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The emotional significance of stimuli has a strong effect on lexical processing across different reading paradigms. In the present study, we investigated whether foveal and parafoveal lexical processing is influenced by foveal emotional words (positive, negative, or neutral) during the reading of Chinese sentences. We tested word N + 2 preview effect by manipulating the visibility of the upcoming word, located two words away from the foveal word. Processing benefits due to valid parafoveal preview were found for all three valence classes of foveal words. Most interestingly, for negative as compared to both neutral and positive foveal target words, the parafoveal preview effect was reduced when preview duration had been long. These findings suggest that negative words are more likely to attract readers' attention, narrowing the attentional spotlight to the fovea as affected information becomes activated during word processing. We discuss implications for the notion of attention attraction due to emotional content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we examined the effects of E-flashcards and paper flashcards on Chinese vocabulary learning and learning attitudes among students learning Chinese as a foreign language. One hundred fourth and fifth grade English-speaking students participated in two groups, E-flashcards (n = 50) and paper flashcards (n = 50), to learn 20 new Chinese words. E-flashcards (or digital flashcards through students' iPads) incorporate multimedia resources with comprehensive visual, verbal, and audio inputs while the paper flashcards provide only visual and verbal inputs. Results revealed that students who used E-flashcards statistically outperformed those who used paper flashcards on immediate post-tests of Chinese word reading and listening, as well as on 1-week delayed listening test. In addition, students who used E-flashcards demonstrated more positive learning attitudes toward Chinese word learning than those who used paper flashcards. Such findings support the audio application of multimedia on Chinese word recognition among novice Chinese language learners as an effective pedagogical approach. Instructional implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this closing commentary, two Chinese scholars working in different contexts offer their views on the space for and prospect of different bilingual education in China. Professor Ronghui Zhao from Shanghai International Studies University contends that shifting discursive constructions of language and language-related works in national language policy texts carve out a valuable discursive space for the implementation and promotion of bilingual education initiatives, since languages are increasingly seen as resources for the nation rather than challenges to be overcome for national unity. Professor Minglang Zhou draws attention to the ideological boundaries that constrain individual agents' efforts to promote bilingual education programs. He argues that the promotion of bilingual education programs takes place within the limits imposed by the Chinese State's language ideology, and reflects an institutionalized language hierarchical order which regulates their speakers' access to resources and power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2001, Chinese-English bilingual education has been officially promoted in many universities in mainland China. It has, however, recently been criticised for not only failing to improve students' English proficiency, but also impeding subject knowledge learning. Drawing on ethnographic data collected through classroom observations, interviews and fieldwork notes, this study examines the practices of bilingual education in an undergraduate Business Management Programme in one university. The study reveals that translanguaging is a prominent phenomenon in almost all subject courses in the programme. The translanguaging practices can be largely grouped into four categories: bilingual label quest, simultaneous code-mixing, cross-language recapping, and dual-language substantiation. The study further identifies supportiveness and freedom of context as two major forces that spurred the practices of translanguaging in the programme. The study concludes by arguing that an ideological reorientation towards flexible bilingualism is emerging in such BE contexts, which might be a favourable move away from the monolingual stereotype manifested in the traditional teaching-English-as-a-foreign-language and content-subject courses that envision English-medium instruction. A translanguaging perspective might give the current practices of BE due recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this opening commentary we highlight the tension surrounding the emergence and development of bilingual education programs in mainland China, which has attracted much attention in research. Scholars have contradictory views about efforts aimed at promoting and sustaining bilingualism/multilingualism through education in different parts of China. To contribute to this ongoing discussion, this special issue contains the collective efforts of scholars holding different views and examining three types of bilingual education initiatives in mainland China: bilingual education programs for ethnic minority students, the rise of Chinese-English bilingual education, and the vitality of regional Chinese varieties or dialects in major coastal cities. We contend that all the efforts to promote and sustain bilingualism in the aforementioned aspects are to some extent double-edged and require critical examination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has set up 1113 Confucius Classrooms in K-12 schools across the world to promote Chinese language and culture by the end of 2017. Despite such numbers, little is known about the educational outcomes of Confucius Classrooms in local school communities. This article seeks to rectify this deficiency in the literature by critically examining how Confucius Classrooms have contributed to Chinese language education within the framework