Prof ERNI , John Nguyet

Bridging Cultures: Integrative Approaches to OBOR Music and Culture: Youth Engagement and Innovation

This project combines cultural exchange, technological innovation, and educational development within the One Belt One Road (OBOR) framework. The initiative consists of two major phases spanning 2025-2026, focusing on cultural preservation and international collaboration.
Project Start Year: 2025, Principal Investigator(s): LEUNG, Chi Hin (ERNI, John N, as Co-Principal Investigator)
SDGs Information: 4 - Quality Education, 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities, 17 - Partnerships for the Goals

Social Media Analytics Research Teams (SMART)

Social media connects people to build relationships and friendships but also harms some users’ physical health; psychological, emotional, and social well-being; and interpersonal relationships (e.g., COVID-19 fake news, cyberbullying, internet addiction). However, scholars have not developed systematic evidence-based theories of the psychological, linguistic, and sociocultural mechanisms underlying social media use/misuse and online (mis)behaviors, which obstructs practitioners from developing effective strategies for reducing or alleviating these problems. Hence, we propose Social Media Analytics Research Teams (SMART) to cultivate a network of local and international researchers to create and evidence such theories via rigorous, interdisciplinary studies. Informed by our evidence-based theories, we will pinpoint the needs of specific social media users across contexts. We will discern true vs. fake news, stop cyberbullying, develop stronger identities, reduce fragmentation of attention, and identify mechanisms of (un)critical engagement with Key Opinion Leaders (KOL). Then, we address these needs by equipping key stakeholders with suitable technologies and tools (e.g., artificial intelligence (AI)-powered dashboards, apps) to help people productively and safely navigate social media via appropriate practices (e.g., detect fake news). Together, we will help Hong Kong stakeholders (e.g., workers, students, parents, educators, ITC designers and operators, media, mental health professionals, government officials) (a) learn and use these tools and (b) advocate for suitable policies to improve our society.
Project Start Year: 2024, Principal Investigator(s): CHIU, Ming Ming (ERNI, John N, as Collaborator)
SDGs Information: 3 - Good Health and Well-Being, 4 - Quality Education, 10 - Reduced Inequality, 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, 17 - Partnerships for the Goals

GRF - Underprivileged Ethnic Minority Students’ Language Learning Experience in Shadow Education: A Multilingual Motivational Self Perspective
This study draws on the Multilingual Motivational Self System to understand how underprivileged ethnic minority students’ language learning experience in supplementary tutoring interacts with their multilingual selves and shapes their motivational dynamics.
Project Start Year: 2024, Principal Investigator(s): YUNG, Wai Ho, Kevin (ERNI, John N, as Co-Investigator)

Promoting the Humanities through a Multi-purpose Chinese Culture Digital Playhouse: An Integrated Portal for Play-based R&D
This project aims to establish resilient digital humanities infrastructures to support sustainable teaching, research, and knowledge transfer initiatives in humanities.
Project Start Year: 2024, Principal Investigator(s): ERNI, John N,, LEUNG, Pui Wan, Pamela, LAM, Sin Manw, Sophia, HE, Yang, Sunnie, LAU, Chaak Ming, QIAO, Shen, Maggie, YAN, Zi

Asian literature in English: Creativity, translanguaging, and language education
This project aims to foreground the linguistic creativity, translanguaging tactics, and pedagogical importance of contemporary Asian literature in English, a rich body of works that has been understudied in world literature. Though undeniably imperial in its origin, literary English has become localised and reinvented by writers of Asia. Specifically, the present study poses a series of interrelated questions: What constitutes Asian literature in English now? How could this emergent repertoire be examined for its literary inventiveness and educational potential? To what extent is such literary English Asian? In what ways might it contribute to revising the categories of “English,” “English literature,” “English linguistics,” and “English education”? What is central to all these questions is a fundamental one: What are the contributions of Asian literature in English to the world in terms of stylistics, linguistics, culture and education? Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, the research project brings together the ostensibly disparate insights of literature, linguistics, culture and education in order to create a set of online corpora that facilitate research in each of these areas to answer the above key research question and see how synergies can be created by juxtaposing findings from different perspectives. Methodologically innovative, the project incorporates digital humanities methods in its construction of data, processing of data sets (e.g., syntactic tagging), analysis of literary and linguistic features, and discussion of pedagogical implications. As we envision it, Asian literature in English has much to contribute to the ongoing debate on English as a global language and a medium of literary instruction in digital humanities and language education.
Project Start Year: 2023, Principal Investigator(s): MA, Qing (ERNI, John N, as Co-Principal Investigator)
SDGs Information: 4 - Quality Education, 17 - Partnerships for the Goals

Multilingualism/multiglossia in GBA: From Theory to Practice
The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) has a long history of using various languages and dialects. The well-known language policy of “biliterate trilingualism” (in Hong Kong) and “three written languages and four spoken languages” (in Macau) shows the tip of the iceberg of the complexity of language and culture fusing and blending here. Following China economic reforms in the 1980s in tandem with the increase of population mobility, more and more regions in GBA have become multilingual/multiglossia communities in which the prominent linguistic hierarchy influences language society and education in all aspects. GBA thus provides an ideal research data culture dish on the research topic of multilingualism/multiglossia and its impact.This proposed project is built upon EdUHK’s longstanding conviction in a holistic approach and collaboration in GBA. A number of initiatives and projects at the University testify to this conviction, such as introducing the GBA curriculum to deepen students’ understanding of GBA through language tours and establishing the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau University Alliance for Chinese Language Education. Centring on studies of multilingualism/multiglossia in GBA, this project will further develop and consolidate the leading role of the Department of Chinese Language Studies (CHL) in Chinese linguistics and Chinese language education by initialising a program of research (including a large-scale survey, symposium and journal special issues, etc.), training workshops, new academic course and programme, and international networking. From a theoretical perspective, by taking the GBA as the entry point, it aims to promote theoretical development and innovation in multilingualism/multiglossia research and seek high-level collaboration with researchers in GBA and beyond. From a practical point of view, it will apply the theoretical findings of multilingualism/multiglossia research to language education so as to promote educational innovation and reform.
Project Start Year: 2023, Principal Investigator(s): LIANG, Yuan, ERNI, John N,, LEE, Chi Kin, John

Human Rights Museums as Sites of Cultural Governance and Legal Common Sense
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Project Start Year: 2023, Principal Investigator(s): ERNI, John N,

Comparative Cultures of Care: A Converging Interdisciplinary Focus and Application
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Project Start Year: 2022, Principal Investigator(s): ERNI, John N,

Investigating Digital Literacy Practices and Pre-service Teachers’ Identity Construction: Pre-service Teachers’ Digital Literacy Competence and Integration of Digital Literacy Into Teaching
This project will (a) assess our pre-service teachers' digital literacies, (b) accordingly design a suitable digital literacy program for them, and (c) evaluate its effectiveness
Project Start Year: 2022, Principal Investigator(s): GU, Ming Yue, Michelle, CHIU, Ming Ming, KOHNKE, Lucas Mathias, Alfred, LEE, Chi Kin, John, ERNI, John N,

Human Rights Museums in the Transpacific: A Comparative Study of Cultural Institutions for the Histories of Difference and Resistance
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Project Start Year: 2020, Principal Investigator(s): ERNI, John N,