Staff Profile

Biography

Dr. Ge is currently Assistant Professor at Hong Kong Metropolitan University. She obtained her MPhil and PhD in Linguistics from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her research focuses on language and cognitive development in typical and atypical populations, including autistic children, bilingual children and second language learners. She has led and conducted externally funded research projects (RGC, HMRF, NSSF-China). Her work has appeared in top-tier SSCI-indexed journals, including Autism, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Applied Psycholinguistics, and First Language. She is the recipient of Faculty Advancement Fund and Outstanding Research Publication Award at HKMU. Dr. Ge is also qualified to administer and code the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule Second Edition (ADOS-2) (a gold-standard instrument for diagnosing autism) for clinical and research reliability. 

Teaching Areas & Research Interests

• Childhood Bilingualism
• Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Second Language Acquisition
• Corpus Linguistics

Academic & Professional Experience

Research Grants

External Grants

• 2025 - 2026.. Principal Investigator Bilingualism effects on cognitive skills in preschool children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Faculty Development Scheme, Hong Kong Research Grants Council. (Co-Is: Fang Liu, Caicai Zhang, Jie Wang, & Virginia Yip). HK$768,916 (Project No.: UGC/FDS16/H37/24)

• 2022 -2023. Learner engagement in listening-and-speaking tasks in the face-to-face and the synchronous computer-mediated communication conditions. Faculty Development Scheme, Hong Kong Research Grants Council. Principal Investigator (Previous PI: Christy Qiu) HK$655,953 (Project No.: UGC/FDS16/H18/21)

• 2020 - 2022. The impact of bilingual exposure on the language development of Cantonese-speaking children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Faculty Development Scheme, Hong Kong Research Grants Council. Principal Investigator (Co-Is: Fang Liu & Virginia Yip). HK$659,438 (Project No.: UGC/FDS16/H13/19) 

• 2026 - 2027. The integration of two modalities: gesture and speech prosody in Cantonese focus marking in autistic and typical populations. General Research Fund, Hong Kong Research Grants Council. Co-Investigator (PI: Si Chen). HK$654,000 (Project No.: 15604425)

• 2024 - 2026. A chatbot-based program to promote well-being in caregivers of children with autism spectrum disorder. Health and Medical Research Fund (HMRF), Hong Kong Health Bureau. Co-Investigator (PI: Wendy Zhang). HK$499,038 (Project No.: 21223081)

• 2023 - 2025. 自閉症譜系障礙兒童在語言加工中的心理表徵實驗研究 [Experimental studies on mental representations during the language processing among children with Autism Spectrum Disorder]. 國家社會科學基金 [National Social Science Fund of China]. Co-Investigator (PI: Xin Kang). CNY$200,000.

• 2023 - 2026. 北京自閉症譜系障礙兒童語言能力研究 [Investigating the language abilities of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Beijing]. 北京社會科學基金 [Beijing Social Science Foundation]. Co-Investigator (PI: Shuwen Chen). CNY$80,000 (Project No.: 23YYC015)

• 2020 - 2022. Perception and production of the Putonghua tone of non-Chinese-speaking South Asian ethnic minority students in Hong Kong. Faculty Development Scheme, Hong Kong Research Grants Council. Co-Investigator (PI: Cindy Lam Man Fong). HK$575,100. (Project No.: UGC/FDS16/H15/19)

• 2021 - 2023. A corpus-based study of the acquisition of quantifiers. Guangdong Planning Office of Philosophy and Social Science. Co-Investigator (PI: Xiangjun Deng). CNY$50,000. 

Internal Grants

• 2025 - 2026. Principal Investigator. Language and Aging: An Investigation of Cantonese-speaking Elderly's Language Comprehension and Production in the Greater Bay Area. School-level Collaborative Research Fund, Hong Kong Metropolitan University. HK$499,816 (Project No.: EL2502)

• 2024 – 2026. Co-Principal Investigator. Movement and Language: An integrated approach to support children with neurodevelopmental disorders. Team-based Research Fund, Hong Kong Metropolitan University. (PC: Catherine Capio). HK$937,118 (Project No.: TBRF/2024/1.5)

• 2023 - 2024. Principal Investigator. Exploring the effects of bilingualism on cognitive abilities in Cantonese-English bilingual children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. University Research Fund, Hong Kong Metropolitan University. HK$150,000 (Project No.: PFDS/2023/05)

