Chinese Speakers Of English Research Articles

Co-learning companionship benefits word learning in a new language: Evidence from a dual-brain EEG examination.

Companionship refers to one's being in the presence of another individual. For adults, acquiring a new language is a highly social activity that often involves learning in the context of companionship. However, the effects of companionship on new language learning have gone relatively underexplored, particularly with respect to word learning. Using a within-subject design, the current study employs electroencephalography to examine how two types of companionship (monitored and co-learning) affect word learning (semantic and lexical) in a new language. Dyads of Chinese speakers of English as a second language participated in a pseudo-word-learning task during which they were placed in monitored and co-learning companionship contexts. The results showed that exposure to co-learning companionship affected the early attention stage of word learning. Moreover, in this early stage, evidence of a higher representation similarity between co-learners showed additional support that co-learning companionship influenced attention. Observed increases in delta and theta interbrain synchronization further revealed that co-learning companionship facilitated semantic access. In all, the similar neural representations and interbrain synchronization between co-learners suggest that co-learning companionship offers important benefits for learning words in a new language.

On the Problematic Use of ‘don’t worry’ by Chinese Learners of English

Abstract In this paper, we examine uses of ‘don’t worry’ by Chinese speakers of English, which may trigger intercultural irritations. We investigate such problematic uses from a contrastive angle, by considering whether they relate to the fact that in Chinese there are two expressions which may be equivalents of English ‘don’t worry’: fangxin 放心 (lit. ‘ease your heart’) and bie-danxin 别担心 (lit. ‘don’t burden your heart’). First, we present uses of ‘don’t worry’ by Chinese learners of English and examine them through the lens of speech acts and interaction. Second, we undertake a corpus-based study of the speech act-indicating interactional uses of ‘don’t worry’, fangxin and bie-danxin, teasing out their conventional uses. Finally, we consider whether uses of ‘don’t worry’ by Chinese learners of English are influenced by pragmatic transfer and, if so, what this transfer looks like.

The influence of segmental and suprasegmental phonological awareness on word and pseudoword reading-A comparison between native English speakers and native Chinese speakers of English.

Segmental and suprasegmental phonological awareness (PA) are closely related to word reading skills in native speakers learning to read an alphabetic script as used in English. However, their roles in English word and pseudoword reading among native Chinese (NC) speakers, and how English proficiency might affect these relationships, remain less clear. This study examined the links between English segmental/suprasegmental PA and word/pseudoword reading in NC and native English (NE) speakers. Both child and adult participants were assessed on English segmental and suprasegmental PA, alongside vocabulary, at a single time point. The results showed that both segmental PA (elision and segmenting nonwords) and suprasegmental PA (aural suffix judgment and written suffix judgment) were significantly correlated with English real word and pseudoword reading of both NE and NC children, and NC adults, but not NE adults. Moreover, for NE and NC children, segmental PA correlated stronger with real word reading than suprasegmental PA after controlling for vocabulary. Among NC adults, both segmental and suprasegmental PA significantly contributed to real word reading. For pseudoword reading, after controlling for vocabulary, segmental PA had a stronger correlation among NC children and adults, while suprasegmental PA was more influential for NE children. This research gives insights into factors influencing NC speakers' English word reading ability, bearing essential implications for enhancing second language literacy in learners from a logographic background.

Auditory processing as perceptual, cognitive, and motoric abilities underlying successful second language acquisition: Interaction model.

A growing amount of attention has been given to examining the domain-general auditory processing of individual acoustic dimensions as a key driving force for adult L2 acquisition. Whereas auditory processing has traditionally been conceptualized as a bottom-up and encapsulated phenomenon, the interaction model (Kraus & Banai, 2007) proposes auditory processing as a set of perceptual, cognitive, and motoric abilities-the perception of acoustic details (acuity), the selection of relevant and irrelevant dimensions (attention), and the conversion of audio input into motor action (integration). To test this hypothesis, we examined the relationship between each component and the L2 outcomes of 102 adult Chinese speakers of English who varied in age, experience, and working memory background. According to the results of the statistical analyses, (a) the tests scores tapped into essentially distinct components of auditory processing (acuity, attention, and integration), and (b) these components played an equal role in explaining various aspects of L2 learning (phonology, morphosyntax) with large effects, even after biographical background and working memory were controlled for. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

