Dr Phoebe Lin Assistant Professor

Location FG331
Phone +852 3400 2054
mail phoebe.lin@polyu.edu.hk

Open Platform for University Scholars
ORCID ID
SCOPUS ID









Research Overview As a linguist, I am fascinated by the acquisition, processing and use of formulaic language by first (L1) and second language (L2) learners of English. Formulaic language is key to the achievement of nativelike proficiency in the L2. Yet, mastery of it challenges even advanced level L2 learners. To tackle the problems with L2 formulaic language acquisition, I have been conducting controlled experiments and corpus analyses. My thesis is that spoken input and natural speech prosody play fundamental roles in both L1 and L2 formulaic language acquisition. Written input dominates in many English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) syllabi, but spoken input may be more conducive to formulaic language acquisition. I believe that internet television and social media are great resources for maximising L2 learners’ exposure to spoken input. Therefore, I have been developing intelligent computer software programs which can facilitate formulaic language acquisition through the viewing of social media. The programs match L2 learners with YouTube videos that suit their L2 competence and auto-generate exercises based on the videos to facilitate formulaic language acquisition.




Teaching Areas Corpus linguistics
Phonetics & Phonology
Academic writing
Research methods




Research Interests
Phraseology/Formulaic language/Idioms
Corpus linguistics
Discourse analysis
English intonation and rhythm
English language teaching (ELT)
Computer-assisted language learning
Quantitative research methods
Statistics and R



Research Output

Book
Lin, P. (2018). The prosody of formulaic language: A corpus-based approach. London: Continuum.




Journal Articles
Lin, P. (forthcoming). In search of the optimal mode of input for the acquisition of formulaic expressions. TESOL Quarterly.

Lin, P. (forthcoming). Developing an intelligent tool for computer-assisted formulaic language learning from YouTube videos. ReCALL.

Siyanova, A. & Lin, P. (2018). Production of ambiguous idioms in English: A reading aloud study. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 28(1), 58-70.

Lin, P. (2014). Investigating the validity of internet television as a resource for acquiring L2 formulaic sequences. System, 42(1), 164-176.

Lin, P. (2013). The prosody of idiomatic expressions in the IBM/Lancaster Spoken English Corpus. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 18(4), 561-588.

Lin, P. (2012). Sound Evidence: The missing piece of the jigsaw in formulaic language research. Applied Linguistics, 33(3), 342-347.





Book Chapters
Lin, P., Adolphs, S. (forthcoming). Corpus linguistics. In Li Wei, Zhu Hua, & J. Simpson, The Routledge Handbook of Applied Linguistics. London: Routledge.

Lin, P., & Chen, Y. (2020). Multimodality I: Speech prosody and gesture. In S. Adolphs, & D. Knight (eds), Routledge Handbook of English Language and Digital Humanities. London: Routledge.

Lin, P. (2018). Multi-word expressions and prosody. In A. Siyanova-Chanturia, & A. Pellicer-Sánchez (eds), Multi-word Expressions: Acquisition, Processing and Use. London: Routledge.

Lin, P., & Siyanova, A. (2014). Acquisition of formulaic language in the age of internet television. In D. Nunan & J. C. Richards (Eds.), Language learning beyond the classroom (pp. 149-158). London: Routledge.

Lin, P. (2013). More than music to our ears: the value of the phonological interface in a comprehensive understanding of vocabulary acquisition and knowledge. In Archibald A.N. (ed.), Multilingual theory and practice in applied linguistics (pp. 155-158). London: Scitsiugnil Press.

Adolphs, S. and Lin, P. (2011). Corpus Linguistics. In J. Simpson (ed.), The Routledge handbook of applied linguistics (pp. 591-610). London: Routledge.

Lin, P. (2010). The phonology of formulaic sequences: A review. In D. Wood (ed.), Perspectives on formulaic language in acquisition and communication (pp. 174-193). London: Continuum.

Lin, P. and Adolphs, S. (2009). Sound evidence: Phraseological units in spoken corpora. In A. Barfield and H. Gyllstad, (eds), Collocating in another language: multiple interpretations (pp. 34-48). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.





Other Outputs - Book Reviews
Lin, P. (2015). Review of Lu (2014) ‘Computational methods for corpus annotation and analysis’ for The LINGUIST List.

