The Department of English cordially invited to join our departmental seminar, Teaching English with Drama Conventions for School Students, to be organized by the Department of English on 18 September 2025 (Thursday).
Date: 18 September 2025 (Thursday)
Time: 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Venue: Martin Ka Shing Lee Innovation Lab (XR Lab), G/F, Creative Humanities Hub (CR)
Guest Speaker: Professor Barry Bai, Associate Professor, the Department of Curriculum, CUHK
Registration: Complete this online form to reserve a seat. 35 quotas only, available on a first-come-first-served basis. A confirmation email will be sent to you upon successful registration.
Remarks: 1 iGPS unit will be awarded to undergraduate students who attend the seminar
Abstract
Drama is not merely a performing art but also a powerful pedagogical tool for language teaching. It ignites students’ interest while enhancing their linguistic expressions and intercultural communication skills. This workshop, designed for English teachers in the K–12 context and training institutions, explores how to effectively integrate drama-based methods into English instruction. Through immersive demonstrations and hands-on activities, participants will learn practical drama conventions, such as short scene, role play, teacher narration, teacher-in-role and gossip mill to help students use English in authentic contexts, thereby boosting their speaking proficiency, self-confidence, and creativity.
Bio
Barry Bai is an associate professor at the Department of Curriculum and the director of Centre for Language Education and Multiliteracies Research at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. In 2023 and 2024, he was recognized as a top 2% most cited researcher in languages and linguistics worldwide by Stanford University. Additionally, he was named a Highly Ranked Scholar (Lifetime – top 0.05%, #20 and Prior 5 Years – top 0.05%, #3) in the specialty of primary school in 2024 by ScholarGPS. Currently, he serves as the president of Hong Kong Association for Applied Linguistics (HAAL) and is an associate editor of European Journal of Education and Asia Pacific Journal of Education. He is a recipient of 2014/2015 Faculty Exemplary Teaching Award and has secured highly competitive research funds, Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC) Competitive Research Funding Schemes (GRF/ECS) for 2018/2019 and 2022/2023. He has conducted multiple projects on English teachers’ continuing professional development funded by Quality Education Fund (QEF) and Standing Committee on Language Education and Research (SCOLAR) of the Hong Kong Education Bureau and the Chinese University of Hong Kong with a total funding amount of over HK$ 35 million. Professor Barry has provided training and professional development support to approximately 646 primary and secondary schools, 4,300 English teachers and 50,000 students (alongside 12,880 parents). Through his projects (e.g., GRF, QEF, and SCOLAR), the participants developed and adopted school-based teaching and learning materials. His work appears in leading education journals, including Computers & Education, Teaching and Teacher Education, Social Psychology of Education, Research Papers in Education, Cambridge Journal of Education, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, Studies in Educational Evaluation, Computer Assisted Language Learning, Language Teaching Research, Applied Linguistics Review, TESOL Quarterly and System.
Please register early to secure your spot. For enquiries, please feel free to contact us at eng@hsu.edu.hk.
