Chinese As A Foreign Language Research Articles

Where there is suffering, there is sympathy: The speech act Sympathize in learning Chinese as a foreign language

AbstractThe present paper aims to explore the performance of Sympathize as a speech act by advanced learners of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL). We collected data from both 16 advanced CFL learners and 16 native speakers of Chinese through a DCT, and we then asked 10 native speakers of Chinese to rate the appropriacy of the DCTs provided by the two groups. The results of our analysis show that the language use of native speakers and advanced learners only differed significantly when they employed three strategies “Minimize the negativity of the events,” “Analyze the negative events objectively,” and “Look at problems from a positive perspective,” while their behavior only marginally differed when it came to the two strategies of “Release the listeners’ negative emotions” and “Encourage.” However, learners received overall lower scores than native speakers regarding the appropriateness of their sympathizing expressions.

Understanding intercultural virtual exchange through a translanguaging lens in Chinese as a foreign language

Abstract Virtual exchange refers to technology-enabled online communication between people who are geographically separated from each other. It has been increasingly adopted in education in the past two decades, especially since early 2020 when teachers and students were forced to move to an online mode of teaching and international exchange owing to the most recent pandemic. The current study is based on a nine-week virtual exchange project that took place between 22 students learning Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) from a British university and their partners from a Chinese university. The subjects conversed online with each other on self-directed topics on a weekly basis, and they completed their collaboration project for showcasing in the final week. From a translanguaging perspective, naturally occurring online conversations between intercultural interlocutors were investigated through the method of multimodal conversation analysis (MCA). The students leveraged a range of linguistic, semiotic and multimodal resources to navigate through communication with their partners. It is hoped that this study will contribute to the understanding of how translanguaging is embodied in virtual exchange interaction and how MCA can be applied to reveal the details present at the micro level of intercultural exchanges in the CFL context.

A contrastive analysis of congratulate by native speakers of Chinese and advanced learners of Chinese

AbstractThe present study aims to contrast the performance of Congratulate by advanced learners of Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) and Chinese native speakers. Adopting a bottom‐up procedure, it discovers three types of Congratulate structures and seven categories of strategies used by both native speakers and advanced CFL learners. It also reveals that while social distance and power exert influence on the performance of Congratulate in both groups, significant differences exist in the overall distribution of these structures and categories of strategies. In addition, it discusses salient problems concerning the appropriateness of advanced CFL learners’ production with the aid of corpus‐based analysis and written interview. By supplementing a discourse completion test–based contrastive analysis with the two ancillary analyses, the study has a methodological implication for future empirical research in second language pragmatics.

When East meets West: A practitioner inquiry of culturally responsive pedagogy in an Australian Chinese as a Foreign Language classroom

AbstractA nuanced description of “what” (the curriculum) and “how” (the pedagogy) to teach in Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) education remains unexplored in existing scholarship. This paper addresses this paucity by undertaking a practitioner inquiry to explore the intersection of Eastern pedagogy and Western students in an Australian CFL classroom, with the aim of improving classroom practice and enhancing low socio‐economic status (SES) students’ learning experiences. Ten language lessons were segmented into phases and analyzed within the parameter of classification and framing theorized by Bernstein. An analysis of research journals and students’ focus groups shows culturally responsive pedagogy integrating constructivist and traditional Chinese approaches to teaching has the potential of inducting underprivileged students into knowledge about curriculum and language, providing them with linguistic capital and high aspirations for the future. Pedagogically, this article offers insights for CFL teachers to mediate Chinese and Western teaching beliefs and education schemas; practically, the findings glimpse the ways in which CFL education can be discursively constructed as a cultural agenda that (re)shapes the educational experiences of underprivileged students and mobilizes them into critical hopes that can be acted upon. This paper has important implications for foreign language theory building and for responding to the “back to basics” curriculum approach in schools serving disadvantaged communities.

