Fresh approach to enhancing language skills at university
By : Pui Chan
Although Hong Kong prides itself on being a bilingual city where Chinese and English enjoy equal status, in recent years complaints about an apparent decline in overall language proficiency among university students have been growing.
But a new teaching and learning project aims to upgrade university students’ linguistic competence and performance in both Chinese and English.
The approach centres on four sub-components designed to strategically address critical issues in English language writing and pronunciation, English and Chinese grammatical awareness, and communication skills in Chinese.
More than HK$3 million from the University Grants Committee (UGC) will be channeled into the initiative, titled “Meeting the Challenge of Teaching and Learning Language in the University: Enhancing Linguistic Competence and Performance in English and Chinese”.
“Grammar rules can make sense if we understand the ‘personality’ of the language.” “We speak differently compared to the way we write, especially when it comes to writing for professional and academic purposes,” observed the leader of the initiative, Professor Jonathan Webster of the Department of Linguistics and Translation (LT).
Instead of focusing only on grammar correction as the primary form of feedback for improving English language writing, which is usually the case in Hong Kong, the first sub-component aims to provide an intelligent web-based system for enabling students to expand their linguistic repertoire. It includes a full range of possible alternatives between what may be appropriate in everyday speaking and what is expected when writing in occupational and academic settings.
“Language learners often complain that grammar rules lack sense, but researchers disagree,” said Professor Liu Meichun, Head of LT. “Grammar rules can make sense if we understand the ‘personality’ of the language. Trainers should answer as many questions as possible and eventually describe the grammar in a more holistic way.”
The second sub-project under Professor Liu’s direction includes an open resource called Ask-me-why to explain issues of grammar in both English and Chinese.
Academic writing toolkit mockup designThe third sub-component, called the International Chinese Language Salon, provides a platform for locals and non-native Chinese speakers to learn Chinese outside formal classes. A variety of tailor-made activities will be held on a weekly basis while a website will host useful resources and form a major platform for the organisation of tutoring in speaking and writing.
“Students can choose either Cantonese or Putonghua based on their language backgrounds and needs,” said Dr Jackie Yan Xiu, Associate Professor in LT.
The last sub-component diagnoses and corrects pronunciation errors in English made by Cantonese-speaking students. Such mispronunciation is often a result of learners substituting the sounds of English with sounds from their first language that might be comparable but not the same.
“For example, there is no Cantonese equivalent of ch in the English word ‘chair’ and the nearest is ts, so Cantonese students usually pronounce ‘chair’ as ‘tsair’,” explained Dr Vanti Lee Wai-sum, Associate Professor in LT. Instead of asking students to listen and repeat, a more effective way is for teachers to point out fundamental differences between sounds in terms of the position of the tongue and the shape of the lips.
The inter-institutional team consists of five linguists from LT, and three researchers from three other universities in Hong Kong. The project is expected to impact the teaching and learning of Chinese and English for over 700 students studying language-related courses in UGC-funded universities and over 1,000 UGC-funded university students through web-based accessibility per year.