Outstanding Alumni Award 2023 of the Department of English and Communication of PolyU – Announcement of Awardees

We are delighted to share the list of the recipients of the Outstanding Alumni Award 2023 of the Department of English and Communication. The Department would like to recognize the outstanding accomplishments of four of our alumni in their fields. The four awardees listed below have all made significant contributions to PolyU, our Department, and society. The Alumni and Young Alumni awardees, in alphabetical order by family name, are: 1. Ms Candice LAU Lok Ying, Communication Officer, UNICEF Sudan (Graduate of 2019) Outstanding Young Alumni Award in Community Service Achievement Ms Candice LAU’s engagement with community service started when she was a student at PolyU, where she worked as a youth facilitator and programme assistant in several local NGOs. She joined UNICEF Vietnam after graduating in 2019 and was stationed in Hanoi as an Education Associate, where she worked to help ensure access to education for children. Her current role within UNICEF Sudan highlights her dedication to advocating for the rights of Sudanese children through her leadership in various campaigns. Ms Lau’s wholehearted devotion towards promoting the rights of various disadvantaged communities is truly commendable. Mr Paul Lee, Chair of the Departmental Advisory Committee and a member of the Judging Panel, said, “The essence of communication is to bring people together to hopefully achieve some meaningful objectives together. Candice, being a proud graduate of our department, has set a good example of doing meaningful things outside HK (i.e., in Vietnam and Sudan), bridging various communities around the world so those in need can be served. This is a great example of communication well lived and interpreted for the betterment of mankind!” "Receiving the Department’s Outstanding Award is an honour for me, especially given that young women are often less recognised for their contributions,” said Ms Lau. “I hope that this serves as a reminder that this award should celebrate diversity and challenge the definition of success, showing that the path to achievement is not limited to certain areas of work or demographics. This recognition has inspired me to continue my development and humanitarian work with the most vulnerable children, leading towards a more inclusive future". 2. Ms Doris LEUNG Shuk Yi, Co-Founder, Diamond Tech (Hong Kong) Limited, and Founder and CEO, Diamond Cab (Hong Kong) Limited (Graduate of 1993) Outstanding Alumni Award in Entrepreneurial Achievement Ms Doris LEUNG is an award-winning and pioneering social entrepreneur and founder of Diamond Cab, the first wheelchair-accessible taxi service company in Hong Kong. Over the past 12 years, Ms Leung’s work has inspired the taxi industry within Hong Kong to recognise the need for and to allow increased access to barrier-free taxis. Currently, with over 100 wheelchair-accessible taxis of different brands operating throughout Hong Kong, Diamond Cab has set the benchmark of running quality taxi services with empathy. Ms Leung’s work has demonstrated how commercial business can be improved by adopting a social mission, especially with the untapped need for ageing care. Professor Eric Friginal, Head of the Department and a member of the Judging Panel, said, “The innovative work of Ms Leung has contributed tremendously to supporting the social welfare and ageing care sectors, showcasing the potential for innovation and local ingenuity to bring about fundamental changes and policy shifts”. Ms Leung expressed it is a great honour to receive the award, and said, "I am grateful to have been empowered by the knowledge of Language and Communication at PolyU. I have practised what I have learnt to curate the social entrepreneurial journey of Diamond Cab with a long-lasting impact to make a better ageing world". 