Browsing by Projects - Department "Department of English Language and Literature"

This study aims to identify the linguistic features that facilitate emotional expression and connection within the hospice community by analyzing digital narratives shared on hospice care websites and support group forums. The significance of this study lies in its investigation of how language shapes the hospice care experience, particularly in the context of anticipatory grief among terminally ill patients and their carers. The Economist Intelligence Unit ranked the UK as the best country for end-of-life care and Hong Kong 20th out of 80 countries. Based on UK best practices, this proposed study aims to improve the understanding of digital platforms in end-of-life care and provide insights for developing effective hospice services in diverse cultural contexts. We will build a comprehensive text corpus of 1,000 narrative stories of at least 600,000 words from hospice centre websites and support group forums in Hong Kong and the UK. This project will result in the first corpus of its kind offering original insights into linguistic development such as similarities and differences in narrative structure, language use, and attitudinal expressions between these two cultural contexts. This study, grounded in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), will examine key register variables, namely— field (topic), tenor (participant relationships), and mode (communication channel), — to understand their influence on hospice discourse. We will analyze the generic structures and grief stages of the texts for guiding information flow, and we will explore discourse semantics for how meaning is constructed through specific lexical choices. For example, we will focus on the role of conjunctions in establishing coherence, the use of personal pronouns in fostering personalization and intimacy to enhance emotional engagement, and the types of verb processes that convey mental states and actions. Key evaluative resources will also be investigated to reflect the speaker’s stance and attitude toward the experiences of end-of-life care. Using a mixed-method strategy, this project will use corpus statistical analysis methods such as Loglikelihood Ratio and AntConc to extract and analyze linguistic patterns from the corpus data. Based on our pilot study, early observations reveal that narrative structures and expressions of grief and care vary between institutional and individual narratives. Hospice care websites use more formal and structured language, while support group forums have a personal and emotive style. Hong Kong narratives emphasize familial relationships and communal support, while UK narratives may reflect individualistic perspectives. A larger data set analysis may reveal subtle differences in narrative styles and attitudinal expressions between the two regions, revealing significant differences in lexicogrammatical features, structural organization, and interpersonal meanings across digital platforms and cultural contexts. In terms of theoretical and cultural implications, the study can advance the field of SFL by applying its linguistic principles to the analysis of digital narratives in a healthcare setting, particularly the interpersonal metafunction of language in grief narratives. Comparing grief narratives from Hong Kong and the UK will contribute to cross-cultural understanding and tailored support services. Practical and policy implications include assisting health professionals, carers and support groups to understand the various ways in which people express and manage anticipatory grief in digital environments, as well as improving care support services. The research findings will be disseminated through the publication of academic journal articles, conference visits, and seminars, with the intention of stimulating further research and attention in the field of hospice care. The overall aim of this research project is to understand hospice grief and, as encouraged by the United Nations Sustainable Development Group (UNSDG), to promote the wellbeing and healthy living of an ageing population.

Hong Kong children’s literature has been considerably sidelined in academic scholarship. When it is mentioned, it is mostly a brief entry in historical overviews up to the 1990s. It may seem that the academia value the genre when there are two anthologies in the series of Hong Kong Literature dedicated to children’s literature, published in 2014 and 2021, respectively. Still, the anthologies have only listed the works of a number of writers without in-depth discussion. Most academic analyses (Dong 1995; Zheng 1996; Zhou 1996; Liu 1997) see the genre as having petered out in the early 1990s. There is clearly a void of scholarship on the subject of the writers, publishers, intents and types of published materials published in the 1990s. Nonetheless, the rise of children’s picture books in the last decade (Wu 2019) has revived the genre significantly. Not only are the chain bookstores willing to separate an area for international and local children’s books now, but there is an increasing number of independent bookstores and publishers dedicating their business to picture books.

