The Education University of Hong Kong
wangzhan@eduhk.hk

Dr. Zhan Wang is a Lecturer and Postdoctoral Researcher in the Analytics & Assessment Research Centre and the Department of Chinese Language Studies at The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK). Specialising in second language acquisition theory and practice (e.g., Task-Based Language Teaching, Dialogic Pedagogy, narrative speaking, and argument writing), she trains pre-service and in-service teachers in the MA in Chinese as an International Language program. She has extensive experience teaching Chinese and English linguistics, second language acquisition, quantitative methods, and language and well-being across the BEd, MEd, MA, and MPhil levels at CUHK and EdUHK. Additionally, she provides Corpus Linguistics and Natural Language Processing solutions for collaborative research.

Dr. Wang is a recognized expert in language pedagogy, assessment, and genre-based writing, whose specialized research analyzes the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) Chinese language examinations. In a study published in Applied Linguistics, she analyzed large-scale corpora of officially scored, authentic HKDSE examinee essays. From this data, she developed and empirically validated a novel writing framework centered on Multiple Discourse Modes (MDM) and essay orientations. Her research demonstrates that integrating narrative elements into argumentative essays—and utilizing sensory-rich, emotion-evoking introductions in narrative essays—significantly elevates essay quality and exam scores. Crucially, these theoretical innovations are directly applicable to the classroom, equipping Chinese language educators with evidence-based instructional strategies to develop students' higher-order writing skills, improve argumentative and narrative essay coherence, and directly enhance assessment outcomes.