Prospects of team members

The team has nurtured research expertise, both Deaf and hearing researchers, through activities such as job training, hosting of academic visits and seminars, presentations at conferences, and participation in collaborative research.

Deaf researchers

Ms Brenda Yu
With years of training in child data elicitation, corpus transcription, and linguistics, Ms Yu is now an experienced researcher in managing corpus data. Her research skills have given her the opportunity to conduct research on Deaf children's noun and verb acquisition. Beginning in 2009, she has also been working as a HKSL instructor at CUHK. In 2010, she became a student on the APSL diploma programme, studying sign linguistics and sign language teaching.

Ms Lam Mei-ling
Ms Lam joined the team in 2008 and has received extensive training on transcribing and analysing Deaf children's sign language data. This training has equipped her with a lot of knowledge about Deaf children's sign language acquisition. Currently, she is a full time teacher at a primary school adopting the sign bilingual approach to teaching.

Hearing researchers

Prof. Felix Sze
Prof. Sze assisted in the child data collection process and was involved in the development of a transcription system for capturing Deaf children's HKSL. She also provided training to Deaf researchers on transcribing HKSL data. Frequent contact with Deaf researchers and HKSL data facilitated her own research on her dissertation, entitled "Topic constructions in Hong Kong Sign Language". Prof. Sze was awarded a Ph.D. at Bristol University, U.K. in 2008 and is currently a research assistant professor at the Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages at CUHK.

Prof. Scholastica Lam
Prof. Lam participated in both data collection and data transcription processes of the two corpora, and was also involved in the development of a transcription system for HKSL documentation. Through managing the transcripts, Prof. Lam has developed a deeper understanding of the acquisition of sign language in Deaf children. The Child HKSL Corpus served as the basis for her Ph.D. research, which she completed in 2009. She is now a research assistant professor at the Centre for Sign Linguistics and Deaf Studies.

Ms Cat Fung
Three years of training in corpus development has equipped Ms Fung with a lot of HKSL knowledge and research skills. Her work on the two corpora as well as contact with Deaf people has drawn her attention to the issue of sign bilingualism. Amazed by the linguistic development of Deaf children, Ms Fung started to work on data involving Deaf children's code-blending. In 2012, she earned an M.Phil. in linguistics from CUHK with a thesis entitled "Code-blending in Early Hong Kong Sign Language: A Case Study", after which she became a teacher on the APSL diploma programme in sign linguistics.

Mr Joe Mak
Mr Mak provided technical support in the process of building up the two corpora, and designed an auto-tagging software program that specifically handles sign language data. During his training, he also assisted in the data checking process, where he developed his interest in sign phonology. He earned his M.Phil. in linguistics in 2012, and is currently working as an instructor on the APSL diploma programme in sign linguistics.

Ms Ada Lau
Ms Lau joined the team right after receiving her B.A. in linguistics. With extensive training in corpus building and management, she is now an experienced researcher who can process an enormous amount of language data. The knowledge she gained through this training has also given her the opportunity to initiate research projects on Deaf children's acquisition of HKSL and their Cantonese tone production ability. In 2012, she is admitted to the MSc in Audiology programme at the University of Hong Kong. With the knowledge and professional training, she hopes to better serve the Deaf population in the future.

Undergraduate student helpers

Ms Grace Chan
During her undergraduate study of linguistics at CUHK, Ms Chan worked as a student helper on the team. She was involved in the data collection process, mainly responsible for interacting with the Deaf child to elicit language data. She also assisted in transcribing Cantonese data for the Child HKSL-Cantonese Bilingual Corpus. She has learned a lot about child language acquisition research during her training, and developed one of her term papers for a linguistics course into a poster presentation at an international conference.

Ms Sarah Lee
Ms Lee worked in the team during her undergraduate study in linguistics at CUHK. She assisted in the data collection process as a camera operator and was also responsible for coding Cantonese data for the Child HKSL-Cantonese Bilingual Corpus. She gained a lot of insight into child language acquisition during her training, and successfully presented a poster on a Deaf child's phonological acquisition of Cantonese at an international conference.

Ms Christa Lai
Ms Lai is now a linguistics student (year two) at CUHK. She is interested in HKSL and has recently joined the team as a student helper. She has found the training valuable in preparing for her future career, and she hopes to continue to further investigate the processes inherent to Deaf children's language acquisition.

Ms Samantha Poon
Ms Poon is a linguistics student (final year) at CUHK and has been working on the team since October 2011. She is responsible for transcribing Cantonese utterances in the Child HKSL-Cantonese Bilingual Corpus. This training provides her with knowledge of Deaf children's language acquisition and arouses her interest in sign linguistics research.