The proposed research aims to compensate for the dearth of academic studies of Hong Kong children's literature by addressing the following issues: 1) the use of visual-textual narrative in Hong Kong children's literature; 2) the rise of picture books; and 3) the manifestation of Hong Kong as a city in the selected works. The focus of this project will be on the inter-connectedness between the city culture of Hong Kong and the local visual-textual narrative. It has been raised by a number of critics (Lo 2009; Yesi 2012; Wong 2020) that Hong Kong literature is always related to its city culture. Hong Kong literature embraces its colonial history and politics, geopolitical role as an international city in Asia, and indispensable city culture. This raises the issue of how children’s literature will align with these characteristics of Hong Kong literary texts. Additionally, in the study of Hong Kong literature, the graphic narrative does not enjoy equal status with textual narrative. Even if the graphic narrative has been examined as a communication mode of picture books (Nodelman 1988; Nikolajeva and Scott 2004) and comic books (McCloud 1993; Kress and Van Leeuwen, 1996; Groensteen and Miller 2013), it is being underestimated by the local academia (Dong 1995; Liu 1997; A Nung 1997; Ho 1997) who do not see the contribution of visual narrative to Hong Kong literature. In order to provide a more comprehensive and expand the scope of reading literary texts, this project will include the study of the visual narration and its collaboration with textual narrative.

Contextualized in light of the contemporary urban context, this proposed project will examine the varying ways in which children’s literature is engaged with the landscape of Hong Kong as a city space, both in terms of realism and as an idea, such as the fantasy of the city as a space of interconnectedness and transverses, evolving dynamics, and culturally interlocking network. It will examine the visual-textual representation of Hong Kong in Children’s Paradise Magazine (1953-1995), an important children’s magazine series that manifests the evolution of visual-textual collaboration, and how the current trend of picture books has opened a new platform for Hong Kong children’s literature and, thence, shed new light on the understanding of the city in a brand new visual-textual narrative. The proposed study will investigate the aforementioned issues with qualitative content analyses of selected primary texts and a quantitative examination through a corpus machine, Google Vision API, so as to take an overview of the image of city in both textual and visual narrative. The investigation will be supplemented by the interviews of publishers, writers, and illustrators so to facilitate a more comprehensive understanding of the current trend.

As suggested by its name, corpus-assisted translation pedagogy is placed within a triangle formed by at least three distinct but not discrete disciplines: corpus linguistics, translation and pedagogy. The merits of a corpus have been recognised by a number of translation scholars who have taken a strong interest in translation pedagogy. The cross-fertilisation between corpora and teaching has resulted in an exponential increase in research advocating the adoption of corpora in translation teaching (Bernardini 2000, 2004; Bernardini, Stewart & Zanettin 2003; Maia 2003; Beeby et al. 2009; Kübler 2011; Mu & Zhu 2013; Liu 2015). I have done a critical review of the application of corpora in translation teaching settings (Liu 2014). By examining the contrasting perspectives and viewpoints on the application of corpora to translation teaching, it is argued that gaps remain and research in this area can be further strengthened. In particular, I specifically point out that: (1) Most of the existing research is based on European languages and the claims are yet to be testified in other language settings (e.g., English to Chinese). In particular, there is a lack of empirical research in Chinese settings. (2) Notwithstanding the obvious advantages of parallel corpora, research at this stage more or less comes under the constraints of the under-availability of sizable parallel corpora that are developed especially for pedagogical applications (cf. Beeby et al. 2009). (3) Research in this area is predominantly derived from conceptual deliberation or personal experience rather than systematic, longitudinal-empirical studies.

In this era of globalisation, there is an increasing need in the market for specialised translation, which accounts for more than 90% of all the translation work in the market (Chan 2015, p. 44). For this reason, I see an urgent and imperative need to construct a pedagogically-oriented platform for specialised translation teaching in Hong Kong. The construction of such a corpus platform is conducive to enhancing the competence of translation students, thereby bridging the gap between academia and industry.

The proposed research project will consist of two major phases, which can overlap.

The first phase will be the construction of a Web-based interactive teaching platform. The platform will have the following key features: (1) a supporting Web-based CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) and user-friendly GUI (Graphical User Interface); (2) integrating both monolingual (1.5 million words originally written in English and 3 million words originally written in Chinese) and parallel corpora (1.5 million words in English and 3 million words in Chinese aligned at the sentence level) and capable of displaying occurrences in KWIC (Key Word in Context) form; (3) including a number of genres related to specialised translation; (4) able to display search results in expanded texts, e.g., the search keywords can be displayed in context at the paragraph or textual level; (4) allowing users to construct their own corpora (either monolingual or parallel) from external sources using the platform; and (5) enabling users to upload their assignments to the platform for teachers’ marking and cross-referencing among the students.