3. Dr Esterina NERVINO, Assistant Professor, Department of English and Department of Marketing, City University of Hong Kong (Graduate of 2018) Outstanding Young Alumni Award in Professional Achievement Dr Esterina NERVINO joined the retail industry after she completed her PhD studies within the Department. Dr Nervino went back to academia in 2021 and has incorporated her professional network and experience into her curriculum to benefit students by allowing them to interact with international corporations through their university studies. Dr Nervino is well recognised within luxury retail for her great contributions within the industry towards raising awareness about the role of discourse, particularly in discussions surrounding sustainability as a crucial component of corporate commitments, efforts, and achievements. Dr Amy Suen, Chairperson of the Department of English Alumni Association and a member of the Judging Panel, congratulated the success of Dr Nervino, “Your hard work, perseverance, and continuous pursuit of professionalism have led to excellence. By sharing your insights, you have inspired your fellow alumni to achieve their goals. Your invaluable perspective and positive mindset are truly an asset”. Dr Nervino felt honoured to be the recipient of this award and said, “I would like to express my gratitude to the Judging Panel and the staff of the Department of English and Communication for their nomination and support during my studies. Thank you also to all the people who have contributed to this achievement. This recognition further motivates me to pursue a greater integration between linguistics and marketing in my research and to strengthen the collaboration between academia and the business sector, highlighting the key role that discourse plays in society”. 4. Mr Phil WOO Pak Fai, Co-founder and Product Director, PREN (Graduate of 2008) Outstanding Young Alumni Award in Entrepreneurial Achievement Mr Phil WOO showcased his entrepreneurial acumen as Co-founder and Product Director of PREN by developing proprietary hardware and software solutions for multinational corporations and start-ups, achieving impressive financial results. Mr Woo co-invented ground-breaking products, such as an anti-infection waterless mobile toilet for caretakers and a smart toilet lid to facilitate primary healthcare, which have secured HK$700K in grants from the Hong Kong Government via the PolyU Maker Fund and Cyberport Creative Micro Fund. Mr Woo’s innovative ventures have not only driven growth and success in their respective industries but have also left a lasting impact on society as a whole. Dr Amy Suen said, “Your entrepreneurial achievements are shaped by your vision, determination, and hard work. We would also like to celebrate your positive disposition and the impact you have on others. Thank you for what you do. You are a shining example of an outstanding alumnus. Congratulations!” Mr Woo shared his excitement about receiving this award, “I am honoured to be recognised among such talented and accomplished fellows in our Department. This award will motivate more of us to continue pushing the boundaries of exploration and pioneering”. We would like to extend our heartfelt congratulations again to this year’s awardees for their outstanding contributions and achievements!

