Faculty Publications and Conference Presentations

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

The current study reports on a preliminary investigation of two conflations in Hong Kong English (HKE) – [n, l] conflation and [r, v, w] conflation – which have rarely been examined in previous studies wherein the two conflations were considered to exist in “free variation”, the result of the limited HKE inventories (Hung, 2000; Sewell & Chan, 2010). However, by investigating a 5791-word mini corpus composed of speeches from 29 HKE speakers, it is believed that a loose pattern exists in the two conflations. This short report hopes to trigger further investigations in the study of phonetic features of HKE – which in turn may help the development of the variety of English in different scopes of scholarship.

Possible Benefits

- Pronunciation teaching (especially to Hong Kong students)

Deliverables

- Presentation at The 20th AsiaTEFL conference (August) - Potential publication

Short Descriptions

Email has been a common and important asynchronous communication medium between students and instructors in higher education since the 21st century. These 2 years, we even have more chances to interact with students using emails because of the suspension of face-to-face classes during COVID-19 pandemic. These chances made students’ mistakes in their emails, for example, problematic word choice, idiosyncratic formatting style, improper tone, etc., further noticeable. At the same time, it is hard to identify a good sense of politeness and appropriateness in their emails as it requires them to have a certain level of pragmatic awareness and competence. Apart from the limited exposure to and proper instructions on email writing, a second language learning environment adds an additional hurdle for students to write English emails effectively. This can be a serious problem because it not only hinders student-instructor communication at this stage, but also harms students’ construction of interpersonal and interprofessional relationships later in the workplace. All these factors led to this project. This project aims to raise our students’ awareness of netiquette by teaching them the crucial skills in email writing using a series of succinct, easily-accessible, and interesting animated videos that will be created after analyzing their problems and needs. After going through the videos and consolidation exercises, students are expected to write emails effectively and appropriately, and then be able to transfer the skills learned to other contexts and audiences.

Possible Benefits

- Blended learning - Effective communication/business English

Deliverables

Approximately 20 animated videos and their follow-up exercises (correspond to the topics) will be created according to 6 stages: - Raising Awareness - Building the Foundation - Prewriting - Writing - Revising & Reminders - Additional videos based on data analysis and viewers’ requests

Short Descriptions

To advance the pedagogy of DMC, this study proposes a set of product- and process-oriented classroom assessment rubrics that function as self-and peer-assessment tools for students when collaborating with each other to create multimodal texts in EAP contexts. Driven by the importance of reader-writer interactions in academic writings, the study first revised Jiang et al’s (2022) genre-based model for assessing DMC with reference to the importance of stance and engagement in academic discourse (Hyland, 2005) to assess the product of students’ collaboratively constructed multimodal academic blog posts. Storch’s (2002) notion of equality and mutuality were utilized to assess students’ collaborative process when engaging in DMC activities with peers. Then, the theory-driven assessment rubrics were tested and modified through classroom research during the process of guiding students to write academic blogs in an EAP course. The study aligns with the ongoing discussions related to the assessment of DMC and derives implications for appropriate classroom assessment mechanisms for DMC.

Despite the plethora of studies on digital multimodal composing (DMC) in recent years, there were few attempts of tapping how assessments on DMC can best be conducted to maximize students’ learning.  To narrow this gap, this study proposed a set of product- and process-oriented classroom assessment rubrics that function as self-and peer-assessment tools for students when collaborating with each other to create DMC in online EAP context.  During a four-week intervention with a veteran EAP educator, the rubric was tried out in her EAP classes as students worked in pairs to complete a DMC task. Its effectiveness was then evaluated based on the quality of student writings as well as their discussion, which was measured in terms of equality and mutuality. The product-oriented classroom assessment rubrics was found to result in marked improvement in layout, navigation and rhetoric, whilst the process-oriented classroom assessment rubrics also enhanced both the equality and the mutuality the collaborative process, as the dyads leant towards establishing a collaborative relationship during the task.   These findings underscore the importance of using assessment rubrics as a formative assessment activity to help students harness the genre of DMC from different perspectives.

As emerging scientists learn to produce the traditional scientific research article genre and other genres of scientific writing, they develop their identity as a science writer. Their scientific thinking is developed through and reflected in the rigorous, concise, direct and consistent use of language to express precise ideas, and the clear distinction made between fact and speculation. In the process, many emerging scientists become more aware of the nuances and complexities of language style. And some are faced with the challenge of reassessing the oversimplified language rules and incomplete advice they may have learned at lower levels of education in order to produce this genre confidently and effectively.

