Enhancing student engagement through a Generative AI pedagogical approach in English for Academic Purposes courses

​Conference Presentations

​While the benefits of Generative AI tools for EAP courses have been investigated, the question of how to specifically integrate adapted GenAI tasks into EAP and content-based courses requiring academic English for first-year students at universities remains under-explored. Underpinned by the principled communicative language teaching approach and ChatGPT literacy framework, this study aims to identify university teachers’ difficulties and opportunities for incorporating GenAI into EAP courses and subject-based courses requiring the usage of academic English, and to adapt GenAI tasks for use in EAP and content-based courses at six UGC-funded universities in Hong Kong. To evaluate the effectiveness of tasks in increasing students’ engagement, learning, and GenAI literacy, data were collected using questionnaires and in-depth interviews. Brief insights into the findings will be shared. The findings may have implications for educators and researchers in terms of how to shape future curriculum design integrating adapted GenAI tasks, teacher training, and policy in HE.