FHM Researchers - Prof LADEGAARD Hans J.
FHM Researchers - Prof LADEGAARD Hans J.
Head, Department of English Language Education (ELE)
Research Area(s):
- Language Education
- Linguistics
- Cultural Studies
My broad areas of research interest are sociolinguistics, the social psychology of language, and intercultural communication. I am particularly interested in language attitudes and stereotypes, intergroup communication, narratives of migration, language and gender, and discourse analysis. I am also interested in combining quantitative approaches to the study of language and communication (surveys and corpora) with qualitative approaches (discourse analysis and narratology), and to explore how research on language and communication can translate into social action. My most recent research has focused on three thematically diverse areas: trauma storytelling in migrant domestic worker narratives, university students’ experience of internationalisation, and teachers' attitudes to Hong Kong English.
I have published around 60 articles in top international journals, three books, and 15 book chapters published by international publishers. I have received eight major research grants, valuing a total of around HK$10 million. I was Editor-in-Chief of Language and Intercultural Communication, a Q1 journal in Communication published by Taylor & Francis, 2021-2025. In 2024, I was awarded the Robert C. Gardner Award for Outstanding Research by the International Association of Language and Social Psychology.
I have supervised more than 50 research postgraduate students to successful completion, and I have published with several of my former PhD-students and postdocs, including Dr Jamie McKeown, Dr Cheng Ho Fai, Dr Sopuruchi Aboh, and Dr Mark Nartey. One of my former PhD-students, Dr Sopuruchi Aboh, won the Hong Kong Polytechnic University Best Thesis Award in 2025.