For students and educators keen to develop their knowledge and skills regarding language styles for scientific writing, there is no short supply of published advice. Part of my recent research has involved exploring the literature and published sources advice and guidelines for developing good scientific writing styles. My book chapter summarizes how these sources address various aspects of scientific writing style including at the lexical and discourse level, expression of writer identity, demonstration of reader awareness, issues with oversimplification of language rules, misconceptions in writing style, expressions of authorial voice, changes in uses of hedges and boosters over time in science, expressions of whispers of human judgement, and use of figurative language. Some of this might be of use to fellow colleagues interested in academic writing, technical disciplines or the science remit in general.

I am keen to hear from any colleagues with interest in collaborating on scholarship in this area.

Useful reading:

de Alencar, M. S., & de Alencar, T. T. (2017). Scientific style in English (River Publishers Series in Innovation and Change in Education - Cross-cultural Perspective). River Publishers. 

Gopen, G., & Swan, J. (1990). The science of scientific writing. American Scientist, 78(6), 550-558.  

Greene, A. E. (2013). Writing science in plain English. Amsterdam University Press. 

Kirkman, J. (2005). Good style: Writing for science and technology (2nd ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203023655   

Grossman, F. (2019). Scientific objective style and author positioning in academic writing. In F. Komesu & J. Alves Assis (Eds.), Práticas discursivas em letramento acadêmico: Questões em estudo (Vol. 1, pp. 64–76). Editora PUC Minas. 

Gruber, D. R., & Olman, L. C. (2019). The Routledge handbook of language and science (Routledge handbooks in linguistics). Routledge. 

Heard, S. (2014). On whimsy, jokes, and beauty: Can scientific writing be enjoyed? Ideas in Ecology and Evolution, 7(1), 64–72. https://doi.org/10.4033/iee.2014.7.14.f 

Hyland, K. (2002). Authority and invisibility: Authorial identity in academic writing. Journal of Pragmatics, 34(8), 1091–1112. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0378-2166(02)00035-8 

Kuhi, D. (2017). Hybridity of scientific discourses: An intertextual perspective and implications for ESP pedagogy. The Journal of Applied Linguistics and Applied Literature: Dynamic and Advances, 5(2), 61–80. https://doi.org/10.22049/jalda.2018.26150.1048 

Lindsay, D. (2020). Scientific writing = Thinking in words (2nd ed.). CSIRO Publishing. 

Mercer-Mapstone, L. D., & Kuchel, L. (2017). Core skills for effective science communication: A teaching resource for undergraduate science education. International Journal of Science Education, Part B, 7(2), 181–201. https://doi.org/10.1080/21548455.2015.1113573 

Pisano, A., Crawford, A., Huffman, H., Graham, B., & Kelp, N. (2021). Development and validation of a universal science writing rubric that is applicable to diverse genres of science writing. Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education, 22(3). https://doi.org/10.1128/jmbe.00189-21  

Pope-Ruark, R. (2011). Know thy audience: Helping students engage a threshold concept using audience-based pedagogy. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.20429/ijsotl.2011.050106 

Poole, R., Gnann, A., & Hahn-Powell, G. (2019). Epistemic stance and the construction of knowledge in science writing: A diachronic corpus study. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 42, 100784. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2019.100784 

Scott, S. L., & Jones, C. W. (2017). Superlative Scientific Writing. ACS Catalysis, 7(3), 2218–2219. https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.7b00566 

Shapin, S. (2012). The sciences of subjectivity. Social Studies of Science, 42(2), 170–184. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306312711435375   

Xia, G. (2017). A cross-disciplinary corpus-based study on English and Chinese native speakers’ use of first-person pronouns in academic English writing. Text & Talk, 38(1), 93–113. https://doi.org/10.1515/text-2017-0032 

The aim of the project was to develop a range of mini-lecture videos in collaboration with discipline-based instructors and students in order to introduce key language competencies such as specific terminology, concepts, and skills to learners that they will be exposed to throughout these courses, in different lessons. This would help prepare them for the tasks set out in their courses and help them better understand the material in lectures and contribute to class or tutorial sessions.

The project designed and developed twenty-six mini-lectures for two core curriculum courses at Lingnan University: The Process of Science and The Making of Hong Kong. The videos were added to the course LMS platform where the students could watch the videos and complete pre-class tasks to reinforce their learning. Course professors and lecturers could also look at student rates to these tasks, including the answers given, to determine any areas that might need more focus.