of Quality Teaching. Through class observations and in-depth interviews with local teachers and students of Chinese in the Confucius Classrooms in Australian schools, the findings indicate that the Confucius Classrooms have led to better teaching practices and improved learning outcomes in Chinese language education in local schools. The challenges and potentials for the Confucius Classroom program are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many features of basic-level category vocabulary (BLCV) play an important role in international Chinese language teaching, and one of them is preference for BLCV acquisition which has yet remained to be confirmed. In this paper, a written language corpus of Chinese pupils is established, and the usage of the condition and quality BLCV is analyzed. It is found that 212 of 312 those BLCV are used by Chinese pupils in Grade One, the rest 100 are used during the whole primary school years1. Besides, learners keep enlarging other vocabularies with their increasing Chinese proficiencies, and thus cause a dilution effect on BLCV. These results show that language learners have grasped most BLCV when they start to use written language, indicating an obvious preference for BLCV acquisition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses efforts at Simon Fraser University to incorporate foreign language instruction into upper level history classes which included a seminar on the history of Buddhism using sources in Chinese, a seminar of the history of Afghanistan using Dari, one of two of the country's official languages, and a history class which incorporated Latin. All the classes were taught by Luke Clossey, with project support by Vlad Vintila.

This paper reveals the relations between the People's Republic of China and Georgia in the field of higher education. It outlines the direction of countries in the field of education, future plans and views, the export of their countries' education, the aspirations and directions of governments for the development of this field. The paper deals with the internationalization policy between the two countries, as well as what steps have been taken and what steps are being taken in this direction. Also discussed the impact of the One Belt One Road initiative on education. The project contains expanding its presence in the field of education: scholarships (up to 10 thousand annually) and grants are allocated, centers for studying the Chinese language are opened, the network of Confucius Institutes is expanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study explores international teachers' identity in an intercultural context as manifested through their interpersonal behaviors. In this study with fourteen native speaker Chinese language teachers and one hundred and ninety-two students, survey and interview methods were used as primary sources of data, and classroom observations were stimuli for interviews. The findings reveal that overseas teaching experiences strengthen teachers' professional identity, although they also bring teachers tensions. The study demonstrates that the teacher-student relationship is a useful lens to explore and interpret teacher identity in an intercultural context. The findings not only highlight how pre-existing beliefs and working context influence teachers' identity development but also illuminate the distinctions of identity among teachers with different interpersonal profiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a massive growth in trade and communication between Ireland and China in the past decade. Under such influence, Irish third level institutions have established Chinese or Chinese-related degree programmes, and post-primary schools have been offering Chinese courses as Transition Year1 modules. However, the continuous development of Chinese language education in Ireland also faces many challenges. Though the Junior Cycle Short Course2 in Chinese has been designed and published for three years now, there are still very few schools offering this course for a variety of educational and sociocultural reasons. In higher education, Chinese programmes are showing decreasing enrolment, and learners were found to suffer from demotivation issues. This paper briefly reviews the development of Chinese language education in Ireland in the past decade. It aims to suggest means of addressing some existing issues from three general perspectives regarding the course syllabi and materials, the Chinese teachers and the relevant research in an Irish context.

With the rising status of China in the world, the status of Chinese language in the world is also increasing. International education of Chinese language can adapt to the trend of economic globalization and promote the development of China in the world. At present, in the international education of Chinese language, the curriculum mainly focuses on theory teaching, the teaching staff needs to be further strengthened, the teaching method is relatively single, and the teaching material content cannot keep up with the development of the times. In the application of the computer virtual reality technology in the Chinese international teaching, the classroom instruction is arranged according to the normal language learning habits, the realistic environment is constructed for the spoken language teaching, and the real classroom and the virtual world are combined to carry on the teaching. Teachers should also improve their teaching level, so as to better promote the development of international education of Chinese language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In view of the problems in the combination process of pragmatics theory with modern Chinese course teaching, such as narrow application and lack of systematic evaluation indicator, this study explores the improvement validity of modern Chinese reading teaching based on pragmatics. First of all, this study analyzes the application of pragmatics theory in modern Chinese reading teaching, and then investigates the status quo of pragmatics in senior high school combined with the field research. At the same