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.

STU 10th Anniversary Symposium: The Future of Speech Therapy in Hong Kong

The Speech Therapy Unit (STU) 10th Anniversary Symposium: The Future of Speech Therapy in Hong Kong was successfully held on 6 August 2022. The Symposium was attended by 240 participants who are predominantly practicing speech therapists. Celebrating the 85th anniversary of the University and the 10th anniversary of the STU, the Symposium provided an opportunity for local speech therapy practitioners, researchers, and stakeholders to exchange ideas on the latest developments of communication sciences and disorders in the Hong Kong context. The STU aims to create a platform to serve education and research purposes through the provision of speech therapy services to the public.

Dr Phoebe Lin Awarded JSPS Invitational Fellowship for Research in Japan

Dr Phoebe Lin, Assistant Professor of ENGL, has been awarded an Invitational Fellowship for Research in Japan. The Invitational Fellowships, sponsored by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), provide overseas researchers who have an excellent record of research achievements with an opportunity to conduct collaborative research, discussions, and opinion exchanges with researchers in Japan. Dr Lin will be developing an automatic speech scoring system for English learners in collaboration with Dr Keiko Tsuchiya (Yokohama City University), Dr Alex Gillmore (University of Tokyo) and Dr Neil Millar (University of Tsukuba). She will also be giving public talks and workshops at these three universities in the first semester of 2022/2023.

Hong Kong Linguistics Olympiad Team Excels at IOL 2022

Our Hong Kong Linguistics Olympiad (HKLO) team achieved outstanding results at the International Linguistics Olympiad (IOL) 2022 held on 25-29 July in the Isle of Man. The team took home two medals, two best solution awards and an honourable mention: 💡Best Solution Award Ian Tam for problem 4 Henry Wong for problem 5 🥈Silver Medal Ian Tam (individual contest) 🥉Bronze Medal Henry Wong (individual contest) 👏Honourable Mention Ian Tam, Henry Wong, Ryan Lo, and Samantha Yung (team contest) The team is jointly trained by the Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies and the Department of English and Communication. Please visit the HKLO page for more information about the team.

Faculty Dean Prof. Li Ping Appointed to Sin Wai Kin Foundation Endowed Professorship in Humanities and Technology

Prof. Li Ping, Chair Professor of Neurolinguistics and Bilingual Studies and Dean of Faculty of Humanities, is appointed as Sin Wai Kin Foundation Professor in Humanities and Technology under the University’s Endowed Professorship Scheme for the period of 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2027. This professorship has given the Faculty a strong impetus to make further contributions to the research and education in humanities and technology. With the support of donors, the Endowed Professorship Scheme recognises the achievements of world-renowned researchers in their specialised disciplines and enables the Endowed Professors to explore and advance cutting-edge research projects for the betterment of mankind.

FH PhD Student Takes Home Best Paper Award in Regional Competition

A CBS PhD student, Zeng Weixin, won the first prize in the 7th Paper Competition of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Postgraduate Academic Exchanges in Foreign Languages and Translation Studies 2022 (粵港澳外語與翻譯研究生論文評選大賽一等獎) co-organised by, among others, the Hong Kong Translation Society and Sun Yat-sen University. The Competition attracted over 250 entries covering the areas of foreign literature, linguistics and applied linguistics, translation studies, cross-cultural studies, and national and regional studies, 12 of which were selected to compete in the final round. Miss Zeng was awarded the winner after a presentation and Q&A session. Launched in 2015, this academic event aims to promote academic and cultural exchanges in the areas of foreign languages and translation studies between postgraduate students from Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macau.

Dr Chen Si Wins the University's Young Innovative Researcher Award 2022

Dr Chen Si, Assistant Professor of CBS, receives the PolyU Young Innovative Researcher Award (YIRA) 2022. The University received 59 submissions across 22 departments covering all faculties/schools in this inaugural round and Dr Chen (whose research focus is robot-assisted training for children with autism spectrum disorder) is named one of the six YIRA awardees. The YIRA aims to honour young PolyU researchers under the age of 35 who have demonstrated novelty, contributed to technology advancement, and propelled transformational innovation into solutions for addressing problem in society with a vision for a positive change to the future. Each YIRA awardee will receive research funding support of HK$500,000 and personal cash prize of HK20,000 as the encouragement for their research novelty and impact.

FH Students Excel in National Translation Competition

Our students Ma Jianfei (Year 1 student of the BALT programme) and Lin Meishan (Year 3 student of the BACBS programme) won the first-class awards in the first China Young Translators’ Contest (B Category). The competition has received more than 10,000 entries from students of over 1,600 local and overseas schools and other industry participants.