"TALKING ACROSS THE WORLD" Symposium: Post-covid reflections on English language communication at work

Dr Jane Lockwood is currently Adjunct Associate Professor and member of the Research Centre for Professional Communication in English (RCPCE) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Her key area of research is how technology is impacting workplace communication and she has published widely on this topic in the Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) industry in Asia. She has mostly recently co-authored a coursebook for business communication with Neil Elias Developing Business Communication in Asia: a simulated case study approach. (Routledge)  

Sal Consoli is (Research) Assistant Professor in the Department of English and Communication at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). His research focuses on the psychology of language learning and teaching. He also has an active interest in research ethics and reflexivity in applied linguistics. Sal has developed the concept of life capital which offers a heuristic to account for language learners’ and teachers’ life stories and understand how these interact with learning and teaching experiences. He has recently co-edited a Special Issue on Narrative Inquiry for the journal System and one on Research Engagement for the journal Educational Action Research.

Peter has been a senior administrator and classroom teacher in the UK and Hong Kong and has extensive experience of leading changes in Curriculum, Pedagogy and use of Learning Technology to support independent learning. During COVID he worked as an ISTE trainer providing online PD for teachers around the world, and also as an educational consultant for The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, providing online training for Hong Kong teachers in Language across the Curriculum.

Chong Ah Harper is currently a primary school teacher in Hong Kong, who recently completed MA in English Language Teaching at the Department of English and Communication at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. She has been teaching for more than 20 years and her passion for teaching is helping her students improve their English language skills.

Eric Friginal is Professor of Applied Linguistics and Head of Department of English and Communication at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Before moving to Hong Kong, he was Professor and Director of International Programs at the Department of Applied Linguistics and ESL and the College of Arts and Sciences at Georgia State University, USA. He specializes in applied corpus linguistics, quantitative research, language policy and planning, technology and language teaching, sociolinguistics, cross-cultural communication, discipline-specific writing, and the analysis of spoken professional discourse in the workplace. He is the founding co- editor-in-chief of Applied Corpus Linguistics (ACORP) Journal (with Paul Thompson, University of Birmingham, UK). 

Jessica spent ten years working as a TESOL educator and researcher in Hong Kong and the United States. Her research focused on the experiences of heritage language speakers who grew up interpreting and translating English for their immigrant parents in the United States. After completing her PhD in Applied Linguistics at Georgia State University, Jessica pivoted to ux research at The Home Depot, where she led studies for the Search and Recommendations team during the pandemic. She is currently a qualitative user experience researcher at Meta Platforms working on the Facebook App.

Sowmya is a Learning and Development professional, a Linguist and a learning enthusiast. After spending close to a decade in a leading banking organization, she started consulting independently. Over the last 8 years, she has been a consultant for companies in a range of sectors like FMCG, BFSI, Energy, Telecommunication, Hospitality, Fintech start-ups, Educational Institutions etc. working on improving communications, training, senior leadership capabilities, organizational development, employee engagement and the like across France, Luxembourg and India.

Esterina Nervino is currently Assistant Professor holding a joint appointment at the Department of English and the Department of Marketing at City University of Hong Kong, where she is also Associate Director of the Sales and Marketing Consulting Unit (SMCU). She is Junior Adjunct Professor of Intercultural Communication and Language Variation at the Universita’ degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia (Italy) and member of the Research Centre for Professional Communication in English at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. She holds a PhD in Applied Linguistics from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and her research interests include social semiotics, multimodality, business communication, luxury studies in relation to art, space, sustainability, and retail experience. Prior to CityU, Esterina was the Director of Retail in Asia (part of Bluebell Group) in charge of media brand operations including content selection, curation, edition, and commercial strategy. At Bluebell Group, she also took on the role of Public Relations Lead working on internal/external communication and ESG strategy. She also holds a M.A. in Foreign Languages for Business Communication from the Universita’ degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia (Italy), a B.A. in Language Mediation from the Universita’ degli Studi della Calabria (Italy), an Executive Education Certificate in Social Entrepreneurship from INSEAD (Singapore).

Patrick Chung is the Board of Directors and Executive Officer of the Yamato Logistics (HK) Ltd. He has over 20 years of experience in Logistics and Higher Education. He has been a Chartered Member of The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in Hong Kong (CILTHK) since 2020. Patrick graduated with a Master of Business Administration at HKU and a Bachelor of Economics at The Carleton University in Canada.  

Ruby Dela Cruz is the Head of Quality and Product Development at Future Perfect, where she leads a team in delivering communication assessment, training curriculum, and coaching solutions to multinational organizations. She has a Master’s Degree in Development Communication and 15 years’ experience in English language and communication teaching both in the academe and corporate setting.