Exploring Graduate Teaching Assistants’ Beliefs and Practices in Chinese as a Foreign Language Tutoring Program

The current qualitative study researches graduate Teaching Assistants’ (TAs’) beliefs and teaching practices towards Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) tutoring sessions and examines the possible factors that shape and influence their beliefs about teaching and tutoring. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with three experienced graduate TAs in a CFL program at a higher education institution in the U.S. Findings revealed that TAs viewed tutoring with four major functions: review/practice of course content, remedial work, test preparation, and individualized instruction. To achieve effectiveness with these functions, they identified three types of methods for tutoring: great emphasis on explicit and implicit instruction of grammar and vocabulary, adoption of error feedback in tutoring writing, and recognition and attempted implementation of task-based teaching. Four factors have been identified to impact TAs’ beliefs: TA training, curriculum guidelines, students’ feedback, and preconceived beliefs. By exploring the TAs’ beliefs, the program administrators would know more about the gaps in their curriculum objectives and actual teaching practices, thus can better train TAs in the future, which is also beneficial to the language learners. This professional and practical motivation is the goal of the current study.

The development and validation of a C-test and a pseudo-character test for online CFL assessment

Abstract Taking inspiration from a popular online English test, this study first documents the development of an achievement test containing a newly developed C-test and pseudo-character test for beginner-level Chinese learners. Then, based on the test results collected from 53 university learners and using statistical tools, analyses were conducted on its content validity, construct validity, criterion-related validity, difficulty, discrimination power, and reliability. Results indicate that this new achievement test has relatively satisfactory reliability and validity, with only minor issues that need to be addressed in future studies. Situated in the context of language assessment, the study sheds light on the application of the C-test and a pseudo-character section in both face-to-face and at-distance Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) classrooms. Furthermore, the study also provides practical and applicable methods for CFL teachers to develop their own assessments.

Translating Willingness to Communicate into Learner Talk in a Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) Classroom

Cumulative research has explored willingness to communicate (WTC) in English as a second language and English as a foreign language contexts, but few have looked at the interface between WTC and learner talk from a Chinese learning perspective. This study investigates how six multilingual and multicultural students’ WTC translates into talk in a Chinese as a foreign language classroom in a highly internationalised Scottish University. Specifically, it examines what factors play a part in translating WTC into talk and how such factors enable or impede the process. It adopts a qualitative multiple-case study approach comprising high-density monthly triangulations of classroom observations, learner journals, video-stimulated recall interviews and semi-structured interviews conducted over one academic year. Findings revealed 13 learner-internal and learner-external factors which engage with one another to form various interactional patterns. Adapting to such interactional patterns, the six students’ WTC was found to self-organise into and out of attractor states in which the students were either pro-talk or against-talk. This empirically attests that the WTC-talk realisation exhibits dynamism, non-linearity, self-organisation, co-adaptability, and dependence on initial states and context. Recurring interactional patterns were identified as characterising each student’s successes or failures in realising talk. Pedagogical implications are also provided in light of the findings.

Synchronous and asynchronous online collaborative writing: A study on Chinese language learners

AbstractDespite the solid evidence that online collaborative writing (CW) tasks benefit language learning, little is known about whether the computer‐mediated communication (CMC) modality may impact the potential of online CW tasks in foreign language classrooms. This study examined the effect of task modality on the utility of CW tasks in language classrooms. Fourteen Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) learners completed Google Docs‐based CW tasks in two modalities: A synchronous CMC modality entailing video‐chatting in Zoom and an asynchronous CMC modality where learners interacted in Google Docs with delayed time. Through analyzing multiple data sources (i.e., peer interaction, written products, editing logs, interviews), we found that, while CMC modality did not impact writing performance, CFL learners had more language learning opportunities and more positive learning experiences in the synchronous mode than in the asynchronous one. The findings revealed multiple challenges that require attention when implementing asynchronous CW tasks in teaching.

Investigating the effect of radical-based strategies on improving foreign Chinese learners' radical awareness and character meaning production: a meta-analysis

This meta-analysis reviewed 11 articles regarding radical-based instruction strategies and synthesized their results to investigate the effect of radical-based strategies on improving radical awareness and character meaning production among CFL (Chinese as a Foreign Language) learners. The overall results demonstrated that radical-based instruction strategies had a significant effect associated with character meaning production. Furthermore, the differences of the effectiveness were also examined between beginning-level CFL learners and intermediate-level CFL learners.