• 2023 - 2025. Principal Investigator. The acquisition of restrictive focus in Cantonese-speaking children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder. Research and Development Fund, Hong Kong Metropolitan University. HK$199,500 (Project No.: RD/2023/1.9)

• 2022 - 2023. Principal Investigator. The role of parental input in the language development of Cantonese-English bilingual children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Hong Kong: A corpus study. Research and Development Fund. HK$195,400 (Project No.: RD/2021/02)

• 2019 - 2020. Principal Investigator. The use of prosody in pragmatic comprehension by Cantonese-speaking children with high-functioning autism. Katie Shu Sui Pui Charitable Trust - Reseach and Publication Fund. HK$97,247 (Project No.: KS2018/2.2)

• 2023 - 2024. Co-Investigator. Instant message-delivered positive psychotherapy (I-PPT) to promote well-being in caregivers of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A mixed methods evaluation of a pilot randomized controlled trial. Research and Development Fund, Hong Kong Metropolitan University. HK$199,538 (Project No.: RD/2023/1.20)

• 2019 - 2020. Co-Investigator. A pilot study on analyzing HKEAA English argumentative essays for learning and teaching in Hong Kong secodary schools. School Research Grant. HK$60,000.

Selected Publications

Book Chapters

• Chen, A., & Ge, H. (2024). L2 comprehension of focus-to-prosody mapping by Mandarin learners of English. Proceedings of Speech Prosody 2024, 116-120, doi: 10.21437/SpeechProsody.2024-24
• Ge, H., & Zhao, Q. (2021). Input effects in bilingual development: The case of syntactic complexity in Cantonese-English bilingual children's English. Virtual IASCL 2021 (organizers J. Parish-Morris, A. Iglesias, R. Paul), July 15-23, 2021. In V. C. M. Gathercole (Ed.), eProceedingsIASCL2021.weebly.com, P264.
• Sasmar Putri, A., Ge, H., Hart, A., Yip, V., & Chen, A. (2019). The effect of explicit training on comprehension of English focus-to-prosody mapping by Indonesian learners of English. In S. Calhoun., P, Escudero., M, Tabain., & P, Warren (Eds.) Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Melbourne, Australia 2019 (pp. 1937-1941). Canberra, Australia: Australasian Speech Science and Technology Association Inc.
• Ge, H., Chen, A., & Yip, V. (2018). L1 effects on L2 comprehension of focus-to-prosody mapping: A comparison between Cantonese and Dutch learners of English. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Speech Prosody 2018 (pp. 187-191). Poznań, Poland. doi: 10.21437/SpeechProsody.2018-38.

