Research
"Do research. Feed your talent."
– Robert McKee
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My Passion
My Passion
I am curious about the relationship between language, culture and society. My doctoral research was inspired by my observation of linguistic diversity in multilingual societies and my disconnection with Chinese community in the overseas context. I studied the linguistic landscape of the Chinese diaspora in Australia and showed how power, culture and place inform interpretation of linguistic and semiotic practices of people. My study challenges the rural-urban and online-offline boundaries in sociolinguistic research and advances an understanding of the heterogeneity within Chinese communities.
I have broad research interests in multilingualism across various contexts. I am intrigued by the diversity and fluidity of language practices in public, school, and family, as well as technology-mediated communicative contexts, such as translation technologies and social media. I am an analytical and curious researcher who is keen to experiment with interdisciplinary research methods and question their theoretical premises as applied to the analysis of languages.
Current Projects
Current Projects
Applied Linguistics in Multilingual Society
Applied Linguistics in Multilingual Society
Minority Languages in Hong Kong's Linguistic Landscape
This project examines minority languages in the linguistic landscape of Hong Kong from both a synchronic and diachronic perspective. The history of British colonialism and regional migration has contributed to the complex and diverse linguistic phenomena in this Asia's global city. The study will employ digital and data methods to examine the visibility of minority languages based on both historical and contemporary evidence. It aims to engage ethnic minority communities in creating inclusive urban spaces and inform policies on multiculturalism and multilingualism in the megapolis.
Linguistic Landscapes of Southwest China
This project focuses on the language practices and sociolinguistic realities in multi-ethnic neighbourhoods across Southwest China. Through extensive ethnographic fieldwork across tourism, community, and school contexts, the study aims to provide valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities faced by policymakers, grassroots community organisations, and ethnic minority residents in mitigating bias and conflict among ethnic groups through careful language planning in the linguistically diverse country.
Linguistics Applied in Big Data and AI
Linguistics Applied in Big Data and AI
Video Remote Interpreting for Equitable Healthcare
Australia has witnessed a surging use of video remote interpreting in medical consultations involving people from linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds. This innovation in language services is to ensure the accessibility, effectiveness, and equity of patient care. However, health communication in hospital settings is a high-stakes context where various stakeholders’ opinions need to be engaged to fully understand the challenges and realities that shadow the linguistic quality of interpreting practices. This study aims to investigate how interpreters, health professionals, and language service managers working in the healthcare industry in Australia experience with video remote interpreting in the post-covid era.
Can we trust AI/machine translation of literature?
Although generative AI holds the promise of producing accurate, complete, nuanced, and human-like use of language, its utility in translation, especially Chinese-English literary translations, has been scarcely researched. Literary translation is often conceived the “last fortress” of human translation, and an area where the performance of (neural) machine translation is particularly controversial due to the lack of creativity, lexical, structural, pragmatic errors, and inconsistent stylistic features. Would generative AI models such as GPT perform at a comparable level with human translators in this regard?
Academic Activities
Academic Activities
Guest Editor
Sociolinguistic Studies Special Issue: Crossing the urban-rural border: Linguistic landscapes in Asia and Oceania, 2023
Co-Chair of Panel Session
"Linguistic Landscapes: Languages, Materialities and Identities" at Australian Linguistic Society Conference, 2021
Book Talk at School of Chinese, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong (Video here)
Yao, X. (2025, March). Power, affect and identity in the linguistic landscape: Chinese communities in Australia and beyond. Routledge.
Book talk.pptxCLTAV_01_dec.pptxKeynote Speech at 2023 Victorian Chinese Language Teachers’ Conference, University of Melbourne, Australia
Gruba, P., & Yao, X. (2023, November). Moving theory into practice: From technology to linguistic landscapes in the language classroom.
Invited Seminar at 2024 Monash Linguistics Research Seminar Series, Monash University, Australia
Yao, X., & Nie, P. (2024, April). Translanguaging in the linguistic landscape: New scripts on Yi ethnicity students' handwritten signs in Liangshan, China.
Translanguaging talk slides abbre.pptxlecture on linguistic landscape_19 June.pptxInvited Lecture at the College of Humanities, Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, China
Yao, X. (2022, June). Linguistic landscape research: A case study of Chinese communities in Australia.