How do the component skills affect Chinese FL reading comprehension? A study based on ridge regression analysis

Abstract This study aimed to investigate the effect of reading components (including Chinese character knowledge, morphological knowledge, vocabulary knowledge, grammar knowledge, and lexical inference) on the reading comprehension of 44 Malaysian child learners of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL). Measures of Chinese character knowledge, morphological knowledge, receptive vocabulary, vocabulary synonym, lexical inference, word order, grammatical judgment, and reading comprehension were used. Drawing upon ridge regression, the study found that grammar knowledge (measured by word order and grammatical judgment) had the largest effect on reading comprehension, followed by morphological knowledge and vocabulary knowledge (measured by receptive vocabulary and vocabulary synonym). Lexical inference and Chinese character knowledge had the least effects on reading comprehension. The findings of the study are discussed with pedagogical implications and future research suggestions.

A Multimodal Approach to Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) in the Digital World

This research investigates a cohort of bilingual Chinese teachers' use of a multimodal approach in their Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) teaching. The data include the participants' CFL teaching practices and their reflections on multimodal teaching as recorded in their theses and a focus group discussion. The theoretical underpinning of this paper is based on Paivio's dual coding theory (DCT) and Kress's social-semiotic theory (SST). This research found that the teachers' multimodal use in CFL teaching demonstrated their research-informed committed endeavour in designing content specific activities to achieve pedagogical purposes, utilizing some digital technologies as a resource. The uniqueness of the written form of the Chinese language availed these teachers the opportunity to engage the multiple modes and advance their own understanding of multimodality as a concept. This research also found the teachers' meaning making through the multimodality did not always equate to that of their students' due to their social and cultural differences.

An Application of Scaffolding Instruction in the Reading Course for Elementary CFL Learners

Scaffolding instruction based on constructivism has been widely accepted and implemented by educators both at home and abroad. However, there has been little discussion about its application in teaching Chinese as a foreign language. This study aims to explore an effective way to develop elementary Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) learners’ reading ability through the use of scaffolding instruction. The results demonstrate that scaffolding instruction in the reading class leads to a more engaging and interactive learning environment, offering students the necessary support and guidance to gradually enhance their reading skills.

Guanghua Wu (chief editor). The Century Chinese-English Dictionary (Two volumes)

The Century Chinese-English Dictionary (《世纪汉英大辞典》, henceforth TCCED) edited by the veteran Chinese lexicographer Wu Guanghua is a new large-size comprehensive general dictionary which boasts over 800,000 entries. TCCED has been funded by China’s ‘National Plan for the Compilation and Publication of Lexicographical Works (2013-2025)’. As one of the ‘nationally important books’ listed in China’s 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), TCCED has inherited merits of Wu’s previous Chinese-English dictionaries such as Chinese-English Dictionary (1993, 1999), A Comprehensive Chinese-English Dictionary (2004, henceforth CCED), and The Chinese-English Dictionary (2010, third edition of Chinese-English Dictionary, henceforth TCED3), and its compilers have incorporated new features into the dictionary proper. The target users are not indicated in TCCED. On October 23, 2021, Zhu Yajun and Xu Ling with the dictionary publisher delivered a report entitled ‘On the Characteristics of The Century Chinese-English Dictionary’ at the 14th Symposium of the Commission of Bilingual Lexicography, the Lexicographical Society of China. Zhu and Xu pointed out the target users of the said dictionary, including translators, CFL (Chinese as a Foreign Language) learners, teachers, and researchers. The dictionary is also intended for foreign users who wish to know about Chinese history, culture, and life. Wang and Wu (2017: 157) summarized their main compilatory principle as user-friendliness. Considering the broad target users of TCCED, this reviewer focuses on the user-friendliness of the dictionary to its users, and translators in particular. Features of the dictionary in the inclusion and translation of entries, and exemplification that would be useful to translators are discussed in Sections 1 to 3 below while deficiencies in these aspects are addressed in Section 4. Several other representative major Chinese-English dictionaries (henceforth C-E dictionaries) are used to make comparisons with TCCED. These include the second edition of New Age Chinese-English Dictionary by Pan (2014, henceforth NACED2), the second edition of New Century Chinese-English Dictionary by Du (2016, henceforth NCCED2), and the above-mentioned CCED and TCED3.

