Yu-hua Chen

Biography

Before joining The University of Nottingham Ningbo China, I worked as a Test Development Manager in the Language Testing Division of Pearson plc (London) for three years. I oversaw the development of English language tests for various levels and purposes and also conducted associated research, particularly in the areas of corpus-based validation research and the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). Prior to Pearson, I studied for a PhD in Linguistics at Lancaster University, UK. My thesis is entitled ‘Investigating Lexical Bundles across Learner Writing Development’, in which I explore the differences and similarities in the use of lexical bundles across learner proficiencies as well as between native and non-native writing. The findings shed light on the discourse aspect of writing development with learner proficiency being determined by a set of robust rating procedures generally adopted in large-scale language tests. The thesis was selected as a finalist for the 2013 Jacqueline A. Ross TOEFL Dissertation Award. The publication based on my thesis, ‘Lexical Bundles in L1 and L2 Academic Writing’ (2010) with citations reaching over 250 in 2017 and still growing rapidly, is ranked #185 by Web of Science in the category of Education & Educational Research worldwide (between 2010 to 2014).

Research Interest

I have been working at the intersection of Corpus Linguistics, Language Testing and Assessment and Second Language Research for the past few years. I am particularly interested in how corpus analyses can be used to facilitate or validate the approaches to teaching or assessing language skills. I am also keen on putting academic research into practice. In the context of language education, this means, for example, that students can benefit from more effective learning and assessment on the basis of research-informed syllabuses, textbooks, assessment tasks etc. My key areas of research interest include Learner Corpus Research, Second Language Writing, English for Academic Purposes, Vocabulary, Formulaic Language/Lexical Chunks, Written/Spoken Discourse, Language Learning with Technology, and how any of the above areas can relate to Language Testing and Assessment and/or Corpus Linguistics. I welcome potential PhD students in any of the above areas.