Bulletin Autumn‧Winter 2001

•Supportin g Biliteracy and Trilingualism In recent years, the language proficiency of Ho ng Kon g students and the effectiveness of language teachers have often been in the limelight. The med i um of instruction in schools has also caused much controvercy. The Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Education of the University have been conscientious in helping to strengthen language education in Ho n g Kong and to improve the competence of secondary school language teachers. E d u c a t i o n T o w a r d s B i l i t e r a c y a n d T r i l i n g u a l i s m: A l l I n t e r n e t S u p p o r t P r o j e c t T h e H u m a n i t i e s C o m p u t i n g a n d Methodology Programme of the Faculty of Arts, coordinated b y Prof. K w a n Sze-wan of the Department of Philosophy, received support f r om the Quality Education Fu n d to develop this project (website: h t t p : / / h uma n um . a r t s. cuhk.edu.hk/QEF5073 ), w h i c h uses information technology to support the teaching of Cantonese, putonghua, and English i n loca l primary and secondary schools. The research team w i l l design and develop a series of online lexical tool s (Chinese-English dictionaries and lexicons etc.), and reference materials for the teaching of Chinese a n d English, b u i l d a s o u nd syllabary of Cantonese for th e reference of teachers and students who want to compare the Cantonese and putonghua pronunciation of specific characters, and produce user-friendly and flexible online teachin g tools. I n the course of t wo years, the programme has developed an online edition of L i n Yu-tang's Chinese-English Dictionary ofModern Usage, an online New Cantonese P r o n u n c i a t i o n Dictionary, and an online Chinese Character Frequency Statistics for Ho n g Kong, Mainland China, and Taiwan — a Transregional Diachronic Survey. The project not only provides teaching support for free bu t also strives to foster linkages w i t h school teachers and students by involving them i n online projects in support of education towards biliteracy and trilingualism. U s i n g P u t o n g h u a as a M e d i u m o f I n s t r u c t i o n The Centre for Research and Development of Putonghua Education, managed jointly b y the Faculty of Education and the Ho n g Ko ng Institute of Educational Research, has been an active promoter of putonghua as a me d i um of instruction. I tarranges regular p u t o n g h ua proficiency tests an d assessments for teachers, organizes putonghua talks, and offers a variety of c e r t i f i c a t e p r o g r ammes i n p u t o n g h u a teaching. Its aim is to improve the pronunciation and teaching skills of both student-teachers and p r a c t i s i n g teachers of different subjects i n p r i ma ry and secondary schools. A workshop on putonghua teaching and learning CHINES E UNIVERSIT Y BULLETI Autumn • Winter 2001 24