Mediation Effects of Character-related Tasks between Instruction Type and Character Writing in Delayed Character Introduction for Chinese as a Foreign Language Learners

Delayed Character Introduction (DCI) is commonly used in curricula for Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) Learners. This study further divides DCI into two sub-types: Listening/Speaking-Reading/Writing (LS-RW) - delay literacy skills (reading and writing) after acquiring oral language (listening and speaking), and Listening/Speaking/Reading-Writing (LSR-W) - delay writing skills after mastering listening, speaking, and reading skills (LSR-W). Results suggested that the LSR-W model was more effective for beginning CFL learners to acquire Chinese characters. Moreover, it was found that radical awareness and pinyin and meaning production together mediated the relationship between the type of DCI model and character writing, and pinyin and meaning production made unique contributions to character writing outcomes as a mediator.

Motivating and demotivating factors for Chinese as a foreign language learners in a British CLIL program

AbstractThis study investigates Mandarin Chinese learners’ motivation in a Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) program in a British secondary school from the perspective of learning environment, learner engagement, and learner identities. Fifteen pupils who are learning Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) have been interviewed individually or in a focus group. The results indicate that the context of L2 learning and pupils’ learning experience contribute to their sustained motivation. More specifically, the nature of the CLIL subjects, teachers and their teaching methods, peers, tasks, and examinations all play an important role in motivating or demotivating students. Pedagogical implications have been discussed with suggestions for maintaining students’ motivation in CLIL programs. This article fills the gap in the field of motivational study by bridging the learning of CFL and the CLIL context.

The effects of cultural and educational background on students’ use of language learning strategies in CFL learning

Abstract This study investigated the use of language learning strategies (LLS) by Australian students and East Asian students in Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) learning, and then interpreted the findings from cultural and educational perspectives. Using a questionnaire and semi-structure interview, the researchers found that there were significant differences in strategy use between Australian students and East Asian students. The East Asian students employed more learning strategies associated with working hard and perseverance, whereas the Australian students used more learning strategies related to self-realization. Meanwhile, the strategies used more frequently by the East Asian students were relevant to high acceptance of power and authority, but the strategies used more often by the Australian students were associated with low acceptance of power and authority. Finally, the traditional teaching methods used in East Asian countries resulted in the students’ use of learning strategies concerning analysis of grammatical rules and linguistic details, but the communicative approach employed in Australia helped the students use the strategies leading to improvement of communicative competence and understanding of overall meaning in a text. A deep analysis of these findings shows that the disparities in students’ strategy use could be linked to some cultural and educational factors.

Examining the reliability of an international Chinese proficiency standardized writing assessment: Implications for assessment policy makers

Using generalizability (G-) theory and rater think-aloud protocols (TAPs) as research methods, this study examined the effects of person, task, rater, and the interactions among these facets on the variability and reliability of the HSK-6 (i.e., an international Chinese proficiency standardized assessment) writing scores assigned by the national HSK writing raters as well as their scoring decision making processes. Sixty-four HSK-6 writing samples written by 32 CFL (Chinese as a foreign language) learners from 17 L1 (first language) backgrounds were scored holistically by ten experienced HSK writing raters using the authentic HSK-6 scoring rubric. They were then invited to produce a written retrospective TAP of their scoring decision making processes immediately after they had completed scoring each HSK-6 writing sample, which resulted in 64 protocols per rater. A total of 640 protocols were included in the qualitative data analysis. The G-theory results indicated that the current single-task and two-rater holistic scoring scheme would be unable to yield acceptable generalizability and dependability coefficients. The rater TAP results also revealed considerable rater variations in their scoring decision making processes. Important implications for the HSK-6 writing assessment policy makers in China are discussed.

