ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the teaching of a popular culture course in a Hong Kong university classroom using a blended-based learning and project-based learning format with the objective of enhancing media literacy and critical engagement in the analysis and creation of both online and offline texts. In terms of teaching approaches and strategies, content-based instruction (CBI) is not a new pedagogic concept or practice, implemented from the 1960s as content-based second-language (L2) courses in language education and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) classrooms in particular. Given its colonial background, Hong Kong currently has a multilingual landscape, with Cantonese as the predominant first language (L1) of the street, entertainment, and popular culture. The students' reflective responses to the workshop suggest that the uniqueness of the task tests their competencies and content-based knowledge in a number of ways. Taking a progressive, sustained content-based approach in teaching and learning undoubtedly has multiple benefits in enhancing students' linguistic, communicative, creative, interpersonal, and professional competencies.
