Celebrating PolyU's 85th anniversary

PolyU will celebrate its 85th anniversary in 2022! To mark this important milestone, the University is calling for ideas and contributions from the PolyU community (staff, students, and alumni). Participants will have the chance to earn a cash award of HK$10,000 or other prizes! Don’t miss out! Anniversary theme song lyrics contest Video contest Anniversary souvenirs design contest PolyU memorabilia Click here for more details. Deadline: 30 June 2021  

BA Students Assignment Showcase

While our BA students are good at several different languages, our teachings are geared towards helping them continually develop their own skills in professional communication in various fields. In semester 2, students taking the subject "English for Technical and Web-based Writing" were required to set up a new business and produce creative products for their business, such as videos, stickers, posters, and websites. The objective was to provide an opportunity for students to practise technical communication skills. Through hands-on group projects that simulated the skills students would need to utilise in the workplace, students in the course were able to create many high quality group assignments that showed off their ingenuity and talent. We would like to feature four projects that demonstrate the creativity of our students. The students involved have developed eye-catching stickers for two popular free messaging apps, WhatsApp and Signal, to promote their businesses on one of the most popular social media platforms - Instagram. In less than 3 months since their launch in March, our students' stickers have received considerable praise and have amassed thousands of downloads! Check them out and add them to your sticker collections!

Cluster Area Requirements (CAR) subject "Understanding Communication between Patients and Health Professional in Health Settings''

How to make communication effective and helpful when patients talk to health professionals? In this summer term, we are offering a Cluster Area Requirements (CAR) subject "Understanding Communication between Patients and Health Professional in Health Settings'' to allow students to develop a strong understanding of different health communication issues by examining how quality patient safety and care in our society can be promoted. Places are still available within the add/drop period until 5 June 2021. Students in both healthcare and non-healthcare related disciplines can enroll here. Please click here for more info.    

Latest issue of newsletter published: ENGLink Winter 2020

Headline: Development of Free Resource for Hong Kong Primary School English Teachers to Teach Children’s Literature

Enjoy 30% off till 23 May for the new book by our Dr Jane Lockwood!

This new book Developing Global Business Communication in Asia, co-authored by our Dr Jane Lockwood and a business English specialist Dr Neil Elias, is an essential guide for anyone who wishes to develop successful business communication. It provides authentic and memorable workplace scenarios where learners become English communicators when solving authentic problems doing business together. The book aims to help you to: Use authentic workplace materials to solve problems using English Understand how language can be used as a lingua franca effectively when communicating Understand how intertextuality between shared spoken and written texts drives communication Improve communicative performance in spoken and written texts Become familiar with the communication realities of workplaces that are becoming increasingly technology driven and globalised Buy now at the Taylor & Francis Group website  (promo code: DGB21, valid until 23 May). Dr Jane Lockwood will also be the opening speaker of the "TALKING ACROSS THE WORLD" Symposium (TAW) on 21 May. She is going to talk about the new challenges in professional and business communication in a post-Covid world. Academics, professionals, and students who wish to learn about the new research agendas, effective teaching methods, and best practices in digitalized professional communication are welcome to join. 

Teacher research brings positive impact

This joint article by our Dr Sal Consoli discusses teacher research offered insights into the evolving identities, linguistic repertoires, and pedagogies of student-teachers.

New book chapter on pragmatic impairment

This chapter by our Prof. Louise Cummings in the Handbook of Language and Speech Disorders uses the notion of a communicative intention to discuss pragmatic impairment.

Result of the ENGL New Logo Design Competition

The Judging Panel is pleased to announce that the champion for the ENGL New Logo Design Competition is Shu-fan Yang, a student of BA in Communication Design at the School of Design. A total of 37 entries from 25 participants were received and the competition for the winning one was very keen. The Panel would like to give special compliment to the runner-up, Seth Dikmadugoda, for a high quality design with creativity and aesthetic appeal. Our Department will be retitled to the Department of English and Communication with effect from 1 September 2021. The new title reflects our status as an interdisciplinary department that features linguistics and communication experts over the world. This diversity is also the hallmark of our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and is reflected in the wide range of subjects that students can take at the BA or MA levels . Also, the new title is synonymous with our tagline, which is "Excelling in Professional Communication". Please join us to congratulate the champion, and thanks again to those who participated in the competition. Some refinements will be done on the winning logo and it will be released when it is ready. With best wishes from the Judging Panel, Professor Hans Ladegaard, Head, Department of English Professor Bernadette Watson, Associate Head, Department of English Mr Paul Lee, Chair, Department of English Advisory Committee, Department of English Ms Catherine Law, Marketing Manager, Department of English Mr Roberto Vilchis, Instructor, School of Design

New book chapter on second language motivation

This joint article by our Dr Sal Consoli discusses teacher research offered insights into the evolving identities, linguistic repertoires, and pedagogies of student-teachers.

New paper published in World Englishes

This new paper by our Professor Kathleen Ahrens examines keyness, conceptual frames, and metaphorical signals in newspaper editorials in two varieties of World Englishes: Chinese and Amercian English. These editorials focus on opinion articles and commentaries about territorial issues in the South China Sea during 2013-2015 and the study helps to understand how the media in China and the United States present their arguments over this geopolitical situation issue. The paper can be accessed via the Wiley Scholarly Network.