Academic Staff

I am an Associate Professor at the Department of Language Science and Technology, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). I am also the principal investigator of Bilingual and Biliteracy Research Lab (BBRL). I received my Ph.D. in Second Language Acquisition from Carnegie Mellon University. Prior to joining PolyU, I held academic appointments at the Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen and the University of Kentucky.

I am an applied linguist whose research bridges reading development, second language acquisition, and language education. With training in second language acquisition and a specialization in second language reading, I examine how children and adults develop reading competence in an additional language. My research focuses on cross-linguistic transfer, metalinguistic awareness, reading assessment, and instructional practices. A distinctive contribution of my work lies in its attention to nonalphabetic writing systems, particularly Chinese, and to learners in Chinese diaspora and multilingual societies. By foregrounding these contexts, my work expands theories of second language reading beyond alphabetic-language models and informs evidence-based, technology-enhanced approaches to language teaching and assessment for diverse multilingual learners.

My recent publications include the first-authored monograph Metalinguistic Awareness in Second Language Reading Development, published by Cambridge University Press, and the Routledge volume Chinese Language Education and Second Language Chinese Acquisition: An Interface with Chinese Linguistics, co-edited with Jing Jin. My work has also been published in international refereed journals such as Applied Linguistics, Language Learning, Modern Language Journal, Reading and Writing, and Studies in Second Language Acquisition. My research has been funded by American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (2018 Research Priorities Initiative), Hong Kong UGC General Research Fund, Language Learning Early Career Research Grant, and the U.S. Department of Education. Currently, I am serving on the editorial board of Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Journal of Educational Psychology, Learning and Individual Differences, Reading in a Foreign Language, and Reading and Writing . I am the recipient of the 2025 ARWA Award for Mid-Career Excellence in second language reading and biliteracy development, and an elected board member of Association for Reading and Writing in Asia (ARWA).

Visit Ke's lab website: https://bbrlab.weebly.com/

• 2012 - 2016
  Ph.D., Second Language Acquisition, Carnegie Mellon University
• 2010 - 2013
  M.Phil., Chinese Teaching and Language Acquisition, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
• 2006 - 2010
  B.A., English (Minor in Japanese), Sun Yat-sen University, China