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Dr. Juan Castillo

Lecturer

  • BA in English Studies (First Class Honours), The University of Hong Kong
  • PGDE in English Language Teaching, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
  • MSc in Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition (Distinction), University of Oxford
  • EdD in English Language Education, The University of Hong Kong

Juan joined the Centre for Applied English Studies in 2012.  He teaches on a wide range of academic literacy and English for specific purposes courses at undergraduate level and also supervises dissertations/portfolios for the Centre’s Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics (MAAL) programme.  He is also involved in the teacher training initiative of the Centre and teaches a module on academic speaking and listening at tertiary level.

He has served on a number of committees at the Centre and held key coordination/administration roles.  Currently, he is the Programme Coordinator of English-in-the-Discipline Courses for the Faculty of Social Sciences (Jan, 2022 – to date).  Externally, he also regularly serves as an examiner/marker trainer/test setter for large scale English proficiency tests.

His academic interests include vocabulary acquisition, the effects of formulaic sequences on perceived L2 speaking proficiency, the issue of modality in vocabulary measurement and the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and L2 listening proficiency.  His doctoral thesis is titled “Modality and the Nature of Speaking Task as Mediators of the Effects of Collocation Knowledge on Perceived Speaking Proficiency in English as a Second Language”.  He also regularly serves as a manuscript reviewer for the journal System.

Other Major Administrative Roles:

Current administrative roles:

  • Programme Coordinator – English-in-the-Discipline (ED) courses for the Faculty of Social Sciences
  • Member, Faculty of Social Sciences Board

Previous administrative roles:

  • Member – Teaching and Learning Committee (2019-21)]
  • Deputy Coordinator of the Writing Centre (2019-21)
  • Timetabling Officer (2018-21)
  • Deputy Programme Coordinator of ED Courses for the Faculty of Medicine (2018-19)
  • Member – Director’s Advisory Group (2017-19)
  • Deputy Programme Coordinator –  Core University English (2015-18)

Selected Publications / Presentations:

  • Kwan, V., Chai, A., Datwani, D., Castillo, J.T. (2023, June). The instruction of metadiscourse in an English-in-the-discipline course. Paper presented at the AHKLC Annual Symposium 2023, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong.
  • Wang, W.F., Boyton, S., Wakeland, L., Datwani, D., Castillo, J., Chan, L., & Scanlon, S. (2023). Wiki writing in medicine and students’ perceptions: The case of an English- in-the-Discipline course in Hong Kong. In J.J. Qin & P. Stapleton (Eds). Technology in Second Language Writing: Advances in Composing, Translation, Writing Pedagogy and Data-Driven Learning. Routledge.
  • Datwani, D., Castillo, J.T., (2021, January). Evaluating Wikipedia assignments for Hong Kong EAP courses … What’s next? Paper presented at the HKCPD Hub International Conference 2021/21, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
  • Wakeland L.J., Boynton S.D., Choy Datwani D. and Castillo J.T. (June 2019). Wikipedia Assignments for Academic English Courses in Hong Kong. Paper Presented at HKCPD Hub Continuing Professional Development Symposium 2019, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong.
  • Pat, K., Castillo, J., Wong, A.C., & Wong, L.L.C. (2015, June). Problematizing teacher questioning behavior in the first-year university EAP classroom. Paper presented at the CAES Faces of English International Conference 2015, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
  • Cheung, M.L., & Castillo, J.T. (June 2014). What is possible with corpus-based learning? Integration of Moodle with dentistry corpora in the English-in-the-Discipline course. Paper presented at The CITE Research Symposium 2014. The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
  • Murphy, V.A., & Castillo, J.T. (2013). Modality, Vocabulary Size and Question Type as Mediators of Listening Comprehension Skill. Contemporary Foreign Languages Studies396(12), 15-30.

Office: Room 6.36

Telephone: 3917 7250

Email Address: juancas@hku.hk