Chinese As A Second Language Research Articles

Culture and Chinese as a Second Language (CSL) Teaching Materials: An Introduction

Culture and Chinese as a Second Language (CSL) Teaching Materials: An Introduction

Effects of a Pair Programming Educational Robot-Based Approach on Students' Interdisciplinary Learning of Computational Thinking and Language Learning.

Using educational robots (ERs) to integrate computational thinking (CT) with cross-disciplinary content has gone beyond Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), to include foreign-language learning (FL) and further cross-context target-language (TL) acquisition. Such integration must not solely emphasise CT problem-solving skills. Rather, it must provide students with interactive learning to support their target-language (TL) interaction while reducing potential TL anxiety. This study aimed to validate the effects of the proposed method of pair programming (PP) along with question-and-response interaction in a board-game activity on young learners’ CT skills and TL learning across contexts. Two Grade 6 classes, one with 15 students who were studying Chinese as a Second Language (CSL) and the other with 15 students who were studying English as a Foreign Language (EFL), participated in the activity. A series of instruments on achievement assessment, questionnaires on CT skills and TL anxiety, and sequential learning behaviour analysis were used to critically examine the results. The main conclusion is that the EFL group showed better social skills of cooperation on CT and lower TL learning anxiety, while the CSL group demonstrated better problem-solving skills in CT, but presented more behaviours of trial-and-error loops. Results not only contribute suggestions for cross-disciplinary learning but also provide support for cross-context instruction beyond educational coursework.

Enhancing Syntactic Complexity in L2 Chinese Writing: Effects of Form-Focused Instruction on the Chinese Topic Chain.

Syntactic complexity, as one aspect of the Complexity, Accuracy and Fluency (CAF) model, is integral to the writing ability of second language (L2) learners. Previous research found that T-unit-based measures of syntactic complexity in writing tasks of English as a second language (ESL) learners increased with more instruction, yet it remains unclear whether the same can be observed in Chinese as a second language (CSL) learners. To fill this gap, this study compared the development of syntactic complexity of a training group (N = 64) and a control group (N = 51), both composed of CSL students in a first-year Chinese course at a university in North America. While participants in the control group only participated in the regular course, the training group received an additional 10-week, explicit form-focused instruction (FFI) on the Chinese topic chain. Results on the posttest and delayed posttest show that the FFI on the topic chain had a positive and durable effect on the participants’ syntactic complexity; instructional intensity and feedback type may have influenced its effectiveness and durability. Characteristics of measures and task complexity may have affected the observation of syntactic complexity.

Lexical Orthographic Knowledge Mediates the Relationship Between Character Reading and Reading Comprehension Among Learners With Chinese as a Second Language.

Reading in Chinese is complex because readers should not only recognize characters by basic units (i.e., characters) but also integrate characters into words when reading text. While many efforts have been devoted to investigating the effect of sub-lexical orthographic knowledge in Chinese character reading, less is known about the role played by lexical orthographic knowledge at word level. A total of 424 secondary learners with Chinese as a second language (CSL) in Hong Kong were assessed with character reading, reading comprehension, and two lexical orthographic knowledge tasks: lexical orthographic choice (OKC) and lexical orthographic choice in context (OKCC). Path analysis results demonstrated that these lexical orthographic skills significantly mediated the effect of character reading on comprehension, in which OKCC was a more critical mediator as its mediating effect was bigger than that of OKC. Further analyses showed that these mediating effects were significant only among students with richer learning experience (i.e., learning Chinese for 4 years or above). Our results illustrate the possible trajectory of CSL learners’ literacy development from character reading to reading comprehension and provide pedagogical implications for teaching and learning.

A Comparative Study of Three Measurement Methods of Chinese Character Recognition for L2 Chinese Learners.

Measuring Chinese character recognition ability is essential in research on character learning among learners of Chinese as a second language (CSL). Three methods are typically used to evaluate character recognition competence by investigating the following properties of a given character: (a) pronunciation (phonological method), (b) meaning (semantic method), and (c) pronunciation and meaning (phonological and semantic or PS method). However, no study has explored the similar or dissimilar outcomes that these three measurements might yield. The current study examined this issue by testing 162 CSL learners with various L1 backgrounds and Chinese proficiency levels. Participants' performance in character recognition measured using a phonological method, a semantic method, and a PS method was compared, which led to two major findings. In terms of similarity, participants' performance in character recognition and the influence of L1 background and Chinese proficiency level on character recognition was similar across the three methods. As for differences, the semantic method could yield a character recognition test with better quality than the other two methods, and the three methods yielded different best fitting models and showed different predictions for Chinese proficiency across different L1 groups. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are proposed.

