Developing learner motivation through curriculum innovation

There have been recent calls from the government (e.g., Education Commission 2000) for the development of lifelong learning skills in university students. At the same time, however, there have been strong calls from sectors of the business community, along with the government, for students to demonstrate that they have reached 'acceptable' levels of English on leaving university. Many university language courses in Hong Kong, while paying lip service to the need to promote learner responsibility, give learners little chance to control their own learning, and use the limited course time available to prescribe set communication tasks in an attempt to improve performance levels. This chapter reports on a course for first-year engineering students at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) that took a different approach.