The Learning of Mother Tongue, Second and Additional Languages
in the Early Years

The aim of this focal research area is to examine and/or explore: development of mother tongue, second and additional languages, with specific emphasis on Chinese and English

Focal Group Members (*Co-convenors)

Name	Email	Faculty
Dr Stephen Matthews*	matthews@hkucc.hku.hk	Arts- Linguistics
Prof S K Tse*	sktse@hkucc.hku.hk	Education
Dr Samuel Leung	samleung@hkusua.hku.hk	Education-Speech & Hearing
Dr Wai Ting Siok	siok@hkucc.hku.hk	Arts- Linguistics
Dr May Wong	mwongly@hkucc.hku.hk	Arts- Linguistics
Dr Mark Shum	mskshum@hkucc.hku.hk	Education
Dr Albert Wong	atywong@hkucc.hku.hk	Education
Dr Li Hui	huili@hku.hk	Education
Dr Linda Tsung	lindat@hkucc.hku.hk	Education
Dr Andy Gao	xsgao@ied.edu.hk	Education, HKU / English, HKIED
Mr Albert Leung	h0688700@hkusua.hku.hk	MPhil applicant, Education
Ms Vanessa Temple	vtemple@hkusua.hku.hk	MEd candidate, Education
Ms Natalie Fong	fongsn@hkucc.hku.hk	English Centre
Ms Garcia Blasco	roblasco@hku.hk	Spanish Studies, Language Centre
Ms Barbara Hennig	bbhennig@hkucc.hku.hk	German Studies, Language Centre
Ms Xia Xiaoyan, Jane	janexia@hkusua.hku.hk	PhD candidate, English, Arts
Ms Lu Lu	lucy_lulu@hkusua.hku.hk	PhD candidate, Education
Ms Yongyan Zheng	yyzheng@hkusua.hku.hk	PhD candidate, English Centre
Ms Violette Lin	violin@hku.hk	MSocSc (Behavioural Health) candidate, Social Sciences
Ms Sudha	sudha03@hkusua.hku.hk

Research that group members currently undertaking around the focal area

a.	Learning/acquisition of Chinese (Putonghua)
-	Learning of Chinese characters in primary school
-	Curriculum and assessment
b.	Learning/acquisition of Cantonese
-	Cantonese narrative development
-	Cantonese pragmatic development
-	Cantonese-English bilingual development
c.	Learning/acquisition of English
-	Using ICT in learning English (Primary school)
-	Vocabulary development of college students
-	Strategies in learning English (secondary school)
-	Spoken discourse of university students
d.	Learning/acquisition of third languages
-	German (university level)
-	Spanish (university level)
e.	Other topics:
-	Motivation in learning L2 or L3
-	Language transfer/ influence of L1 on learning other langauges

Constituent Theme-funded Projects

-	Seed funding support for the organization of the Language Acquisition in the Chinese Context (LACC) Conference, 15-16 December 2007
-	Visitorship of Prof Ping Li, University of Richmond, USA, 12-17 December 2007