China's English

Naming varieties of the Expanding Circle is a very controversial and much debatable issue (see Nelson & Proshina, 2020); therefore, it is a high-priority, pressing question, brought up for timely discussion by the English Today journal. Those who are negative or hesitant about the legitimacy of these varieties, prefer speaking about English in a country – for example, English in China. However, this naming proves to be deficient as it is ambiguous and, in a way, exclusive. Its ambiguity lies in the fact that this naming can embrace speakers of any variety, i.e., of all three Circles (see Kachru, 1985), who happen to be in China. On the other hand, it excludes those Chinese speakers of English who have left China, either as emigrants or temporarily, though they use English while abroad. This means that the descriptive phrase English in China lacks its terminological nature.

Prosodic Marking of New and Given Information in English and Mandarin by Chinese Speakers

Second-language speakers have been found to face difficulties marking prosodic features of new and given information in English. Chinese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners speak English with a different intonation from L1 speakers, which can lead to misunderstanding. However, there is a dearth of research on the prosodic marking of new and given information by Chinese English speakers and on the extent to which Mandarin might influence the marking of new and given information. To fill this research gap, an empirical study of the prosodic features of English and Mandarin was conducted using a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods to investigate the prosodic marking of new and given information in English and Mandarin by Chinese speakers. The results show that the prosodic marking of new and given information in English and Mandarin was similar with new information having a longer duration and a larger pitch range.

An empirical approach to measuring accent familiarity: Phonological and correlational analyses

Accent familiarity can influence listeners' perception of second language speech. However, the field lacks empirical evidence for defining and measuring accent familiarity. The present study seeks to better understand accent familiarity a) by developing an evidence-informed, phonology-based approach to measuring accent familiarity and b) by validating its relationship with existing measures. Six L1 Chinese speakers of English with varying degrees of accent recorded scripted and conversation tasks. Seven experienced teachers listened to the recordings and identified 18 phonological features common in Chinese-accented English. Audio recordings containing these features were included in an online questionnaire, where 69 listeners a) rated their familiarity with these target sounds and b) completed eight different measures of accent familiarity used in previous studies (e.g., accent identification). Results from exploratory factor analysis (EFA) suggested that listeners' familiarity with the 18 features was single-factored. Thus, a phonology-based measure of accent familiarity was developed by a compositing listeners' familiarity with the 18 features. Correlation analysis and EFA of this phonology-based accent familiarity measure and different previous measures suggested two factors: a) measures without audio input and b) audio-prompted measures. By implication, future studies should consider including audio recordings to measure listeners’ accent familiarity in addition to traditional measures.

A Potential Solution to Chinese Students’ Unintelligible English Accent: A Study of the Effectiveness of a Stress Placement Intervention to Improve Chinese English Speakers’ Lexical Pronunciation

Due to a lack of authentic learning resources, Chinese students often do not receive native pronunciation models in their classes. This study provided Chinese students with an approach to improve their English pronunciation, specifically to sound more like British Received Pronunciation (RP) or General American English Pronunciation (GAEP). The study proposes word stress prediction rules to help non-native Chinese learners predict the primary word stress of English words, improving their vocabulary pronunciation. Repeated-measures tests confirmed the effectiveness of this model, and statistical results showed that these rules were both applicable and teachable. These rules successfully enabled Chinese English learners to stress the correct vowel in a new English word without consulting a dictionary. Chinese students can rely on these rules for predicting the word stress of dictionary words, enabling them to pronounce new words as accurately as possible to native speakers.

Disagreement by Chinese speakers of English: evidence of pragmatic transfer

Little research on pragmatic transfer has examined disagreement by Chinese speakers of English using naturally occurring conversations. This study uncovers the patterns and frequencies of disagreement in L2 English, L1 English, and L1 Chinese, and the evidence of pragmatic transfer, by analyzing naturalistic conversations. R is employed to compute frequencies, calculate proportions, and perform Chi-square tests and one-sample Z-tests. Results show a significant difference in the use of disagreement between L1 English and L2 English but no significant difference between L2 English and L1 Chinese, indicating negative pragmatic transfer. Strong disagreement significantly outnumbers weak disagreement in non-L1 English data, suggesting that strong disagreement may be normative in mundane conversations in some regions of China. This study can inform teaching and learning L2 English.

