Sociolinguist
The Sociolinguistics of Catholic Social Media
My PhD project considers the use of social media by Catholic groups and individuals from a sociolinguistic perspective, exploring the intersection of digital and Catholic cultures. Case studies include meme pages, priest influencers and Facebook groups.
Rural 'Border-zones'
Arising from a discussion at a HKU Sociolinguistics reading group, the project explores Yung Shue Wan Main Street of Lamma Island, Hong Kong as a border-zone between the urban and rural, bringing an autoethnographic approach to LL work.
Militello, J., Theng, A.J., Kong, Y.L.C., Singh, J. (2023) The linguistic landscape of Lamma Island: A polycentric autoethnography of an urban–rural nexus in Hong Kong. Sociolinguistic Studies. (In Press)
Landscapes of COVID-19
The ways in which the pandemic has changed the world encouraged Vincent Tse, Jasper Wu and I to work together towards analyzing the linguistic landscape of the pandemic as it emerged in Hong Kong. The editors of the Linguistic Landscape journal organized a workshop which we presented at, resulting in a visual essay published on www.covidsigns.net as well as in the LL journal. Additionally, participation in a panel at the IPRA 2021 conference resulted in an article published in Pragmatics and Society.
Theng, A. J., Tse, V. W. S., & Wu, J. Z. Z. (2022). Complicating solidarity: The Hong Kong Covid-19 landscape. Linguistic Landscape, 8(2-3), 264-280. doi:https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.21036.the
Elite Food and Drink in Hong Kong and Singapore
My masters' thesis at the University of Hong Kong supervised by Adam Jaworski considered the phenomenon of third-wave, artisanal coffee shops in Hong Kong and Singapore both online and offline. The work combines discourse analysis with a linguistic landscape perspectives, and feeding into Thurlow and Jaworski's Elite Mobilities project.
My project has thus far resulted in publications in the Discourse, Context & Media journal, where I focus specifically on neon signs, ' language objects' placed in such cafes, and another publication in Signs and Society focusing on the use of Chinese, 'cultural omnivorousness' as well as providing a theoretical contribution to semiotic theory.
In addition, a version of my findings have been published for a trade audience in the 25 magazine, newsletter of the Specialty Coffee Association.
Theng, A.J. (2021). When the Signs Point to Coffee, 25 Magazine, Specialty Coffee Association
Voices of Children in Singapore
As an undergraduate at the National University of Singapore, I worked as a research assistant on the Voices of Children in Singapore project, led by Dr. Rebecca Lurie Starr which concerned the sociolinguistic development of local and expatriate children in Singapore, focusing on English and Mandarin. My contribution to the project resulted in a publication in Language in Society as well as a talk given at the NWAV Conference in Toronto in November 2015.
Book Reviews
I regularly contribute book reviews to journals.
Theng, A.J. (2023), (Review of) A Panorama of Linguistic Landscape Studies. Gorter, Durk, Cenoz, Jasone. Multilingual Matters. 2023. Language in Society. (In Press)