Jyh Wee SEW
Centre for Language Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS)
Sew, J. W. (2023). Spoken Cantonese assessments in “Design Your Own Course” [Paper presentation]. In Higher Education Campus Conference (HECC) 2023, 7 December, National University of Singapore. https://blog.nus.edu.sg/hecc2023proceedings/spoken-cantonese-assessments-in-design-your-own-course/
SUB-THEME
Communities and Education
KEYWORDS
Assessment, Cantonese interview, heritage language education, remix, spoken Cantonese
CATEGORY
Paper Presentation
ABSTRACT
Cantonese has 85.5 million speakers worldwide (Wordspath, 2022), of which 133,000 are in Singapore (Leong, 2022). Many local elderly folks rely on Cantonese for entertainment as well as healthcare advice. Spoken Cantonese is thus a repertoire for healthcare and social workers to engage with their clients. In August 2020, the course DMA1401L01 “Spoken Cantonese” became a learning option at the National University of Singapore (NUS) through the “Design Your Own Course” initiative. Despite its pass-or-fail status, proper assessment components were expected for a four-unit course. This discussion highlights three types of assessment completed by the first batch of 39 students who learned spoken Cantonese through the course that ran for 12 weeks (Sew, 2021a).
In Week Six, the learners submitted a Cantonese remix video (Sew, 2021b). The remix assignment stipulated that the learners rewrite the lyrics of a familiar Cantonese song with any ideas derivable from their daily experiences. The foundation for this task was based on a 25-minute enrichment segment, in which learners pronounced the Romanised Cantonese lyrics and contextualised the Cantonese metaphors in the songs. With an enhanced rhythmic intelligence following the enrichment, the Cantonese learners would be well-informed to select 風雨同路 by Paula Tsui (Table 1) to galvanise the audience in a donation drive, not least because Tsui’s song renders a powerful metaphor of care and support, namely accompaniment amid the swooshing wind and beating rain.
Table 1
Samples of Cantonese songs in DMA1401L01 “Spoken Cantonese”
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| Francis Yip: 上海灘 |
Andy Lau: 謝謝你的愛 |
Paula Tsui: 風雨同路 |
Jacky Cheung: 等你回來 |
Danny Chan: 一生何求 |
The learners were directed to exploit CantoDict, an online trilingual dictionary, for tracking the Cantonese equivalents of English words in remixing. An example of a remix entitled COVID-19 and I that capitalised on上海灘 for describing the rampant behaviours occurring in public transport during the first year of COVID-19 is in Table 2 (shared with permission).
Table 2
Snippets of remix in DMA1401L01 “Spoken Cantonese”
| Original lyrics of 上海灘 | Remix COVID-19与我 | Imagery |
| Long ban long lau | 搭巴士 坐地鐵 |  |
| Maan lei tou tou gong seoi wing bat jau |
我的口罩實在不夠 |  |
In Week 12, the learners had to complete a video interview with a Cantonese speaker on a topic of common interest. Some of the interviewees were either parents, grandparents, relatives, or friends from an exchange programme (Table 3). Displaying genuine camaraderie in limited fluency, the learners communicated warmly about adapting themselves to a new environment, retirement, and studying a particular subject, among others.
Table 3
Snapshots of Spoken Cantonese interview in DMA1401L01 “Spoken Cantonese”
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The final assignment was a reflection blog post submitted in Week 13, for which the learners blogged their Cantonese experience, highlighting the highs and lows in their learning journey. Table 4 contains the Cantonese content preference hand-picked by some of the learners.
Table 4
Topics highlighted in “Spoken Cantonese” blog reflections
| Positive Response | Topics | ||
| 3 | Cantonese Idioms |  |
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| 2 | Cantonese Taboos |  |
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| 2 | Cantonese Romantic Terms |  |
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| 2 | Glocalisation with Local Place Names |
Cantonese place names for Bright Hill, Bukit Ho Swee, Chinatown, Clementi, Red Hill, Harbourfront, Yew Tee, and Sentosa. | |
In hindsight, forbidding face-to-face contact at Kent Ridge in 2020 was a blessing in disguise, as the learn-from-home practice became an opportunity to orchestrate heritage language education in a series of virtual classroom via Zoom, resulting in targeted interactions that led to a series of stimulating spoken Cantonese learning. The heritage language education experience presented a new cultural vista to the learners, that may rectify any misconception regarding a less commonly taught language.
REFERENCES
CantoDict. http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/scripts/wordsearch.php?level=0
Leong, C. (Aug 24, 2022). Do Singaporeans speak Cantonese? Best in Singapore. https://www.bestinsingapore.co/how-many-singaporeans-speak-cantonese/
Sew J. W. (2021a). What do students want? Invited Talk at DYOM Learning Circle, CDTL, NUS.
Sew J. W. (2021b). Assessing a Spoken Cantonese module based on student feedback. 3rd International Conference on Language Studies, UNIMAS, Kuching, Sarawak, 8-9 Sept. 2021.
Wordspath, T. (Dec 29, 2022). Where is Cantonese spoken? Wordspath. https://www.wordspath.com/where-is-cantonese-spoken/