Performance gaps between English speakers and Chinese-English speakers on classic semantic, action, and emotional verbal fluency

Aims and objectives: Semantic verbal fluency taps into vocabulary knowledge but often elicits poorer performance in bilingual speakers tested in a second language (L2). Few studies have examined verbal fluency tasks that target abstract words and examined test–retest reliability. The present study examined the performance gap between English speakers and Chinese-English speakers on classic semantic, action, and emotional verbal fluency. Methodology: English data were collected for six verbal fluency tasks from 41 English speakers and 18 Chinese-English speakers who spoke English as L2. Verbal fluency performance was reassessed one week later to examine test–retest reliability. Data and analysis: Verbal productivity, valence and arousal, test–retest reliability, and cross-session consistency in producing similar responses in repeated testing were analyzed. Morphological complexity of verbal responses also was compared because Chinese is morphologically simpler than English and emotional verbal fluency may trigger morphologically complex words. Findings/conclusions: Productivity gaps between groups were reliable for all tasks despite practice effects but were smaller for action and emotional verbal fluency. Words produced by Chinese-English speakers were more positive generally and less arousing for specific categories (e.g., “happy”). Both speaker groups were equally likely to produce variable responses with repeated testing, especially for emotional verbal fluency. Words produced by Chinese-English speakers were morphologically simpler than those produced by English speakers for emotional verbal fluency. Originality: Past work on semantic verbal fluency has focused on the retrieval of neutral and concrete words. This is the first study to assess the reliability in performance gaps between speakers tested in L1 and speakers tested in L2 on verbal fluency that targets the retrieval of abstract and emotional-laden words. Significance: Verbal fluency is one of the most frequently employed tasks in neuropsychological assessments. The findings demonstrate the effects of language proficiency on performance across verbal fluency variants, group differences in valence and arousal, the effects of repeated testing, and the effects of linguistic features on responses produced.

Determiner-Number Specification and Non-Local Agreement Computation in L1 and L2 Processing

The present study employed a self-paced reading task in conjunction with concurrent acceptability judgements to examine how similar or different English natives and Chinese learners of English are when processing non-local agreement. We also tested how determiner-number specification modulates number agreement computation in both native and non-native processing by manipulating number marking with demonstrative determiners (the versus that/these). Results suggest both groups were sensitive to non-local agreement violations, indexed by longer reading times for sentences containing number violations. Furthermore, we found determiner-number specification facilitated processing of number violations in both native and non-native groups in an acceptability judgement task only, with stronger sensitivity to violations with demonstrative determiners than those with bare determiners. Contrary to some theories that predict qualitative differences between native and non-native processing, we did not find any significant differences between native and non-native speakers, despite the fact that the Chinese speakers of English had to process a novel linguistic feature absent in their native language.

Linguistic Dimensions of Accentedness, Comprehensibility and Intelligibility: Exploring Listener Effects in American, Moroccan, Turkmen and Chinese Varieties of English

AbstractThe present study examines accentedness, comprehensibility, and intelligibility of American English, Moroccan English, Turkmen English, and Chinese English, from the perspectives of three groups of listeners: native speakers of English and Chinese speakers of English with or without international experiences. Of the 145 listeners, 38 had face-to-face interviews. These listener groups were asked to listen to the recordings of the four English varieties and fill in a cloze test. Results indicated that the three listener groups differed significantly in rating comprehensibility of American English, Moroccan English and Chinese English but they did not give Turkmen English statistically different ratings; there were no significant differences in accentedness ratings except for Chinese English; and there were significant differences in the intelligibility scores of the four English varieties. In addition, with respect to seven linguistic variables—speed, clarity, intonation, smoothness and fluency, vocal intensity, pause, vocabulary and grammar, there were significant differences in three listener groups’ rating of six variables in American English except the one of “speed”. By contrast, Chinese English received significantly different ratings only in “proper speed”. No differences were found in the ratings for Moroccan English and Turkmen English. Finally, unlike Chinese listeners without international experiences, native listeners and Chinese listeners with international experiences shared some similarities in correlations between the ratings of accentedness and comprehensibility and those of linguistic variables on Moroccan English, Turkmen English, and Chinese English. However, the results for American English from Chinese listeners without international experiences and native listeners seemed to be more alike. Linguistic variables correlating with accentedness and comprehensibility of American English showed a mixed profile. Qualitative data provided more variant elaborations on the pronunciations and language uses of the speakers.