To determine the content of each video, we talked to the content providers and to students who had previously taken the course as well as embedding student helpers in current offerings of the class. We hoped to bridge the gap of what they may know before taking the course and what is going to be covered in upcoming lectures and tutorials. These videos were mostly three to five minutes long but some more complicated material needed longer videos or a video series.

After the videos had been used for a term, we conducted a survey of the students to get feedback, as well as some interviews. The feedback was largely positive as the students found the videos useful, largely because of the autonomy they were given and because they could use them to review the material before class and prior to exams.

The course providers also found them quite useful, although to different extents. The Process of Science followed up this video suite by starting their own video production. The Making of Hong Kong had quite a large teaching group, some of whom liked the videos and others who were a little more skeptical. Some of those who found it useful also started to incorporate more of these videos and created more in other courses.

Examples of videos:

MiLEE The Process of Science Peer Review Unit 3 2.mp4

MiLEE The Process of Science Gummy Bear Experiment Unit 1 3.mp4

MiLEE The Process of Science Monty Python Unit 1 2.mp4

Collaborative writing skills are crucial to KS2 students. However, the abrupt shift to synchronous online teaching has perplexed many English teachers in my school, as they struggled to find effective ways to teach writing in online settings.  Using various platforms and video-conferencing tools, I investigated whether a novel e-process approach can boost students’ writing quality and foster their collaboration skills during two rounds of multi-modal collaborative writing.  Writing quality is determined through content analysis and counting grammar mistakes, whilst collaboration skills is measured in terms of equality and mutuality during students’ interactions. Teachers’ opinions on the above are also solicited. The analysis revealed that students were generally eager to produce writings with ample ideas and few mistakes.  The better-able students were more competent in maintaining elaborated verbal exchanges, though some appeared to dominate the discussion, whilst the less-able ones apparently lacked the language to interact with peers. Teachers’ observations also confirmed the analysis of writings and video recordings.  The findings provided initial evidences to suggest that the novel pedagogy is effective in motivating students to engage in the writing task, yet explicit guidance on the collaborative process is indispensable.  This study is limited in its low generalizability to younger cohorts. 

Short Descriptions

The COVID pandemic has resulted in prolonged periods of primary school suspension and there is an abrupt shift to synchronous online teaching. Teachers should be equipped with the skills to seek for effective to sustain learning and teaching online. Writing skills are especially important for KS2 students, yet hardest to teach in online settings. Design: Use Google apps such as Google doc and Google slides to undergo the pre-writing, drafting, revision and editing. The final writing product is published in Book Creator, Seesaw or Glogster. Students discuss the writing on ZOOM’s breakout rooms under the scrutiny of their teachers. Data will be collected from 4 P6 classes in a primary school in Hong Kong.

Short Descriptions

COVID-19 transformed how university lectures were or are being conducted. Suddenly, teachers were required to step out of their comfort zone to learn to use new teaching technologies, adapt their teaching materials and start teaching online. Despite the convenience and protection from COVID-19, students did not seem to like the switch to online classes, expressing concerns that it caused a slip in their learning standards. Many reasons may have contributed to this perception. The proposed chapter aims to use qualitative method to investigate the following research questions: 1. To what extent are students satisfied with their synchronous online class experience? 2. What are students’ views towards the switch to online classes? 3. What difficulties did students encounter during online teaching? 4. What support do students need to support their online teaching? 5. What constitute best online teaching practices from the students’ perspectives? 6. Do students’ views of online classes vary by disciplines? Twenty-four clustered random samples will be taken from among the survey participants to proceed to the 30-minute online focus-group interviews. In the interviews, participants from each discipline will be asked to discuss the common and best practices of online teaching based on their own experience. They will also be asked to comment, in confidence, on several issues which often puzzle teachers, e.g., to what extent did they participate in class; whether and why they switch on their cameras; whether and how they contribute to group discussions in class; whether and how they maintain great communication with teachers and classmates. The interviews will be transcribed, annotated, and analyzed qualitatively using grounded theory. The preliminary study showed that students from different disciplines have experienced different degrees of learning difficulty because of the online learning environment. They reported that instructors did not provide sufficient assistance in online learning and the teaching practices were not adopted well on the online learning environments. This study attempts to identify different teaching practices used by teaching staff from different disciplines, which potentially sheds light on the students’ opinions towards online learning under the COVID situation and provides first-handed suggestions for teachers to structure their online lessons under all online learning settings. It is undoubtable that online learning has been taking over traditional learning methods even without the strike of the pandemic. Teachers should take the opportunity to prepare themselves for this long-awaiting change to the education field.

Possible Benefits

- Online Teaching

Deliverables

- Potential publication