A SUCCESSFUL PEER TUTORING INITIATIVE AT CITY UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG: THE LANGUAGE CLINIC (LC)

Explaining something to someone else probably improves understanding for the individual doing the explaining because it forces the explainer to clarify concepts, evaluate and conceptually reorganize material, recognize and reconcile inconsistencies or in some other way change that individual's own knowledge structures (Bargh & Schul, 1980; Brown, 1978).

More than ever before, universities are accountable for meeting students’ and industry needs and producing “ideal graduates” with assessable learning outcomes. Institutions are looking outside traditional mentoring paradigms to raise the bar on the practice of mentoring by creating a mentoring culture adapted to their own needs. The Language Clinic began in 2003 in the Department of English and Communication. Following its great success, the service was extended to all Faculties, Schools and the Student Residence in the past years. There are currently 6 LCs staffed by students in these Faculties and designed to address the special writing problems of students studying different subjects. These Clinics form an integral part of an extensive Writing across the Curriculum initiative and become part of University’s plan for its future four year curriculum. Since 2007, the project has been institutionalized and with the adoption in Hong Kong of the Outcomes Based Teaching and Learning (OBTL) framework, the concept of constructive alignment has permeated through all the layers and the LC has been recently redesigned and adapted to focus on intended learning outcomes, ongoing leaders’ training and support, feedback and assessment. The presentation will focus on CityU’s experience in institutionalizing the LC and constructively-aligned Teaching and Learning Activities designed to achieve the LC outcomes.