Community of Practice: An English social network for faculty members

An increasing number of universities in non-English speaking countries have adopted the English-medium instruction in teaching the discipline subjects to a different extent. This may cause pressure to college faculty in their teaching and coaching of students’ writing and speaking. In order to support faculty members in their use of English in teaching and student learning, the author’s university has set up an initiative called the Communities of Practice. Similar social networking sites for sharing academic knowledge have been found to bring benefits to the faculty’s professional development (Benbow & Lee, 2019).
This paper presents the purposes of setting up such a social network for supporting faculty members in their teaching, the activities for empowering them on classroom language, and the theme and resources for supporting their students’ writing and speaking skills. Post-workshop surveys and interviews showed subject teachers really valued the sharing and resources, and regarded such collaboration beneficial to their own teaching as well as students’ writing and speaking skills. Last, the potential and challenges of such an initiative will be shared.
Reference
Benbow, R. J., & Lee, C.H. (2019). Teaching-focused social networks among college faculty: exploring conditions for the development of social capital. Higher Education, 78, 67-89.