Collaborative Online International Learning among peers as a means to improve English proficiency: A perception study of Hong Kong Students

English has become the lingua franca in cross-cultural education and global communication, particularly in design (Ferraris & Mattioli, 2020). This trend reflects the broader use of English as a contact language among non-native speakers worldwide and between non-native speakers and native speakers (Seidlhofer, 2005). However, this prevalence poses challenges for non-native English speakers, especially in technical fields like design. Dowlen and Ledsome (2006) suggest that for designers from different language backgrounds, their language differences in design fields can be a barrier to understanding and working together, “making it more difficult to work together to find the best design compromises” (p. 1). Standing from a non-native speakers’ perspective, difficulties include the lack of confidence, struggles in talking technical concepts in English, incompetence in understanding native speakers oral English etc (Xia et.al, 2021). To address these issues, learners desire simplified English without culturally-specific slang, scaffolding from their tutors, relying on multisemiotic and multimodal communication methods and most significantly they want to develop a language of design in English therefore they will be confidently communicating with native English speakers as a design professional (Xia et.al, 2021). These findings highlight the need for more empirical research in understanding how non-native speakers of English develop professional communication skills in English with native speakers of English. To be more specific, the objective of this study is to investigate how designer majors from a Hong Kong university become professional designers capable of using English to communicate with their counterparts in a UK university during a two-month, online virtual teaching and learning programme. Interviews with designated designer majors will be analysed to look at what strategies they will use/have used for overcoming language barriers. A series of online discussions will be video-recorded and analysed from a discourse analytical perspective to underline the development design language by Hong Kong students by looking at their strategies in talking design specific concepts with their counterparts. The findings of this study will illuminate the both the design community and the language experts in helping non-native English speakers’ growth towards internationalised design professionals.

Reference
Dowlen, C., & Ledsome, C. (2006). The language of design. Paper presented at the Engineering and product design education conference. 7-8 Sep 2006, Salzburg University of Applied Science, Salzburg, Austria.
Ferraris, S.D., & Mattioli, F. (2020). The use of English a Lingua Franca in Cross-cultural classes: A case study in design and engineering Education. Paper presented at the International conference on Engineering and product design education. 10-11 Sep 2020, Via Design, Via University College, Herning, Denmark.
Seidlhofer, B. (2005). English as a lingua franca. Elt Journal, 59, 339-341.
Xia, L., Lim, G., and Sonntag, Stefan (2021) Collaborative Online International Learning among
peers as a means to improve English proficiency: A perception study of Hong Kong Students. Paper presented at The 3rd International Conference on English Across the Curriculum (EAC), 20-22 May 2021, Hong Kong, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University