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Dr Huahui Zhao

Dr Huahui Zhao

  • Position: Associate Professor in Language Education
  • Areas of expertise: GenAI in Education; language assessment and testing; disciplinary writing proficiency; Developing critical thinking; corpus-based approach to understanding feedback and writing
  • Email: H.Zhao1@leeds.ac.uk
  • Phone: +44(0)113 343 5593
  • Location: 2.21a Hillary Place
  • Website: X | LinkedIn | Researchgate | ORCID

Profile

I joined the University of Leeds as a Lecturer in Language Education in 2017. I completed my PhD in language assessment and technology‑enhanced learning at the University of Bristol in 2008. Following this, I was appointed as a postdoctoral research fellow in distance education at Umeå University, funded by the Swedish Research Council. Before joining Leeds, I held various academic roles across several higher education institutions.

My research focuses on language assessment, academic writing, and the impact of emerging technologies—including generative AI—on assessment and disciplinary writing. I have led internally and externally funded projects examining links between large‑scale English proficiency tests (e.g., IELTS) and academic performance, as well as corpus‑based investigations of teacher feedback and GenAI‑assisted writing. I am committed to research‑informed teaching and reflective practice, contributing to interdisciplinary methodologies and innovation in assessment research.

Responsibilities

  • Deputy Director of Research and Innovation
  • Cross-faculty Ethics Committee School Ethics Lead

Research interests

My research interests mainly lie in language assessment and technology-enhanced education. I am particularly interested in developing learner agency in learner-driven assessment with new technologies (including Large Language Models). I've published widely in these areas in key journals including the British Journal of Educational Technology, Assessing Writing, ELT Journal, Learning and Instruction, Language Teaching Research, and Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education.

In the past, I have completed six funded projects based on which I’ve published over twenty journal papers and invited book chapters:

  1. 2024-2025: Comparing language use of ChatGPT-generated texts and TOEFL test-taker writing and its implication for the design of writing tasks and assessment rubrics (funded by Global Exam Sevice, British Council)
  2. 2021-2023: Unveiling the factors for the predictive validity of IELTS for postgraduate studies: assessment, teaching, and learning in the TLU domain, funded by the IELTS Partners (IELTS Jointly Funded Project by British Council and )
  3. 2019- 2020: Teaching Excellent Project (TEP) by the Leeds Institute for Teaching Excellence: an interdisciplinary investigation of the construction, introduction, implementation, and impact of assessment criteria across schools, funded by Leeds Institution of Teaching Excellence (University of Leeds)
  4. 2017-2019: accessibility, effectiveness, feasibility, and usefulness of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) in EFL writing assessment, British Council ELT Research Awards
  5. 2009-2012: Learning, teaching, and social presence in distance courses, funded by the Swedish Research Council and Umea University, Sweden
  6. 2005-2006: who takes the floor: peer or teacher assessment (PhD project, funded by WUN Global Exchange Research Student Awardee)
<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Some research projects I'm currently working on, or have worked on, will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://essl.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>
Primary investigator (PI)

Qualifications

  • PhD in TESOL/Applied Linguistics (University of Bristol)
  • MA in Educational Studies (University of York)

Professional memberships

  • British Association for Applied Linguistics
  • International Language Testing Association
  • British Education Research Association
  • BALEP (British Association of Lectures in English for Academic Purposes)
  • UK Association for Language Assessment and Testing

Student education

I've been involved in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and supervision in language assessment and testing, technology-enhanced learning, and language analysis. I am currently supervising six PhD and EdD students in the area of language testing and teacher cognition in digital language teaching.

Research groups and institutes

  • Centre for Language Education Research

Current postgraduate researchers

<h4>Postgraduate research opportunities</h4> <p>The school welcomes enquiries from motivated and qualified applicants from all around the world who are interested in PhD study. Our <a href="https://phd.leeds.ac.uk">research opportunities</a> allow you to search for projects and scholarships.</p>