News

  • 中文大學正招募0-18 個月嬰兒參與一項認知能力發展研究
  • We are now recruiting babies aged 0 – 18 months to participate in our research.

 

  • Childhood Bilingualism Research Centre is featured as “one of the most prominent research hubs in the department of linguistics and modern languages at CUHK”
  • Prof. Stephen Matthews featured in Apple Daily interview (12 November 2020)
  • Conferences and Events

  • Symposium on Languages in China: Typology and Acquisition
    Date: 11 March 2024
    Time: 08:45–12:30
    Venue: Rm220 Fung King Hei Building, CUHK

Symposium on Languages in China: Typology and Acquisition

Date: 18 July 2023

  • Please join us for a talk on Cantonese Popular Culture on Zoom!
    Speaker: Prof. Stephen Matthews (HKU), Co-Director, Childhood Bilingualism Research Centre (CUHK)
    Topic: Cantonese Popular Culture Master Class

    Date: 18 June 2021
    Time: 10am-12noon (HK time)
    Organizer: Raymond Pai, Department of Asian Studies, University of British Columbia

  • Please register for participation in the “Input and Experience in Early Trilingual Development” research project.

 

You are cordially invited to join us at the Seminar The Role of a University in the Future of AI – An Edinburgh View” organized by the HKU-Cambridge AI to Advance Well-being and Society (AI-WiSe) Research Platform, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

Date: 5 March 2021 (Friday)

Time: 5:00 – 6:00 pm Hong Kong

Zoom Link: https://hku.zoom.us/j/92255355978?pwd=Z3dsd0p1UjlEaGhhYUIzUlFLL091dz09

Speaker

Prof. David Robertson, Head, School of Informatics at Edinburgh, Executive Chair of the UK Computing Research Committee

 

Moderators

Prof. Victor OK Li, Director, HKU-Cambridge AI-WiSe Research Platform

Dr. Jacqueline CK Lam, Co-Director, HKU-Cambridge AI-WiSe Research Platform

 

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence has been successful in many areas of technology and it also has contributed to development of our national and global communities. In doing so, the AI research community has changed and continues to evolve. At the same time, there has been strong growth in applications of AI, which means that we frequently are asked to explain how foundational research can fuel economic growth and social benefit. What sort of AI research should universities do, now that all major industries are working on AI developments? I will discuss this issue from the perspective of AI at Edinburgh (which has one of the longest traditions of AI research in the world) and then focus on our data-intensive healthcare research as an example of translating AI into applications, drawing on my involvement in Health Data Research UK. If time allows, I will also discuss the role of formal methods in AI (using healthcare as an example).

 

About the Speaker

David Robertson is Chair of Applied Logic, Vice Principal and Head of College of Science & Engineering at the University of Edinburgh. Prior to this he was Head of School of Informatics at Edinburgh, which is the largest UK computing science department in the UK in terms of research power. His computing research is on Artificial Intelligence, specialising in formal methods for coordination and knowledge sharing between (human/artificial) agents in distributed systems where a high degree of autonomy is expected in the components of the underlying system. This is one of the enablers for AI at large scale. Methods from his group have been applied to astronomy, simulation of consumer behaviour, emergency response and healthcare. He was a member of the Farr Institute for medical data sharing and was co-director of the Centre for Medical Informatics at the University of Edinburgh. He is currently Director of the Scottish node of Health Data Research UK. He chaired the executive of the UK Computing Research Committee (the expert panel of the British Computer Society and the Institution of Engineering and Technology) and has served on strategic advisory groups for the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the Medical Research Council and Innovate UK. He is a member of the governance board for the Scottish Innovation Centre in Data Science and he was on the supervisory board for EIT Digital.

