Rate My Professor Hua-Chen Wang

Hua-Chen Wang is a Senior Lecturer in the Macquarie School of Education at Macquarie University and a member of the Macquarie University Centre for Reading. Originally from Taiwan, she earned a Master's degree in Clinical Linguistics as a joint program from Potsdam University in Germany, the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, and the University of Milan-Bicocca in Italy in 2008, followed by a PhD in Cognitive Science from Macquarie University in 2012. She teaches preservice and practising teachers evidence-based approaches to reading and writing instruction. In 2025, she developed EDST2601, a podcast-style unit incorporating the science of learning. Wang supervises PhD students researching orthographic learning in bilingual children, AI-generated feedback on student writing, and spacing effects on orthographic learning using eye-tracking methodology.

Her research examines how children learn to read and acquire new vocabulary, with an emphasis on linguistically diverse learners. She leads projects on orthographic learning and personalised AI tools to support vocabulary acquisition in diverse primary school classrooms. In 2025, Wang received the Vice Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Education. Key publications include 'Orthographic facilitation of English vocabulary learning in monolingual and bilingual children' (Wang et al., Reading and Writing, 2025), 'Do faster learners know more? How the learning of orthographic regularities affects reading in German primary school children' (Schmalz et al., Scientific Studies of Reading, 2025), 'Eye tracking and simulating the spacing effect during orthographic learning' (Wegener et al., Reading Research Quarterly, 2025), 'Nap effects on preschool children's learning of letter-sound mappings' (Wang et al., Child Development, 2022), and 'Oral vocabulary knowledge and learning to read new words: a theoretical review' (Wegener et al., Australian Journal of Learning Difficulties, 2022).