Perusall, a collaborative reading tool, was introduced in an advanced reading and writing skills course in Hong Kong to increase engagement with texts and encourage critical discussion during the COVID-19 face-to-face class suspension. Students were asked to use the Perusall platform to complete pre-class readings, highlight and annotate text and critically discuss and answer questions. In this innovation in practice article, we describe why we adopted Perusall and the pedagogical implications of doing so. We aim to assist L2 teachers in encouraging active reading and critical discussion to enhance motivation in language learners.

In the midst of COVID-19 pandemic, many university courses delivered in English are conducted entirely online. However, if we continue using traditional teaching strategies and the same set of teaching materials, it would be extremely difficult for students, regardless of age, to focus in a 2- or 3-h synchronous online class. As such, many researchers and educators are exploring different ways to engage students in today’s digitally connected world. This article explores how English as a Second Language (ESL) undergraduate students come up with emergency remote learning at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using exploratory research design, one hundred university students from five English for Academic Purpose (EAP) classes who experienced blended learning using Badaboom!, a Game-based Student Response System (GSRS), for one semester were recruited to participate in the research. 30 students were interviewed to collect the data. The interview aimed to detail their responses so their strategies can be mapped clearly. The data reveal that the tertiary-level learners of this study feel that game-based classroom response system is useful for assisting them in overcoming ESL academic writing difficulties. The study reflects that, most students favour the interactivity and engagement afforded by Badaboom! due to the strong instructor-student and student-student interaction as well as students’ increased engagement.

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This quantitative study explores pedagogical approaches to teaching business proposals, press releases, business presentations, and negotiation meetings in the third and fourth-year English Specific Purpose (ESP) course at an English Medium Instruction (EMI) university in Hong Kong. The findings reveal that the enactment of a hybrid approach rather than the teacher-led, direct-instruction approach assisted students in grasping the understanding of persuasive communication in both written and spoken contexts in the workplace environment. The study suggests that blending several inputs (i.e., videos, online quizzes, online annotated reading platform, corpora, face-to-face instruction) provided multimodal experiences that helped students develop their persuasive communication skills in a state of flux during the COVID-19 pandemic.