HAAL Best Paper from Novice Scholars Award 2026: Winners and Finalists Announced

HAAL is delighted to announce the winners and finalists of the Best Paper from Novice Scholars Award.

Winners

• Mohammad Mosiur Rahman, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

• Zheng Zhang Amanda, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

• Wenkang Zhang, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen

  
  

Finalists

• Jie Yang, City University of Hong Kong

• Lanfang Sun, The University of Hong Kong

• Qian Long, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

• Lu Gaoqiang, City University of Hong Kong

• Liang Chenggang, South China Agricultural University (and University of Macau)

  
  

Warm congratulations to all of this year’s winners and finalists on this well-deserved recognition. Their excellent work reflects the strength and diversity of postgraduate research in applied linguistics. We also extend our sincere thanks to the selection committee for their time, care, and thoughtful review of the submissions.

We warmly invite colleagues, students, and members of the applied linguistics community to join us for the HAAL Postgraduate Event and Award Presentation Ceremony on 22 May 2026, 2:00–6:00pm at LT-16, Yeung Kin Man Academic Building, City University of Hong Kong.

The event will feature a keynote by Prof Guangwei Hu of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, titled “Behind Editorial Decisions: What Counts as a Publishable Manuscript in Applied Linguistics”, followed by presentations from the award winners and finalists.

Registration is free and all are welcome.

Call for HAAL Awards 2026

This annual award (previously Fawzia Braine Memorial Award), amounting to HK$4,500, is made in recognition of a novice scholar (postgraduate student or a recent graduate) for a paper published in an international refereed journal in applied linguistics. Below are the categories of awards:

1.     Best Journal Article for a Hong Kong Novice Scholar - Winner x 2 ($1500 per award + Certificate)

2.     Best Journal Article for a Greater Bay Area (excluding Hong Kong) Novice Scholar - Winner x 1 ($1500 per award + Certificate)

3.     Best Journal Article for Greater Bay Area (including Hong Kong) Novice Scholar – Finalist x 5 (no cash award + Certificate)

All winners and finalists will be invited to present their papers at a special postgraduate symposium (HAAL Postgraduate Event) in June/July 2026 (date TBC). We will also invite a local scholar to deliver a keynote on publishing and/or academic careers.

For conference years only, they will also be invited and have their conference fee waived.

Eligibility:

·       Applicants should be enrolled, full- or part-time, at a university in Hong Kong/ or the Greater Bay Area or have graduated from a university in Hong Kong / or the Greater Bay Area within one year of the closing date for applications.

·       The programme of study must be a PhD or equivalent professional doctorate (e.g., EdD)

·       The first affiliation of the published article should be the institution where the applicant is studying or has recently graduated.

·       Applicants should be current members of HAAL. Please apply for membership here.

·       The article should have been published (Online first) in a SCOPUS/WOS-indexed journal in applied linguistics in the year for which the award is made (March 2025-February 2026).

·       The article should be written in English.

·       The applicant must be the first author of the article.

·       An applicant may submit only one submission.

·       The deadline for applicants is March 28^th, 2026.

·       The HAAL Executive Committee's decision on this award is final.

Application Procedure

Completed application forms together with softcopy of the published (or published online prior to its printed version) article/s submitted for the award should be sent to HAAL President, Prof. MOORHOUSE Benjamin Luke (bmoorhou@cityu.edu.hk)

HAAL best paper Award- 2026 application form.docx

Download DOCX • 63KB

Call for HAAL Awards

1) HAAL Postgraduate Student Grant for Overseas Conference Presentation

• This is a grant of HK$3000 to support up to two postgraduate students to present their papers at overseas conferences.

2) HAAL Award for Best Journal Article Published by a Novice Scholar

• This award, amounting to HK$2,500, is made in recognition of a novice scholar (postgraduate student or a recent graduate) of a university in Hong Kong for a paper published in an international refereed journal in applied linguistics.

Details about these awards and how to apply can be found here:

For postgraduate travel grant: 

https://www.haal.hk/post/haal-postgraduate-student-grant-for-overseas-conference-presentation-1

For the HAAL Award for Best Journal Article: 

https://www.haal.hk/post/bestjournalarticle

*Awardees in 2025 will be invited to present their papers at the 9th HAAL Conference 2025, https://haalconference2025.wixsite.com/haal-2025.

The deadline for the applications for both award categories is May 2 (Friday), 2025.