Professor CHOI, William T. M.
Professor CHOI, William T. M.
蔡浚文
Director of Speech and Music Perception Laboratory
Fellow of the Psychonomic Society (FPsyS)
Assistant Professor
Academic Unit of Human Communication, Learning, and Development
BSc (Speech & Hearing Sci.), PhD (HKU), FPsyS
[javascript protected email address]
(852) 3917 1587
Room 757, Meng Wah Complex
Areas>- Cantonese tone perception
- English stress perception
- Music perception
- Psycholinguistics
Research Expertise
- Speech and Hearing Sciences
- Language Processing and Dyslexia
- Bilingualism and Multilingualism
- Communication Sciences and Disorders
Prospective PhD/ EdD/ MPhil Applications
I am not taking on graduate supervision in 2025-2026.
Links
Areas of Expertise
Research interests:
- Cantonese tone perception
- English stress perception
- Music perception
- Music and language relationship
Teaching areas:
- SLPC 1035 Clinical Linguistics II: Phonetics
- SHSC 3033 School-Age and Adolescent Language & Literacy Disorders
- SHSC 3035 Complex Cases Paediatric
- SHSM 8400 Research Issues and Methodology in Communication Sciences and Disorders
Administrative duties:
- Year 1 Coordinator of the BSc(SLP) Programme (Programme level)
- Admissions Tutor of the BSc(SLP) Programme (Programme level)
- Member of the Board of Faculty of Education (Faculty level)
- Member of the Committee on Discontinuation (University level)
Awards
Fellowship, awarded by the Psychonomic Society, 2024
Faculty Early Career Research Output Award, awarded by The University of Hong Kong, 2022
Croucher Fellowship for Postdoctoral Research, awarded by Croucher Foundation, 2018
Fulbright Lee-Hysan Research Scholar Award, awarded by US Department of State and Lee Hysan Foundation, 2017
Projects
Principal Investigator, “Pitch-based and Rhythm-based Music Training Programs for Improving Phonological and Reading Abilities in Cantonese ESL Kindergarteners: A Randomized Controlled Trial”, General Research Fund, Hong Kong Research Grants Council. (2024-2026)
Principal Investigator, “Influence of Punjabi Tone System on Cantonese Tone Perception: Evidence from Punjabi Heritage Children in Hong Kong”, Seed Fund for Basic Research for New Staff, The University of Hong Kong. (2022-2024)
Publications
(*PhD/MPhil student, ^undergraduate student)
Choi, W. (in press). Do Cantonese listeners have a non-native advantage in English stress-related lexical decision? Second Language Research.
Choi, W., Lai, V. K. W., Kong, S., & Bautista, A. (2025). Examining the cognitive and perceptual perspectives of music-to-language transfer: A study of Cantonese-English bilingual children. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 249, 106069. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2024.106069
Choi, W., ^*Ling, C. L. K., & ^Wu, C. H. J. (2024). Musical advantage in lexical tone perception hinges on musical instrument: A comparison between pitched musicians, unpitched musicians, and non-musicians. Music Perception, 41(5), 360-377. https://doi.org/10.1525/MP.2024.41.5.360
Choi, W., ^To, C. Y., & *Cheng, R. (2023). The choice of musical instrument matters: Effect of pitched but not unpitched musicianship on tone identification and word learning. Applied Psycholinguistics, 44(5), 844-857. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716423000358
Choi, W., & Lai, V. K. W. (2023). Does musicianship influence the perceptual integrality of tones and segmental information? The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 154(2), 852-862. https://doi.org/10.1121/100.0020579
Choi, W., & Tsui, K. Y. R. (2023). Perceptual integrality of foreign segmental and tonal information: Dimensional Transfer Hypothesis. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 45(4), 1056-1073. https://doi.org/doi:10.1017/S0272263122000511
Choi, W., & Chiu, M. M. (2023). Why aren't all Cantonese tones equally confusing to English listeners? Language and Speech, 66(4), 870-895. https://doi.org/10.1177/00238309221139789
Choi, W. (2022). What is 'music' in music-to-language transfer? Musical ability but not musicianship supports Cantonese listeners' English stress perception. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 65, 4047-4059. https://doi.org/10.1044/2022_JSLHR-22-00175
Choi, W. (2022). Theorizing positive transfer in cross-linguistic speech perception: The Acoustic-Attentional-Contextual hypothesis. Journal of Phonetics, 91, 101135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wocn.2022.101135
