It is my great pleasure to have this opportunity to provide a short piece of writing about my first week at UIC.

Time has been running so fast; after having a fruitful and warm orientation on 22nd August and 23rd August, we have been preparing for EEP (‘English Enhancement Programme’) and trying our best to provide the best quality ELL (‘English Language Learning’) approaches for our freshman!

As a local Macao citizen born and raised, I am also equipped with the academic background related to the UK’s HE (‘Higher Education’). I would love to highly emphasise the effectiveness of our EEP practice and how it comprehensively benefits our students.

Chinese students study English for over 10 years at primary and middle schools; however, the needs, categories, purposes and requirements of functioning English in UIC’s contexts differ from students’ previous experience.

Undoubtedly, previous English language proficiency is still influential to student success at UIC. EEP is a critical bridge that builds a connection from GE (‘General English’) to EAP (‘English for Academic Purposes’) for university contexts, including academic listening, writing, speaking, reading and critical thinking.

Furthermore, to explain my feeling about teaching EEP at UIC, I am delighted to see that most freshman are highly engaged and motivated in the class activities and relevant discussions. In the EEP, I am allocated for teaching the warm-up, academic listening, and closing/feedback classes.

For the warm-up class, students were excited about trying to send emails to seek academic opinions from their tutors; it was a rewarding evening for me to receive over 25 emails that requested I provide CF (‘Corrective Feedback’) to their written English in email discourse.

ELC, including me, always has your back! And we are looking forward to meeting you for our upcoming ELL activities, such as those provided by the ILH (‘Independent Learning Hub’). Cheers!