Impact

Academic journal and professional association board membership

• Associate Editor: Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism (2025-)
• Editorial board: Second Language Research (2020-), Bilingualism: Language and Cognition (2024-), International Journal of Chinese Language Teaching (2025-)
• Board member: European Association of Chinese Linguistics (2022-2024)

Ad hoc reviewer for academic journals and conferences

• Child Development, Developmental Science, Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, Scientific Studies of Reading, Open Mind, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, Journal of Child Language, Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, International Journal of Multilingualism, International Journal of Bilingualism, Second Language Research, Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Language Acquisition, First Language, Language and Linguistics, Lingua, Glossa
• EACL, IACL

External reviewer of research grant applications

• Research and development projects, Standing Committee on Language Education and Research (SCOLAR), HKSAR
• National Science Foundation (NSF), US

External examiner of doctoral theses

• City University of Hong Kong
• University of Cambridge
• Macau University of Science and Technology

Public talks, interviews and media exposure

• 23-05-2025 “How to raise a multilingual baby: Things that parents and domestic helpers need to know” 怎樣培養多語幼兒：家長和外籍家庭傭工須知. Parenting seminar for Healthy Seed (founded by Lo Ying Shek Chi Wai foundation), Hong Kong
• 10-03-2025 “How to Raise a Bilingual Baby”, invited talk at Meta Company, Hong Kong.
• 13-04-2024 “Fun with Linguistics“, Mini-lectures for senior secondary school students, Chinese University of Hong Kong.
• 26-03-2024 “Developing Chinese in Bilingual and Trilingual Contexts: Language Input and Early Development“, Invited talk at the Brown Bag Seminar in Yew Chung College of Early Childhood Education, Hong Kong.
• 22-03-2024 “How to Raise a Bilingual Baby: Tips and Suggestions for Parents and Domestic Helpers”, Caretaker seminar at the Greenfield English (International) Kindergartens and Nurseries, Hong Kong.
• 12-12-2023 “Seeds of Fluency: Unveiling the Significance of Early Childhood Language Learning for Lifelong Proficiency”, Invited talk at the Conference of Mandarin Chinese Learning for a Connected World, HSK Speaking Test Mobile Exam Centre, Hong Kong.
• 21-03-2023 “Bilingual babies and their linguistic world”, Christian and Missionary Alliance Sun Kei Secondary School, Hong Kong.
• 15-03-2023 “How to talk to infants, toddlers and pre-school children: tips for foreign domestic helpers – Part II (Age 4-6)”, Domestic Helpers Training Workshop, Mission for Migrant Workers, Hong Kong.
• 22-02-2023 “How to talk to infants, toddlers and pre-school children: tips for foreign domestic helpers – Part I (Age 0-3)”, Domestic Helpers Training Workshop, Mission for Migrant Workers, Hong Kong.
• 21-04-2022 “幼兒說多語 家長參與成敗關鍵” 明報升學網
• 13-04-2022 “Bilingual babies and their linguistic world”, CityU-Learning Classroom for Secondary School Students, City University of Hong Kong.
• 10-2017 [M for Mother] 破解學語言的迷思
• 04-10-2017 [Hello Singapore, Channel 8 News] 职总优儿学府将同港大合作 研究幼童掌握母语能力
• 12-12-2017 [CUHK Press Release] CUHK Announces the Launch of the World’s First Child Heritage Chinese Language Corpus and the Establishment of the University of Cambridge – CUHK Joint Laboratory for Bilingualism
• 12-12-2017 [CUHK Press Release] 中大宣布推出全球首個華裔兒童漢語語料庫暨成立劍橋大學-香港中文大學雙語研究聯合實驗室
• 13-12-2017 [Sing Tao Daily] 華裔童接觸多語言 中大研究：助奠根基 全球首設 漢語語料庫
• 13-12-2017 [HK01] 中大推全球首個華裔兒童漢語語料庫 記錄三語學習歷程
• 13-12-2017 [Ming Pao Daily News] 學者：幼兒學英語毋須「犧牲」漢語
• 13-12-2017 [Wen Wei Po] 中大研究揭學中文不必犧牲英語
• 13-12-2017 [Metro Daily] 兒童在家聽不同語言 能培養雙語或三語能力
• 13-12-2017 [Oriental News] 僅說英文未必好 接觸多語言助幼兒建三語能力
• 12-06-2018 [HK01] 【兩文三語】學英文不需犧牲中文 中大教授：要欣賞孩子活用雙語
• 21-04-2022[Ming Pao Jupas] 幼兒說多語 家長參與成敗關鍵

Knowledge Transfer project: Realizing children’s potential in language development: input and intervention

• This is a knowledge transfer project we conducted from 2018 to 2020. The project aimed to provide opportunities and materials for Cantonese-speaking preschoolers who do not have easy access to rich naturalistic input in English for them to develop English proficiency. To introduce high-quality interactive input in English, we designed and created an online intervention programme, “Learning English through Stories”, for these children (n = 160). In this programme, the children watched short story videos in English online and participated in follow-up group discussions under the guidance of their parents over 10 weeks. We tested the children with an array of language and cognitive tests before and after the intervention. A group of matched preschoolers served as the control group. The results show that children who participated in the intervention program (namely, the experimental group) displayed greater improvement in the post-test compared to those who did not participate in the course (namely, control group).

• For more info, see CBRC info page: KPF.

Honours and Awards

• “Optimising caretaker input for multilingual children: from predictive models to input recommendations”, Certificate of Merit, Excellence in Knowledge Transfer Award 2022/23, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, City University of Hong Kong