OTHER ISSUES

RECENT FOCUS

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.

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 with effect from 1 July 2022. 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.

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.

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

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.

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 and 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.

EVENTS

• (3 September 2022) PolyU 85th Anniversary – CBS Online Lecture Series: Career Development in Various Areas
• (19 September 2022) PolyU 85th Anniversary – FH-UBSN Joint Distinguished Lecture: Shared computational principles for language processing in humans and deep language model
• (24 September 2022) Confucius Institute Day 2022
• (29 September 2022) PolyU 85th Anniversary – FH-FB Joint Distinguished Lecture: Venturing into Chinese culture: A pilgrim psychologist’s Journey to the West to find the City of Light in the East
• (8 October 2022) PolyU Undergraduate Info Day
• (18 October 2022) PolyU 85th Anniversary – FH-PAIR Joint Distinguished Lecture: Consciousness, AI, and Ethics
• (19 November 2022) PolyU 85th Anniversary Performance cum Putonghua Recitation and Demonstration Workshop
• (9-10 December 2022) The 6th International Symposium on Chinese Language and Discourse (6th ISCLD)