Lecturer
PhD in English Language, National University of Singapore
MPhil in Language Policy, Hong Kong Baptist University
MA (Distinction) in Language Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University
PGDE in Teaching of English, Hong Kong Baptist University
Fellowship of Advance HE
James began his career as a secondary English teacher. He then pursued further studies in Sociolinguistics, earning an MA with distinction in Language Studies and an MPhil from Hong Kong Baptist University. He then relocated to Singapore, where he obtained a PhD in English Language from the National University of Singapore. Before joining CAES as a lecturer in 2022, he worked at various tertiary institutions, teaching a diverse range of courses in Linguistics, and English for Academic and Specific Purposes at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. He also supervised master’s dissertations and mentored school teachers.
He successfully secured the highly competitive Teaching Relief for Scholarship twice within three academic years. The first was in Semester 1 of the 2022-2023 academic year, aimed at developing a new course on Language Policy for the Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics (MAAL) Programme during Semester 2 of 2022-2023. This course will also be offered as part of a new joint Master’s Programme in Multilingual Education at the University College Dublin starting in 2026-2027. The second time was in Semester 2 of the 2024-2025 academic year, aimed at creating an undergraduate course on Linguistic Landscape during Semester 1 of 2025-2026, building on the success of two Linguistic Landscape workshops developed for the MAAL Programme. He has also been invited to develop a new course “Advanced Research Methods” for the Master of Arts in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages Programme.
His research interests focus on Language Policy and Linguistic Landscapes in Hong Kong and Singapore. His latest research on the linguistic landscape of the Hong Kong metro is in press in a peer-reviewed SSCI journal. Current research projects involve studying toponymy in Hong Kong and exploring Chinese as a pluricentric language in Hong Kong, alongside an investigation of both Chinese and English as pluricentric languages in Singapore.
He is a registered secondary teacher in both Hong Kong and Scotland, and a Fellow of AdvanceHE in the UK. He serves as the Deputy Coordinator of the Science for English Programme and teaches in the MAAL Programme.
Professional Affiliations:
Member, Singapore Association for Applied Linguistics
Selected Publications / Presentations:
Fong, J. (2025). Language preferences in the metro space of Hong Kong: A study of borderland dynamics. Journal of Intercultural Studies. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/07256868.2025.2556382
Fong, J. (2025). Choreographed Pluricentricity: Analysing Language Dynamics in Hong Kong’s Civic Signage. Paper presented at the 11th International Conference on Pluricentric Languages and Their Nondominant Varieties, ISCTE, Institute University of Lisbon, Portugal.
Fong, J. (2024). Hong Kong’s metro stations as fluid borderlands of Chineseness. Paper presented at the Linguistic Landscape 15, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.
Fong, J. (2023). Social indexicality in the visual complexity of storefront signs: A field study in two Hong Kong’s shopping mall. Paper presented at the International Conference Semiosis in Communication Conference: New Challenges of Multimodality in the Digital Age, National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, Bucharest, Romania.
Fong, J. (2021). How ICT enhances the process of learning and teaching in tertiary education. Paper presented at the International Conference on Technology-Enhanced Language Learning and Teaching & Corpus-based Language Learning and Teaching 2021 (TeLLT & CoLLT 2021). The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Fong, J. (2019). Indexical orders of identity in Hong Kong: An analysis of railway station exit signs as contested spaces for identity struggles. Paper presented at the Multidisciplinary Approaches in Language Policy & Planning Conference. Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto, Canada.
Fong, J. (2019). Chinese as a pluricentric language in post-handover Hong Kong: Legitimacy of traditional and simplified Chinese characters. Paper presented at the Conference of Languages, Nations, Cultures: Pluricentric Languages in Context(s). Stockholm University, Sweden.