I am a lecturer in the Center of Language Education at HKUST. I obtained my BA in Chinese Language and Literature, MA in Teaching Chinese as Second Language and PhD in Chinese Linguistics. To be an effective teacher, I strongly believe that one must focus on student learning, teach according to what the student is good at and inspire student’s creativity and desire to learn.
Professional Interests
Chinese Syntax and Grammar
Second Language Acquisition
Language Teaching Pedagogy
Language & Culture
Curriculum design and course development
Course development:
LANG1113: Effective Chinese Communication
LANG 1124: Chinese for Non-Chinese Language Background Students V
Scholarship
2025
Journal Publication
結合生成式人工智能工具的職場實務中文寫作教學—實踐與反思
杜英子, Yingzi; 鍾隱, Yin; 徐秀芬, Xiufen
Source: STiLE - Scholarship of Teaching in Language Education, v. v. 3
DOI: 10.59936/stile.v2i1.160
DOI: 10.59936/stile.v2i1.160
隨著生成式人工智能工具的風潮席捲全球,關於如何革新現有的教育方式和未來教育走向的探討,成為了近年來的熱門話題。香港科技大學鼓勵教學人員使用生成式人工智能工具,語文教育中心在2023年初已經開始了相關的探索。本文僅以筆者負責設計開發的中文核心課程「職場實務中文運用」為例,探討以ChatGPT為代表的GenAI工具在實務中文寫作教學中的運用,並結合學生對在課程中使用ChatGPT效果的反饋進行反思,展望課程以及實務中文教學未來的發展方向。
2025
Academic Blog
Pedagogical Practices for Writing Courses in the Era of Digital Intelligence(數智時代寫作課程教學實踐)(Xu Xiufen, Nuo Min)
XU, Xiufen
In the digital Intelligence era, knowledge acquisition has been dramatically streamlined and accelerated. Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools offer students efficient and tailored educational experiences. Consequently, educators must adapt both the content and methodologies of their teaching to align with these advancements. This paper delves into how AI tools, exemplified by ChatGPT, can enhance students' writing abilities. It also examines the evolving roles of educators and the necessary restructuring of educational content.
Drawing on the capabilities of AI to furnish formal knowledge and generate logically coherent text (Yu Menglong, 2025), our pedagogical approach requires students to leverage their personal and collaborative experiences from group oral presentations. Students are tasked with synthesizing these experiences into comprehensive reports, thereby transforming observational data and experiential learning into structured knowledge, theories, or innovative concepts through critical reflection. This process is designed to foster connections between students' experiences and their existing knowledge frameworks.
Feedback indicates that this assignment effectively facilitates students' reflection on and organization of the knowledge they acquire in specific contexts, promoting a deep engagement with and generation of new knowledge. In this context, AI's role is to refine the linguistic quality and enhance the logical coherence of students' written outputs.
In the era of AI, the learning journey involves a dynamic interplay among educators, students, and artificial intelligence. This necessitates a shift in educational focus from a purely results-oriented approach to one that is process-oriented, and from a teaching methodology that primarily aims at knowledge transmission to one that enhances students' competencies.
2025
Academic Blog
Practice and reflections on textbook compilation grounded in the “Grade Standards”: A case study of intermediate and advanced levels (基于《等级标准》的教材编写实践与思考:以中高级为例)(Xu Xiufen, Nuo Min)
XU, Xiufen
The Standards for Chinese Language Proficiency in International Chinese Education (the Standards) provide essential guidance for textbook development. During the revision of our language center textbooks, the Standards’ quantitative language indicators informed the process. The revised content reflected students’ diverse backgrounds by including both mainland Chinese society and Hong Kong’s local customs. Language learning focused on communicative tasks based on thematic and functional approaches. Incorporating morpheme analysis into vocabulary instruction aimed to develop students’ word-formation skills for autonomous learning, supported by blended learning, micro-teaching, and AI tools to enhance communication skills efficiently.
2019
Conference Paper / Presentation
利用網絡會議平臺ZOOM進行語言教學的實踐探究
徐秀芬, Xiufen; 諾敏, Min
Press: 北京:時事出版社
Source: Paper presented at 漢語本科教育研究, p. 226-235
Source: Paper presented at 漢語本科教育研究, p. 226-235
2018
Conference Paper / Presentation
“以字識詞”“以詞認字”原則下的漢字教學
徐秀芬, Xiufen
Source: Paper presented at 第八屆 "漢字與漢字教育" 國際研討會