Roundtable 1

Roundtable Title

Language Learning & Teaching

Speakers

(Chair) Dr. Xiaoyu Xu

Dr. Pauline Wing Wah Mak

Dr. Michael Paul Fanguy

Mr. Carlos Yin Hong Chow

Dr. Marija Todorova

Abstract

This roundtable brings together five EdUHK researchers from LML, ELE, and CLE whose work, spanning second language writing, collaborative learning, Global Englishes, translation, and text accessibility, converges on a shared concern: participation in language learning and use. The session approaches participation along three dimensions:

· access (whether learners and readers can engage at all),

· legitimacy (whether their ways of using language are recognised as valid), and

· contribution (whether they do substantive work rather than merely being present).

Drawing on research in Hong Kong, Korea, and multilingual societies more broadly, it asks where barriers to participation lie, whether in classroom practice, teacher beliefs, or institutional norms, and how they might be addressed.

It consists of five talks (10 minutes each): (a) Dr. Pauline Wing Wah Mak draws on her projects on student feedback literacy and L2 writing teachers' metacognition to discuss how the second language writing classroom can be humanized in the era of GenAI, proposing pedagogical approaches that foster learner agency, self-regulation, and critical, reflective engagement with writing; (b) Dr. Michael Paul Fanguy uses Google Docs version histories from a scientific writing course for 215 graduate STEM students in Korea to examine who writes and who learns in collaborative writing, showing that when one student drafts most of the text while others make small, reactive edits, later individual writing suffers, particularly for lower-proficiency students, and suggesting strategies such as rotating drafting responsibilities; (c) Mr. Carlos Yin Hong Chow reports a mixed-methods study of Hong Kong secondary-school teachers' beliefs about Global Englishes Language Teaching (GELT) ahead of the reform planned for 2030/31, revealing generally positive orientations alongside persistent native-speakerist ideologies and assessment pressures, and calling for professional development that supports this paradigm shift; (d) Dr. Marija Todorova approaches translation as a social practice for inclusion in multilingual societies, showing how translation, interpreting, multilingual terminology work, and cross-cultural mediation can widen access to knowledge, recognise learners' full linguistic repertoires, and support culturally responsive language learning and teaching; and (e) Dr. Xiaoyu Xu introduces a reception-driven, corpus-assisted framework for teaching museum text accessibility in English for Specific Purposes (ESP), in which disputed exhibition labels from a Hong Kong museum, evaluated by 272 on-site visitors and 810 international readers, are used to derive evidence-based rewriting strategies and teaching materials for future museum professionals and professional communicators.

Moderated discussion

The chair will open by inviting the audience to listen to all five talks through the three dimensions of participation, so that the Q&A builds on a shared thread rather than five separate topics. The discussion will centre on two questions:

(a) Where do the main barriers to access, legitimacy, and contribution lie: in classroom practice, in teacher beliefs, or in institutional norms such as assessment and policy? And where should change begin?

(b) Which of these dimensions and levels do the presenters' projects leave unaddressed, and where might collaboration across our areas of research help fill those gaps?

Each speaker will give a brief response to (a), after which (b) will be opened to the floor together with audience questions.

Potential collaborations

In line with the aim of fostering collaboration within and beyond the department, the session is designed to surface links such as:

· Mak and Fanguy: tracing both group drafting and GenAI use in collaborative L2 writing.

· Todorova and Xu: reader-tested rewriting of bilingual and translated public texts.

· Chow and Mak: teacher education modules combining Global Englishes awareness and feedback literacy.

· Chow and Xu: which varieties and styles of English local and international readers find accessible.

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