time, it optimizes the Chinese reading teaching model based on pragmatics and sets up the relevant evaluation indicators. Finally, it clarifies the validity of pragmatics in modern Chinese reading teaching. The results show that the improvement of Chinese reading teaching based on pragmatics can improve the effectiveness of Chinese reading teaching and enhance students' interest and sensitivity in spoken and written language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Online kindergarten to twelfth grade (K-12) language learners have usually been found to hold more negative perceptions of their courses and to perform less well academically than their face-to-face counterparts, despite the well-attested benefits of computer-mediated communication in language learning. In an attempt to improve upon such outcomes, this study designed, implemented, and evaluated a 12-day immersive online high-school Chinese-language course that included daily synchronous sessions and interactive technology-enhanced tasks, with a special emphasis on engaging the students in meaningful social interactions. Based on the analysis of the 35 participants' survey responses and their language performance, they had a very positive experience of the course, felt satisfied by it, and showed statistically significant improvement in their language skills. These findings are discussed in relation to prior studies' findings and current online-education policies and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examined the role of phonological awareness and morphological awareness in concurrent and subsequent oral vocabulary among Chinese-English bilingual children who learned Chinese as their heritage language and English as their societal language. Ninety-one Chinese-English bilingual children in kindergarten and Grade 1 who were recruited from Chinese heritage language classes in Canada, participated in the study. They were tested twice, 1 year apart, on a battery of cognitive and literacy measures in Chinese and English. The results indicated that for oral vocabulary, morphological awareness was the only concurrent predictor in both languages. English morphological awareness made a direct contribution to English vocabulary measured a year later. By contrast, the contribution of morphological awareness to vocabulary in Chinese at Time 2 was indirect and mediated by vocabulary at Time 1. Phonological awareness did not make a significant contribution to vocabulary at Times 1 or 2 in either language. Our results highlight the importance of morphological awareness in oral vocabulary for children learning Chinese and English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined pinyin (the official phonetic system that transcribes the lexical tones and pronunciation of Chinese characters) invented spelling and English invented spelling in 72 Mandarin-speaking 6th graders who learned English as their second language. The pinyin invented spelling task measured segmental-level awareness including syllable and phoneme awareness, and suprasegmental-level awareness including lexical tones and tone sandhi in Chinese Mandarin. The English invented spelling task manipulated segmental-level awareness including syllable awareness and phoneme awareness, and suprasegmental-level awareness including word stress. This pinyin task outperformed a traditional phonological awareness task that only measured segmental-level awareness and may have optimal utility to measure unique phonological and linguistic features in Chinese reading. The pinyin invented spelling uniquely explained variance in Chinese conventional spelling and word reading in both languages. The English invented spelling uniquely explained variance in conventional spelling and word reading in both languages. Our findings appear to support the role of phonological activation in Chinese reading. Our experimental linguistic manipulations altered the phonological awareness item difficulties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, Berlitz teaching methods have been gradually known. This paper studies the applicability of Berlitz teaching method in the teaching Chinese as a foreign language. The author first expounds the basic development of Berlitz teaching method, and then designs a learner model based on sequence mining. Apriori All algorithm is used to describe the learning behavior of foreign language learners. Then, 80 students from Northeast China base were selected to conduct experiments, and their learning behavior was excavated, and the conclusion was drawn: In this algorithm, the accuracy and utilization rate of the algorithm are all satisfied, and the applicability of the Berlitz teaching method is basically satisfactory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: What becomes of language students who participate in study abroad and then continue their study at home? What part can their memory of in‐country living play in shaping subsequent classroom experiences, not only for the students themselves but also for their classmates and teachers? This study explores changes in the motives of a study abroad returnee, Kevin, after his return to his home campus following a sojourn in China, focusing on reintegration into the domestic classroom and into the local cohort of Chinese language students. Previous studies have compared learning outcomes in different contexts—at home versus abroad. Less understood is how students from these divergent contexts converge in the upper level language classroom. Adopting activity theory, the study ethnographically tracks qualitative changes in Kevin's use of narratives from his sojourn experience across a longitudinal database of classroom recordings and participant interviews. As a teaching tool, Kevin's narratives empowered the instructor to achieve various pedagogical goals. However, the learning advantages that had once flourished through Kevin's narrative ultimately gave way to challenges. The findings suggest that students’ different histories of learning can become valuable pedagogical resources if, rather than simply expecting their adaptation, the