Faculty Publications and Conference Presentations

<p>Comprehension of metaphorical expressions differs with their degree of novelty. Conventional metaphors are typically comprehended as easily as literal sentences, while novel metaphors are responded to less quickly than their conventional counterparts. However, the influence of metaphor signals on the interpretability and acceptability of sentences with metaphors, especially their potential interaction with novelty, remains an open question. We conducted six online experiments among 1,694 native speakers of American English to examine how interpretability and acceptability ratings of individually presented sentences were affected by metaphor novelty and different types of metaphor signals. Across all six experiments, we consistently found that novel metaphors decreased the interpretability and acceptability of sentences compared to both conventional metaphors and literal controls. Signals, on the contrary, did not impact the interpretability or acceptability of the sentences. Moreover, only in experiment 3b did we find an interaction between metaphor type and signals. Specifically, when a metaphor was marked by double signals (i.e., both lexical signals and a typographical signal were added around the metaphorical keywords) vs. no signals, acceptability of novel metaphors increased, but acceptability of conventional metaphors decreased. We hypothesize that the double signaling of novel metaphors marks their novelty, making them more acceptable. By contrast, the double signaling of conventional metaphors may have been perceived as redundant, leading to a lower acceptability.</p>

<p>To create a more collaborative and communicative learning environment, digital tools are often looked to as possible solutions. Miro, an online whiteboard, is one such tool that allows students to easily share ideas and exchange information using a range of different media. Its strengths are its ability to allow real-time sharing and creation of ideas and information between learners and teachers using a host of multimedia. However, the numerous tools and options provided by the platform does come with a learning curve. Nevertheless, Miro is a useful option for encouraging collaboration between students, giving them a workspace to freely generate ideas and share resources.</p>

<p>This study explores professionals’ construction of their multifaceted identities as representatives of their corporations in business writing. The self-mention framework is applied to explore the representation of the “business-self” which I propose encompasses the projection of individual, collective, and corporate identities. A corpus of 100 CEO's letter to shareholders was examined for the use of personal pronouns and company referential terms and collocation analysis performed to understand the surrounding discourse contexts. The findings reveal a distinct hierarchy of identities; US business professionals communicate with stakeholders by immersing themselves in the identity of the collective and make a concerted effort to project the corporate identity, whereas representation of the individual self is minimal. The study provides important insights into the identity construction work undertaken by professionals in authentic business texts and the findings can help inform English for Specific Purposes (ESP) practitioners of business communication courses in higher education.</p>

<p>This paper examines a new first-year EAP course in a Hong Kong university. It utilizes teacher and student reflections to understand the course’s strengths and weaknesses, aiming to enhance its design and delivery. The study employed a qualitative approach whereby textual analysis was used to interpret the data collected in the form of written teacher reflections, written student reflections, and notes of teacher reflective dialogue. The thematic categories for coding the data were established based on the course’s main learning outcomes: Effective Learning, Spoken Language, and Written Language. Findings reveal that teachers were more critical of the course compared to learners. Teachers expressed dissatisfaction with the pedagogical approach to Effective Learning unit, insufficient time provided in the course to teach solo speaking, and the inability to cover too many organizational and linguistic features in the writing unit. Students, however, did not have much to reflect on about Effective Learning, had mixed views about Spoken Language with some worried about reading from notes, and wrote extremely positively about their learning of Written Language. Nonetheless, their views provide valuable insights for course improvement. Consequently, the paper advocates for a reflective pedagogy approach to EAP that considers both teacher and student reflections to enhance teaching and learning outcomes.</p>

The advent of the internet has made online education more widely available and may have led to a creation of a new teaching model (Harasim, 2000). Online education’s convenience and multimedia options have also broadened the range of skills and courses that can be taught remotely. Online education continued to develop and grow throughout the 1980s and 1990s (Harasim, 2000) and with the ongoing evolution of technology, online education has become a distinct form of teaching and learning. In this context, China’s government initiated the ‘Online Education and Research Network Demonstration Project’ in 1994 (Jiang et al., 2023). In 2012, the trend of online education spread to the global higher education field, and internationally renowned MOOC platforms such as Udacity, Coursera, and EdX were gradually established (Pappano, 2012). It can be argued that the rapid expansion of online education empowers both students and teachers by breaking free from geographical and environmental constraints. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that many students and teachers are still uncertain about the quality and effectiveness of online courses and that it may negatively impact the teacher–student relationship. Also, online education may challenge traditional teacher-learner identities and relationships (Dai &amp; Matthews, 2023). There are also concerns that factors such as limited interaction, time, location and participation may affect the teacher–student dynamic and relationship (Kang et al., 2006). Therefore, this article examines the impact of online education on the relationship between teachers and students in higher education institutions in China, using both quantitative and qualitative research methods. The quantitative research findings indicate that factors such as the communication platform used, student personality, and expectations surrounding the teacher–student relationship have different effects on the relationship. Additionally, qualitative research shows that factors such as course types and major choices have both positive and negative effects on the relationship between teachers and students in Chinese higher education institutions. This article also offers recommendations to help improve the relationship between teachers and students in the context of online education in China.