Positive Valence Bias in L2 Vocabulary Acquisition: Evidence From Chinese Emotion Idioms.

Positive valence bias refers to speakers responding faster to positive than negative information in L2 emotion words. Few researchers paid attention to the initial learning phase of L2 Chinese emotion idioms in which whether positive valence bias was acquired, based on the three-stage model of L2 vocabulary acquisition. Besides, whether the semantic information would modulate positive valence bias at the initial learning phase remained unclear. This study reports two experiments on speakers learning Chinese as a second language (CSL) to investigate positive valence bias in the initial learning phase of new Chinese emotion idioms and the modulation of semantic information on positive valence bias. Chinese as a second language speakers, who had acquired new Chinese emotion idioms and passed the test for learned Chinese idioms with a high accuracy rate before formal experiments, participated in Experiments 1 and 2. In Experiment 1, target materials were new Chinese idioms with positive and negative information. Positive valence bias at the initial learning phase of Chinese idioms was investigated with valence judgments. Experiment 2 used a semantic relatedness decision task further to explore the semantic effect on positive valence bias. The result in the first experiment showed that positive valence bias appeared in Chinese emotion idioms even at the initial learning phase of the acquisition. Meanwhile, semantic information of Chinese emotion idioms appeared to affect positive valence bias in the infant learning phase in Experiment 2. The findings revealed that semantic information would affect the performance of positive valence bias, suggesting that the semantic processing would automatically access the valence at the infant learning phase L2 Chinese emotion idioms. The research results provided evidence that positive valence bias would form in the infant learning phase of Chinese emotion idiom acquisition, based on the L2 vocabulary acquisition model.

Analytic visual word recognition among Chinese L2 learners

AbstractThe process of word recognition can be analytic (or serial) or holistic (or parallel). They differ in the size of the processing units (lexical vs. sublexical) or in whether sublexical units are processed sequentially or simultaneously. First language (L1) reading development has been found to involve a transition from serial processing to parallel processing, as shown in a decreasing length or stroke number effect among readers of increasing proficiencies. The present study was intended to explore the use of analytic versus holistic character recognition strategies in the second language (L2) learners, an issue that has not received much attention. Chinese native speakers and learners of Chinese as a second language (CSL) were tested in a variant of the lexical decision task on Chinese characters of different numbers of strokes. Regression analyses with reaction times as an outcome variable and stroke number as a predictor variable showed that CSL speakers produced a stroke number effect where native speakers did not. The results were interpreted as evidence for the employment of an analytic processing strategy by L2 speakers. The findings raised several important issues for future research and for pedagogical considerations.

What are the characteristics of good Chinese second language readers? Evidence from eye movements

This study investigated the characteristics of good Chinese second language readers by observing their eye-movement patterns in reading articles manipulated to highlight different linguistic features. Participants’ linguistic resources were included as covariant variables. Results showed that good readers should be defined as both accurate and fast readers, although the two traits did not correlate with each other. Accurate reading was predicted by good orthographic knowledge, while fast reading was predicted by good lexical knowledge. Longer sentences did not show a significant impact on readers’ performance, which might imply that higher-level processes did not contribute as much as lower-level processes to the construction of good reading capabilities. All results were validated, while text readability was checked across different reading materials. Both reading universals and writing system specific features were found to be effective in explaining Chinese as a second language (CSL) reading processes. The research findings also informed the instruction of CSL reading, as Chinese is a very challenging logographic text.

Noun‐Phrase Complexity Measures in Chinese and Their Relationship to L2 Chinese Writing Quality: A Comparison with Topic–Comment‐Unit‐Based Measures

AbstractThis study proposed a set of measures for assessing noun phrase (NP) complexity in second language (L2) Chinese writing and compared the predictive power of these measures for L2 Chinese writing quality to that of a set of syntactic complexity measures based on the topic–comment unit (TC‐unit). Our data consisted of 101 narratives written by beginning–intermediate, intermediate–advanced, and advanced Korean Chinese‐as‐a‐second‐language (CSL) learners and rated by 2 trained CSL teachers. Results showed that the NP complexity measures explained a substantially larger proportion of variance in holistic writing scores than the TC‐unit‐based measures. Our findings confirmed the validity of the NP complexity measures we proposed and the need to attend to phrasal complexity in assessing L2 Chinese writing quality.