 

Please join the online forum we organize on Early Childhood Education in Overseas Communities: the case of New Zealand. Registration is required:
Date: 05 September 2020 (Saturday)
Time: 10:00 am – 11:00 am
Speaker: Dr. Danping Wang, Senior Lecturer, University of Auckland, New Zealand
Host: Prof. Virginia Yip
Online platform for the event: Zoom (Meeting info will be sent to the registered participants one day before the seminar)

Please join the online forum we organize on Childhood Bilingualism: An Australian Immigrant Mother’s Perspective. Registration is required:
Date: 15 August 2020 (Saturday)
Time: 10:00 am – 11:00 am
Speaker: Prof. Ruying Qi, Associate Professor, Western Sydney University
Host: Prof. Virginia Yip
Online platform for the event: Zoom (Meeting info will be sent to the registered participants one day before the seminar)

Title: International Workshop on Language Acquisition
Jointly organized by the Centre for Language Technology (University of Copenhagen), Childhood Bilingualism Research Centre (CUHK) and

Please join the online forum we organize on Early Childhood in Overseas Communities: The Case of Denmark (Online Forum). Registration is required:
Date: 26 June 2020 (Friday)
Time: 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Speaker: Dr. Alice Tse, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Copenhagen
Host: Prof. Virginia Yip
Online platform for the event: Zoom (Meeting info will be sent to the registered participants one day before the seminar)

Please join the online forum we organize on Early Childhood Education in BC and Canada: Careers in demand (Online Forum). Registration is required:
Date: 30 May 2020 (Saturday)
Time: 10:00 am – 11:00 am
Speakers: Mr. Keith Chan, President of Christian EduCultural Association & Ms. Amelia Ng, Founder and Executive Director of CARES Global Student Services
Host: Prof. Virginia Yip
Online platform for the event: Zoom (Meeting info will be sent to the registered participants one day before the seminar)
Remarks: We are happy to offer free access to our online forums to principals, teachers and educators.

Free download of COVID-19 ebook for children:
Registration is required
(If you are in mainland China: please fill in this registration form):This e-book is launched by WIT Enterprises Ltd. in collaboration with NTUC First Campus (Singapore).
Once registered, you will receive the links to download the e-book free of charge. Enjoy!!

Please join the online forum we organize on Early Childhood Education in Overseas Communities: The case of Singapore (Online Forum). Registration is required:
Date: 27 March 2020 (Friday)
Time: 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Speaker: Thian Ai Ling, General Manager of My First Skool by National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) First Campus
Host: Prof. Virginia Yip
Online platform for the event: Zoom (Meeting info will be sent to the registered participants one day before the seminar)

Launch of our Knowledge Transfer project on the assessment of language proficiency in Hong Kong children (October 2019):
See poster and article in Yahoo news.

Dr. Angela Xiaoxue He from the University of Southern California presents a seminar:

Title: How do young children ‘decipher’ the meanings of ‘tough words’?
Date: 12 March, 2019 (Tuesday)
Time: 4:30 pm -5:30 pm
Venue: Swire Hall Rm1, Chinese University of Hong Kong
a
Media interview by 深圳卫視Shenzhen TV: video
with footage of the Symposium Panel on Language Development and Bilingualism in Early Childhood at the Shenzhen Research Institute on 15 December 2018
a
Date:14-15 December 2018 (Friday & Saturday)
Keynote speakers:
Maria Polinsky, University of Maryland
Lee Cher Leng, National University of Singapore

Prof. Yinglin Ji from Shenzhen University presents a seminar in our lab:
Title: Representing motion events beyond language use: An exploration of L1 and L2 learners
Date: 28 September 2018 (Friday)
Time: 4:30-5:30pm
Venue: Room G14, Leung Kau Kui Building, Chinese University of Hong Kong

Presentations of CBRC members at ISB11, University of Limerick, Ireland, 11-15 June 2017

Workshop on Documenting Children’s Language
jointly organized by the Department of Linguistics (HKU), CUHK-Peking U-UST Joint Research Centre for Language and Human Complexity and Childhood Bilingualism Research Centre.

