ELC offers opportunities for PolyU students to reach out to the local community through its service-learning subject. A project known as “Connect Hong Kong”, in which PolyU students serve as literacy tutors and render English reading classes for primary school children, is organised every year. Each year about 30 PolyU students and 100 school children from community centres take part in this project.

To show our respect and support for the senior citizens in our community, ELC has organised a “Practical English for the Elderly” course in collaboration with the Tung Wah Group of Hospital, Community Services Division. The course focuses on vocabulary and conversation skills, and more importantly on developing their confidence and communication skills.

The Sprouts Foundation raise the quality of life for underprivileged children in Hong Kong by providing effective educational programmes typically not available to them. English enhancement programmes aim to nurture the seeds of confidence and self-esteem that translates into better opportunities for their future and help them to gain access to highly rated secondary schools and ultimately tertiary education.

Since 2008, through the goodwill of ELC staff, the centre has provided a range of voluntary services to support the Sprouts Foundation English programmes. The largest of these involve ELC staff volunteers who conduct large-scale class observations in a number of centres. These provide support for teachers in order to enhance programme delivery. In conjunction with this, the ELC are exploring web-based approaches to aid teacher training in order to address common problems that teachers may experience.

ELC has also run a wide range of courses for staff at PolyU. These include:

• Speaking in English for PolyU Staff
• Writing in English for Polyu Staff
• From Chinglish to English Writing and Speaking

In addition to the above, ELC also develops custom-designed courses for individual units in the University such as Finance Office, Academic Secretariat and the Library.