Repair Practices in Phone Conversations: A Case Study of Chinese English Speakers

Repair, one key concept in conversation analysis, usually refers to the ways of dealing with troubles of speaking, understanding, and hearing in the talk (Schegloff et al., 1977). This paper focuses on the latter two trouble sources, i.e., troubles of hearing and understanding. The study here, of a dataset of interactions concerning information inquiries between two Chinese learners of English and eight service employees in hotels or airlines, investigates how the repair is initiated and completed via phone through the perspective of conversation analysis. It mainly explores (a) how trouble sources are identified by the recipient over the phone; (b) how the repair is initiated in phone conversations; and (c) how repair strategies and repair avoidance are used based on the recipients’ identification of the trouble source type and the importance of the mistake or misunderstanding, in the service industry. The results showcase that Chinese English speakers encounter troubles of understanding and hearing in phone conversations frequently. A selection of initiators and strategies are identified, such as repair preface (e.g., ‘I mean’) and pre-framing. The analysis also illustrates that the service personnel involved tend to either accept the customer’s candidate understanding to avoid the repair or continuously make repairs on their own turns to clarify. Such empirical evidence further supports and validates Kitzinger’s (2013) idea that a) specific repair forms and practices are constrained by a range of local factors, and b) people adopt diversified methods and strategies to ‘fix’ troubles of hearing and understanding.

The role of modality and awareness in language learning

AbstractThere is conflicting empirical evidence regarding the role of awareness in second language learning. Possible explanations for the contradictory results include the modality in the exposure and assessment phases of previous experiments. Our study investigated the acquisition of a novel determiner system under incidental exposure conditions and examined the effect of modality in both exposure and assessment phases. Animacy served as a hidden regularity in the determiners, which were embedded in sentences and presented to Chinese speakers of English either in auditory or in visual mode. Learning was assessed by a two-alternative forced-choice test either auditorily or in writing. Implicit and explicit knowledge were measured using retrospective verbal reports and source judgements. Bayesian analysis provided moderate evidence for above chance level learning. Significant learning effects were observed regardless of whether participants based their accuracy judgements on explicit or implicit knowledge. Bayesian analysis showed moderate evidence for above chance learning effects for aware participants. Generalized linear mixed-effects modeling revealed a small-size significant benefit of the auditory exposure modality over the written modality but indicated no significant effect of the modality of assessment or awareness. Our research underscores the importance of considering the role of modality of exposure in incidental second language learning contexts.

Teaching to the test: The effects of coaching on English-proficiency scores for university entry

Despite arriving with the required language qualifications, many international students struggle with the linguistic demands of a university degree. Using the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) as an example, this study explored how short but intensive preparation programmes may affect high-stakes English-proficiency test scores with which students apply for university places. The participants were 89 Chinese speakers of English as a foreign language in Shanghai. They were tested twice, four weeks apart, on IELTS and three other measures of English ability: The Oxford Online Placement Test, a vocabulary test, and the speed and accuracy of sentence comprehension. Between the two testing points, 45 participants underwent testspecific training consisting of previous IELTS papers, offered by a large test-preparation establishment with a network of over 1,000 training centres. The remaining 44 participants did not engage in any test preparation at the time. Teaching to the test led to a half a band rise in IELTS scores above the gain from test repetition alone, suggesting that the training was effective. Importantly, the IELTS gain did not generalise to the other measures of English ability; the groups performed similarly on all other language tests at both times. This suggests that test-specific, curriculum-narrowing courses could be inflating the scores with which international students apply for university places, with important consequences for test-developers, universities and students.

A Potential Solution to Unintelligible English Accent: an Orthoepic Study of the Effectiveness of Stress Placement Intervention for Chinese English Speakers

A Potential Solution to Unintelligible English Accent: an Orthoepic Study of the Effectiveness of Stress Placement Intervention for Chinese English Speakers

Chinese-English Speakers' Perception of Pitch in Their Non-Tonal Language: Reinterpreting English as a Tonal-Like Language.