curriculum and instruction are responsive to their needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to understand the learning outcomes that prevail across key sub-populations in China today. Data from a nationally representative survey show that rural youth are two years behind urban children in math and Chinese. Non-Han minorities, children in poorer counties, and children with less-educated parents are the most vulnerable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an attempt to promote telecollaborative exchanges in the field of teaching Chinese as a foreign language, this paper conducts a comprehensive review of telecollaborative practice from the past twenty years and focuses on five important themes emerging from the literature on telecollaboration, i.e. models, tasks, challenges, technologies, and new trends. Special attention is given to how each theme's findings can be applied to telecollaborative projects for Chinese language learners. Based on the model of competencies for telecollaborative teachers developed by O'Dowd (2013), the implications of twenty years of telecollaborative practice for teaching Chinese as a foreign language are discussed in four areas, i.e. organizational, pedagogical, digital competences, and attitudes and beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews studies on teaching Chinese as a second or foreign language (CSL/CFL) inside and outside Mainland China. In the review process, we analyzed a total of 1358 Chinese language articles and 175 English language articles from CNKI (中国知网) and Web of Science, respectively, during the period from 2004 to 2016. By analyzing the frequency and the co-occurrence of keywords in these articles, this review identifies the development trajectories and topical trends of Chinese language education research in mainland Chinese and international journals. The review also highlights both researchers and institutions that contributed significantly to research on CSL/CFL teaching and learning. As revealed through the analysis, researchers in and outside mainland China focus on different research issues with different perspectives, while few cross-border research collaborations are observed among the leading researchers and(or) institutions in this field. Consequently, we conclude this review with suggestions for researchers in mainland China and other contexts, journals, and institutions for promoting transnational-collaboration research to support the development of Chinese language education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tone instruction is an integral component of Chinese as an additional language (CAL) education. The present study aimed to explore the challenges and strategies of teaching of Mandarin Chinese tones in the multilingual and multicultural context of Macau SAR, China. Employing a qualitative methodology, this study drew on multiple data sources (e.g. classroom observations and interviews) of five participants. It revealed various challenges in teaching Mandarin Chinese tones, such as the backgrounds of CAL learners, the teaching context, and the sociocultural environment. At the same time, the teacher participants employed a range of strategies that included cognitive, emotional, and behavioural aspects to address these challenges. This study not only enriches our understanding of the complexities of Mandarin Chinese tones teaching but also provides practical implications for CAL teachers in teaching Mandarin Chinese tones within complex teaching contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study adopted an experimental approach to compare two groups of third-year students learning Chinese in sentence reading comprehension with and without a word segmentation exercise at a southwestern American university. The t-test showed that the experimental group, which received a word segmentation task followed by immediate feedback before reading, outperformed the non-experimental group, which received no treatment before reading. The correlation analysis confirmed that four types of word segmentation errors were moderately correlated with four types of translation errors. This study concluded that introducing word segmentation exercises could facilitate reading comprehension. Based on the findings, pedagogical implementations were suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital mobile devices such as iPads have been around for many years and have been more and more popular in K-12 classrooms. Research has pointed out the advantages of using iPads in classrooms to enhance teaching, engage learning, and promote learning outcomes. iPads have been proven to be a useful and powerful digital mobile device in language learning including speaking, listening, reading, and writing. The purpose of the study was to investigate whether a technology integrated twenty-first century writing workshop had an influence on the ability and attitude towards writing in Chinese for second graders enrolled in the Mandarin Chinese program in a language immersion elementary school. Twenty-four students participated in the study. Recording technology (iPad recording app), an iPad camera, and the Book Creator App were integrated into the twenty-first century writing workshop. A pre-survey, post-survey, and observation were used to collect data. The results of the study confirmed that writing barriers decreased when the Chinese immersion program students utilized iPads in the writing workshop. Also, the writing ability and attitudes of the Chinese immersion program students improved after the completion of their twenty-first century writing workshop. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Verb-argument relation is a very important aspect of syntax-semantics interaction in sentence processing. Previous ERP (event related potentials) studies in this field concentrated on the relation between the verb and its core arguments. The present study aims to reveal the ERP pattern of Chinese applied object structures (AOSs), in which a peripheral argument is promoted to occupy the position of the patient object, as compared with the patient object structures (POSs). The ERP data were collected when participants were asked to perform acceptability judgments about Chinese phrases. The result shows that, similar to the previous studies of number-of-argument violations, Chinese AOSs show a bilaterally distributed N400 effect. But different from all the previous studies of verb-argument relations, Chinese AOSs demonstrate a sustained anterior positivity (SAP). This SAP, which is very rare in the studies related to complexity of argument structure operation, reflects the integration difficulty of the newly promoted arguments and the progressive nature of well-formedness checking in the processing of Chinese AOSs which is in accordance with the metonymic mechanism of non-patient objects in the relevant cognitive study. It shows that, in Chinese, which is a paratactic language, semantics (thematic roles) plays a more important role in the syntax-semantics interface than that in hypotactic languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The benefits of parental involvement in children’s education have been well established but increasing evidence suggests that overparenting may have adverse effects on children. The question of whether excessive parental involvement hinders children’s academic and psychosocial development warrants further investigations. This study examined the associations of parental educational involvement at home and in school with academic performance and psychological health of 507 Chinese Grade 3 schoolchildren in Hong Kong. Parents reported on their level of involvement in children’s schooling and their children’s psychosocial issues. Children were surveyed to determine their school engagement, and their Chinese language and mathematics attainment was assessed. We also explored the underlying mechanism by testing children’s engagement with school as a mediator of the relationships. Our results showed that home-based parental educational involvement was positively associated with children’s language competence and psychosocial wellbeing, and the associations were linked through engaging children with school. However, the benefits reached a plateau at higher level of parental involvement in children’s learning at home. School-based parental involvement had an indirect effect on children’s prosocial behavior through school engagement. These findings highlight the significance of optimal level of parental involvement in children’s education at home for children’s development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research has shown that the visual complexity of orthographies across writing systems influences the development of orthographic representations. Simplified and traditional Chinese characters are usually regarded as the most visually complicated writing systems currently in use, with the traditional system showing a higher level of complexity. However, it is still unclear whether and how learning two Chinese writing systems influences the processing of characters among simplified and traditional Chinese script readers. This study employed the categorical perception (CP) paradigm to examine adult Mainland China Chinese (MLC) simplified character readers and adult Hong Kong Chinese (HKC) traditional character readers’ liminal perception of the following types of morphing continua of “line characters” (with font features removed): the Absolute-Differentiation (AD) type, which contains a topological change, and the Relative-Differentiation type, which does not contain any topological change in visual configurations. The results showed evidence of CP effects on the two types of stimuli among MLC and HKC readers. Moreover, MLC and HKC readers presented major differences in perceiving AD-type stimuli, indicating that different experiences with two Chinese writing systems influence character perception. These findings extend previous results regarding the comparison of visual skills of simplified and traditional Chinese script readers and support the hypothesis that simplified Chinese script readers have higher visual discrimination rates than do traditional Chinese script readers in character perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-Chinese-speaking (NCS) South Asian students, as ethnic minority group in Hong Kong, are the main disadvantaged social cohort in Chinese language learning. It has been a challenge for L1 Chinese teachers to conduct L2 Chinese teaching to NCS students with diversified native languages and socio-cultural backgrounds. ‘Reading to Learn, Learning to Write’ (R2L) pedagogy has proven effective in L2 English teaching to aboriginal students in Australia and has been focusing on teaching English in other parts of the world [Rose, D., and J. R. Martin, 2012.Learning to Write, Reading to Learn: Genre, Knowledge and Pedagogy in the Sydney School. London: Equinox]. The current study aims to explore the effectiveness of ‘R2L’ pedagogy to teach Chinese written composition of discussion to NCS students in Hong Kong. Through in-class teaching, data were collected from classroom observation and pre/post-tests in order to understand the performance of NCS students in Chinese written composition before and after the application of R2L pedagogy. Students’ learning experience in R2L sessions will also be perceived through interviews. Through integration of reading and writing, the R2L pedagogy provides students with abundant support in language input and output. Moreover, NCS students have shown great improvements in writing after R2L teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper aims at some impacts of computer remote education on the Chinese Language and Literature (CLL) learning of Chinese overseas students with a learning software enabled with remote education as a study case, to conduct a survey and analysis on how this type of learning software serves the students when they study and what is the best commercial learning software in the market by questionnaire survey, statistical analysis and summary methods. On this basis, it is concluded that the CLL learning software plays an important role in improving the learning efficiency and level of Chinese overseas students. But beyond that, the existing learning software in the market still have many limitations. In the end, to make such learning software play a better role in overseas students' learning process, this paper proposes strategies for upgrading software in question by virtue of operating and popularizing more mature English learning software with remote education function, which provides a valuable reference for future improvement and promotion of similar software. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores on the research on interlanguage tonal grammars of Mandarin Chinese by adult learners. Topics mentioned include the pedagogical implications on mental representations of tones and training learners' motor skills, the materials used in tone training of Mandarin Chinese and the difficulty of Mandarin Chinese contour tones.

