本研究以香港高校一门中文传意课程中粤语母语学生的普通话产出为材料，分析影响「言语可懂度（speech intelligibility）」（参 Smith & Nelson, 1985；Munro & Derwing, 1995）的语音要素。针对 19 位发音人 126 个可懂度低的音节，研究发现：（1）单一成分偏误中，韵母偏误占比最高，其次是声母偏误；（2）多种成分偏误组合中，「声母 +韵母」偏误占比最高；（3）声母偏误中，sh 误读最为多见；（4）韵母偏误中，i 误读最为多见，含介音韵母误读亦较多；（5）声调偏误中，第四声误读最为多见，与其他三声相混，二、三声也有相混情况。研究表明，在以传意为目标、面向粤语母语者的普通话教学中，可优先教学声韵母，声调教学稍列其后；重点及优先教学舌尖后音与舌面音（尤其是声母 sh 与 x）、声母 r、单韵母 i 与 u、以及含介音的音节，并围绕第四声进行声调教学。本研究为探索「大华语」（陆俭明，2005、2015；李宇明，2017）的语音「共核」（Common Core）（祝晓宏，2019）提供了实证研究的材料与观点，同时为以传意为目标的普通话语音教学观提供了理据。 This study investigates the Putonghua pronunciation of Cantonese-speaking students in a Chinese communication course at a Hong Kong university, focusing on the phonetic elements that impact “speech intelligibility” (Smith & Nelson, 1985; Munro & Derwing, 1995). The analysis of 126 low-intelligibility syllables produced by 19 speakers revealed that (1) Among single-component errors, vowel errors were the most prevalent, followed by consonant errors; (2) In error combinations, “consonant + vowel” were the most common; (3) Within consonant errors, mispronunciations of “sh” occurred most frequently, followed by errors involving “h,” “x,” “r,” “j,” and “zh”; (4) For vowel errors, “i” was the most commonly mispronounced, particularly in vowels with medial glides; (5) Tone errors were dominated by mispronunciations of the fourth tone, with occasional confusion between the second and third tones. The findings suggest that in Putonghua teaching aimed at Cantonese native speakers with communication as the goal, teaching initials and finals could take precedence over tones, focusing on teaching apical post-alveolars and alveolo-palatals (especially the initials “sh” and “x”), the initial “r”, the monophthongs “i” and “u” and syllables containing medial sounds. Tone teaching should revolve around the fourth tone. This research provides empirical insights and perspectives for exploring the phonetic “Common Core” (Zhu, 2019) under the context of Global Chinese (Lu, 2005, 2015; Li, 2017).

The inherent semantic relatedness and closeness of near-synonyms pose difficulties to second language (L2) learners in comprehending and applying lexical knowledge in real situations. Previous studies have shown a sophisticated corpus-based method of distinguishing Chinese near-synonyms from a more ‘theoretical-based’ approach, the application of corpora in learning near-synonyms in an L2 classroom, however, is underexplored. This study reports both the ‘theoretical-based’ and ‘pedagogical-application’ of using corpora in studying ‘business’ related near-synonyms, and a significant gap between the ‘theory’ and the ‘application’ is identified. Our findings not only affirm the ‘theoretical-based’ method in capturing subtle nuances of near-synonyms but suggest implications of ‘pedagogical-application’ in teaching and learning near-synonyms with corpora. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2024.