Changing the F0-contour of English words does not change their lexical meaning. However, it changes the meaning in tonal languages such as Mandarin. Given this important difference and knowing that words in the two languages of a bilingual lexicon interact, the question arises as to how Mandarin-English speakers process pitch in their bilingual lexicon. The few studies that addressed this question showed that Mandarin-English speakers did not perceive pitch in English words as native English speakers did. These studies, however, used English words as stimuli failing to examine nonwords and Mandarin words. Consequently, possible pre-lexical effects and L1 transfer were not ruled out. The present study fills this gap by examining pitch perception in Mandarin and English words and nonwords by Mandarin-English speakers and a group of native English controls. Results showed the tonal experience of Chinese-English speakers modulated their perception of pitch in their non-tonal language at both pre-lexical and lexical levels. In comparison to native English controls, tonal speakers were more sensitive to the acoustic salience of F0-contours in the pre-lexical processing due to top-down feedback. At the lexical level, Mandarin-English speakers organized words in their two languages according to similarity criteria based on both F0 and segmental information, whereas only the segmental information was relevant to the control group. These results in perception together with consistently reported production patterns in previous literature suggest that Mandarin-English speakers process pitch in English as if it was a one-tone language.

The role of motor system in action-related language comprehension in L1 and L2: An fMRI study

The framework of embodied cognition has challenged the modular view of a language-cognition divide by suggesting that meaning-retrieval critically involves the sensory-motor system. Despite extensive research into the neural mechanisms underlying language-motor coupling, it remains unclear how the motor system might be differentially engaged by different levels of linguistic abstraction and language proficiency. To address this issue, we used fMRI to quantify neural activations in brain regions underlying motor and language processing in Chinese-English speakers’ processing of literal, metaphorical, and abstract language in their L1 and L2. Results overall revealed a response in motor ROIs gradually attenuating in intensity from literal to abstract via metaphorical language in both L1 and L2. Furthermore, contrast analyses between L1 and L2 showed overall greater activations of motor ROIs in the L2. We conclude that motor involvement in language processing is graded rather than all-or-none and that the motor system has a dual-functional role.

A tale of two frequency effects: Toward a verification model of L2 word recognition

AbstractThis study examined the activation of first language (L1) translations in second language (L2) word recognition in a lexical decision task. Test materials included English words that differed in the frequency of their Chinese translations or in their surface lexical frequency while other lexical properties were controlled. Chinese speakers of English as a second language of different proficiencies and native speakers of English were tested. Native speakers produced a reliable lexical frequency effect but no translation frequency effect. English as a second language speakers of lower English proficiency showed both a translation frequency effect and a lexical frequency effect, but those of higher English proficiency showed a lexical frequency effect only. The results were discussed in a verification model of L2 word recognition. According to the model, L2 word recognition entails a checking procedure in which activated L2 words are checked against their L1 translations. The two frequency effects are seen to have two different loci. The lexical frequency effect is associated with the initial activation of L2 lemmas, and the translation frequency effect arises in the verification process. Existing evidence for verification in L2 word recognition and new issues this model raises are discussed.

Variation of Nonstandard English Articles Among Chinese Speakers of English

Article use is highly variable and known as a cause of frequent problems among nonnative speakers of English. This study investigated the variation of article omission and overuse in academic writing among Chinese speakers of English. The researcher collected 188 short class reflection essays and used variable rule analysis to analyze them. The quantitative findings revealed that countable plural nouns favored the the omission. Also, NPs assumed to be known to the hearer and in the initial clause position favored a/an omission. NPs assumed to be known by the hearer favored overuse of the for zero articles. These results indicated that universal discourse property, L1 transfer, and information structure influenced article variation as the patterns were systematic rather than chaotic. The study concludes that variable rule analysis could provide interlanguage variation studies with valuable insights. Using the results, practitioners will be better equipped to understand why nonstandard articles occur. They will also be able to direct their learners’ attention to the relationship between influential factors and nonstandard uses, increasing the learners’ awareness of how to use articles correctly.