Students of FAH Receive National and International Awards

MA (SLA) student receives TIRF Master’s Research Grant

Coral Yiwei Qin

Through fierce competition, Coral Yiwei Qin, an M.A. student from the Second Language Acquisition program in the English department, received the “TIRF Master’s Research Grant” with a total of 3,000 USD from The International Research Foundation for English Language Education (TIRF), for her proposed MA thesis: Washback Effect of Classroom-based Assessment from Learner’s Perspective.

According to her research, the majority of washback studies have focused on the impact of large-scale high-stakes tests on different aspects of teaching and learning. Compared with the large number of washback studies that focus on teachers and their teaching practices, research from learners’ perspectives is scarce. In addition, in view of the fact that classroom-based assessment (CBA) has long played a critical role in the pedagogical practices, Miss Qin seeks to investigate the washback effect of CBA from learners’ perspective.

The 2019 TIRF Master’s Research Grants program is a new initiative that aims to support the master’s level research proposed by outstanding master’s students enrolled in universities from Macau, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland China.

MA (SLA) student wins First-Prize at National Forum for Young Scholars

WU Jincheng

WU Jincheng, a second-year M.A. student from the Second Language Acquisition program in the English department, won first-prize at the 1^st National Academic Forum on Foreign Language and Literature for Young Scholars, recently held at Sun Yat-sen University, for his paper on “Linguistic Complexity of L1 Chinese Texts and Translated Chinese Texts: A Corpus-Based Comparison”. Prof. SUN Yifeng, Head of Department of English, University of Macau, was invited as one of the keynote speakers and award selection panel members.

Mr. Wu analysed, in his study, the linguistic complexity of translated and original Chinese texts recommended for use with Grade 3 students in mainland China. The results indicated that, in terms of lexical complexity and length of sentences, translated texts were significantly more difficult than L1 original texts. Based on such findings, suggestions for translation studies and educational material development were offered. The paper links translation studies to primary education and sheds light on how translation may better serve primary education, particularly in selecting and developing reading materials for young students.