Amy Chi joined the Center in 1992 and has been teaching, writing materials and co-ordinating a range of English courses for academic purposes to both undergraduate and postgraduate students from all disciplines of the university.
The core of her research work is in the area of pedagogical lexicography, underpinning teaching and learning English as a second language. The scope of her research includes EFL learners’ dictionaries, dictionary use training methodology and materials, second language vocabulary acquisition and phraseology. Her other research interests include lexicology, language and culture, history of English and phonetics.
She was invited as Advisor for the compilation of the Macmillan English Dictionary (First edition, 2002), and an external reviewer for Lexikos Journal, Journal of Translation Studies of Chinese University Press and Commercial Press (HK Ltd.). Chi was the founding secretary (1997-1999) and Executive Board member (1999-2011; 2021) of ASIALEX– Asia Association for Lexicography. She is currently a member of the Editorial Board of ‘Lexicography’ (Journal of ASIALEX) published by Equinox.
She is a dedicated hiker.
Professional Interests
Teaching English for Academic Purposes
Pedagogical Lexicography
Dictionary use training for ESL/EFL teachers
Second language vocabulary acquisition
Phraseology
Lexicology
Language and Culture
Scholarship
2022
Working Paper
A corpus-based study of the use of complex noun phrases in SHSS students’ academic writing
CHI, Man Lai Amy
Short Descriptions
This project is an attempt to replicate the research entitled “Syntactic Complexity and Writing Quality in Students’ Technical Writing” conducted by KY, Joyce and Eric with students of the SENG. Using the same framework of this research on SENG students, we would like to investigate whether there are any linguistic differences between SHSS and SENG students in their academic writing, with a special focus on their writing of complex noun phrases. Results from our work will be compared to the SENG research findings to identify any cross-disciplinary differences or similarities in students’ writing.
Possible Benefits
A comparative cross-disciplinary research study to explore syntactic differences in students' writing will have pedagogical impact on ESP teachers and material writers.
Deliverables
We intend to do background reading and prepare a literature review of the study this summer. Since both Thomas and Amy are new to this area, time is needed to familiarise with published materials in this area, find out how the SENG research was conducted and understand the various analyses.