PolyU Arts and Humanities Scales to New Heights in THE World University Rankings by Subject 2023

PolyU’s Arts and Humanities is ranked 73rd globally in the 2023 Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings by subject, leaping over 20 spots from last year and breaking into top 100 for the first time. The Faculty will continue to strive for excellence and to fulfil our core missions of nurturing talents, discovering knowledge, and impacting the society. THE uses 13 performance indicators that measure an institution’s performance which are grouped into the areas of teaching, research, citations, international outlook, and industry income. The relative weightings of these criteria vary slightly from discipline to discipline.

Dr Renia Lopez Awarded Research-Stay at the University of Alcala

Dr Renia Lopez, Associate Professor of ENGL, has been awarded a one-month study-stay at the University of Alcalá (Spain) under their prestigious programme Giner de los Ríos, established in 2015. Under this programme, renowned scholars are invited to work with Alcalá’s researchers to explore new topics and develop international co-operations. Dr Lopez has been working on with scholars and students at the University of Alcalá for a few years now and is currently working on a second project which evaluates the benefits of online teaching when the teacher's grammatical explanations are presented with or without gestures. Among the new co-operations she will explore is a study on the affective elements of the foreign language teaching and learning process. Dr Lopez will also be giving talks to students and staff at Alcalá as well as exploring the opportunities for further collaborations and possible exchanges between the University of Alcalá and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

EAC Team Wins 2022 UGC Teaching Award

The English Across the Curriculum (EAC) Team led by Dr Julia Chen(EDC), with Dr Grace Lim(ELC) and collaborative members from CityU, HKBU and HKUST has received the UGC Teaching Award (Collaborative Teams) this year. EAC initiatives over the past few years include workshops for discipline teachers on students’ writing problems, briefings for students to guide them on writing and speaking assignments, organising and co-organising conferences, publishing papers with discipline teachers and the development of a mobile app (Capstone Ninja) with language/writing/speaking resources for students.

The 6th Hong Kong Confucius Institute Day

On 24 September 2022, the 6th Hong Kong Confucius Institute Day was held at PolyU. More than 300 PolyU teachers, students and alumni signed up for the event. Prof. Li Ping, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities of PolyU, Prof. Chu Hung-lam, Chairman of Council of CIHK, and Prof. Han Xiaorong, Director of CIHK, attended the event and delivered speeches. Mr Yao Gongbai, a master of the art of Guqin, and Dr Sharon Cheung from the Department of Chinese Language and History of CityU gave a talk and demonstration on the culture and history of the Guqin. Also invited were the President of the Hong Kong Zhuzi Cultural Exchange Association, Mr and Mrs Zhu Xiang, and the District Councilor Hung Chiu-wah of Yau Tsim Mong District Council.

10 FH Students Honoured at PolyU Entry Scholarship Award Ceremony 2022

10 students of the Faculty were honoured at the University’s Entry Scholarship Award Ceremony 2022 held on 21 September. These 10 scholarship awardees are as follows: AI Zixin (BA (Hons) Scheme in Linguistics and Translation) AKHTER Ishita (BA (Hons) Scheme in English and Applied Linguistics) BOONPOG Natcha (BA (Hons) Scheme in English and Applied Linguistics) CHEUNG Chin To (BA (Hons) Scheme in English and Applied Linguistics) CHU Wing Kiu (BA (Hons) Scheme in Linguistics and Translation) HO Nam Wai Tinky (BA (Hons) Scheme in English and Applied Linguistics) LEUNG Kwan Yi (BA (Hons) Scheme in Linguistics and Translation) SHI Samantha Monique Zhang (BA (Hons) Scheme in Linguistics and Translation) WANG Xinran (BA (Hons) Scheme in Linguistics and Translation) ZHANG Shuying (BA (Hons) Scheme in Linguistics and Translation) Our ENGL student Tinky Ho, who represented Hong Kong at the Tokyo Olympics, delivered a speech on behalf of the awarded undergraduates, sharing her excitement of joining PolyU, and expressing her appreciation to the PolyU community for their support.

The Hong Kong Linguistics Olympiad Featured on RTHK Radio 3’s Common Room

The Hong Kong Linguistics Olympiad is honoured to be featured on RTHK Radio 3’s Common Room programme on 19-23 September. We will be featured in a 2-minute segment called the Social Takeover, which will take place between 5-6 pm each evening. We will talk about what linguistics and the Linguistics Olympiad are, what events you can participate in, the amazing results of the HKSAR teams in past international competitions, as well as why you should join the HKLO! Moreover, we will feature some easy linguistics problems on RTHK’s Instagram to get you started, so make sure to follow @commonroomradio!

PolyU to Host the First China Accreditation Test for Translators and Interpreters in Hong Kong

On 7 September 2022, PolyU signed a cooperation agreement with the China Accreditation Test for Translators and Interpreters (CATTI) Management Center (CATTI Management Center) of the China International Communications Group (CICG). The agreement authorises PolyU to organise the CATTI test in Hong Kong, with a view to uplifting the professional standard of Chinese-English translation in the city. The first Chinese-English translation and interpretation tests will be held in Hong Kong on 5 and 6 November by the Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies. Interested candidates can register from now until 10 October. Read more

Secretary for Education Visits Speech and Language Sciences Laboratory

The President, Acting Dean of the Faculty, and representatives of our Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies met with the Secretary for Education, Dr the Hon. Christine Choi, during her visit to the University on 5 September 2022. The Secretary for Education and her delegates were introduced to facilities of the Speech and Language Sciences Laboratory and our research projects including developing a social robot for speech prosody training in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, and identifying neurocognitive markers for typical language development and language disorders in children.

Launch of PolyU's eLanguage 易語學

A new language learning e-platform created by FH is ready for undergraduate students this semester. The e-platform, called eLanguage 易語學, has been created by colleagues in the CLC and ELC. Students are encouraged to join eLanguage 易語學 to improve their language proficiency in Chinese and English (self-enrol instructions HERE). The platform includes learning modules on writing essays, general vocabulary and workplace English and Chinese as well as an introduction to pinyin. The best performing students on eLanguage 易語學 will have the chance to win great prizes including tablets, bluetooth earphones and book vouchers. Find out more details in this video: https://youtu.be/Lea6tPytOks

Prof. William S-Y. Wang Named Fellow of the Linguistic Society of America

Prof. William S-Y. Wang, Chair Professor of Language and Cognitive Sciences, has been elected a Fellow of the Linguistic Society of America (LSA) in recognition of his distinguished contributions to the discipline. Prof. Wang, along with seven other eminent linguistics scholars selected for the 2023 Class of Fellows, will be inducted in a ceremony at the LSA Annual Meeting on 6 January 2023. The LSA was founded in 1924 to advance the scientific study of language and its applications. To be elected a Fellow of the LSA is an honour accorded annually to distinguished members of the Society.