A presentation given at the 17th World Congress of the International Association of Applied Linguistics. The presentation describes a project-based course design for a course in English for Science and Technology at a university in Hong Kong. In particular, it examines some of the opportunities for autonomous learning created through this design.

1. Creating spaces for autonomous
learning in an EST course
Lindsay Miller & Christoph A. Hafner
Department of English, City University of Hong Kong
http://www1.english.cityu.edu.hk/acadlit
Spaces for Learning Symposium: AILA Brisbane, August 12, 2014

2. Background and context
The existing ESP course prior to new course design
1. Read scientific articles and write summaries of the main points in the
articles
2. Present, in class, in groups of 3, an oral report on a scientific experiment
3. Write a lab report (with the data from the oral report) using the
Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion (IMRD) protocol.
Students
Applied Biology; Applied Chemistry; Applied Physics; Architectural Studies;
Computing Mathematics; Environmental Science and Management; Surveying.

3. New course design
• Corpus Quizzes (individual)
• Scientific video documentary (group)
• Lab Report (individual)

4. Power Structure
Agency
(Norton,
2000)
Investment
(Norton,
1997)

5. Structure
Course design

6. English for science project
A. Digital video project
B. Written scientific
report
English for
science
project
A1. Reading/data
collection
A2. Scripting/
storyboarding
A3. Performing/
recording
A4. Editing
A5. Sharing
B3. Editing/
proofreading
B2. Writing
B1. Reading/
outlining

7. Genres and functional language
Analysis
Drafting and
reviewing
Individualized
feedback

8. Architecture of the technological
learning environment

9. Methods

10. Participant observation
Lindsay/Christoph
Se****
Sa******
1
2
Ch******
Br***
Ed***
3 4
5 6
7
8
11
12
9 10
Project artifacts
Project communications
(out of class)
Questionnaire
Focus groups

11. Participants
• 12 groups, 48 students, 18-23 years old
• 36 females, 12 males
• Mostly year 1, undeclared majors
• 43 HK Chinese, 4 Mainland Chinese, 1 Korean
• 3 ‘mixed’ groups, 9 ‘homogenous’ groups

12. Data sources
Video Images Audio Written text Communication
Group 1 16 102 8 17 EM, FB, WA
Group 2 38 17 2 10 EM, WA
Group 3 1 76 52 8 FB, WA
Group 4 19 7 1 28 FB, WA
Group 5 7 1 0 7 FB, WA
Group 6 32 38 22 12 WA
Group 7 1 9 13 14 FB, WA
Group 8 1 6 1 6 WA
Group 9 10 38 13 3 FB, WA
Group 10 44 29 11 18 FB
Group 11 3 17 31 11 EM, FB, WA
Group 12 1 18 0 9 WA

13. Findings
Spaces for language learning

14. Mediated learning spaces
Mediated environments
# Learning Space Purpose
1 E-mail (text-based) Send files to group members. Contact potential interviewees.
2 WhatsApp Interact with group members
3 Library system Search for background readings/references
4 Internet Search for information
5 Wikipedia Check definitions
6 Blog Read and respond to classmates comments
7 Facebook Sharing information and project drafts and other artifacts. Discussing project.
Interact and maintain social network of group members. Sharing with a wider
audience.
8 Google Docs Collaborative writing
9 Dropbox Sharing information and collaborative writing
9 Blackboard Download project guidelines
10 PowerPoint Check information about project presented in class
11 YouTube Sharing with a wide audience
12 Phone (audio-based) Interact with group members (about project and to maintain social cohesion
of group)

15. Unmediated learning spaces
Face-to-face environments
# Learning Space Purpose
1 Student canteen Meet with group members
2 Around campus Film footage/record narration for project
3 In student dorm Discuss project with group members
4 Other
environments
around town
(streets, parks,
shopping centres)
Film footage/record narration for project
5 In laboratory Collect data for project (film footage/record narration)
6 At home Collect data for project (film footage/record narration)

16. E-Mail
FROM: XXX
TO: YYY
DATE: Feb 19
SUBJECT: Visit on Sat
Hi, this is XXX from CityU. I made a call to YYY this morning. I am doing a school
project to analyse soil in HK. I would like to come to YYY this Sat to do field study
and interview the people here. AAA and BBB are my group mates. Three of us will
come on this Sat and join your programme. We will take the 0910 ferry from
Central.
My contact number is 00000000. Please contact me if there's any further details.
Thank you and see you there:)
XXX

17. E-Mail
C: This is an email to that Arc Eden staff, right, … So, why did you choose
English?
R: She is a foreigner [Group 2]
L: In your email communication was it in English or Chinese?
G: English
L: for the whole group?
E: yeah….
W: the difference between whatsapp and email is that this one is more close to
our life so its more close to spoken language so we feel so relax to type in
Chinese…but in email we feel so official…
E: more formal way… [Group 11]

18. WhatsApp: Project talk
J: Can someone give me ur email address so I can send back the video
H: XXXXGmail.com
J: Ok. Do u hv a drop box
There r a lot of video
If I hv to send email
U will be receiving abt 20
一係用手指攞
Or use finger [USB drive]
H:  [emoji]
I give you usb on monday
J: Ok
Btw the file is quite large  [emoji]
H: How many Gb?
J: Nearly 1
But can't seed email xd [emoticon]
[Group 12]

19. Facebook: Project talk
Q: 麻煩您地幫我check 有無漏了[Please help me check if I have missed any]
我硬系覺得漏左好多[I always have the feeling that I missed a lot.]
March 10 at 0:07
AL: 我見到我個d 已齊＞＜ [I can see that I got all for my part]
March 10 at 0:10 via mobile
RH: REMEMBER TO FIND THE WATER SOUND @
March 10 at 13:42
RH: @@
March 10 at 13:42
RH: KCY you still have the overall comment of the open area outside not yet record
March 10 at 13:52
KCY: o i will record it tonite
March 10 at 13:55 via mobile
RH: (y) (Thumb up)

20. Recording narration
L: What happened when you were doing the narration, the story? Did you do that once?
W: No, recording my voice at least one half day in my room and then they did their own
later on.
G: …yes I did my own again at home, because I thought my voice was maybe too
nervous…not good enough, so I need to do it again.
L: Do you know how many times you recorded it before you were happy?
G: Oh…more than 10 times! (laugh)
W: …yes, more than 10 times, it’s like only 5 minutes when we are actually recording…so
totally speaking it’s like 3 to 4 hours to practice
(all four students agree).
L: What kind of things were you not happy with when you heard your voice?
W: …it’s very strange for me to hear my voice (laugh)…and I kind of think “is that
me?”…and it’s not fluent, and sometimes we will speak a wrong words and so we will
start over again. [Group 11]

21. Conclusions

22. Conclusions
1. Students on our course created a multimodal scientific documentary which
they seemed proud of and invested heavily in (see
http://www1.english.cityu.edu.hk/acadlit)
2. They were prepared to share their work not only with their tutor, or other
classmates, but with a wider on-line audience.
3. By giving our students a ‘real’ context for their language learning and
practice, they invested more than they normally would with in-class
learning mode.
4. Our study shows the range of learning spaces our students made use of,
which again goes beyond the structured learning environment of a typical
classroom.

23. Thank you
http://www1.english.cityu.edu.hk/acadlit