The ELC at XJTLU: An Overview of 18 Years of Practice and Future Directions

This chapter will chart the growth of the English Language Centre (ELC) at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University from a Centre of less than 10 EAP tutors teaching just 160 students to one of the largest English language centres in the world with approximately 200 language lecturers teaching over 15,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students. The chapter will first briefly outline the historic developments of the ELC in terms of our approaches to learning and teaching. It will then outline several challenges we have encountered in recent times (one of which we are currently grappling with) in response to the changing needs of students, expansion of the institution, and the evolving education landscape. The chapter will provide reflections on the lessons learnt over the past 18 years and offer a discussion of the potential future trajectories of the ELC in the wake of the latest Generative Artificial Intelligence technologies.