Date: Thursday 25 May 2017
Venue: 4/F Run Run Shaw Tower, University of Hong Kong

3:30-4:30pm  Forum speaker: Prof. Evan Kidd, Australian National University
Widening the contexts of language acquisition
4:30-5:00pm  discussion (moderator: Prof.Virginia Yip, Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Panelists
5:00-5:15pm  Prof. Anita Wong, University of Hong Kong
Documenting the language of children with Specific Language Impairment
5:15-5:30 pm Prof. Angel Chan, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Documenting the language of bilingual minority children
5:30-5:45 pm Prof. Mai Ziyin and Prof. Virginia Yip, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Documenting the language of heritage children
5:45-6:00pm Q&A (moderator: Prof. Stephen Matthews, University of Hong Kong)

Prof. Virginia Yip was invited by the HKSAR Education Bureau to give a public talk “Nurturing children’s bilingual ability” 培育兒童的雙語能力 on 16 June 2016.

Congratulations to the University of Cambridge on the successful bidding of a group grant funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)’s Open World Research Initiative. CBRC is pleased to be an international partner of the project.

Profs Virginia Yip and Stephen Matthews are keynote speakers at the 3rd Workshop on Innovations in Cantonese Linguistics (WICL-3) 12-13 March 2016

The International Symposium on Second Language Acquisition and Bilingualism is organized by CUHK, 18-19 December 2015

Prof Virginia Yip and Stephen Matthews are keynote speakers at the 3rd International Conference of the Psycholinguistics Association of China 第三届中国心理语言学国际研讨会 13-14 November 2015

Prof Virginia Yip gives a keynote speech at the 4th International Conference on Teaching and Learning of Chinese as a Second Language in Singapore on 9 – 10 September 2015

Prof Virginia Yip is invited speaker at the Mother Tongue Languages Symposium in Singapore on 29 August 2015

CBRC members present at the 23rd Annual Conference of the International Association of Chinese Linguistics (IACL-23) and the 1st International Symposium on Sino-Korean Linguistics (ISSKL-1) at Hanyang University, Korea in August 2015

CBRC members present at the 10th International Symposium on Bilingualism (ISB10) at Rutgers University, USA in May 2015

CBRC members present at the 27th North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (NACCL-27) at UCLA, USA in April 2015

  • Visitors

Prof. Salikoko Mufwene visits CBRC and delivers a distinguished lecture “The complex linguistic behavior of a plurilingual” on 26 June 2016.
Prof. Antonella Sorace from the University of Edinburgh visits CBRC and discusses collaboration with our team on 11 April, 2016

Prof. Nicholas Evans from Australian National University gives a distinguished scholar lecture in Bilingualism and Human Complexity on “The multilingual matrix of languages evolution: Lessons from small-scale speech communities” at Room 101, LKK Bldg, CUHK on 6 November, 2015

Dr Stephan Stiller gives a talk on the noun bias in monolingual and bilingual children and Hannah Lam gives a talk on gesture and worder order on 27 October 2015

Prof. Twila Tardif from University of Michigan gives a talk on “Children’s early language development in English and Mandarin: From lap to lab to L2 app” at LT2, LSK Bldg, CUHK on 13 October, 2015

Jackson Lee from the University of Chicago gives a talk on “PyCantonese: Cantonese linguistic research in the age of big data” at Childhood Bilingualism Research Centre on 15 September, 2015

Elaine Lau from the University of Hawaii and University of Hong Kong gives a talk on “Online processing of classifier information by native and non-native speakers of Chinese” at CUHK on 13 August, 2015

Prof. Dong Yanping from Guangdong Foreign Studies University gives a talk on “Bilingualism and bilingual cognitive control advantages” at CUHK on 10 February and visits CBRC on 11 February 2015

“Prof. Ji Yinglin from Shenzhen University visits CBRC and gives a talk on “Linguistic and conceptual representation of motion in English and Chinese” at CUHK on 5 May, 2015

Prof. Michael Sharwood Smith visited CBRC and gave a linguistics seminar on “Exploring the Multilingual Mind: an account of how languages grow and live together in one individual” on 11 November 2014.