Learning Vocabulary Seamlessly: To What Extent Does the SLL Model Influence CFL Learners‘ Experience, Perception, and Vocabulary Enhancement?

The Seamless Language Learning (SLL) model holds the potential for enriching second language (L2) learners’ vocabulary acquisition by focusing on their experiences and perceptions. However, prior research on SLL has suffered from methodological issues and poor understanding of the model. This study aims to address these issues by quantitatively assessing the impact of the SLL model on Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) learners’ vocabulary acquisition experience, their perceived use of the DingTalk platform, and vocabulary learning enhancement. To achieve these objectives, a design-based research (DBR) approach is employed, with data gathered from real-world seamless Chinese vocabulary learning activities involving 32 intermediate-level participants with no prior exposure to SLL. Data analysis involves a paired sample t-test. Pre-test and post-test assessments, using a five-point Likert scale, are conducted to gauge the effectiveness of the SLL model. The assessment tool, the Seamless Chinese Vocabulary Learning Questionnaire (SCVLQ), encompasses various dimensions such as participants’ emotional engagement, satisfaction, interaction with SLL, perceptions of the SLL platform (DingTalk), and vocabulary learning enhancement through the utilization of the SLL model. Empirical results from valid SCVLQ responses indicate significant post-test improvements compared to pre-tests, indicating enhanced learner experiences and perceptions. Moreover, the SLL model is found to positively contribute to vocabulary learning enhancement. These findings provide quantitative support, addressing the limitations of previous qualitative approaches, and confirming the efficacy of the SLL model in promoting active learning engagement, enhancing learners’ experiences with the DingTalk platform, and facilitating vocabulary acquisition. This study offers insights for future research to delve into additional factors influencing the SLL model’s effectiveness and to extend its application to diverse language learning contexts.

Using Gamification to Support Learning Chinese as A Foreign Language: A Systematic Review

Gamification has been proposed as a pleasant and entertaining way to encourage students to acquire Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) and to bridge the gap between their learning and teaching practice. This systematic review provides a summary of the current state of the art in CFL gamification. Furthermore, when learners cope with CFL through gamification, this review study maps their learning process and results. 11 publications from 2016 to 2021 were analyzed for this systematic review. Even though these studies found that gamification had a favorable impact on learners' learning experiences and achievements, none of the studies identified gamification elements linked with the learning experiences and outcomes. Gamified CFL offers good learning experiences by being engaging, fun, motivating, engaging, and interesting. Gamified CFL learning results included content language acquisition, beliefs, motivation, satisfaction, and confidence. The findings of this study offer suggestions on how to develop gamification for learners' CFL learning, as well as the learning experiences and outcomes that follow.

Video Self-Modeling (VSM) as a Strategy to Instruct CFL Students’ Sentence-Level Stress

Sentence-level stress is one of the major means of expressing information focus in oral speaking, and it is of importance for Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) learners to accurately receive and send the right information in conversation. However, research related to teaching stress, especially sentence-level stress, is indeed scarce. In this study, we investigate whether video self-modeling (VSM) is applicable to improve CFL students’ sentence-level stress. VSM, as an innovative strategy, only shows the positive targeted behavior by using videos or audios of oneself, and aims to decrease students’ frustration and the negative influence caused by failed accomplishments. Twelve beginning-level CFL students, taken as the experimental group, received the edited perfect pronunciation audios with their own voice and used these own-voice audios to train their sentence-level stress. At the same time, another twelve advanced-level CFL students were taken as the control group, and received traditional instructional strategies from their class teacher. The whole training continued for ten sessions during a period of two and half months. Quantitative results show that with the help of VSM, CFL students’ sentence-level stress improved significantly as compared to the control group, with increased scores on the pronunciation of sentence-level stress words and increased scores in all three parameters: pitch, intensity, and duration. A post-training survey revealed that the participants’ preference for using their own voice as instructional material resulted in a feeling of success and satisfaction. The findings corroborate the importance of computer-assisted language learning in the second language (L2) field, and add solid evidence of using VSM in foreign-language training.