Short Descriptions

One of my summer projects includes revising the MILE 5001 Second Language Acquisition course based on student feedback. I have gone over all the student comments in the SFQ and I note down below the themes that have emerged and the changes I can make in Fall 2022. 1) Slow down and reduce the reading materials particularly in the first 4 weeks. 2) Highlight the critical concepts in PPTs and tell students which topics are more important. 3) Create connections between theory and practice. 4) Add more linguistic/teaching related examples from real life. 5) Provide more guidance about the final assignment. Emphasize the significance of the process rather than the final product. 6) Consider adding group discussions. 7) Have more interaction with students. Based on those points, I will be revising the course materials and the assessments over the summer.

Short Descriptions

My second project for the summer is a research publication I have been working on. I plan to finish writing it up and submit it to a top-tier journal for publication. Here is my abstract: The semantic and cognitive correlates of the syntactic mass-count distinction has been explored in various studies including a recent thematic issue in Glossa featuring six articles dedicated to exploring the phenomenon. The current study contributes to the existing literature by investigating whether second language (L2) learners of English with Mandarin and Cantonese first language (L1) backgrounds were on a par with natives speakers of English in pluralizing canonically mass and count nouns that differed with respect to properties such as atomicity, abstractness and concreteness. The results based on a Fill in the Gaps Task (FGT) indicated that the different properties of a noun influenced the degree of pluralization for L2 learners of English. More specifically, the results revealed that for L2 learners of English (1) mass-ness, non-atomicity and abstractness decreased the odds of pluralization of a noun; (2) atomicity had a larger effect on pluralization of a noun than abstractness on pluralization; and (3) abstractness in the context of nonatomicity did not have a large reduction in the odds of pluralization.

Short Descriptions

I currently have a research assistant from the MAILE program and we are working on replicating one of my previous research projects in which I investigated the development of conversational implicatures (implied meaning) in second language (L2) English. Here is the link for my prior publication: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/ip-2018-0011/html We are going to do the same in L2/L3 Chinese to probe into the question of whether learners with various L1/L2 backgrounds are able to comprehend implied meaning in L2/L3 Chinese. I plan to publish an article based on this project in journals such as Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Second Language Research, and Modern Language Journal. We could also present the findings for our students in the MAILE program and at various conferences in Hong Kong.

Short Descriptions

My final project for the summer is an ethics workshop. I and Eugene Li are working on an "Ethics training in scholarship for CLE". We are planning to present this in our EYE event in August. We aim to particularly demonstrate how to use the new tick@lab website, and how to submit a Human Research Ethics Protocol.

Short Descriptions

This study aims to investigate the acquisition of Cantonese as a 3rd language to improve the teaching and learning of the sound system, the morphology, the syntax, semantics, and pragmatics of Cantonese.

Possible Benefits

Many individuals have challenges in acquiring Cantonese. Some don't even bother to start learning it. This project may encourage more students and faculty to take up Cantonese.

Deliverables

A number of research articles may be published in journals such as Second Language Research, Studies in Second Language Acquisition, etc.

Short Descriptions

My fourth project for the summer is another research publication I have been working on. I plan to finish writing it up and submit it to a top-tier journal for publication. Here is my abstract: This article details the syntactic variation in Hong Kong English observed in college student essays. The essays were produced by 79 students in 4 different sections of an upper-intermediate English language course at a research university in Hong Kong. The students were asked to write two reflection essays evaluating the efficiency of the course and their own performance. Out of 158 300-word reflection essays, 48 essays (i.e., about 30% of the total number of essays) were randomly selected and analyzed. The analysis revealed two general patterns, each with 5 sub-categories. The first general pattern was the omission of various grammatical forms in obligatory contexts such as the omission of the indefinite article, definite article, the subject relative pronoun, the copula in a relative clause construction, and the past tense marker. The next general pattern was using certain grammatical and lexical forms with intended meanings not found in English. These included using "will" with a past tense reference, using "will" with a past tense habitual reference, using "will" with a present tense habitual reference, using counterfactual conditionals instead of factual conditionals, and finally using an "although…but" construction. Although the attested usages of English were all ungrammatical in standard English, those different constructions never led to a communication breakdown as the intended meaning in each context was successfully conveyed. That leads to an interesting question as to whether such forms are on a path to be grammaticalized in Hong Kong English. The article ends with a discussion on the dichotomy between descriptive and prescriptive linguistics, as well as pedagogical implications of the findings.