The EAP Team

Dr. Juan Castillo has been teaching English for Academic and Specific Purposes at tertiary level since 2005.  After completing his BA in English Studies from the University of Hong Kong, he went on to complete his teacher training and postgraduate degrees from institutions such as the Chinese University of Hong Kong, University of Oxford and the University of Hong Kong.  His doctoral thesis examined the relationship between knowledge of formulaic sequences and perceived speaking proficiency of second language users of English.  He has taught and developed materials for undergraduate literacy courses for a wide range of disciplines such as Medicine, Pharmacy, Biomedicine, Nursing, Business Administration and Social Sciences subjects.  He also regularly serves as an assessor and marker trainer for external language testing organizations in Hong Kong.   

Dr. Derek Chan is a Senior Lecturer at CAES, HKU. He teaches applied linguistics and EAP courses (e.g. Vocabulary Teaching and Learning) in MAAL and MATESOL programmes. His research interests and publication focus on second language acquisition and bilingualism using psycholinguistics and corpus-based techniques. He is working on two co-authored books in L2 tense-aspect processing and instructed second language classroom-based research methodology. He serves as Editor of The Asian Journal of Applied Linguistics. 

Dr. Ken Lau is a Senior Lecturer at CAES, HKU. He has substantial experience in coordinating, teaching and developing materials for EAP/academic literacy courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. In addition to his administrative role as the MA programme coordinator, he is involved in teaching modules on functional grammar, research methods and writing pedagogies. His recent publications are concerned with learning styles, English as a lingua franca, and evaluation in oral defences.   

Dr. Parco Wong has been teaching both EAP and ESP courses at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) for 15 years. Specifically, he has been managing the course, CAES1000 Core University English, which aims at helping undergraduate students to develop their English academic literacy skills to meet the language needs of their university degree. Parco is also teaching a postgraduate, core course (MAAL7005 Spoken Discourse Analysis) and supervising dissertation writing of the Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics at HKU. He is actively involved in international conference presentations, research projects (such as Reading-for-writing development and Transferability in learning), and Knowledge Exchange (KE) projects (such as Grammar for Academic English: A Self-training Module and ProWrite: One Click to Success). He is adept in teacher training, curriculum design, pedagogy, and materials development. 

Andrea Chai teaches on a wide range of academic literacy and English for specific purposes courses for undergraduate students. She also supervises MATESOL student projects. Her research interests include intercultural communication, English teaching and learning in higher education, and English and international development. In addition to teaching, she serves as a reviewer of HKU's Advance HE Fellowship applications. She is also an affiliated member of International Centre for Intercultural Studies at University College London.   

Dr. Letty Chan has been teaching English-related courses in various universities both in Hong Kong and the UK since 2007. Prior to joining CAES in 2019, she was a teacher educator, teaching TESOL methodology courses to pre- and in-service English teachers In Hong Kong. She is currently teaching academic literacies and professional communication to undergraduate and postgraduate students. She is a deputy programme coordinator of the medicine core team, and is coordinating medical-related courses, including Academic English for Dentistry Students. She has published journal articles and book chapters in the field of second language  motivation.  

Glenda Thomas has over 20 years’ experience in English Language Teaching and has taught a wide variety of age groups and courses from General English to English for Academic Purposes. She has also been involved in and developed teacher training and staff training programmes across different countries (Japan, Spain, England, Malaysia and currently Hong Kong). She has over 10 years’ experience in EAP teaching and has worked at the University of Hong Kong for 7 years. Her biggest area of interest is the use of technology in education and its role in learning. She has furthered her own experience, and qualifications (MA in Technology and Language Learning) in this area and greatly enjoys using and sharing the knowledge she has gained to enhance teaching and learning in courses she is involved in.