Lin, P. M. S. (2014). Review of Götz (2013): “Fluency in Native and Nonnative English Speech”. In J. Romero-Trillo (Ed.), Yearbook of Corpus Linguistics and Pragmatics 2014. Dordrecht: Springer.

Lin, P. (2012). Review of Tsang (2009) (ed.): ‘Linguistics patterns in spontaneous speech’. Chinese Language and Discourse, 3(2), 295-300.

Lin, P. (2012). Review of Cohn, Fougeron and Huffman (2012): ‘The Oxford Handbook of Laboratory Phonology’ for The LINGUIST List.

Lin, P. (2012). Review of Herbst et al. (2011) (eds): ‘The phraseological view of language’ for The LINGUIST List.

Lin, P. (2009). Review of Wulff (2008): ‘Rethinking idiomaticity: A usage-based approach’. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 14(3), 388-393.

Lin, P. (2009). Recent developments in research on phraseology in foreign language teaching and learning: Meunier, F. & Granger, S. (2008) (eds): ‘Phraseology in foreign language learning and teaching’. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 14(2), 255-269.

Lin, P.M.S. (2008). Review of Hughes (2006) (ed.): ‘Spoken English, TESOL and Applied Linguistics: Challenges for Theory and Practice’ for The LINGUIST List.





Other Outputs - Conference Papers
Lin, P. (2017). A new tool for concordancing the Web as a multimodal corpus. Poster presented at Corpus Linguistics 2017 conference. University of Birmingham, UK, 24-28 July 2017.

Lin, P. & Suen, A. (2017). Mining a corpus of online hotel reviews: A pilot study. Poster presented at Corpus Linguistics 2017 conference. University of Birmingham, UK, 24-28 July 2017.

Suen, A. & Lin, P. (2017). A corpus-driven analysis of luxury hotels’ responses to online reviews. Paper presented at the 4th Asia-Pacific LSP and Professional Communication Association Conference. Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, 26-28 April 2017.

Lin, P. (2016). Second language vocabulary acquisition in the age of Internet television and social media. Paper presented at Department of English Seminar, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 7 November, 2016.

Lin, P. (2016). How many exposures do learners need to learn an English phrase? A big data approach. Paper presented at the 20th Workshop on Linguistics and Language Processing. Kyung Hee Institute for the Study of Language and Information (ISLI), Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea, 29 May 2016.

Lin, P. (2016). Internet social media as a multimodal corpus for profiling the prosodic patterns of formulaic speech. Paper presented at Joint conference of the English Linguistics Society of Korea and the Korea Society of Language and Information, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea, 28 May 2016.

Lin, P. (2015). Spoken input and the acquisition of L2 formulaic expressions. Paper presented at fourth combined conference of the Applied Linguistics Association of Australia (ALAA), the Applied Linguistics Association of New Zealand (ALANZ) and Association for Language Testing and Assessment of Australia and New Zealand (ALTAANZ), University of South Australia, 30 November - 2 December, 2016.

Lin, P. (2015). Idioms and phraseology in learner dictionaries. Paper presented at fourth combined conference of the Applied Linguistics Association of Australia (ALAA), the Applied Linguistics Association of New Zealand (ALANZ) and Association for Language Testing and Assessment of Australia and New Zealand (ALTAANZ), University of South Australia, 30 November - 2 December, 2016.

Lin, P. (2015). It’s not what you say; it is the way that you say it: The need to specify the intonation of idioms and phraseology in learner dictionaries. Paper presented at The Asian Association for Lexicography (ASIALEX) conference, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, 25-27 June, 2015.

Lin, P. (2012). The potential of English television programmes for the learning of formulaic language in an EFL context: A corpus-driven investigation. Paper presented at the Subtitles and Learning Conference, University of Pavia, Italy, 13-14 September, 2012.

Lin, P. (2012). More than music to our ears: The role of prosody in the use, validation, learning and memory of formulaic language. Paper presented at the 45th British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL) Conference, University of Southampton, UK, 6-8 September, 2012.

Lin, P. (2011). What you say and how you say it: An investigation into the sound of multiword units. Paper presented at the 16th World Congress of Applied Linguistics (AILA 2011), Beijing, 23-28 August, 2011.

Siyanova-Chanturia, A. and Lin, P. (2011). On-line processing of idiomatic expressions: Evidence from articulation rate. Paper presented at the 16th World Congress of Applied Linguistics (AILA 2011), Beijing, 23-28 August, 2011.

