Discussions of Using AI in Language Education in Hong Kong

Abstract

Key Terms in this Chapter

Standard Written Chinese: A baihua yundong ???? (‘vernacular language movement’) was started in 1917 by the scholar Hu Shi ??. This baihua literary movement advocated adopting the baihua ??(‘vernacular’) style of Chinese as a written language to revitalize the Classical Chinese literary language and make it more accessible to the common people. Baihua is the form of written Chinese based on the varieties of Chinese spoken throughout China, in contrast to wenyan ??(‘classical Chinese’) or (‘literary speech’) used in Imperial China up to the early twentieth century. This movement succeeded in making baihua the language of textbooks, periodicals, newspapers, and public documents. Baihua now commonly refers to the standard written Chinese or modern written Chinese. Since the early 1920s, this modern vernacular form has been the standard style of writing for speakers of all varieties of Chinese throughout mainland China, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Singapore as written form of modern standard Chinese. Standard written Chinese (presented in traditional characters) is used in all official and educational contexts in Hong Kong.

Cantonese: The term ‘Cantonese’ refers to the language varieties used by immigrants who came to Hong Kong from various districts in Guangdong province, including Macau, Panyu, Taishan, Xinhui, and Zhongshan. Over time, their speech coalesced into the contemporary variety of Cantonese used in Hong Kong from the late nineteenth century onwards. Cantonese is often used to refer to the entire Yue subgroup of Chinese, which includes varieties of Cantonese spoken in southern China, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, and among overseas Chinese in North America, Europe, and Australia. It is currently estimated that there are about 70 million Cantonese speakers in the world. Cantonese has been and is a major language variety used by people in daily life in Hong Kong.

Blended Teaching and Learning: Blended teaching and learning or hybrid learning in this chapter is defined as an educational model that combines classroom face-to-face learning experiences with online learning experiences.

Normalization Process: Normalization refers to a social process through which ideas and actions come to be seen as ‘normal’ and ‘natural’ in everyday life. The normalization process refers to a social organization that brings practice or practices into action.

Putonghua: Putonghua is the official language of the People’s Republic of China. It serves as the common national language of the PRC. Under Hong Kong’s Basic Law and the promotion of trilingualism and biliteracy, Putonghua has an official status in Hong Hong.

Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL): Computer-assisted language learning (CALL) or Computer-aided instruction (CAI) is briefly defined as the search for and study of applications of the computer in language teaching and learning. CALL includes a wide range of information and communications technology applications and approaches to teaching and learning foreign languages.

Trilingualism and Biliteracy: Since the 1990s, the Hong Kong government has promoted ‘trilingualism and biliteracy’, which refers to the spoken command of Cantonese, Putonghua, and English, and literacy in written Chinese and English.