Staff Profile

Teaching Areas & Research Interests

• Early Childhood Education
• Language Development in Young Children
• Curriculum Planning
• Inclusive Education

Academic & Professional Experience

Project Grant

• Narratives that shape: Investigating oral and digital storytelling for language and moral development in young children in Hong Kong. Research and Development Fund, HKMU, 07/2025 - 12/2026. Project number: RD/2025/1.13. (Principal Investigator, Funded amount: HKD 199,800)
• Nurturing students to develop Chinese word recognition tools: Masterclasses, mentorship, validation, optimization and exhibition. Quality Enhancement Measures Scheme, HKMU, 06/2025 - 08/2026. Project number: Q1137. (Project Proposer, Funded amount: HKD 805,250)

Selected Publications

Journal Articles

• Wu, D., Degotardi, S., Li, H., & Tong, N.Y.* (2024). A corpus‑based study of spatial frames of references in early child Mandarin Chinese. Languages, 9(10), 318. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages9100318 [ESCI]
• Tong, N. Y., & Li, H.* (2022). Do girls outperform boys in early syntactic development? Negative evidence from Mandarin-speaking preschoolers. Languages, 7(4), 281. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages7040281 [ESCI]

Selected Professional & Community Services

• Programme Leader of Bachelor of Education with Honours in Early Childhood Education (Leadership and Special Educational Needs) (Full-time) - HKMU (01/07/2023 - present)
• Representative of the School of E&L, HKMU at the Pacific of Early Childhood Education Research Association – Hong Kong (PECERA-HK) Strategic Partnership Sub-Committee (2022 - present)
• Review Committee Member - The Asian Conference on Education (2024), IAFOR
• Subject Specialist - The Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications (2015 - 2017)

Modified Date: 27 Jun, 2025
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