| Research Projects
Link from 'Read more ...' to Sign Language Research The Centre for Sign Linguistics and Deaf Studies was established in November 2004. One of its aims is to coordinate research and training activities on deaf related issues. The UGC earmarked project (CUHK4278/01H) 'Development of Hong Kong Sign Language by Deaf Children' is generating the first corpus on the linguistic development of an Asian sign language. Prof. Gladys Tang, the principal investigator, is working closely with The Max Planck Institute of Psycholinguistics to set up the Hong Kong corpus in their database on child language development. The SKYee Medical Foundation is sponsoring a second project entitled 'Promotion of Deaf Communication through Hong Kong Sign Language - Pilot Programme to Promote Hong Kong Sign Language in a School Setting' which involves classroom process research on deaf communication in a formal setting, and a series of training activities on promoting deaf literacy and deaf communication through Hong Kong Sign Language. This project is the first of its kind in the history of deaf education in Hong Kong that attempts to help the public appreciate the value of natural sign language in deaf communication in social settings like the family and the school. A third project, funded by The Nippon Foundation and entitled 'Practical Dictionaries for Asian-Pacific Sign Languages', is the first of its kind in Asia that coordinates deaf training and research on a regional scale. The Centre is responsible for coordinating deaf training with the goal of producing linguistically-based sign language dictionaries as well as teaching and learning materials. The Foundation is also supporting the creation of the first Asian sign language corpus based on linguistic analysis. This corpus will benefit both the general public and sign language researchers, given its richness in documenting the linguistic information of the Asian sign languages. The Centre is also working closely with the Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management in setting up an XML-based, flexible and scalable database server. An HTML interface is also included to provide web access to researchers worldwide through the Internet. This Nippon Foundation project involves several phases, to progressively include sign data from various Asian countries.
The Hong Kong Bilingual Child Language
Corpus is the first longitudinal bilingual corpus which consists of
preschool bilingual children's Cantonese and English developmental data,
and is now the largest multimedia bilingual corpus in the Child Language
Exchange System (CHILDES). The Director of CHILDES, Professor Brian
MacWhinney at Carnegie Mellon University, considered it as "currently
the most complete and state-of-the-art corpus in the field of childhood
bilingualism" making important contributions to a number of interdisciplinary
fields including "child language acquisition, childhood bilingualism,
developmental psycholinguistics and corpus linguistics." The creation
of the corpus establishes CUHK's reputation in the international arena
as a leading research center for language acquisition, setting up a
prototype for other bilingual studies. The project has successfully
won a book contract with Cambridge University Press to publish a book
entitled "The Bilingual Child: Language Contact and Early Development."
The project has also drawn attention from the local media and the public
to issues of early bilingualism. The video recordings of bilingual development
also serve as useful materials for teaching purposes, cultivating considerable
synergy between research and teaching. Link from 'Read more ...'Sign Bilingualism & Co-enrolment in Deaf Education> In August 2006, the Centre received a major donation from The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust to conduct an experimental programme on a form of education that potentially benefits both deaf and hearing students linguistically and academically. This 7-year project explores an alternative model of deaf education that draws insight from recent advances in sign linguistics and sign bilingualism research as well as co-enrolment in deaf education. The project also evaluates the effectiveness of this model with respect to speech and literacy developments in spoken language, sign language development and classroom process. The project has the capacity of nurturing local expertise in conducting research on deaf education through postgraduate and undergraduate training in sign language. (website: Jockey Club Sign Bilingualism and Co-enrolment in Deaf Education Programme (JC-SLCO))
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