Conference Presentations
Conference Presentations
Yao, X., Nie, P. & Bi, Q. (2025, March). Fostering language learning motivation and ethnic identity through linguistic landscapes: A collaborative ethnography with Yi minority students in China. Paper presented at the American Association of Applied Linguistics (AAAL) Annual Conference. Denver, Colorado, US.
Yao, X., Nie, P. & Bi, Q. (2024, November). Fostering multiliteracies of ethnic minority students through linguistic landscapes. Paper presented at the Applied Linguistics Association of Australia (ALAA) conference. Launceston, Australia.
Yao, X., & Nie, P. (2024, June). Authenticating Tibetan-ness through smellscapes. Paper presented at 15th Linguistic Landscape Workshop, Wellington, New Zealand.
Hu, B., & Yao, X. (2024, June). Investigating trust in video remote interpreting within the Australian healthcare context. Paper presented at the 5th East Asian Translation Conference (EATS5), Brisbane, Australia.
Yao, X. & Kang, Y-B. (2024, March). Missing the human touch? A stylometry analysis of human and GPT translations of online Chinese novels. Paper presented at the Interdisciplinary Symposium on Machine Translation and Digital Humanities, Singapore.
Yao, X., & Nie, P. (2023, September). Utopia and dystopia: Language policies and ethnic minorities in the Chinese linguistic landscapes. Paper accepted for presentation at 14th Linguistic Landscape Workshop, Madrid, Spain.
Yao, X., & Nie, P. (2023, June). Language ideologies and attitudes towards ethnic minority migrants: The linguistic landscape of a Han Chinese-Tibetan community in Chengdu, China. Paper presented at 14th International Symposium on Bilingualism, Sydney, Australia.
Yao, X. (2022, November). Affect in the linguistic landscape: A tale of two Chinese restaurants. Paper presented at LCNAU Seventh Biennial Colloquium, Melbourne, Australia.
Yao, X. & Nambu, S. (2021, September). Multilingual official signs in the linguistic landscapes of Japanese Brazilian communities. Paper presented at British Association of Applied Linguistics 2021 Conference, UK (online).
Samantha, X. & Yao, X. (2021, September). Languages, mahjong, and semiotic assemblages: Chinese restaurants in the urban and rural landscapes. Paper presented at British Association of Applied Linguistics 2021 Conference, UK (online).
Yao, X. (2021, June). Translanguaging on public signs: The linguistic landscape of Melbourne. Poster presented at 6th Language for Specific Purposes and Professional Communication Conference (LSPPC6), Hong Kong (online).
Yao, X. (2021, June). Unsettling linguistic landscapes: Metrolingualism in the collapsed context of WeChat. Paper presented at Sociolinguistic Symposium 23, Hong Kong (online).
Yao, X., Phan, N., & Urribarrí, J. (2021, November). Linguistic landscapes: Languages, materialities and identities. Chaired Panel Session at Australian Linguistic Society (ALS) Annual Conference 2021, Australia.
Yao, X. (2020, November). Exclusion in the ephemeral linguistic landscape. Paper presented at Australian Linguistic Society (ALS) Annual Conference 2020, Australia (online).
Yao, X. (2019, June). Power of Chinese assemblages: An ethnographic investigation of the linguistic landscape of Bendigo. Paper presented at XIScape: 11th Linguistic Landscape Workshop, Bangkok, Thailand.
Yao, X. (2018, September). Beneath the sign: The linguistic landscape of a rural township in Australia. Paper presented at 2nd International Conference on Sociolinguistics, Budapest, Hungary.
Yao, X. (2018, June). Journeys into the rural linguistic landscape. Paper presented at Ethnoforum, Melbourne, Australia.
Yao, X. (2017, September). Indexing identities: Bilingual messages in the linguistic landscape. Paper presented at Identities in Translation International Workshop 2017, Melbourne, Australia.
I am open to opportunities for invited talks, research seminars and guest lectures in the broad areas of Applied Linguistics and Sociolinguistics. Please do not hesitate to get in touch via email xiaofang.yao@hku.hk !
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