<p>Previous language attitude research has paid little attention to the (para)linguistic inventory of the speech samples used for accent evaluation. As an example, this study used five Hong Kong English (HKE) voices with more or less localised features, which were assessed by 100 English language teachers in Hong Kong in a verbal-guise experiment. In addition to the closed questions used in the verbal-guise study, we asked the listener judges, in open-ended questions, to reflect on their first-hand impressions of the speakers, their perceived likability, and what in particular they had noticed in the speakers’ language. Findings show that suprasegmental features are highlighted as important for speaker identification and evaluation, whereas segmental features are not mentioned. Listener judges mention prosody (intonation, pitch and stress) as particularly salient; nativeness and level of proficiency are also highlighted. Findings are discussed vis-à-vis language attitude research methodologies, and we argue that the study has contributed towards disentangling the language attitudes processes by emphasising the salience of suprasegmetals for accent recognition and evaluation. We conclude with a call to replicate the research in other socio-cultural contexts and to include other research methods.</p>

<p>Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools such as ChatGPT with their human-like intelligence and language processing capabilities are significantly impacting the way we live, work, and communicate with each other. While scholars have increasingly focused on the use of GenAI in higher education since its inception, little is known about how key higher education stakeholders, particularly students, perceive its impact on teaching and learning within the context of academic communication, an area central to students' development of transferable skills and literacy competencies yet heavily influenced by the technology. This empirical study addresses the gap by investigating students' experiences and attitudes toward GenAI tools for English academic communication, focusing on their overall perceptions, perceived benefits, limitations, and challenges. Drawing on data from a questionnaire survey with 475 students and interviews with 12 at two universities in China, our findings indicate that students generally view GenAI positively, considering them useful for learning academic communication skills, particularly in writing, grammar, vocabulary, and reading. However, limitations are recognized in terms of giving feedback on critical thinking, creativity, and speaking skills. In addition, information reliability, ethical issues, and impact on assessment and academic integrity also emerged as important concerns. Our study argues that universities should embrace and capitalize on the affordances of GenAI and address its challenges to better support students' learning of critical academic literacy.</p>

When anxiety strikes, people feel tense, worried or preoccupied. The purpose of this activity is to intervene in these anxious thoughts and feelings. Unlike mindfulness techniques, which are for becoming more present and reducing stress in a more general and less situational way, this coping strategy draws on Task Concentration Training (TCT) (Bögels, Sijbers and Voncken, 2006) and is designed for use in the moment, to counter anxiety while it is being experienced. It will help the individual to proceed with the speaking activity and engage more deeply, rather than withdrawing from it, when they feel anxious. As teachers, we know that speaking activities can be anxiety-inducing for students. Some activities, such as speaking in front of the whole class, are nerve-racking even in your first language! But since it might not be possible to design a full programme of language activities that completely avoid causing anxiety, it seems a good idea to equip students with strategies to cope with anxiety when it arises. Also, since anxiety affects performance, it would be good if we can support students to do well in the emotional aspect of the activities, too, just as we support them with activities practising other areas of language and content....

<p>The verbal guise test, also known as the verbal guise technique, comprises a longstanding history in linguistic research, particularly within the realms of language attitudes and language variations. This method is considered a modified iteration of the classical matched guise test (or matched guise technique). Over the years, the verbal guise test has found application in a spectrum of studies concerning language attitudes toward different accents and varieties, encompassing both inner circle Englishes and outer circle Englishes. Despite its widespread use in language attitude research, the verbal guise test is not without inherent challenges, such as the quality of audio clips and participant sampling techniques. These limitations have been acknowledged by researchers as commonplace, but thorough discussions and practical solutions to address these limitations have been relatively scarce, with Chan being a notable exception. This chapter endeavors to offer valuable recommendations to researchers who employ the verbal guise technique in their studies by examining recent research endeavors that have incorporated the verbal guise test and by providing a comprehensive overview of the test's historical evolution. The chapter aims to reintroduce this classical tool to contemporary language attitude researchers while engaging in a modern discourse about effective approaches to mitigate its limitations.</p>