 

  • Others

Prof. Stephen Matthews featured in Apple Daily interview (12 November 2020)

Childhood Bilingualism Research Centre is featured as “one of the most prominent research hubs in the department of linguistics and modern languages at CUHK”

Prof. Stephen Matthews’ interview with Apple Daily (21 May 2017)

Revised editions of Basic Cantonese and Intermediate Cantonese by Virginia Yip and Stephen Matthews are now available from Routledge. The books include Chinese characters for all example sentences. A big thank you to Szeto Pui Yiu for his assistance with the revision.

Prof. Stephen Matthews featured in RTHK TV program “Hong Kong Stories: Local Plus 香港故事-本土 plus+” released on 28 January 2017.

Prof. Stephen Matthews’ interview with Apple Daily (25 January 2017)

Congratulations to Scarlet Li and her supervisor Prof. Gloria Zhang on the LSHK Outstanding Thesis Award!
Title of MA thesis: “The Relation of Working Memory, Declarative Memory, and Procedural Memory as Individual Differences in Second Language Acquisition”

A warm welcome to Lam Bou-Lai Hannah from Harvard College, Fan Yujing Julia and Zhou Jieyu Joy from the Chinese University of Hong Kong who join CBRC as full-time members recently.

Congratulations to Deng Xiangjun who has joined the Research Centre for Language and Cognition at Shenzhen University as Assistant Professor! We say farewell to her, Yu Zishu Sophia and Liang Yinyin Lana who are also moving on.

A warm welcome to a number of new full-time members who have joined CBRC recently:  Zhu Yanxin Alice from Peking University, Wu Yuqi Riki and Li Wan Yee Scarlet from Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Prof. Stephen Matthews featured in interview with BBC on Cantonese and Pokemon.

Article in E-weekly: Issue 27 date: 2016/5/5 (video)

Prof. Stephen Matthews interviewed by E Media Plus in May 2016 (video)

A multimedia child Mandarin corpus: the Tong corpus is deposited in the CHILDES archive in the EastAsian folder. Here’s Brian MacWhinney’s announcement on March 1 2016

Prof. Stephen Matthews interviewed by Apple Daily in February 2016 (video)

CBRC Directors interviewed by Apple Daily in February 2016 (video)

A warm welcome to Dr. Stephan Stiller who joins CBRC as full-time postdoctoral fellow from 1 February 2016

Prof. Stephen Matthews featured in Apple Daily article and video

Prof Virginia Yip and Stephen Matthews are keynote speakers at the China-Australia Symposium on Bilingualism in Jinan University 2-4 November 2015

Prof. Stephen Matthews gives a keynote presentation for International Baccalaureate (IB) teachers at the IB Regional Workshop at King George V School on September 12, 2015

Prof. Virginia Yip and Prof. Stephen Matthews featured in SCMP article

Prof. Virginia Yip and CBRC featured in SCMP article

Prof Virginia Yip, Director of CBRC will teach the first half of Introduction to Bilingualism at the Linguistic Society of America Summer Institute at the University of Chicago in July 2015.

Prof. Stephen Matthews, Co-Director of CBRC will teach The Structure of Cantonese at the Linguistic Society of America Summer Institute at the University of Chicago in July 2015

Congratulations to Professor Nicholas Evans on the newly established ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language of which he is Director!

Congratulations to Professor Agnes He on the launch of the Center for Multilingual and International Communication!

Congratulations to Dr Ruying Qi on the launch of the Bilingualism Resesarch Laboratory of which she is Director! Prof. Yip and Prof. Matthews were invited to give keynote speeches at the 2nd Symposium on Bilingualism and Intercultural Communication at the University of Western Sydney.