Receiving the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme (HKPFS) to Study in Hong Kong: Sharing from Liubov Darzhinova, an ELE Doctoral Student

Liubov Darzhinova, a doctoral student from the Department of English Language Education

In 2019, I was all over the moon after receiving the HKPFS to study PhD at EdUHK. Even though it would mean for me to bid farewell to Hungary after two amazing years spent there, I chose Hong Kong for its mixture of Eastern and Western influences, similar to the city where I come from, Elista, the capital of the Republic of Kalmykia, Russia.

Fast forward to 2022, I am in the third year of my PhD journey. Throughout my study at EdUHK, I have become more immersed in the scope of psycholinguistics when conducting the study on second language processing and reading comprehension, thanks to continuous guidance from my supervisor, Dr Zoe Luk Pei Sui . What I also find important was the impetus I was given by my other supervisor Dr Daisy Zou Di  to write and publish research in international journals right from the start of my doctoral studies. Not only have I been studying and conducting research at EdUHK, but also receiving teaching and advising experience. In 2019/20, I served as a volunteering instructor and content creator of the IELTS blended learning course on intercultural education “Russian Lifestyle: Myths and Reality” offered by our Centre for Language in Education to interested undergraduate students. Nominated by Dr Zou to volunteer as the academic writing advisor for the MATESOL students in 2021/22, I have been addressing student questions and concerns related to English for academic purposes, giving formative feedback and making suggestions for language improvement. In the process of thesis writing and accumulating teaching and advising experiences, I have developed a strong interest in language pedagogy, and specifically computer-assisted language assessment, on which I would like to focus in my future research.