Short Descriptions

Professor Chen (2019) pointed out that the Chinese language courses offered by tertiary institutions has gradually shifted from the learning of literary texts to the training of basic language skills and the composition of texts for practical purpose in 1980s. With the fast-growing economy in HK, business activities became more complex and diverse. Specially, after the handover, Chinese has been used more extensively in all areas of society to serve genuine communication needs between users of Chinese coming from different areas. The Chinese language used in the workplace has flourished in the past decades such as the writing of formal and informal letters in various business contexts, however, a little attention has been paid to the non-Chinese leaners. Given the current situation, there is a potential need for Chinese teaching faculty to develop the curriculum with a focus on the Chinese language used in the commercial settings. Besides, as one of the leading institutions in the region, UST will play a predominant role in the development of the Great Bay Area, which also offer some opportunities for the CLE Chinese team to extend its curriculum to the local community. Meanwhile, e-learning has become a new normal for students in the institutions of higher education, especially in the post-epidemic era. Some team members have accumulated considerable experience in designing and implementing the blended learning materials in the newly revamped C-com curriculum to non-Chinese students. As an innovative pedagogy, VR/AR apps for job interview skills has been well applicable to English business communication course in the CLE. The Business Chinese curriculum can also employ it in the blended learning design which will become a driving force for the non-Chinese learners’ high engagement in the process of self-directed learning. The VR apps for job interview skills in Cantonese or Putonghua will be applied in the curriculum. Based on the above rationale, the project aims at providing an extended curriculum of reading and writing for non-Chinese students (with a focus of business Chinese writing). It will complement the existing non-Chinese language curriculum in HKUST by providing the reading and writing components in blended learning mode. By establishing a virtual learning community online, students may learn not only on their own pace, but also with other non-Chinese learners physically (in the language class) and virtually (via the learning management platform, e.g. Canvas). The project team will apply for SCOLAR Promotion of Language to be financially supported to develop a non-credit business Chinese reading and writing courses for the general public. In designing the course with blended learning components, the deliverable will also be applicable for the HKUST non-Chinese curriculum as the extended curriculum to support students to learn reading and writing in CORE1411-1415. Reference: Sui Duen Chen (2019) Chinese for Specific Purposes in the Hong Kong Context, In Hongyin Tao & Howard Chen (Eds.), Chinese For Specific and Professional Purposes: Springer Link, https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-13-9505-5

Deliverables

1. A non-credit bearing non-Chinese reading and writing course for the public (supported by SCOLAR) 2. An extended curriculum for HKUST non-Chinese students for CORE1411-1415 (supported by CEI Blended learning funding)

Center for Language Education (CLE) has developed a competency framework for the university's languages curriculum, aiming at applying it into newly revamped Chinese and English common core courses in order to adapt to a new trend of higher education development around the world.

The new global environment of higher education has made new demands on future talents. As a Chinese teacher, do we need to re-considerate our future teaching career? Does our current teaching philosophy need to be updated? Does our expertise need to be improved? Do our professional skills need to be strengthened? Are we ready to guide students towards a series of new standards proposed by the competency framework for languages curriculum? A couple of questions mentioned above are actually more or less related to the future professional development route of ourselves.

The professional development of Chinese teachers refers to the cyclic process of teachers constantly reflecting on their teaching, summarizing experience and lessons from teaching practice, planning their future teaching, and then reflecting and planning again. According to Professor Ding (2022), the competence of Chinese teachers covers three aspects, professional knowledge, professional skills and professional practice. Professional knowledge refers to educational knowledge, knowledge of Chinese and linguistics, knowledge of Chinese culture and Chinese national conditions, knowledge of second language acquisition; professional skills refer to Chinese elements (pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar and characters etc.) teaching, Chinese language skills teaching, cross-cultural communication, educational technology; professional practice refers to classroom teaching planning, teaching resource selection and utilization, classroom organization and management, learning assessment and feedback. The last but not the least, in the professional development of Chinese teachers, teachers’ professional concepts cannot be ignored. Professional concepts refer to professional ethics and professional beliefs.

From my point of view, the professional development of teachers is the prerequisite of understanding learners’ competency development, and it is also the key to the effective implementation of the competency framework. Only by increasing teachers' awareness of the competency framework and improving their own Chinese teaching ability can the competency framework be better applied in teaching practice. The relationship between the Chinese teachers’ professional development and CLE’s competency framework for languages curriculum might be shown in the figure as attached. Therefore, participating in various kinds of scholarly work not only cultivates our academic thinking, but also helps us improve our teaching practices and enhances our professional knowledge and skills. Furthermore, the improvement of teachers' quality and teaching ability can effectively promote the development of Chinese learners' competencies in four areas.

References:

Anqi Ding (2022) A Virtual Seminar on Chinese Teachers’ Training and Professional Development, From CPGS Perspective, East China Normal University.

Center for Language Education (2022) Common Core Programme and CLE Sub-Competencies.

Center for Language Education (2022) HKUST Competency-based Assessment Framework for CLE.

Center for Language Education and Cooperation, China’s Ministry of Education (MOE) (2021) Chinese Proficiency Grading Standards for International Chinese Language Education (CPGS).