ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses EAP education in Hong Kong, where despite its historical heritage of British rule, is a predominantly Chinese-speaking territory. English is usually the language for assessments at university and EAP courses are provided in all universities. This EAP provision has encountered substantial challenges under two major policy changes in the last decades. First, shortly after Hong Kong’s return to Chinese sovereignty, the Hong Kong Government enforced a medium-of-instruction policy in 1998 that switched around three-quarters of secondary schools to Chinese-medium teaching. Graduates from CMI (Chinese as the medium of instruction) secondary schools have been found to have considerable difficulty making the transition to English-medium university education. Second, in 2012 Hong Kong changed from seven years of secondary school plus three years of university education to six years secondary plus four years university education. The 4-year undergraduate curriculum does not, however, mean more curriculum space for ESP training. Blended learning and English Across the Curriculum (loosely modelled after Writing Across the Curriculum in the United States) have become two means of providing additional academic English support to students. Another new development in EAP provision in Hong Kong has been the use of learning analytics for evidence-based course improvements, a method that can be adapted to a broad range of ESP contexts in Asia and beyond.
