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 is the Programme Coordinator of English-in-the-Discipline Courses for the Faculty of Social Sciences. 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 in 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. Andy Jarvis is a Senior Lecturer in CAES, HKU. He has been an English teacher for over 20 years and has taught EAP and ESP courses at the university level since 2011. He previously co-coordinated an EAP course for first-year undergraduates and was a subject leader for social science ESP subjects. He also managed an ESP programme offering English in the discipline subjects. During these roles, he developed EAP materials and assessments and oversaw the development of ESP subjects in different disciplines. Dr. Jarvis is an experienced teacher educator having worked on various teacher training initiatives in China, including the delivery of EAP workshops. He has published journal articles and book chapters on multimodal composing, blended learning, and AI interviewing in ESP courses.

Albert Wong is an experienced EAP practitioner and has taught on seven of the eight English-in-the-discipline programmes at CAES. He currently serves as the coordinator of the English-in-the-discipline programme for the Faculty of Science at HKU and has previously coordinated the English for Specific Academic Purposes module for Dentistry. Albert actively engages in international EAP conference events and has participated in EAP professional development and led professional issues meetings organised by the British Association of Lecturers in English for Academic Purposes (BALEAP). He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and was part of the organising committee for the English for General and Academic Purposes Community at The HKCPD Hub for University English Teachers. 

Andrea Chai teaches on a wide range of academic literacy and English for specific purposes courses for undergraduate students. She is the Deputy Programme Coordinator of English-in-the-Discipline courses for the Faculty of Social Sciences​. 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 also the programme coordinator of the English-in-the-Discipline courses for Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Dentistry. She has published journal articles and book chapters in the field of second language motivation.  

Dr. Kevin Pat is currently the coordinator of the English-in-the-Discipline course for business and economics students. He has also developed materials for a number of courses at the Centre, co-authored the Academic English: Skills for success (2nd ed.) textbook, and contributed to Project Optimus, a presentation skills website. His research interests include classroom discourse, pragmatics (specifically linguistic im/politeness), and WhatsApp text messaging during university group projects, which was the context of his PhD. He finds the study of teaching and the English language fascinating and hopes to transform this interest into something meaningful for students.