This study explores the process of Community of Practice (CoP) building for language teachers’ professional development through the support of a WeChat group. WeChat is an instant messenger app that provides a multimodal platform for one-on-one and group interactions through text, audio and video. In order to support the implementation of flipped classrooms in a Chinese programme offered in an Australian university, a teachers’ chat group was created on WeChat for just-in-time and collaborative professional development. This qualitative study focuses on three dimensions in the CoP, namely, mutual engagement, a joint enterprise, and a shared repertoire to examine how these Chinese teachers worked together to form their own CoP in their WeChat group. Qualitative data were collected through group chat interactions on WeChat, teacher reflective journals and a focus group discussion through audio conferencing on WeChat. Discussions of the strategies and challenges involved in the building of an active and sustainable online CoP through social media contribute to our understanding of professional development in a digital age. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the field of teaching and learning Chinese as a foreign language (CFL), most studies investigate Chinese character learning strategies in pen-and-paper study by campus-based students. With the increase in distance-learning, and expanding popularity of smartphones and tablets and widespread availability of mobile applications for language learning, it is now important to research mobile-assisted character learning strategies by distance learners. This study attempts to (i) identify changing practices when character learning is assisted by mobile technology; and (ii) analyse the underlying causes for the changing practices. These issues were investigated using an online survey, learning diary and email interviews with UK-based distance learners of beginners’ Chinese (n = 22). The findings suggest that there are important emerging new practices and previously unreported strategies such as constantly testing oneself and using pinyin input to identify new characters. They also reveal two strategy types not reported in previous research concerning social and affective dimensions. The study thereby provides important new insights into how adult distance learners of Chinese at beginners’ level learn characters when assisted by mobile technology, with significant pedagogical implications for Chinese character pedagogy in terms of course design and learner support. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article discusses principles involved in developing course materials for technology-mediated Chinese language learning, with examples from a new course designed to take into account the needs of distance and independent learners. Which learning environment is most efficient for a given learning activity needs to be carefully considered. It turns out that many of the activities involved in language learning can effectively be undertaken by learners working independently with printed materials, audio, video, computer software, and online teachers. Carefully designed audio drills can be useful as enabling devices to help learners attain the goal of communicative competence. Detailed advice should be provided on learning strategies and how to identify and work with native-speaking tutors. Though new technologies can enable learners and instructors to make more efficient use of time by moving certain language learning activities out of the classroom, it is important to design and implement a pedagogically valid curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The focus of this research is on an international distance discussion class carried out in Chinese between university students in Japan, China and Taiwan using videoconferencing. Smiling was used as an interactional index in an analysis of the archival footage of the recordings of the discussion between native speakers (NS) of Chinese and non-native speakers (NNS). Through quantitative and qualitative analysis, it was possible to identify how the NSs and NNSs participated in the discussion. We analyzed a 70-minute video and the textual materials of a discussion class among 13 students from different countries. Findings revealed that interactions between NS and NNS students gave rise to more smiling and laughter compared to interactions between NS students. Findings also revealed that NNS students are better at creating affinity with other participants, since their laughter events could reflect differences in cultures and in human relationships though these jokes were less novel and less funny than those of NS students. Compared with more traditional class formats, the distance class is better at helping students develop their social, intercultural and problem-solving abilities. However, NS students are more likely to take the initiative in discussions due to their language ability, while the NNS students are less able to express their opinions freely. This research tells us that even though NNS students have disadvantages in terms of their linguistic resources, they make use of both verbal and non-verbal resources to interact with other speakers. Based on our analysis, suggestions for international distance foreign language teaching and research are given. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Speaking in Chinese is problematic for all learners, particularly for beginners and more so during online interaction. Despite the fact that interaction has been identified as crucial for the development of speaking skills, it can be hindered by students’ lack of language competence or their anxiety. Teacher-centred practices in tutorials can further limit the opportunity for learners to speak. In an attempt to identify the best ways of supporting online speaking practice, this research explores the interaction patterns between the learners and teachers of Chinese during online synchronous tutorials. Five recordings of Beginners’ online Chinese tutorials in small groups have been analysed using social network analysis. The fact that teaching content and tasks remain similar across all instances, allows the researchers to compare interaction patterns and to find the deciding factors in forming interaction patterns. All the following can play a role: language, skills level, task, and individual teacher style. The findings reveal common practices in the teaching of Chinese speaking skills; and can inform training for online language teachers, enhancing their ability to modify interaction patterns and scaffold students’ speaking online. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The study aimed at enhancing Chinese as a second language (CSL) students’ listening comprehension by using authentic contexts in Second Life (SL). Twenty-seven CSL students from 4 countries participated in the 6-week study. A within-subject design was adopted to confirm the effects of 3D immersive experiences on CSL students’ listening comprehension. All the participants sequentially experienced the two kinds of CSL listening support used in this study, both the traditional approach and 3D virtual immersion. The results of listening performance tests, questionnaires, and interview data were collected and analyzed during the study. The analysis results show that CSL students’ listening comprehension benefited from 3D immersion. The participants also expressed their preference for taking CSL listening lessons in 3D immersive contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reports a qualitative study on the Chinese language learning trajectories of non-native Chinese instructors as successful Chinese language learners . While some literature has been found on studying good learners of English and other languages, there is a lack of research on studying good learners of the Chinese language, especially on their life-long Chinese learning process. Six active instructors teaching Chinese at K-12 schools or universities in the United States, whose native language is English, were interviewed on a one-on-one basis with an auto/biographical approach. This approach, as one type of narrative inquiries under a qualitative paradigm, has been increasingly used in the study of English language learners. Findings of the study include that the six participants all had experiences studying in Greater China, and all held lifelong learning attitude as well as demonstrated various self-regulation strategies with strong self-motivation and dedication. While they all took Chinese classes at college, only two of them studied prior to college, which is encouraging for Chinese learners who were unable to learn Chinese from an early age. This study helps to fill the gap in literature on good language learners of Chinese, and provides educational implications for Chinese language learners, instructors, researchers, and other stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different from the traditional term language input, affordance, an ecological term, has been deployed to analyze the perceived opportunities for second language (L2) learning an environment provides to L2 learners. L2 learning occurs only when the semiotic resources in the environment resonate with the learner's capacities such as their abilities, aptitudes, and attitudes. Adopting affordance as a theoretical and analytic construct, this study investigates using qualitative research methods what language development affordances WeChat, one of the most popular Social Networking Systems in Chinese-speaking communities, provided to two university-level Chinese language learners while they were studying abroad in an intensive language program in Shanghai. Four affordances were identified. The results also show that each affordance was manifested differently with each language learner due to unique communication norms on WeChat, each language learner's Chinese language proficiency, and their personal preference in WeChat communication. Pedagogical implications are also provided to guide educators and L2 users as to how to take advantage of WeChat for language learning. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The experiment presented in this research is targeting a 'positional' stage of a 'modular' model of speech production originally proposed by Levelt (1989), Bock & Levelt (1994), where selected lemmas are inserted into syntactic frames. Results suggest a difference between L1 and L2 English speakers at the positional stage. While this might suggest that the speech planning process is different in native and non-native speakers, an alternative view is also proposed that the observed differences are the result of differences in the way that linguistic forms are stored, rather than a fundamental difference in the way that speech is planned. This result indicates main verb, copula be & local dependency effect are the three elements that affect the realization of English subject-verb agreement, and helps us locate the phase where L2 subject-verb agreement errors happen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the issue of Chinese students' oral English skills in talking about Chinese culture from the perspective of conversation analysis. To examine their performance in this regard, group discussion data in the