Dr Catherine Hua Xiang (MEd, PhD) works as the East Asian Language Coordinator in Language Centre at the London School of Economics. Her main research interest lies in the field of applied linguistics, cross-cultural communication and pragmatics. Her PhD research looks into speech acts; particularly, it explores the linguistic and cultural differences in apology strategies used in the UK and China.

She has worked as a consultant for global companies such as Chanel, GE and Jaguar on effective communication with Chinese clients.  She is also interested in teaching material development in teaching Mandarin as a foreign language and is the author of “Mastering Chinese – the Complete Course for Beginners” (published by Palgrave McMillan, UK).

She is currently researching the implications of e-learning in foreign language teaching and learning. Her latest publication (release in Aug 2017 by IGI Global, USA) is on “Audio-visual Media in Language Education”, an edited book sharing best practices in higher education across the world in this specific field.