The second phase will involve the assessment and testing of the corpus platform and its sub-components. With this purpose in mind, we will plan to recruit 40 translation students to take part in a range of surveys, semi-structured focus groups and translation experiments (one pre-test and two post-tests consisting of an E-C and a C-E translation experiment). Students will be divided into a control and an experimental group based on their translation level obtained from the pre-test. It is hypothesised that the experimental group will enhance their specialised translation competence using the corpus platform. For evaluating the effectiveness of the corpus platform, mixed methods design will be adopted. A quantitative method will be used to analyse the students’ translation tasks in the experiments using SPSS statistics. A qualitative method will be applied to examine the students’ perceptions and evaluations of the corpus platform using open-ended surveys and semi-structured interviews in the form of focus groups.

If-conditionals pose significant learning challenges for second language (L2) learners due to their complex form-meaning relationships and traditional grammar instruction's limitations. Existing pedagogical materials often rely on simplified conditional types (Type 0–3) that do not fully align with authentic language use. This project addresses these gaps by leveraging cognitive linguistics (CL) to develop innovative instructional approaches that enhance learners’ conceptual understanding and real-world application of conditionals.
The current study will first analyse learner challenges in if-conditionals through qualitative evaluations of student writings and surveys. This phase aims to identify areas where L2 learners struggle and the extent to which current teaching methods contribute to these difficulties. Based on these findings, the study will design and implement two CL-informed instructional frameworks: Cognitive-Linguistics Inspired Pedagogy (CLIP) and Concept-Based Language Instruction (CBLI). These approaches emphasize conceptual links between grammar and meaning, providing learners with conceptual tools—such as visual diagrams—to internalize conditionals more effectively.
To assess the efficacy of these instructional models, the study will adopt a Bayesian mixed-effects modeling approach, analysing both fixed (instructional type, proficiency level) and random (individual learner variability, item difficulty) factors. Data will be gathered through acceptability judgment tests, metalinguistic knowledge tests, and syntactic priming tasks to measure improvements in both explicit and implicit knowledge. Additionally, qualitative insights from teacher and student interviews will supplement the findings, ensuring pedagogical feasibility and engagement.
By integrating computational modeling and open science practices, this project aims to advance evidence-based language education, offering scalable, replicable, and innovative teaching strategies for L2 classrooms. Findings will be shared through academic publications, open-access materials, and teacher training workshops, contributing to theoretical, methodological, and practical advancements in instructed second language acquisition.

Risk has often been seen as an objective fact. However, risk does not exist in a vacuum. Risk necessitates a socio-cultural process before it can be socially identified and realized. Risk realization involves the media, the experts, and the government for message dissemination and risk identification. In order to be brought into being, risk has to be presented and re-presented. There is a growing body of useful study into many aspects of risk, and this project will add to that body, advancing the study of risk through a unique case study: risk that has been scientifically proven but is yet to be socially manifested - the problem of light pollution in Hong Kong.

This project aspires to investigate these questions: as a case in risk study, why isn't light pollution, a scientifically proven risk, formulated socially in Hong Kong? What are the factors hampering light pollution as risk from its social manifestation in Hong Kong? How can this problem be brought into being the future? To answer these questions, the project will study the discourse of light pollution, that is, how is light pollution discussed by different stakeholders? What are their respective stances and arguments? What are the concerns? What are the roles played by the experts, media, NGOs, and the government? What are the power dynamics? Further, looking at the problem of light pollution from a different angle, one can see that, unlike other pollutions, light pollution has a positive side. Light represents prosperity, progress, and civilization. In the specific context of Hong Kong, light is a spectacle; Hong Kong is famous for its sparkling night view of Victoria Harbour and for its use of massive, multiple, neon signs. This leads us to a more theoretical question: in what ways is light pollution a problem associated with an obsession with the visual, a problem highly related to modernity and postmodernity?

The project will contribute pertinently to the study of risk with a unique case study featuring a scientifically proven risk that has, thus far, failed to be socially formulated in Hong Kong. With risk more thoroughly understood, we would be able to better understand how to respond; we would be able to suggest in what ways the problem of light pollution can be further discussed and managed in the future.

This project examines Asian literature that responds to histories of conflict and catastrophe in order to explore the complex and surprising intersections of literature, history, and ethics. It is designed to be open and attentive to a variety of literary languages, narrative forms, and representations of voice and subjectivity as it questions how different social and historical contexts have generated diverse strategies of literary and cultural representation during and following human suffering. In addition to generating new knowledge about modern and contemporary Asian literature, this project contributes to the globalization of literary studies in the twenty-first century and participates in the imperative to restore a cross-cultural perspective to trauma studies.