Invited Speakers

 

Dr. Jane Lockwood

Research Centre for Professional Communication in English, Department of English and Communication, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Shifts in TAWE and shifts in language exchange at global workplaces

Since the first TAWE that took place in Manila in 2005, our focus for this conference has broadened. In 2005 and the subsequent 5 conferences our focus was on the Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) industry in the Philippines and India. Contact centres were rapidly being offshored and outsourced from USA and UK to these developing countries, and the lingua franca exchanges were all in English. We were excited then by the peculiarities of what constituted ‘good communication’ in those settings, where for example, Customer Services Representatives were communicating in English to customers. The aim of those conferences was to get the BPO industry to problematize their issues and provide data, and then we, as applied linguistics and educationalists, would discuss possible business communication and intercultural training solutions.

Almost 2 decades later, this industry has changed, but covid has also accelerated other challenges in the wider business and professional communication arena worldwide where virtual work has been enabled by technology; this has been the concern of the most recent conferences in Hong Kong. TAWE today also now reflects the broader agenda of the Research Centre for Professional communication in English (RCPCE) at Polytechnic University where educational worksites, such as schools and universities.

This opening plenary is therefore both reflective and predictive. It is also necessarily broad and explores how the world of global work has, and is changing with specific reference to English language communication and intercultural exchange. No longer are first language speakers necessarily privileged in multinational and other more local worksites where the lingua franca is English; no longer do most workplaces privilege one culture over another, but now promote diversity; and no longer do we just work in physical workspaces but also have virtual identities at work and at play.

This paper and the exciting programme for today all touch on issues related to communication at work, at school and even at play.

Bio

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)


 

Dr. Sal Consoli

Department of English and Communication, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Lessons from Online Teaching: University Teachers’ Perspectives on Language Learner Engagement

The COVID-19 pandemic has reconfigured the practices of teaching and learning, making education much more challenging for both students and teachers. In particular, the sudden shift to online and hybrid teaching (face-to-face + online) has uncovered several challenges which concern the ability to capture, sustain and enhance students’ attention and meaningful involvement with learning. Consequently, what many teachers have experienced in their classrooms are issues about learner attention and action–i.e., problems of engagement.

Learner engagement refers to students’ active participation in learning and establishes that when students are engaged, they find learning meaningful and satisfying. Learner engagement has been associated with several positive phenomena (e.g., high levels of academic performance, resilience, or aspirations). This notion of engagement, however, does not depend solely on students. Teachers are also critical and have the potential to initiate and sustain engaging learning experiences.

With a focus on English language education in Hong Kong universities, this talk will offer some clarity about students' psychological engagement with academic English alongside their core subjects. I will draw on a study which examined teachers’ perspectives and behaviours throughout online teaching in 2021. The findings will yield insights into some strategies to initiate and sustain learner engagement in Hong Kong English language centres and similar international contexts. Importantly, these insights will offer some lessons about communication and engagement which emerged within the tumultuous times of COVID education, but which may remain relevant and meaningful for our (reconfigured) approaches to language learning and teaching.

Bio

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.


 

Mr. Peter Woodhead

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

How much did COVID change ways of learning and communication in schools? Will there be a new normal in schools post-COVID?

School closures and remote learning are not new but COVID took it to a new level of disruption. How did schools respond to the challenge of supporting students learning@home and will this create a new normal for how teachers use digital tools to support learning? This seminar will explore how COVID activated teachers and administrators to change long standing practice and go onto reflect on the legacy of COVID for educators. With 50 years of experience in education the presenter will also take a historical perspective about what might be the new normal for schools.

Bio

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.


 

Ms. Chong Ah Harper

SWCS YMCA of HK Christian School

Online Teaching & Learning – A Paradigm Shift in Professional Communication in Education

In the past two years, ‘online teaching & learning’ has been one of the most frequently used terminologies in education due to the pandemic. Unlike traditional teaching model, online teaching & learning requires different strategies to engage students, deliver lessons and communicate with students and fellow teachers. It calls for strong ICT skills and a flexible mindset towards adopting and using technology in teaching. In this talk, I will reflect upon teachers’ reactions and strategies to cope with the challenges that arise from ‘online teaching & learning’. For example, online class management, collaborative planning, ways to cater to different learning needs and upgrading of ICT skills, etc.

Bio

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 Poly U. She has been teaching for more than 20 years and her passion for teaching is helping her students improve their English language skills.