Journal Articles

• Zhang, Y., Chen, S., Li, M., Li, B., Lu, S., Chan, A., Ge, H., Tang, T., & Chen, Z. (2025). Sung Speech Training Improves Prosodic Focus Marking in a Nondominant Language in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1044/2025_JSLHR-25-00104 (SSCI & SCIE; JCR Rehabilitation: Q1; JCR Audiology & Speech-Language Pathology: Q1; 5-year IF: 2.8)
• Yuen, H. K., Ge, H., Zhang, C., Wong, Y. T., Chan, E. Y. W., Tsang, W. W. N., & Capio, C. M. (2025). Effects of Bilingualism on Executive Function of Children with Neurodevelopmental Disorders: A Scoping Review. Children, 12(9), 1247. https://doi.org/10.3390/children12091247 (SCIE; JCR Pediatrics: Q1; 5-year IF: 2.3)
• Qiu, X., Lo, Y. Y., Ge, H., & Bui, G. (2025). Second language learner engagement in computer-mediated interactive oral tasks. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching. https://doi.org/10.14746/ssllt.41317 (SSCI; JCR Linguistics: Q1; 5-year IF: 4.8)
• Wang, T., Ma, P. H., Ge, H., Sun, Y., Kwok, T. T. O., Liu, X., Wang, Y., Lau, K. W., & Zhang, W. (2025). The use of gamified interventions to enhance social interaction and communication among people with autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 105037. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2025.105037 (SSCI; SCIE; Q1; 5-year IF: 7.6)
• Chen, S., Zhang, Y., Li, M., Li, B., Lv, S., Chan, A., Ge, H., Tang, T., & Chen, Z. (2025). Acquisition of Speech Prosody in a Non-native Tone Language by Children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-024-06698-4 (SSCI; Q1; 5-year IF: 5.258)
• Leung, C. D., Chow, M. V., & Ge, H. (2024). Compiling data for investigating language use in classroom discourse : A corpus-driven method. MethodsX, 13(November), 103048. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mex.2024.103048
• Qiu, X., Ge, H. & Cai, J. (2024). An exploratory study on second language learner engagement in different types of interactive tasks in video-chat and text-chat communication. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching. https://doi.org/10.1515/iral-2024-0096 (SSCI; Q1; 5-year IF: 1.4).
• Ge, H.*, Lee, A., Liu, F., Yuen, H. K., & Yip, V. (2024). Bilingual exposure might enhance L1 development in Cantonese-English bilingual autistic children: Evidence from the production of focus. Autism, 28(7), 1795-1808. https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613231207449 (SCI & SSCI; 5-year IF: 6.2; JCR ranking: Q1)
• Ganga, R., Ge, H., Marijn, S., Yip, V., & Chen, A. (2024). Prosodic processing in sentences with 'only' in L1 and L2 English. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 46(2):478-503. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0272263124000019 (SSCI; 5-year IF: 5.4; JCR ranking: Q1).
• Deng, X., Zheng, X. & Ge, H. (2024). Quantifying events or entities? —A corpus-based study of universal quantifiers in early child English and child-directed speech. First Language, 44(2), 191-213. https://doi.org/10.1177/01427237231225023 (SSCI; 5-year IF: 1.9; JCR ranking: Q2)
• Ge, H.*, Liu, F., Yuen, H. K., Chen, A., & Yip, V. (2023). Comprehension of prosodically and syntactically marked focus in Cantonese-speaking children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 53, 1255–1268. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-022-05770-1 (SSCI; 5-year IF: 4.5; JCR ranking: Q1)
• Leung, D., Chow, V., & Ge, H. (2022). A learner corpus is born this way: Design, demonstration and direction. Data in Brief, 44, 108527. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2022.108527
• Kang, X.* & Ge, H.* (2022). Tracking object-state representations during real-time language comprehension by native and non-native speakers of English. Frontiers in Psychology, 13:819243. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.819243 (SSCI; 5-year IF: 3.62; JCR ranking: Q2)
• Ge, H.*, Mulders, I., Kang, X., Chen, A., & Yip, V. (2021). Processing focus in native and non-native speakers: An eye-tracking study in the visual world paradigm. Applied Psycholinguistics, 42(4), 1057-1088. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716421000230 (SSCI, 5-year IF: 2.1; JCR ranking: Q1).
• Ge, H.*, Chen, A., & Yip, V. (2020). Comprehension of focus-to-accentuation mapping in sentences with only by advanced Cantonese learners and Dutch learners of English. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 1-25. doi:10.1017/S0272263120000248 (SSCI, 5-year IF:5.4; JCR ranking: Q1).
• Lee, C., Ge, H., & Chung, E. (2021). What linguistic features distinguish and predict L2 writing quality? A study of examination scripts written by adolescent Chinese learners of English in Hong Kong. System, 97, 102461. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2021.102461 (SSCI, 5-year IF: 4.9; JCR ranking: Q1)
• Ge, H.*, Matthews, S., Cheung, L., & Yip, V. (2017). Bidirectional cross-linguistic influence in Cantonese-English bilingual children: The case of right-dislocation. First Language, 37(3), 231-251. https://doi.org/10.1177/0142723716687955 (SSCI; 5-year IF: 1.9; JCR ranking: Q2)
• Ge, H.* (2017). A prosodic analysis of adjective reduplication in Ningbo Chinese. Studies in Prosodic Grammar, 2(2), 104-118.

Selected Professional & Community Services

• Ad hoc reviewer for Autism, Autism & Developmental Language Impairments, Applied Psycholinguistics, Behavior Research Methods, Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, First Language, Frontiers in Psychology, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, Journal of Chinese Linguistics, Journal of Communication Disorders, Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, Laboratory Phonology, Lingua, Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, Psychology of Music, Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, Sage Open, Second Language Research, Studies in Prosodic Grammar, Studies in Second Language Acquisition, & Research Methods in Applied Linguistics

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Modified Date: 19 Nov, 2025
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