Lin, P. (2011). A multimodal analysis of multiword units in university lectures. Paper presented at Corpus Linguistics 2011, Birmingham, UK, 20-22 July, 2011.

Lin, P. and Siyanova-Chanturia, A. (2011). Evidence for a processing advantage for frequent idioms: A production study. Paper presented at the American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL) Conference, Chicago, Illinois, 26-29 March, 2011.

Lin, P. (2010). It's not what you say, it's the way you say it: The sounds of formulaic language. Paper presented at the British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL) Conference, University of Aberdeen, UK, 9-11 September, 2010.

Lin, P. (2010). Increasing the robustness of native speaker judgement as a formulaic language identification method. Paper presented at the Formulaic Language Research Network (FLaRN) Interdisciplinary Conference on Formulaic Language, University of Paderborn, Germany, 23-26 March, 2010.

Lin, P. and Dahlmann, I. (2008). The role of prosodic features in the identification of formulaic sequences, Paper presented at the British Association of Applied Linguistics (BAAL) Conference, University of Swansea, 11-13 September 2008.

Lin, P. (2008). Are formulaic sequences phonologically coherent as we assumed? Paper presented at the Formulaic Language Research Network (FLaRN) Postgraduate Symposium, The University of Nottingham, 19-20 June 2008.

Lin, P. (2006). The effect of task types on the use of formulaic language by native speakers and EFL learners of English. Paper presented at the Applied Linguistics Association of Australia (ALAA) 2006 Congress, The University of Queensland, 5-8 July 2006.

Lin, P. and Wang, Z. (2006). Measuring EFL learners’ knowledge of formulaic sequences: Investigating the effect of the testing method. Paper presented at the Applied Linguistics Association of Australia (ALAA) 2006 Congress, The University of Queensland, 5-8 July 2006.

Lin, P. (2006). The use of formulaic language by native speakers and learners of English in their spoken performance. Paper presented at the First Pearl River Delta English Studies Graduate Student Conference, University of Macau, 26-29 June 2006.










Others







Research Projects (funded projects – both internal and external)
External Research Grants as Principal investigator (PI)
2022-2025
The learnability of 41,973 English formulaic expressions: A predictive model and a normative database (HK$966,274)
General Research Fund (GRF),
Research Grants Council (RGC), Hong Kong

2018-2020
Investigating the effects of speech rate and word knowledge on L2 listening comprehension (HK$487,500)
General Research Fund (GRF),
Research Grants Council (RGC), Hong Kong

2017-2019
Investigating the optimal mode of input for the acquisition of second language formulaic sequences(HK$517,885)
Early Career Scheme (ECS),
Research Grants Council (RGC), Hong Kong

2015-2018
Developing an intelligent tool for computer-assisted formulaic sequence learning from YouTube Videos(HK$994,980)
Research and Development Projects,
Standing Committee on Language Education and Research (SCOLAR), HKSAR Government


Internal Research Grants as Principal investigator (PI)
2017-2019
Responding to online reviews: A corpus investigation
Departmental Research Grant (DRG),
Department of English, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

2017-2019
Investigating the optimal mode of input for the acquisition of second language formulaic sequences
University Matching Fund for 2016/17 GRF/ECS Projects,
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

2016-2018
Identifying comprehensible input for English learning in the age of internet television: A pilot study
Departmental Research Grant (DRG),
Department of English, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

2016-2018
Assessing English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners’ prosodic sensitivity and verbal processing ability
University Internal Grant,
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

2015-2018
Internet social media as a multimodal corpus for investigating the tonicity of semi-fixed formulaic sequences
Departmental Research Grant (DRG),
Department of English, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

2012-2013
Analysing spoken discourse: The alignment of intonation units with formulaic expressions
Small-scale research grant (SSRG), City University of Hong Kong

2011-2012
The intonation of multiword units
Small-scale research grant (SSRG), City University of Hong Kong

2010-2011
Phraseology on demand: A description of patterns of phraseology use in English television programmes
Small-scale research grant (SSRG), City University of Hong Kong










Esteem Measures







Professional associations
Member, Speech Prosody Special Interest Group, International Speech Communication Association (ISCA)

Member, Special Interest Group on the Lexicon (SIGLEX), Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL)

Member, British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL)

Member, Formulaic Language and Research Network (FLaRN), UK