Exploring Relationships Between L2 Chinese Character Writing and Reading Acquisition From Embodied Cognitive Perspectives: Evidence From HSK Big Data.

Chinese characters are central to understanding how learners learn to read a logographic script. However, researchers know little about the role of character writing in reading Chinese as a second language (CSL). Unlike an alphabetic script, a Chinese character symbol transmits semantic information and is a cultural icon bridging embodied experience and text meaning. As a unique embodied practice, writing by hand contributes to cognitive processing in Chinese reading. Therefore, it is essential to clarify how Chinese character writing (bodily activity), language distance (past language usage), and cultural background (bodily coupling with the environment) influence CSL reading proficiency. Based on extant research on L2 reading acquisition and strength of key theoretical perspectives of embodied cognition theory (ECT), this study tested a regression model for CSL reading involving individual-level factors (Chinese character writing proficiency [CCWP]) and group-level predictors (language distance and cultural background). This study collected big data in a sample of 74,362 CSL learners with 67 diverse L1s. Results of hierarchical linear modeling showed a significant effect of CCWP and significant language distance × CCWP interaction effect on reading proficiency; however, cultural background × CCWP interaction effect was not significant. These results conform to the ECT and indicate that bodily activity, past language usage, and cultural background aided reading. CCWP may benefit from withstanding the negative transfer from L1s. Furthermore, CCWP and cultural background are not synergistic predictors of reading. This study may open novel avenues for explorations of CSL reading development.

A Positive Psychology Perspective on Positive Emotion and Foreign Language Enjoyment Among Chinese as a Second Language Learners Attending Virtual Online Classes in the Emergency Remote Teaching Context Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic.

This study adopted a positive psychology perspective to investigate positive emotion and foreign language enjoyment among Chinese as a second language (CSL) learners in an emergency remote teaching (ERT) context amid the COVID-19 pandemic. A set of 90 preparatory Chinese language students (40 males and 50 females) was assessed for their level of foreign language enjoyment using the Foreign Language Enjoyment Scale (FLES). Participles' scores on self-perceived language achievement and actual test scores were adopted as the measurement of their Chinese language proficiency. The results revealed that: (1) CSL learners experienced high level of FL enjoyment in an online learning context, (2) no significant correlation was found between FLE and leaners' actual language achievement nor between FLE and their self-perceived achievement, (3) female learners showed higher FLE than male learners and gender was found to have a significant effect on FLE-Private, (4) participants' geological location, i.e., whether in China or at home countries, significantly influenced their FLE, (5) participants' regional group was not a significant predictor of FLE, and (6) teacher-related variables and learner self-perceptions of achievement were strong predictors of FLE among CSL learners. The findings highlight the importance of teacher's role in an online learning environment and suggest that FLE may not boost performance in the short term for language beginners but is still conducive in the long run. Implications for both teachers and learners, and suggestions for future researches are provided.

Relational Agency of University Teachers of Chinese as a Second Language: A Personal Network Perspective.

Relational agency is pivotal for understanding how language teachers seek and utilize relational resources in different contexts and grow to be agents of change amid various educational challenges. This study explored how three university teachers of Chinese as a second language (CSL) enacted their relational agency to enhance their research capacity and sustain their professional development. Data on their personal network development was collected through concentric circle interviews, life-history interviews and written reflections over three months. Thematic analysis was adopted for iterative coding and interpretation of the data. The findings revealed that teachers’ personal networks provided them with value guidance, emotional support and academic support, which exerted differential levels of impact on them to make agentic choices and actions. The study suggests that personal network analysis may serve as a suitable theoretical lens to achieve a multi-layered understanding of relational agency. The study also calls for more efforts to create learning opportunities and spaces in the relational context for teachers to build their career as agentic academics in language teacher education and development programs.

Pragmatic Competence and Willingness to Communicate Among L2 Learners of Chinese.

