Abstract
This presentation explores the fine-grained processes of adult-child language interactions by leveraging advanced machine learning and natural language processing algorithms. Previous research has largely focused on the frequency of children’s exposure to language features, such as lexical diversity and syntactic complexity, using audio and video samples to predict language development. However, these approaches often overlook the complex semantic relationships and the influence of contextual and individual variability. By employing techniques such as semantic network analysis, probabilistic topic modeling, and sentiment analysis, this study aims to provide a more nuanced understanding of these interactions. The findings indicate that AI-driven methods can significantly enhance our comprehension of children’s language learning environments. They support the development of targeted interventions that adapt strategies to specific activity contexts and individual child characteristics, ultimately advocating for the effective fostering of high-quality language input to meet the diverse needs of young learners.
Speaker
Prof. Wonkyung Jang
Prof. Somin Park
About the Speaker
Dr. Wonkyung “Won” Jang, an assistant professor in the Department of Instructional Leadership and Academic Curriculum at The University of Oklahoma, specializes in early care and education (ECE) and data science. He explores how ECE stakeholders can embrace the power of “Big Data” to help children overcome developmental challenges, provide the simple joy of play, promote teacher well-being, and tackle pressing social justice challenges. Jang is particularly interested in uncovering how variations in individual children’s physical, social, and linguistic environments shape language and literacy development. He aims to apply this understanding to personalize children’s learning experiences within inclusive classroom settings, tailoring evidence-based practices to fulfill the local needs and circumstances of young learners. Employing machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques, Jang seeks to better capture individual differences in language development among children with diverse developmental, cultural, linguistic, and educational needs. Jang received his doctoral degree in Education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) in 2022. He earned a Master of Science degree in Statistics and a Graduate Certificate in Computational Linguistics en route to his Ph.D. For the past decade, Jang has worked as a teacher and a university-based researcher focused on ECE. He is the Principal Investigator of the AI Lab for Transforming Education for Young Children, leading federal and internal grants, and is a PI/Co-PI/Co-I of grants totaling $2,900,000.
Dr. Somin Park is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong. Her research focuses on early language and literacy development during early childhood years. Her work investigates evidence-based practices for supporting early language and literacy development for monolingual- and emergent bilingual- children. Her work also examine what teacher characteristics and experiences support quality early language and literacy practices in the classrooms.
Time
9:30 - 11:00 AM
Location
ZOOM (https://hku.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJArc--sqTgqHd1c3Pd_3eWP0srrbxoeMiBt)
Chair
Prof. Lianjiang Jiang
- ‘Curses in TESOL’: Postcolonial Desires for Colonial English
- “Enhancing Data-Driven Learning in Disciplinary L2 English Contexts: Introducing CorpusMate”
- “Neither Bilingual nor Education”: critiques of bilingual education in state school education and responses to them
- A Two-Tiered Investigation Into the Dual Goal in EMI Education: Assessment and Instructional Practices
- Appropriation of Resources by Bilingual Students for Self-regulated Learning of Science
- Auckland U – HKU Joint Webinar (28 November, 2024)
- Automated Content Feedback and Young English Learners’ Behaviours, Performances and Response
- Book Launch Seminar: Language Across the Curriculum & CLIL in English as an Additional Language (EAL) Contexts
- Critically Engaged Literacy Workshop as Decolonial and Anti-Racist Pedagogy (April 16th, 2025)
- Crosslinguistic influence in foreign and second language learners
- Developing Language Educators’ Understanding of Assessment Reform Discourse and Practices: School-University Collaborative Action Research as Praxis
- Digital literacy pedagogy:
Key issues in the age of Gen-AI
- Digital Multimodal Composing for Specific Purposes: The Case of Sustainability Discourse
- EMI Symposium 2023: Fostering Collaboration
- Exploring Self-Regulated Use of Artificial Intelligence Tools in Language Learning
- Generative AI: Implications and Applications for Education
- Global Englishes-informed Teacher Education: Present Cases and Future Directions
- HKU-NIE Joint Webinar: Designing Learning and Assessment with Multimodality in CLIL Classrooms
- Hong Kong SAR Government’s ‘Biliteracy and Trilingualism’ Policy: Sizing Up and Meeting the Challenge
- Hong Kong Students’ Self-regulated English Writing for Academic Studies
- HUMANISING TECHNOLOGY in Language Learning & Teaching
- Language ideologies in text-based art of Xu Bing: Implications for language policy and planning
- Language Learning in 3D Virtual Worlds
- Learning about and using academic vocabulary: Critical issues for pedagogy (Feb 18, 2025)
- Motivational and Empowering Feedback in the Writing Classroom
- Multilingualism and its Ramifications
- Multilingualism and Mobility: The Semiotic Production of Centres and Peripheries in Airport Spaces
- Multilingualism and the Brain
- Narrative Skills in Mandarin- English Dual Language Immersion Learners
- Narratives of Cross-Cultural Understanding among South Asian Diasporic Students in Hong Kong
- Newcastle U-HKU Joint Webinar on Cultural Artifact Creation (14 November, 2024)
- Optimising Classroom Learning: Speaking in and about Mathematics Classrooms
- People who come from state education are different”: How language use maintains social exclusion in Medical Education
- Policy vs Practice: Homework in Hong Kong EFL Classrooms
- Review of recent research on AI-powered technology in second language teaching, learning and testing (Feb 10, 2025)
- Revival and Threat: Language ideologies, policy, and nationalism in Kazakhstan and Mongolia
- Secondary school students’ source use in inquiry project-based learning (PjBL): Working towards avoiding plagiarism and engaging with sources
- Sociocultural awareness of international ELT policies: The case of a US-funded program in Morocco
- Studies of Public Policy Process and Implications for Research on Education Policy
- The Challenges of Teaching Non-Chinese Speaking Children to Learn Chinese at Kindergarten Level
- The Contributions of Growth Rates in Phonological and Spatial Abilities to Chinese Reading and Mathematical Competencies: A Longitudinal Study of Hong Kong Kindergarteners
- The Digital Literacies Forum 2023
- The Effects of the Medium of Instruction in Physics on Achievement and Motivation to Learn
- The Historical and Linguistic Background of South and Southeast Asian Multi-ethnic Communities in Hong Kong
- The Influence of Extramural Access to Host Culture Social Media on Ethnic Minority Students’ Motivation for Language Learning
- Top desk rejection reasons and how to avoid it
- Translanguaging in Everyday Textual Performances: Implications for Literacy and Pedagogy
- Understanding Language Learning Motivation in Hong Kong
- University of Melbourne – University of Hong Kong Joint Symposium (19 November, 2024)
- Using Reading to Learn Pedagogy to Support Non-Chinese Speaking Students Learning Chinese in Hong Kong
- Videos in language classrooms: A social semiotic perspective
- What can we learn from the Hong Kong Archive of Language Learning Project?
- New technologies in literacy research:
“Measuring” embodiment through
galvanic skin response
- Publishing in top-tier applied
linguistic journals:
Perspectives of an editorreviewer-author