classroom were collected for analysis. Their oral skills in talking about Chinese New Year and Christmas, a Western festival, were analyzed and compared to determine their oral performance in describing their native culture. Comments by two native English speakers on the students' performance are used to complement the conversation analysis. The results indicate that, compared with their performance regarding Christmas, the students were able to express a wider range of cultural connotations about Chinese New Year in English, but they used significantly fewer correct culturally-loaded words and phrases, and switched to Chinese much more frequently, suggesting unsatisfactory oral skills in describing Chinese culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the turn of the century, higher education policy in China has highlighted the importance of cultivating students' intercultural competences, particularly in the context of English language teaching. In spite of this, studies show that to this day Chinese ELT classrooms in higher education have rarely taken a cultural turn and teachers' understanding of interculturalism remains insufficient. This paper reports an action research study on how intercultural awareness was developed in the context of an English reading course at an independent college of a major Chinese university. The study followed a teaching flow that integrates intercultural learning with critical thinking by challenging students to select, analyze, and raise questions about English texts on aspects of Chinese culture. Mapping the outputs of a cohort of 77 second-year undergraduate students onto Baker's (2012; 2015) model of intercultural awareness, the study shows that a majority of participants demonstrated a level beyond basic awareness. The paper concludes that reading courses can be used to help foster intercultural awareness among Chinese students, and it offers some pedagogical and theoretical reflections on integrating intercultural learning with ELT, and formulates a number of suggestions for further studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Situated in the context of migration trends toward superdiversity in Anglophone countries, this study conceptualizes Chinese heritage language (CHL) learners as complex social beings with increasingly diverse language repertories, migration histories, and socioeconomic statuses. Failing to understand such diversity in language maintenance and language shift may lead to oversimplifying the process of Chinese language maintenance and consequently perpetuating educational inequities in overseas Chinese education. The study analysed questionnaire data from 56 CHL learners who identified as dialect speakers in a New Zealand university. Findings show that CHL learners are indeed a linguistically and socioculturally diverse group. There is a clear shift towards English among participants as they approached adulthood, with some also speaking non-Chinese languages like Khmer. While Chinese dialects remain prevalent within their homes, younger generations exhibit a decrease in the number of Chinese dialects spoken. Surprisingly, Mandarin, despite being the primary language resource for Chinese education, is underutilized and tends to remain at a low proficiency level. This study concludes by offering implications to policymakers and Chinese curriculum developers to provide genuine support for maintaining and learning the Chinese language within the increasingly diverse Chinese diaspora. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Home language and literacy input (HLLI) is critical for linguistic and literacy development in bilingual children. This exploratory study investigated home oral, and print input for Chinese heritage language learners between four and six years old in the United States and aimed to identify salient types of input associated with speaking and reading abilities in the heritage language (Chinese) and the societal language (English). Fifty-three parents completed a HLLI questionnaire and rated the speaking and reading competencies in Chinese and English of their children. The relationships between HLLI and bilingual abilities were examined via principal component analysis and regression. There were two major findings: first, Chinese speaking ability mainly depended on oral language exchange between parents and their children, as well as print exposure to Chinese; Chinese reading ability was associated with oral language exchange between parents and their children, as well as pinyin/bopomofo practice at home. Second, both speaking and reading abilities in English were significantly and positively related to children's interest in reading English only. Evidencebased recommendations are provided regarding home language and literacy practices for young Chinese heritage language learners in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on Chinese heritage-language maintenance has predominantly focused on Mandarin as the default mother tongue and has largely ignored learners' dialects or language varieties. As a result, we know little about dialect speakers' beliefs and practices of maintaining their language varieties other than Mandarin, particularly in the home domain. Using family language policy (FLP) as the theoretical framework, this multiple case study examined six Chinese families' beliefs and practices in early bidialectal (Mandarin and dialect) maintenance over three years when their children moved through kindergarten to Grade 3. Findings indicated that parents subscribed to the dominant language ideologies and placed their dialects at the bottom of the language hierarchy. However, the parents differed in their beliefs in the value of their dialects; and families who celebrated bidialectalism actively maintained their dialects while those who did not gradually gave up on passing their dialects to their children, even when grandparents were involved in the maintenance efforts. The findings have important implications for supporting and achieving bidialectalism in immigrant countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]