Research in second language (L2) pragmatics has paid increasing attention to learners’ individual differences, but few studies have examined the relationship between learners’ willingness to communicate (WTC) in L2 and their pragmatic competence. To this end, this study investigates the association between WTC and pragmatic awareness and comprehension of Chinese as a second language (CSL) learners. A total of 80 CSL learners studying abroad in three universities in China participated in this study. Data were collected through a WTC questionnaire, a self-perceived communication competence (SPCC) questionnaire, a pragmatic awareness judgment task, and a multiple-choice test for pragmatic comprehension. Statistical analyses were conducted to explore the relationship between the learners’ pragmatic awareness and pragmatic comprehension on the one hand and their WTC and SPCC in L2 on the other. The findings indicated that SPCC correlated positively with the learners’ L2 pragmatic comprehension, but not with their L2 pragmatic awareness. No correlation was found between WTC and pragmatic awareness and comprehension. The results suggest that SPCC may contribute to learners’ L2 pragmatic comprehension; some implications for teaching and future research directions are also discussed.

The Contribution of Morphological Awareness and Vocabulary Knowledge to Chinese as a Second Language Reading Comprehension: A Path Analysis.

This study explored the role of morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge in reading comprehension ability of Chinese as a second language (CSL) learners. Two-hundred and nine CSL students participated in this study and completed a series of measures including two tests of morphological awareness (morpheme discrimination test and compound structure test), a vocabulary knowledge test and a reading comprehension test. Drawing upon path analysis, this study found that morphological awareness contributed to vocabulary knowledge, and vocabulary knowledge is predictive to L2 Chinese reading comprehension. The results also indicated that morphological awareness significantly indirectly contributed to L2 Chinese reading comprehension through the mediation of vocabulary knowledge. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that although both morpheme awareness and compound structure awareness contributed to vocabulary knowledge and L2 Chinese reading, morpheme awareness made more contribution compared to compound structure awareness.

How do Chinese as a second language (CSL) learners acquire orthographic knowledge: component, structure and position regularity

Learning Chinese characters could be challenging for many CSL learners due to the distinction in orthographic features between the Chinese written system and their first languages. While acquisition of orthographic knowledge could be important for learning Chinese characters, how they can gain knowledge about different aspects of Chinese orthography (i.e. component, structure and position regularity) remains less studied. The component is a basic perceptual constituent of Chinese characters, the character structure is the configuration layout formed by relative positions of components. Many components are supposed to follow the implicit position regularity rule when they are integrated to form characters. In this study, a total of 213 CSL students in Hong Kong were invited to complete three tasks measuring students’ component knowledge, structural knowledge, and position regularity knowledge. It has been found that overall CSL students’ performance in these tasks seemed to be affected by character structures. Furthermore, we found that component knowledge had an indirect effect on position regularity knowledge via the mediation of structural knowledge, which showed a possible link about how learners gradually understand complex orthographic rules based on the perceptual observation. Implications for the teaching and learning of the Chinese language were also discussed.

Effects of Word Semantic Transparency, Context Length, and L1 Background on CSL Learners' Incidental Learning of Word Meanings in Passage-Level Reading.

This study investigated the effects of semantic transparency of Chinese disyllabic compound words on Chinese as a second language (CSL) learners' incidental learning of word meanings in sentence-level reading and passage-level reading. The accuracy of the learners' lexical inferencing was compared among various types of words (transparent, semi-transparent, and opaque words), different context lengths (sentence and passage contexts), and learners with different L1 backgrounds (with and without a Chinese character background in their L1s). In the study, ninety CSL adult learners were asked to infer the meanings of target words in the sentence context and the passage context. The results indicated that the effects of semantic transparency and context length on inferencing accuracy were significant, while the effect of L1 background was not. It was also found that there were significant interactions between transparency and context length as well as between transparency and L1 background.

A longitudinal study of Chinese as a second language kindergarteners’ orthographic awareness and its association with their lexical learning performance

This three-year longitudinal study investigated the orthographic knowledge development of Chinese characters in relation to lexical development among ethnic minority kindergarteners (N = 56) learning Chinese as a second language (CSL). The study examined the relative contribution of two types of orthographic knowledge (i.e. single character reading and radical awareness), and mental lexicon in Chinese character meaning recognition over the three years of preschool (K1-K3). Hierarchical regression analysis showed that single character reading at K1 and radical awareness at K2 were significant longitudinal predictors to later character meaning identification at K3, after controlling age and mental lexicon. Both single character reading and radical awareness were concurrently significant predictors to character meaning recognition at K3. The results indicated the longitudinal predicting effect of earlier component knowledge and radical awareness on subsequent character meaning identification. The finding supports the essential role of orthographic knowledge in Chinese character learning at early stage of ethnic minority leaners, and further establishes the mediated role of radical awareness between component knowledge and character meaning identification. Building on previous researches (e.g. Liu et al., 2007), this study illustrates that the component knowledge at early learning stage has a unique effect predicting the further development of character meaning identification and the learner framework for processing CSL.

The THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY-ENHANCED LEARNING ENVIRONMENT ON TEACHING CHINESE AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

Due to an increased number of economic and business relationships between Ukraine and China, the number of those who learn Chinese language multiplies each year. However, the main problem is that Ukrainian educational institutions do not possess enough resources and academic staff to meet the growing demand. The research sheds light on the current state of teaching Chinese as a second language (CSL) on the example of International Humanitarian University (Odesa, Ukraine) and shares the experience of technology-assisted curriculum that contributes to the Chinese teaching process. To do that, the paper compares the scores of the students who learn Chinese as a foreign language in experimental (EG) and the control (CG) groups. EG used a number of modern technologies to assist the educational process, while CG used only the traditional teaching approaches. The learning objectives and final test were unbiased and had same tasks for both groups. The results show that 64% of the students in EG got an A, while just 14% of those in the CG managed to perform the same. Moreover, the paper presents a SWOT analysis of the use of Edmodo (online educational platform) and some other applications for the teaching and learning foreign languages, namely Quizlet, Kahoot! and Duoliguo for Schools. And the last but not least, the study develops a student-centered model that helps a teacher to assist unlimited number of students and, therefore, minimize the academic expanses and resources on learning activities. The major limitations of the research are related to the small number of participants and insufficient development of the Ukrainian educational system in terms of the implementation of online educational platforms. Further research can focus on the potential ways of using technology-enriched curriculum for maximizing the academic outcomes among CSL students.

Strange Attractors in Writing Competence Development from the Perspective of Complexity Theory Based on Sensor Data

Writing competence is crucial for second language learners. Studying strange attractors in the development of writing competence is essential in understanding the laws of language development of foreign students. This study is aimed at investigating the state and laws of the development of Chinese as a second language (CSL) writing competence. Mathematical modeling and phase space construction methods in sensor research were used to investigate strange attractors in high‐level Chinese learners studying in China in the development of CSL from the perspective of complexity theory based on the measurement framework of complexity, accuracy, and fluency. The results showed the following: (1) there are trends in the concentration and volatility of trigonometric function in different dimensions; (2) the group dynamic characteristics of writing development in CSL are simulated precisely by mathematical modeling; and (3) there are strange attractors with lexical density in CSL writing development. The development of CSL writing tends to maintain the state of strange attractors. The strange attractor reflects regularity in the dynamic, complex, and chaotic development of Chinese for international students, revealing the probabilistic prediction competence of different states in the development of CSL.

The acquisition of conceptual metaphors in Mandarin Chinese

AbstractThis study aimed to determine whether learners of Chinese as a Second Language (CSL) could more easily acquire Mandarin metaphors in vocabulary acquisition, reading comprehension, and essay writing tasks after enhancing their metaphor awareness. Experiment 1 divided CSL participants into three groups and received three types of instructions on metaphors. The results showed that there was no effect of enhanced metaphor awareness across the three kinds of instructions in the vocabulary, reading, and writing tasks, while a marginally significant effect of enhanced metaphor awareness in the writing task. Experiment 2 aimed to determine whether the discourse-based or the sentence-based presentation of metaphorical expressions would affect the CSL learners’ writing performance. The results showed that the paragraph group achieved significantly higher writing scores and frequency of metaphors produced compared with the sentence group. And, the paragraph group produced more new and creative metaphors in their essays compared with the sentence group. To conclude, the two experiments demonstrated that enhancing the CSL learners’ metaphor awareness was beneficial in the writing tasks, but not in the vocabulary and reading tasks. Furthermore, when the metaphorical expressions were presented in discourse to facilitate the connection of semantic relationships between metaphors, this resulted in more coherent essays. This study has practical implications for CSL teachers designing classroom activities involving the learning of Chinese metaphors.