Hong Kong Association for Applied Linguistics (HAAL)

Hong Kong Association for Applied Linguistics (HAAL)

The Executive Committee Report for 2011-12

This report covers the period from 1 October 2011 to 30 September 2012.

President:Fiona Hyland (HKU)

Hon. Secretary:Mable Chan (HKPU)

Treasurer:Andy Gao (HKU)

Members:Wang Lixun (HKIEd) Webmaster

Angel Ma (incoming webmaster)

Jane Lockwoood (CityU), Emily Lui (HKCC) Outreach,

Des Moriarty(YMCAHKChristianCollege) TESOL liaison

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

1. Seminars

Six seminars were held in 2011-12 with the speakerspresentingon wide-ranging topics as shown in the table below.

Date / Speaker / Title
11 Oct 2011 / Icy Lee / Assessment for learning in Hong Kong writing classrooms: Lessons from three case studies
21 Nov 2011 / Gary Harfitt /

Class size reduction in Hong Kong secondary schools: Using the pupils’ voice to promote better teaching and learning

7 Feb 2012 / Paul Stapleton / Writing in an electronic environment: A transition of degree or kind?
14 March 2012 / Winnie Cheng / Applicable Corpus Linguistics
18 April 2012 / Jane Lockwood and Liz Hamp-Lyons / A language theory-informed approach to EAP curriculum and assessment pathways
29May 2012 / David Coniam / Using your professional activities to promote research and publishing

2. ExecutiveCommittee Meetings

The election of the existing ExCo members was held at the last AGM on 5 October 2011. Jane Lockwood and Angel Ma joined as committee members and other members remained in their current roles.Sixcommittee meetings were held through the year (11 Oct, 21 Nov, 7 Feb, 18 April, 29May and 6 September).

3. The Annual Social Event

This year’s event was a trip to TapMunIsland on 4 Dec 2011. This was a relaxing day with many chances for sightseeing, chatting and short walks It finished with a seafood lunch (with vegetarian options). Many thanks are due to Des Moriarty for organizingthevery delicious lunch, and to Andy Gao for taking care of all the transport arrangements so efficiently. The sun shone and a pleasant time was had by everyone. A total of 22members and their guests joined the social event

4. Postgraduate Student Travel Award

The award (worth $3,000), launched in 2005 to promote the academic activities of student members, wasshared bytwo postgraduate studentsErnest MingWei Pan(PolyU) andMa Jingjing(HKU). Ernest’s paper “Building an argument for incorporating nonverbal delivery into spoken English assessment” was presented at the AAALConference, March 24 2012 in Boston, USA. Ma Jingjing’s paper “Chinese students’ decision-making while evaluating peers’ texts” was presented at the 16th World Congress of Applied linguistics, August 23-28 2011 in Beijing. Each of them received an award of $1,500.

5. Affiliation with TESOL

Andy Gao attended the Affiliate Assembly at the 46th TESOL Convention in March 2012 on behalf of the Association.

TESOL awarded seven complimentary memberships to HAAL, and these were given to the following HAAL membersafter a lucky draw was held:

Yang Kit Lam Eunice
Jiangping Xie
Irene So
Tommy Yang
Doreen Chong
Bernie Mak
Yiqi Liu

6. Financial Situation

Although we have had more outgoings this year, HAAL finances remain healthy with a balance of $38,490.59. Nonetheless we will consider ways to reduce costs this year, as our reserves are slowly being eroded. The Treasurer’s Report is given below.

7. Membership

In 2011-12HAAL had a total of 92members.62of them were tertiaryteachers, NETs and local school teachers and 30 were postgraduate students.

8. Note of thanks

Great thanks must go to all the members of the Executive Committee - Mable Chan, Andy Gao,Jane Lockwood,Emily Lui, Angel Ma, Des Moriarty and Lixun Wang for their hard work on behalf of HAAL and for allthe time and ideas they have generously contributed to HAAL over the year.Lixun will be leaving the HAAL committee this year and we would like to record a vote of special thanks for all his work on the HAAL website.

We continue to bedeeply indebted to the Department of English of Hong KongPolytechnicUniversity for being our generous host and for their continuous support throughout the past year.

HAAL Treasurer’s Report2011-12 (as of Sept. 26th, 2012)

HAAL Income 10/11 / HK$ / HAAL Expenditure 10/11 / HK$
Balance brought forward from 10/11 / 1. PG Student Travel Grant / 3,000.00
1. savings a/c / 22,599.50 / 2. Refreshments + meals for speakers / 1,634.70
2. current a/c / 2,287.90 / 3. Application fee for TESOL affiliation / 1,186.31
3. petty cash / 14,858.80 / 4. Stipend for PolyU helper John / 500.00
Sub-Total: / 39,746.20 / 5. Web hosting fee / 1,512.00
Income 10/11 / 6. Service Awards / 314.00
4. Membership fees** / 6,250.00 / 7. Social Event / 4,530.00
5. Interest on saving a/c / 2.90 / 8. Refund for social event / 100.00
6. Social event income / 3,500.00 / 9. Bank service charge* / 850.00
7. Research conference income / 2,618.50
Sub-Total: / 12,371.40 / Total: / 13,627.01
Total: / 52,117.60
HAAL Capital as at 2/9/12
1. Savings a/c / 20,549.70
2. Current a/c / 235.59
3. Petty cash / 17,705.30
Total: / 38,490.59
Income - Expenditure: / -1,255.61

*According to current regulations at HSBC, we have to pay 50 HKD per month per account if we do not have minimum 20,000 HKD in each account (savings and current accounts).

** Since many members pay through ATM transfer, it is sometimes difficult to determine whether the received payments were for membership or other social functions of the Association.