Congratulations to FAH Academic Awards Winners 2024/2025

The Faculty of Arts and Humanities (FAH) recently presented the FAH Academic Awards to 4 colleagues in recognition of their excellence in teaching, research and service. The awards are given annually based on FAH students’ and colleagues’ nominations, recommendation by the respective Academic Award Selection Committees and a final review by the FAH management.

We are proud to announce the 2024/2025 winners are follows:

Best Teacher Award – Jing ZHANG

Prof. Zhang is a dedicated educator specializing in Portuguese. Her teaching philosophy is centered around an encouragement-based approach that focuses on helping students develop their strengths and stimulating their motivation to learn. She emphasizes creating an interactive and positive learning atmosphere, using real-life scenarios to make learning practical and easy understanding. Prof. Zhang’s excellence in teaching demonstrated by her diversified teaching techniques. She strives to enrich the content and engage students by using group activities, role-playing, situational dialogues, incorporation of multimedia tools etc. In addition, her caring on students goes beyond the classroom. She always gives advices to students in research projects, language improvement and career development. She encourages students to participate in events like “Portuguese Day” and other volunteer works to enhance their intercultural competence and social responsibility.

Prof. Zhang’s students have repetitively expressed that they have enjoyed her classes a lot. Prof. Zhang’s courses were commonly commented as “a fantastic course”, and “this course is suitable for beginner level and learned a lot from the instructor” etc. Prof. Zhang has taught a range of PG and UG courses, this is a testament to her ability to teach different types of students at different stages of their education. In addition to having achieved consistently high SFQ scores than department averages and received a deluge of positive comments from students, for instance “Prof. Zhang is patient and considerate. Explained the content in details and I gained a lot from the course.”, “張老師是一位很盡責的老師，講課很清晰，對學生很有耐心！”, “这个老师很好，教学易懂，不厌其烦。”, “Prof. Jing is a very kind teacher, I’m happy for enroll her class.” etc..

Moreover, Prof. Zhang served as the Programme Coordinator for many years before and now is serving as the Director of Centre of Chinese-Portuguese Bilingual Teaching and Training Centre. These appointments reflect her serious commitment to the learning of students in and beyond UM. Her strengths lie in her ability to create a supportive and engaging learning environment, her innovative teaching methods, and her dedication to student development both academically and personally. Prof. Zhang’s consistent efforts and excellent performance in teaching deserves recognition.

Best Instructor Award – Vicky CHAN

Ms. Vicky Chan’s classes have been remarked by her students as the most favorable among all UM classes. Ms. Chan’s teaching philosophy emphasizes quality teaching and student-centered learning. She strives to create a dynamic and engaging classroom environment that fosters active learning and supports language development. Her approach is holistic, focusing on academic and personal growth.

Ms. Chan has demonstrated her diverse teaching methods from her well-prepared teaching materials, with a teaching portfolio deemed impressive by the Committee. She applies a variety of teaching strategies, including visualization, collaborative learning, interactive technology, problem-solving, and inquiry-based activities. Particularly proven from the handouts and worksheets she designed, Ms. Chan strives to create an engaging and dynamic learning environment for the UM students. In addition, the comments from the SFQ reports fully demonstrate that Ms. Chan has successfully built a strong relationship with students and a learning environment based on mutual trust, both of which are crucial for effective language teaching and learning. Ms. Chan has also consistently provided the students with immensely helpful, practical and detailed feedback and advice. The high average SFQ scores, consistently above 5.5 in average, are a strong testament to UM students’ high regard for her teaching and their positive classroom experiences. Ms. Chan is a well-liked teacher with recurring positive comments from students such as: “This is the best teacher never I see. So I really want to Vicky continue to teach me English in EELC2. I am looking forward to seeing Vicky next year”, “this lecture is so amazing,” “Vicky is a good teacher, who teaches a lot of things to us in this semester. So I really hope that she can teach me in University English1&2&3!!! Thanks a lot!”, “教的太好了，能不能每節課都是Vicky教！”, “我認為她是一位很稱職的老師！對待學生盡職盡責！上課不枯燥，並且成為最喜歡的一節課。教學時讓學生容易接收到知識，可見老師課後也做了很多準備！”etc..

Besides teaching, Ms. Chan has taken on several leadership roles. She has been the deputy coordinator for the course University English I (EELC1011), in addition to her previous co-ordinatorship of the ELC Summer English Programme. Hence, Ms. Chan’s teaching enthusiasm clearly extends beyond the classroom.

Excellence in Research Award – Jingwei ZHANG

Prof. Jingwei Zhang’s contributions to the field of linguistics are truly remarkable. Her colleagues commend her work for its depth, innovation, and impact.

Prof. Zhang’s pioneering research on tone merging in Macau Cantonese and her studies on the psychological and neural aspects of tone perception have significantly enhanced our understanding of language processing. Her innovative methodologies, such as neurophysiological techniques and eye-tracking studies, address complex linguistic questions with precision. In sociolinguistics, she has explored emotional factors in tone production, compared Macau Cantonese and Hong Kong dialects, and examined language and cultural identity in the digital age. Her findings have provided valuable insights for educational policy and practice.

From January 1, 2023, to December 31, 2024, Prof. Zhang published an impressive number of works. She authored 11 journal articles—4 in Chinese (all indexed in CSSCI journals) and 7 in English (5 of which appeared in prestigious SCOPUS/SSCI/WOS indexed journals)—as well as 3 book chapters published by renowned presses like Routledge and Elsevier.

Her research is highly regarded by leading academic journals, as evidenced by invitations to review for publications such as Language and Language Variation and Change. Her citation impact is competitive among peers, and her success in securing external funding, such as grants from FDCT, underscores her ability to attract competitive support and her commitment to advancing sociolinguistics research. Prof. Zhang also actively serves the academic community through editorial board memberships and conference organization.

In conclusion, Prof. Zhang’s outstanding research achievements, innovative methodologies, and dedication to academic service make her a highly deserving candidate for recognition of research excellence.

Excellence in Service Award – Tianshu ZHU

With over 17 years of service at UM, Prof. Wang distinguishes herself with her unwavering commitment to all kind of academic services and community engagement and makes her a standout figure for the FAH Excellence in Service Award 2024/2025.

Prof. Wang has made significant contributions to curriculum development, playing a pivotal role in designing and implementing new courses that reflect emerging trends in the field. In addition to her work in curriculum development, Prof. Wang has been actively involved in various administrative and service roles. She has served as Programme Coordinator for many years and constantly participated in numerous committees including hiring, admission, and curriculum committees and provided valuable insights.

Prof. Wang’s dedication extends beyond the university. She has organized public lectures, workshops and seminars, bridging the gap between academia and the broader community. Her leadership as a session chair at high-profile academic conferences has fostered intellectual exchange and meaningful discussions. In addition, Prof. Wang’s scholarly contributions are equally impressive. She has reviewed numerous articles for prestigious journals and provided peer review services for CSSCI journals. She has also served as a reviewer for provincial and ministerial-level research projects, demonstrating her knowledge and commitment to scholarly excellence.

Moreover, Prof. Wang has actively engaged in community outreach, assisting in the production of the documentary “Tianjin and Macau,” which showcases the close connections and cooperation between the two cities. Her involvement in this project highlights her dedication to promoting cultural exchange and understanding.

In sum, Prof. Wang embodies the qualities of an exceptional educator, an invaluable administrator, and a passionate researcher. Her outstanding service and professional contributions make her highly deserve for the FAH Excellence in Service Award.

Congratulations to the winners again!