronunciation issues. Writing Centre Peer Consultants began to offer new two-hour IELTS Writing Clinics to respond to the demand for support in this area; eight Peer Consultants were trained on all elements of IELTS writing tasks by a former examiner in order to deliver these clinics. Writing Centre CAES has actively continued to promote a successfully scholarship-informed teaching culture among its staff. As part of our strategic plans, we have embraced a broad and inclusive approach to scholarship under three overarching thematic scholarship groups: assessment practices, classroom pedagogy and materials development. The coordinators of these three thematic groups have been actively engaged in developing a healthy scholarship environment in the Centre. CAES has organised a series of professional development events for staff throughout the year to strengthen teaching skills and deepen subject knowledge. In our Centre, there are regular times across the semesters where teachers can share their practices with colleagues in various teacher learning communities. Members of CAES had a productive year in terms of presentations and publications in their respective areas of interest. The academic Journal of Applied Linguistics (AJAL) continues to provide quality peer-reviewed publications related to English language use and practice in the region. In coming years, CAES will continue to support student learning, to assist academic staff members in their professional development through the new mentoring system, and to foster our scholarship- informed teaching culture. Peer Consultants held a panel discussion at the Communication-intensive Courses Symposium on 3 May 2023 in order to share their experiences in tutoring undergraduate students. This symposium was held in-person for the first time in three years with Dr. Ursula Wingate as the featured speaker. CAES staff has also continued to lead the Communication-intensive Courses (CiC) project in collaboration with the Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL) and the Common Core Office. To date, 239 courses have been badged. In the 2022-2023 academic year, 15,523 students across the university took a CI-badged course. The 2022-2023 academic year was the first implementation year for our 2022- 2025 Strategic Plans. In terms of revenues, three streams were further expanded and developed: (1) we increased the intake (50% increase compared with 2021-2022 academic year) of the Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics (MAAL) programme; (2) we expanded the Specially-funded English Courses (SFEC) provision; (3) we successfully launched a new educational training programme for EAP (English for Academic Purposes) teachers. Despite the increase in Dr. Alessandro Benati Director August 2023 Introduction ANNUAL REPORT 2022-2023 03 04 Centre for Applied English Studies