Choi, W. (2022). Towards a native OPERA hypothesis: Musicianship and English stress perception. Language and Speech, 65(3), 697-712. https://doi.org/10.1177/00238309211049458
Choi, W. (2021). Musicianship influences language effect on musical pitch perception. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 712753. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.712753
Choi, W. (2021). Cantonese advantage on English stress perception: Constraints and neural underpinnings. Neuropsychologia, 158, 107888. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.107888
Choi, W. (2020). Review of research in deaf education: Contexts, challenges, and considerations. Deafness & Education International. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/14643154.2020.1816596
Choi, W. (2020). The selectivity of musical advantage: Musicians exhibit perceptual advantage for some but not all Cantonese tones. Music Perception, 37(5), 423-434. https://doi.org/10.1525/mp.2020.37.5.423
Choi, W., Tong, X, & Samuel, A. G. (2019). Better than native: Tone language experience enhances second language English lexical stress discrimination in Cantonese-English bilinguals. Cognition, 189, 188-192. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2019.04.004
Deng, Q., Choi, W., & Tong, X. (2019). Bidirectional cross-linguistic association of phonological skills and reading comprehension: Evidence from Hong Kong Chinese-English bilingual readers. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 52(4), 299-311. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022219419842914
Choi, W., Tong, X., & Deacon, S. H. (2019). From Cantonese lexical tone awareness to second language English vocabulary: Cross-language mediation by segmental phonological awareness. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 62(6), 1875-1889. https://doi.org/10.1044/2019_JSLHR-L-17-0323
Tong, X.†, Choi, W.†[co-first author], & Man, Y. Y. (2018). Tone language experience modulates the effect of long-term musical training on musical pitch perception. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 144(2),690-697. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.5049365
Choi, W., Tong, X., Law, K. K. S., & Cain, K. (2018). Within- and cross-language contributions of morphological awareness to word reading development in Chinese-English bilingual children. Reading and Writing, 31(8), 1787-1820. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-017-9770-0
Choi, W., Tong, X., & Singh, L. (2017). From lexical tone to lexical stress: A cross-language mediation model for Cantonese children learning English as a second language. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 492. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00492
Choi, W., Tong, X., Gu, F., Tong, X., & Wong, L. (2017). On the early neural perceptual integrality of tones and vowels. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 41, 11-23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneuroling.2016.09.003
Choi, W., Tong, X., & Deacon, H. (2017). Double dissociations in reading comprehension difficulties among Chinese-English bilinguals and their association with tone awareness. Journal of Research in Reading, 40(2), 184-198. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9817.12077
Choi, W., Tong, X., & Cain, K. (2016). Lexical prosody beyond first-language boundary: Chinese lexical tone sensitivity predicts English reading comprehension. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 148, 70-86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2016.04.002
Professional Community Services
Associate Editor: Frontiers in Psychology, Frontiers in Communication, 2021-present.
Associate Review Editor: Deafness & Education International, 2019-present.
External Reviewer: Standing Committee on Language Education and Research (語文教育及研究常務委員會), HKSAR Government, 2020.
External Reviewer: National Science Foundation, USA, 2022.
Ad-hoc reviewer: Cognition; Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research; Reading & Writing; Bilingualism: Language and Cognition; Language Learning; Language and Speech; Deafness & Education International; Learning and Individual Differences; Applied Psycholinguistics; Journal of Research in Reading; Frontiers in Psychology; Journal of Psycholinguistic Research; PLOSONE
News article:
蔡浚文 (2022年 10 月 18 日)。教育提案:學習音樂有助學習語言嗎?《明報》
Others
Fellow of the Psychonomic Society
Full Member, Hong Kong Association of Speech Therapists