16 February, 2022

Co-hosted by National University of Singapore FASS Language and Linguistics Research Cluster, Brain, Language, & Intersensory Perception (BLIP) Lab at Nanyang Technological University.

Objectives

This online workshop is a venue for researchers across disciplines who are currently working on various facets of Mandarin as it is spoken and used in Singapore to exchange ideas, discuss challenges, share work in progress, and identify future directions for research.

Workshop Format

Presentations will be approximately 15 minutes, followed by a 5 minute Q&A. The morning and afternoon sessions will each be followed by a discussant and roundtable Q&A, followed by breakout group discussions.

The workshop will take place on Zoom. Please register here (registration is free): https://bit.ly/3LugZXp.

Workshop Program

Morning Session

Session I: Phonetics and phonology (9:30 AM – 12:20 PM)

  • 9:30 – 9:50. Rebecca Lurie Starr (NUS): “Mandarin in the Outer Circle? Language ideologies, contact, and phonological variation in Singapore Mandarin.”
  • 9:50 – 10:10. Wei Ruixue (NUS): “Phonological variation, standardness, and political identity in Singapore Mandarin”
  • 10:10 – 10:30. Ke Han (NTU): “Categorical Perception of VOT in Bilingual Children in Singapore”

10:30 – 10:45 Break

  • 10:45 – 11:05. Pan Lei (NTU): “Early linguistic experience shapes bilingual adults’ hearing for phonemes in both languages”
  • 11:05 – 11:25. Hannah Goh (NTU): “Documenting the Singapore Mandarin alveolar-retroflex contrast.”
  • 11:25 – 11:55. Discussant and Roundtable Q&A: Rebecca Lurie Starr (NUS)
  • 11:55 – 12:20. Breakout Discussion Session 1: Challenges

12:20 – 2:00 Lunch Break

Afternoon Session (2:00 PM – 4:50 PM)

Session II: Structure

  • 2:00 – 2:20. Fei Ting Woon (NTU): “Language mixing in Child-directed speech”
  • 2:20 – 2:40. Victoria Chua & Le Tuan Anh (NTU): “Transcribing and Analyzing a Corpus of Singaporean Mandarin Parent-Child Storybook Reading”

2:40 – 2:55 Break

Session III: Families and Schools

  • 2:55 – 3:15. Tianxiao Wang (Xiamen U.): “Choosing between “broken English” and a more familiar language: The role of grandparents in language maintenance and language shift among Singaporean Chinese families”
  • 3:15 – 3:35. Wang Ye & Shi Mingqian (NUS): “SLIONS – an interactive platform for joyful learning of Mandarin”
  • 3:35 – 3:55. Sun He (NIE): “Promoting Early Mandarin Learning with Paper Book and eBook Reading: Insights from Three Projects”
  • 3:55 – 4:25. Discussant and Roundtable Q&A: Suzy Styles (NTU)
  • 4:25 – 4:50. Breakout Discussion Session 2: Strategies and Solutions