PolyU Taster Programme 2023: English Around You

We are happy that around 25 Secondary 4 to 5 students had a wonderful time participating in our two interactive workshops focused on the theme of "English Around You" at the PolyU Taster Programme 2023 on 13 April. The workshops were designed to help students grasp the versatility of the English language in various contexts. Through lively activities and discussions, participants gained practical communication skills that can be applied in their everyday lives. Additionally, they had the opportunity to meet our student ambassador and learn about the exceptional study experiences offered at PolyU and our programme. We hope they felt inspired to further explore English and Communication! Know more about our BA in English and Applied Linguistics (BAEAL)  

New joint article on regional varieties and diachronic changes in Chinese political discourse

This new joint article by our Professor Kathleen Ahrens, published in the journal of Humanities & Social Sciences Communications under Springer Nature, examines the political discourses in Hong Kong and Mainland China using the Menzerath-Altmann (MA) law to analyse the relationship between linguistic constructs. The study found that the parameters of the MA law can distinguish regional variants of political speeches and capture language changes over time. The results suggest that the law can account for the interaction of diachronic language change and synchronic variation in complex self-organising systems. Open access to the article from HERE.

Undergraduate ENGL Conference PolyU-CALLS 2023 a Resounding Success

Organised by the Department of English and Communication (ENGL), the first-ever PolyU Undergraduate Conference on Applied Linguistics and Language Studies (PolyU-CALLS) was held on Saturday, 4 March 2023. The inaugural event, held on campus, was a resounding success, with over 100 students from PolyU and other universities in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area participating in the conference. PolyU-CALLS 2023 featured research presentations by undergraduate students as well as plenary speeches by ENGL faculty members Professor Dennis Tay and Dr Anne Schluter. In keeping with the conference’s focus on showcasing the work of ENGL undergraduate students, the conference was supported throughout the day by more than a dozen undergraduate student volunteers. PolyU-CALLS reflects ENGL’s increasing focus on undergraduate student research. "We saw a need for an event that was tailored to students' research interests, especially those who are completing their Capstone or Final Year projects. We hope that the conference will inspire Applied Linguistics and Communication students in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area to get involved in language-based research more actively and spearhead their own original research studies," said Professor Eric Friginal, Head of ENGL at PolyU. The breadth of topics and diversity of presenters at PolyU-CALLS 2023 brought in an audience that included faculty, postgraduate students, and undergraduate students. Attendees at the conference were able to listen to 32 different undergraduate presentations spanning subject areas that included language and social media; linguistic landscape and urban spaces; next generation workplaces; and language and European studies. Student presenters were competitively selected based on their submitted proposals or via nomination by their home departments. The organisers of PolyU-CALLS 2023 were thrilled with the level of engagement and energy at the event. A post-conference survey was sent to all participants to help the Department know what can be done to make next year’s iteration of the conference even better. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with respondents praising the content and organisation of the conference (and the catering and gift bags provided for all conference attendees). The majority of respondents said they would recommend PolyU-CALLS to friends and classmates, with one attendee saying “Great event, hope to have another chance to join that again in the future, even though I am not a presenter. Thank you!”. Praise for the event also came from presenters, who appreciated receiving “a lot of valuable suggestions for research”. Though all student presenters at PolyU-CALLS 2023 did an amazing job, ENGL would like to recognise those outstanding presenters whose work went above and beyond at demonstrating research excellence. After evaluating both abstract submissions and the presentations themselves, ENGL would like to announce the following PolyU-CALLS 2023 award winners: Best PolyU-CALLS presentation: Ashima Shukla from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Best ENGL presentation: Nok Lam Wong from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Best non-ENGL presentation: Sum Wai Li from Hong Kong Baptist University The level of student participation at PolyU-CALLS 2023 highlights an appetite for more student-oriented conferences in Applied Linguistics and Language Studies. “It’s amazing to see the level of enthusiasm present at the PolyU-CALLS 2023. We're delighted with how the event turned out,” said Dr Max Diaz, ENGL Undergraduate Programme Leader. “It's exciting to see students getting exposure to new research topics, receiving feedback on their studies, and experiencing an authentic academic conference. We're already planning next year's conference and hope to make it bigger and better.” With its first chapter coming to a successful close, students and the Department of English and Communication are already looking forward to PolyU-CALLS 2024.

Research article of Dr Phoebe Lin recognised by TESOL Quarterly as a top cited article in 2021-22

An article written by our Dr Phoebe Lin titled, "In Search of the Optimal Mode of Input for the Acquisition of Formulaic Expressions", has been recognised as a Top Cited Article in 2021-22 in a top-tier journal, TESOL Quarterly under Wiley. This article reports a controlled experiment to investigate the effect of input mode and frequency effects on incidental Formulaic expressions (FEs) acquisition by L1 and EFL learners. The results confirm that input modality affects FE learning. Visual input is more conducive to FE learning than aural input, for both L1 and EFL learner groups. More information about the article can be found on the website HERE.

Dr Ming Curran granted funding for research in Korea coffee culture

Dr Ming Curran, our Assistant Professor, has been awarded a grant for US$13,320 (HK$104,000) from the Academy of Korean Studies for his project titled From foreign luxury to domestic necessity: Coffee culture in Korea today. Dr Curran will use the grant to travel to South Korea to conduct research about the country’s vibrant and rapidly expanding coffee scene. Drawing on theories of globalisation and intercultural communication, Dr Curran will explore the multiple social functions that coffee and coffee shops play in contemporary Korean society. He will conduct interviews with customers to examine how coffee and the space of the coffee shop are differently understood and consumed by various demographic groups in South Korea. In addition, he will analyse how local city governments use coffee to promote domestic tourism. Dr Curran’s new project marks a continuation of his earlier research on coffee culture in Korea, which he conducted in collaboration with South Korea's Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Associate Professor Michael Chesnut and which was published last year in the Journal of Consumer Culture under Sage Publications. More information of the article can be found on the website here.

