Dr. Sherman Lee

Sherman was trained as a sociolinguist. Her professional journey began as a researcher on a government-funded project based at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, investigating the bilingual practices of the immigrant Chinese community in England. She later pursued her doctoral research on the indigenous Hakka speech community in Hong Kong, examining the factors that influence language maintenance and shift. Her work earned her the Outstanding PhD Thesis Award from the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong.

Sherman’s teaching and research interests focus on the connections between language, culture, communication and society, emphasising how these elements shape human interaction and enrich our understanding of the world. She has taught both undergraduate and postgraduate courses at universities in the UK and Hong Kong, covering a range of subjects in linguistics and applied linguistics, including sociolinguistics, multilingualism, discourse analysis, intercultural communication, second language acquisition, EAP, thesis writing, research methods and interdisciplinary studies.

At CAES, Sherman teaches courses in both the MA in Applied Linguistics (MAAL) and MA TESOL programmes and supervises MA dissertations and capstone projects. In her current role as the MAAL Programme Coordinator, she oversees the daily administration of the programme, and advises on admissions. Prior to joining CAES, she served as the Programme Director and Linguistics Coordinator of the BA English programme at HKSYU.

In addition to her teaching and coordination responsibilities, Sherman has engaged in quality assurance roles for self-financed universities in Hong Kong, including serving as an external examiner for undergraduate programmes and developing language enhancement initiatives for academic staff. Sherman has also been active in chairing or serving on organising and programme committees for international conferences, as well as judging city-wide English public speaking and writing competitions for local students.