Corpus-Based Learning of Cantonese for Mandarin Speakers

John Lee; Tak-Sum Wong

doi:10.14705/rpnet.2014.000217

Corpus-Based Learning of Cantonese for Mandarin Speakers

Department of Linguistics and Translation

Research output: Chapters, Conference Papers, Creative and Literary Works › RGC 32 - Refereed conference paper (with host publication) › peer-review

Abstract

This paper reports our experience in using a parallel corpus to teach Cantonese, a variety of Chinese spoken in Hong Kong, as a second language. The parallel corpus consists of pairs of word-aligned sentences in Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese, drawn from television programs in Hong Kong (Lee, 2011). We evaluated our pedagogical approach with Mandarin-speaking students at a university course. For each student, we first diagnosed the set of Cantonese words with which s/he experienced difficulties. Then, on a web-based interface, the student independently searched in the parallel corpus for sentence pairs involving this set of Cantonese words, and analysed the translations and usage examples. Our experiments showed that, in both the short- and long-term, the corpus-based pedagogical method helped students better retain their knowledge of difficult Cantonese words.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	CALL Design: Principles and Practice
Subtitle of host publication	Proceedings of the 2014 EUROCALL Conference,
Editors	Sake Jager, Linda Bradley, Estelle J. Meima, Sylvie Thouësny
Publisher	Research-publishing.net
Pages	196-201
ISBN (Electronic)	978-1-908416-20-9, 978-1-908416-21-6
ISBN (Print)	978-1-908416-19-3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.14705/rpnet.2014.000217
Publication status	Published - Aug 2014
Event	CALL Design: Principles and Practice: Proceedings of the 2014 EUROCALL - Groningen, Netherlands Duration: 20 Aug 2014 → 23 Aug 2014 https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED565087

Conference

Conference	CALL Design: Principles and Practice: Proceedings of the 2014 EUROCALL
Place	Netherlands
City	Groningen
Period	20/08/14 → 23/08/14
Internet address	https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED565087

Research Keywords

parallel corpus
Mandarin
Cantonese
language acquisition

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10.14705/rpnet.2014.000217

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@inproceedings{83fe0ce3beda40ea84eab81cd71a625c,

title = "Corpus-Based Learning of Cantonese for Mandarin Speakers",

abstract = "This paper reports our experience in using a parallel corpus to teach Cantonese, a variety of Chinese spoken in Hong Kong, as a second language. The parallel corpus consists of pairs of word-aligned sentences in Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese, drawn from television programs in Hong Kong (Lee, 2011). We evaluated our pedagogical approach with Mandarin-speaking students at a university course. For each student, we first diagnosed the set of Cantonese words with which s/he experienced difficulties. Then, on a web-based interface, the student independently searched in the parallel corpus for sentence pairs involving this set of Cantonese words, and analysed the translations and usage examples. Our experiments showed that, in both the short- and long-term, the corpus-based pedagogical method helped students better retain their knowledge of difficult Cantonese words.",

keywords = "parallel corpus , Mandarin, Cantonese, language acquisition",

author = "John Lee and Tak-Sum Wong",

year = "2014",

month = aug,

doi = "10.14705/rpnet.2014.000217",

language = "English",

isbn = "978-1-908416-19-3",

pages = "196--201",

editor = "Sake Jager and Linda Bradley and Meima, \{Estelle J.\} and Sylvie Thou{\"e}sny",

booktitle = "CALL Design: Principles and Practice",

publisher = "Research-publishing.net",

note = "CALL Design: Principles and Practice: Proceedings of the 2014 EUROCALL ; Conference date: 20-08-2014 Through 23-08-2014",

url = "https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED565087",

}

Lee, J & Wong, T-S 2014, Corpus-Based Learning of Cantonese for Mandarin Speakers. in S Jager, L Bradley, EJ Meima & S Thouësny (eds), CALL Design: Principles and Practice: Proceedings of the 2014 EUROCALL Conference,. Research-publishing.net, pp. 196-201, CALL Design: Principles and Practice: Proceedings of the 2014 EUROCALL, Groningen, Netherlands, 20/08/14. https://doi.org/10.14705/rpnet.2014.000217

Corpus-Based Learning of Cantonese for Mandarin Speakers. / Lee, John ; Wong, Tak-Sum.
CALL Design: Principles and Practice: Proceedings of the 2014 EUROCALL Conference,. ed. / Sake Jager; Linda Bradley; Estelle J. Meima; Sylvie Thouësny. Research-publishing.net, 2014. p. 196-201.

Research output: Chapters, Conference Papers, Creative and Literary Works › RGC 32 - Refereed conference paper (with host publication) › peer-review

TY - GEN

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AU - Lee, John

AU - Wong, Tak-Sum

PY - 2014/8

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N2 - This paper reports our experience in using a parallel corpus to teach Cantonese, a variety of Chinese spoken in Hong Kong, as a second language. The parallel corpus consists of pairs of word-aligned sentences in Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese, drawn from television programs in Hong Kong (Lee, 2011). We evaluated our pedagogical approach with Mandarin-speaking students at a university course. For each student, we first diagnosed the set of Cantonese words with which s/he experienced difficulties. Then, on a web-based interface, the student independently searched in the parallel corpus for sentence pairs involving this set of Cantonese words, and analysed the translations and usage examples. Our experiments showed that, in both the short- and long-term, the corpus-based pedagogical method helped students better retain their knowledge of difficult Cantonese words.

AB - This paper reports our experience in using a parallel corpus to teach Cantonese, a variety of Chinese spoken in Hong Kong, as a second language. The parallel corpus consists of pairs of word-aligned sentences in Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese, drawn from television programs in Hong Kong (Lee, 2011). We evaluated our pedagogical approach with Mandarin-speaking students at a university course. For each student, we first diagnosed the set of Cantonese words with which s/he experienced difficulties. Then, on a web-based interface, the student independently searched in the parallel corpus for sentence pairs involving this set of Cantonese words, and analysed the translations and usage examples. Our experiments showed that, in both the short- and long-term, the corpus-based pedagogical method helped students better retain their knowledge of difficult Cantonese words.

KW - parallel corpus

KW - Mandarin

KW - Cantonese

KW - language acquisition

U2 - 10.14705/rpnet.2014.000217

DO - 10.14705/rpnet.2014.000217

M3 - RGC 32 - Refereed conference paper (with host publication)

SN - 978-1-908416-19-3

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EP - 201

BT - CALL Design: Principles and Practice

A2 - Jager, Sake

A2 - Bradley, Linda

A2 - Meima, Estelle J.

A2 - Thouësny, Sylvie

PB - Research-publishing.net

T2 - CALL Design: Principles and Practice: Proceedings of the 2014 EUROCALL

Y2 - 20 August 2014 through 23 August 2014

ER -

Corpus-Based Learning of Cantonese for Mandarin Speakers

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