About

Hello! 你好！

I am Assistant Professor at the Department of Linguistics and Translation in the City University of Hong Kong (CityU).

I studied Chinese, education and linguistics at Peking University (B.A., M.A.) and University of Cambridge (M.Phil., Ph.D.) and completed my postdoctoral training in early bilingual development in the Childhood Bilingualism Research Centre (CBRC) at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). Before joining CityU in 2020, I was Lecturer and Research Assistant Professor at CUHK.

I was born and raised in Guangzhou (also known as “Canton”), China, and am an alumnus of the Affiliated High School of South China Normal University. I grew up speaking both Cantonese and Mandarin (Putonghua), and am now mother of two trilingual boys in the making.

Research collaboration and student supervision 學術合作與學生培養

My current research projects investigate the development and maintenance of Chinese in heritage speakers in English-dominant contexts like the US and UK, the (un)balanced development of Cantonese, English and Mandarin in multilingual children in multilingual contexts like Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Singapore, as well as the representation and online processing of complex grammatical features by adult learners of Chinese. I welcome discussions and collaborations in these areas.

From now to 2024, I will be working intensively with my team on two government-funded projects “Input and Experience in Early Trilingual Development” and “Input and Caretaker Proficiency in Early Bilingual Development: Mothers, Helpers and Toddlers“, while continuing my adventure into heritage grammars and exploring new research topics using the eye-tracking technique.

I am looking for undergraduate or master student collaborators (LT4235/LT4391, LT6582/LT6580) to work on several small-scale projects in 2022-2023.

Due to the large amount of attention and resources required by the data collection and processing of my current research projects as well as PhD supervision, I will take a gap year in PhD student recruitment and will not take new PhD students for 2023 entry. I will spend more time with my three existing PhD students and the children and parents in my research projects.

[Special update: I will join the Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) as Associate Professor in September 2023 and thus will no longer consider taking new PhD students through CityU. Thank you for your email inquiries and interests in working with me, and good luck with your applications! Come back for further updates on my plan of PhD admission for 2024 entry and recruitment of research staff including postdoctoral research fellows and research assistants starting September 2023 at CUHK.]

Affiliations

I am an affiliated member of the Childhood Bilingualism Research Centre (CBRC) at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Contact me

ziyinmai@cityu.edu.hk