 

Professor Eric Friginal

Department of English and Communication, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Re-envisioning communication in post-COVID academia: Perspectives from U.S. higher educational institutions on instruction, assessment, and research

Academic and professional communication in higher education, especially in the contexts of instruction, assessment, and research dramatically changed during the pandemic. These spoken registers that were primary conducted face-to-face and in real-time were transformed into technology-mediated, recorded and retrievable speech events. It was quite surprising that higher education in the United States (U.S.) successfully navigated communicative changes with relative ease (Francisco, 2021). Fully-online and hybrid instruction, virtual faculty meetings, and online assessment have allowed U.S. institutions to align relatively well with schedules and academic calendars, with only minor disruption. This presentation highlights documented successes and challenges in the U.S. that may lead to a re-envisioning of global communication in post-COVID academia. 

Bio

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). 


 

Dr. Jessica Lian

Meta Platforms, Inc.

Communicating Across Englishes Asynchronously and Synchronously

The sudden shift from in-person to virtual work communication during the pandemic revealed new challenges for diverse cross-functional teams. In particular, non-native English speakers suddenly found themselves at a disadvantage during meetings, where the norms for turn-taking privileged some varieties of English over others, and the lack of body language presented new challenges for communication. In this presentation, I will lay out the challenges of communicating for native and non-native English speakers in a fully remote work environment. I will describe some of the challenges I observed while collaborating with native and non-native English speakers synchronously and asynchronously. I will conclude with some recommendations for multilingual teams by drawing from Applied Linguistics research on native speaker listening.

Bio

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.


 

Ms. Sowyma Sundaram

The English and Foreign Languages University

Internal communications around Covid 19: Review and Recommendations

Covid-19 may not have been a crisis for every organization, but it did create some everlasting changes in the way businesses function and also in the way we communicate. Organisations have had to send out daily communications about the pandemic, about redundancies, company closures, changes in HR polices etc. While there was a gamut of these happening, there appeared to be no checks on how efficient these communiques were and whether they had the desired impact. This issue requires evaluation and reflection so as to strengthen internal communications going forward.

In this paper, I define what a good internal communication should entail, posit the importance of dialogue rather than a top down approach, exemplify how to make these communications engaging, and emphasize, using examples, why it is critical to evaluate these communications and look at some possible parameters for such evaluation.

Bio

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.


  

Dr. Esterina Nervino

Department of English and Department of Marketing, City University of Hong Kong

Marketing luxury goods in a post-covid world: ESG is the new glam

For decades, institutions, businesses, and individuals have engaged in discourse regarding their commitment to building a better world. In 2022, however, we are still a long way from achieving sustainable development. While institutions have struggled to agree on common standards and regulations, businesses have shifted their corporate discourse to focus on environmental, social, and governance themes (ESG), which reflect their efforts to preserve the planet (E), generate positive societal impact (S), and operate in compliance with economic policies (G). This shift has resulted from corporate peer pressure, increased activism and consumer engagement on social media, and growing risks for reputational damage and financial impacts on corporations.

Among business sectors, the luxury sector, which has historically been associated with qualities that do not naturally align with sustainability such as overconsumption and social stratification, has worked to integrate ESG factors into corporate discourse.

This study unveils how different brands have been deploying ESG-oriented claims in their marketing messaging to build a favourable brand image in the eyes of their multiple stakeholders, and primarily consumers. Preliminary findings demonstrate that, between 2020 and 2021, brands showed a timely response to user-generated content on social media calling for environmental and social engagement. With time, what was a crisis management response during the pandemic provided the foundations to revisit communication strategies and values that resonate to consumers.

Bio

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).


  

Mr. Patrick Chung

Yamato Logistics (HK) Ltd.

A world connected: How an international logistics company excel under the Covid

Since 2021, the demand and price of logistics services have increased drastically due to the breaking down of the global supply chain. Nonetheless, the prospects of the logistics industry still stand out despite the challenges it is facing. In this seminar, I will share the critical situations that the logistic industry faces and how our practitioners deal with them.

Bio

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.


  

Ms. Ruby Dela Cruz

Future Perfect

Post-pandemic assessment and training needs and practices in BPOs

This presentation focuses on the impact of the pandemic on the needs of the BPO industry in the Philippines in the areas of communication assessment and training. It reports on the major adjustments in the industry to comply with Covid19 restrictions in the last two years. It talks about how the new work-from-home and hybrid workplace arrangements redefined current needs and requirements in recruitment assessments and communication training. It further presents the efforts of assessment and training service providers like Future Perfect to meet this client demand through research-based effective use of remote delivery platforms both for applicant testing and agent training. As BPOs come to an organizational decision of what their new-normal workplace structure will be for 2022, this presentation calls for existing learning frameworks to be revisited, or for new models to be conceptualized, that may serve as a relevant guide for the scope of technology in communication skills testing and development in the workplace.

Bio

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.