Past Seminars

In this talk, I will first discuss the general peer review process of international refereed journals. Then I will draw on my own experience of being an author, a reviewer, and a journal editor to discuss top desk rejection reasons by education and linguistics journals. Lastly, I will share some thoughts on how to improve the quality of a manuscript in order to get it pass the preliminary screening and into the review process. This talk will be informative for inexperienced authors who aspire to get published in high-quality international journals.

Traditional tools for corpus-based data-driven learning (DDL) predominantly cater to research needs, often neglecting the pedagogical aspect crucial for effective teaching and learning. This disconnect has led to a notable decline in DDL engagement post-initial training, largely attributed to issues surrounding tool usability. Addressing these challenges, this paper introduces CorpusMate, a novel corpus tool explicitly designed with user-friendliness in mind. Developed in response to insights gathered from secondary language learners and educators in Australia, CorpusMate stands out for its inclusivity of diverse written and spoken corpora, spanning 20 distinct disciplinary subjects. The tool boasts an array of functionalities, including versatile concordancing, n-gram analysis, and dynamic data visualization features, all aimed at facilitating a seamless DDL experience for its users. This seminar  also provides a comprehensive guide to CorpusMate’s primary functions, highlighting its utility in lesson planning and material development for English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses in Australia, as well as in teacher training programs in Brazil and Vietnam. Additionally, the talk delves into the implications and potential adaptations of DDL methodologies in the emerging post-ChatGPT era, offering critical insights into the evolving landscape of technology-enhanced language learning and teaching.

The global spread of English has led to discussions and debates regarding its teaching. Some argue that language teacher education should prepare pre- and in-service teachers to teach English from a Global Englishes (GE) perspective. In this talk, I will discuss the need for GE-informed teacher education by firstly examining the need to move away from traditional assumptions about native speakerism in language teaching and then linking it to individual cognition in GE-informed teacher education. I will present five cases of GE teacher education in various contexts and discuss the various challenges and future directions for GE-informed teacher education. The implications for GE language teacher education from the perspectives of “looking inward”, “looking around”, and “looking forward” will be discussed at the end of the talk.

Registration:
https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_regform.aspx?guest=Y&UEID=91115
Abstract:
In this interactive session, we will consider key stages and aspects of the publishing process and discuss
common pitfalls as well as best practices that may lead to a less painful and more successful experience
in getting our work published in top journals.

Registration:
https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_regform.aspx?guest=Y&UEID=91114
Abstract:
There has been much interest in the notion of embodiment within literacy research over the past decade or so,
coinciding with a broader turn toward the affective dimension of human experience and meaning-making within the
social sciences. Several strands of research have developed along somewhat different epistemological dimensions.
Sociomaterial approaches focus on the body’s relational engagement with objects, texts and people and how they
shape the nature and process of literacy-as-event (Burnett & Merchant 2018) while multimodal literacy scholars
have investigated embodiment as corporeal resources (Lim, 2020, p. 2) in an attempt to map sensory literacies
(Mills, 2016) within the increasingly digital literacy terrain. Yet this intense focus on embodiment and the body and
theoretical advances in its relation to literacy has not been matched with the same level of methodological innovation.
Drawing on a study of home literacy practices of secondary-aged youth in Singapore, in this talk I explore
embodiment at the intersection of theory and method in literacy research. The teenagers in the study were observed
engaged in various literacy activities and their levels of arousal tracked through a wearable sensor that measured
galvanic skin response. The question I aim to pursue in the talk is not so much what the measures ‘tell us’ about
literacy, but rather how we may conceptually integrate new methodologies into the study of embodiment in literacy.