Opinion article published in the South China Morning Post about ChatGPT and Education

Our Department Head, Professor Eric Friginal, wrote an opinion article in the South China Morning Post (SCMP) examining the potential implications of the artificial intelligence application ChatGPT for high school and university academic activities. According to Prof. Friginal, AI technologies such as ChatGPT may present some challenges but can also provide positive teaching and learning opportunities if incorporated into the classroom with careful consideration. Prof. Friginal suggests that ChatGPT could be utilised by instructors to increase student engagement and prepare learners for an AI-driven future. However, he notes that most academic institutions in Hong Kong banned the use of ChatGPT due to concerns about academic dishonesty. In contrast, PolyU took a proactive approach by holding webinars demonstrating ChatGPT's capabilities and limitations. Based on Prof. Friginal's experiment using ChatGPT to evaluate essays, he identified major weaknesses in its feedback, particularly the inability to accurately cite sources or references. Despite concerns that AI tools will upend our traditions of education and learning, Prof. Friginal believes that ChatGPT and tools like it are transformative. They show the potential of AI's march from machine learning to machine consciousness, which can be leveraged and controlled by teachers and students in the writing classroom and beyond. Read the full article from the SCMP website HERE.

New book on Navigating the Realities of Metaphor and Psychotherapy Research

This new short-form book published by the Cambridge University Press, written by our Prof. Dennis Tay, discusses how to navigate the practical realities of applied metaphor research, using psychotherapy as an example. The three foundational components of psychotherapy - the therapist, the client, and the interactional setting - are discussed in turn, covering issues like ethically engaging therapists in research design and data analysis, dealing with underexplored variabilities in client responses, and managing the inherent tension between spontaneity and control in an interactional setting like psychotherapy. This book also offers some thoughts on how the lessons are transferable to other research contexts. More information about the book can be found on the website HERE.

New joint paper on the influence of professional identity on how the receiver receives and responds to a speaking up message

This new joint paper by our Professor Bernadette Watson, published in the BMC Nursing journal under BMC, part of Springer Nature, discusses what enables or hinders health professionals to speak up about a safety concern. It utilises Communication Accommodation Theory to explore the impact the communication behaviour and speaker characteristics has on the receiver of a speaking up message. Speaking up research to date has overwhelmingly been atheoretical and focused on the person speaking up. Clinicians (N=208) from varying disciplines responded to two hypotheticals speaking up vignettes, where participants reading the vignettes were the receivers of speaking up messages. The research team explored potential differences between different receiver groups (profession and seniority). The findings demonstrate that speaking up interactions are intergroup in nature (seniority and profession). Receivers of a message are also influenced by the speaker’s accommodative stance and the presence of others during the speaking up event. These influences affected receivers differently, depending on their clinical discipline. The research team's findings suggest that speaking up training needs to stop being predominately based on technical skill (learning a mnemonic) and to start theorising how receivers want to be spoken to. Speaking up programs need to be interprofessional to help clinicians understand and appreciate the impact of the intergroup dynamics within these conversations, and how to manage them within an interaction. More information about the article can be found on the website HERE.

New joint article on publishing in predatory language and linguistics journals

This new joint article by our Dr Hassan Nejadghanbar and Prof. Guangwei Hu in Language Teaching, a top-tier journal published by Cambridge University Press, investigates language and linguistics authors' motivations for and experiences of publishing in potential predatory journals (PPJs). Predatory journals have grown to be a serious threat to scientific publishing. False or misleading material, a departure from academic editorial and publication processes, a lack of openness, and aggressive solicitation techniques are characteristics of these publications. A questionnaire was administered to 2,793 academics with publications in 63 language and linguistics PPJs, and 213 of them returned their responses. A subsample of the respondents (n = 21) also contributed qualitative data. Analyses of the survey data found that the authors were mainly from Asia, mostly had a doctorate, chose the PPJs chiefly for fast publication and, or meeting degree or job requirements, were predominantly of the opinion that the PPJs were reputable, and commonly reported positive impacts of publishing in the PPJs on their studies or academic careers. A thematic analysis of the qualitative data revealed five main themes: unawareness, unrelenting publication pressures, low information literacy, social identity threat, and failure to publish in top-tier journals. The findings have very important implications for the language and linguistics community.    More information about the article can be found on the website HERE.