The Corpus of Taiwanese Hoklo established by the National Academy for Educational Research has been launched online, with more than 56,000 searchable entries, the Ministry of Education said.
The ministry last year commissioned the academy to compile the collective knowledge of Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) and build a retrieval system, enabling searches among more than 56,000 entries and approximately 1,400 words designated for Hoklo-language textbooks.
The system has three subsystems — linguistic material, textbook words and grammar, the ministry said, adding that it is a resource for curriculum design, proficiency assessments and linguistic research.
Photo: Yang Mien-chieh, Taipei Times
Teachers can consult the system to find words and information from Hoklo-language textbooks, as well as collocations — words or terms that are together more often than would be expected by chance — correlatives and audio of retrievable words to enrich their course content, while using the system’s descriptions and example sentences to help students learn better, it said.
An additional corpus of more than 26,000 Hoklo sentences, along with audio files, and artificial intelligence (AI) tools and models, is also available via an app, the ministry said, adding that it can be used as the cornerstone of AI development in speech processing and computer-assisted instruction.
Department of Lifelong Education official Chi Hsien-yang (紀咸仰) said that the retrieval system also has example sentences from the official Hoklo dictionary approved by the ministry, as well as the Mandarin-Hoklo Bilingual Dictionary (華台對照詞典) compiled by Lu Kuang-cheng (盧廣誠).
For example, querying the system for “sleepy,” which is denoted as “khun” (睏) in Hoklo, would yield the correlative entries of “hioh-khun” (歇睏, “rest”) and “hioh-khun-jit” (歇睏日, “rest day”), with links to the ministry’s Hoklo Idioms Dictionary (教育部台灣台語常用詞辭典) for further information, Lu said.
Some entries have audio files of example sentences to enhance systematic learning of Hoklo, Chi said.
Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) on Monday wrote on Facebook that the launch of the system marked a milestone in the ministry’s history, with the content open to teachers and entrepreneurs to bolster the education sector and innovate digital learning products.
About a decade ago, the ministry granted lots of resources to universities to develop digital education resources, but most of them were rarely visited, as the universities were not adept at promoting the content, Yeh said.
Making the ministry’s resources, including the Hoklo corpus, public would facilitate teaching and software innovations, while also nurturing more research and development that could lead to a local education industry ecosystem in Taiwan, he said.
“The ministry would continue to compile digital content that were rarely visited and used, and allow people to tap into the resources via apps, expecting the new method to help build a prosperous ecosystem of the education industry in Taiwan,” he said.
SHOW OF SUPPORT: As a responsible member of the international community, Taiwan might collaborate with Manila against China’s aggressive actions, MOFA said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday hinted that Taiwan might join forces with the Philippines to protect navigational freedoms, days after Beijing blocked Philippine supply ships in the South China Sea. The ministry made the comment when asked whether Taipei would be willing to join forces with the Philippines to protect the latter from increasingly aggressive activities by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy and China Coast Guard. Taiwan “is willing to cooperate with any other nation with shared values in areas of common concern, including maintaining peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacfic region,” it wrote in a statement. A Chinese
‘LIKE A BLACK HOLE’: The figure is about 7% of China’s reported military spending, although diplomats and experts say that number is often opaque or not fully inclusive China spent about US$15 billion, or 7 percent of its defense budget, on exercises in the western Pacific last year, according to a previously unpublished Taiwanese estimate, showing Beijing’s investment in military activity around Taiwan and its neighbors. The internal research by the military, reviewed by Reuters, offers a rare look into a slice of China’s defense spending as Beijing has ramped up its military presence amid rising tensions in the region. China claims Taiwan as its own and is also locked in disputes with several nations over sovereignty of large parts of the South China Sea and the East China Sea. “This
‘GLOBAL THREAT’: MOFA said that it welcomes the ‘staunch US support’ and that ‘China again made spurious claims about Taiwan that do not accord with reality’ US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan stressed the importance of stability in the Taiwan Strait, while a senior Chinese military official warned the US to stop “collusion” with Taiwan in a rare one-on-one meeting yesterday, both sides said. Sullivan arrived in Beijing on Tuesday, the first US national security adviser to visit China since 2016, for three days of talks with Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) and other high-ranking officials. Yesterday morning, Sullivan met with Zhang Youxia (張又俠), vice chairman of the Central Military Commission and China’s second-highest-ranking military official, at the Beijing headquarters of the commission.
PRESSURE: The Solomon Islands, acting under explicit instructions from Beijing, is aiming to prevent Taiwan from attending the next forum to be held in Honiara Australia has voiced support for Taiwan despite the Solomon Islands’ plan to undermine Taiwan’s status as an observer at the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF). The forum is one of the most important international organizations in the Pacific region, made up of 18 member states, including Australia, New Zealand and Taiwan’s Pacific allies, associate members and observers, along with “dialogue partners” such as the US, Japan, Canada and the EU. The 53rd edition of the forum opened in Tonga’s capital, Nuku’alofa, yesterday. Taiwan has been taking part in the forum and related events as a “developmental partner” under the name Taiwan / Republic of