Photo credit: Vancouver Sun

Bio

Zoe Lam holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics from UBC, and is currently teaching Cantonese language courses at Asian Studies, where her work connects linguistics, language education, and the decolonization of knowledge to support multilingualism and heritage language revitalization. Her research focuses on Cantonese heritage learners, particularly their perception of speech sounds, an area explored in her monograph Perception of Lexical Tones by Homeland and Heritage Speakers of Cantonese. Watch her award-winning speech in which she explained this project in three minutes here.

In her teaching, Zoe employs learner-oriented pedagogies, aiming to foster collaborative environments and enhance learner autonomy through methods like language learning portfolios and flipped classrooms. Her pedagogical efforts have been recognized with the Lively Teaching Award from Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the Teaching Assistant of the Year award from UBC’s Department of Linguistics, the Pop Pedagogies Award from UBC’s Pop Culture Cluster, and the BC Heritage Award for excellent programming that advances the appreciation, understanding, and practice of tangible and intangible cultural heritage .

Beyond the classroom, Zoe is involved in knowledge mobilization and community engagement. She served as a curriculum advisor for the historic Mon Keang School in Vancouver Chinatown to train a new generation of community teachers. She was also an invited keynote speaker in public talks, seminars, and panel discussions, including the International Mother Language Day and public programs of the Chinese Canadian Museum. Zoe often speaks about her academic and community work at local and international media outlets, including CBC Radio, Toronto Star, Vancouver Sun, Metro News, Fairchild Radio, South China Morning Post, and Singtao Daily.