Chinese Speakers Research Articles

Listenership always matters: active listening ability in L2 business English paired speaking tasks

Abstract Active listening, foundational for meaningful social interaction, plays a pivotal role in enhancing interactional competence (IC) during dialogues. Despite its importance, current second language (L2) assessments, such as the TOEFL iBT and the Business English Certificate (BEC) Preliminary, notably does not include active listening in their evaluation metrics. The research presented here contributes significantly to this discourse by foregrounding the imperative of listener responses (LRs) in L2 communication and the diverse interactional functions they serve across different cultures. Notably, variations emerge, with Chinese speakers exhibiting more restrained verbal feedback compared to the more vocally expressive English counterparts. This study stands apart by underscoring the necessity of updating current L2 assessment rubrics, which currently prioritize grammatical proficiency, pronunciation, and vocabulary. By weaving in active listening, assessments can become more holistic, capturing more comprehensively a learner’s L2 interactional ability. Through rigorous quantitative and qualitative methodologies, this investigation probes the influence of active listening on BEC speaking test outcomes. Its findings are poised to revolutionize assessment strategies, urging a more encompassing approach that factors in both verbal and non-verbal cues, thereby reflecting genuine linguistic and interactional competence.

Structural and sequential regularities modulate phrase-rate neural tracking

Electrophysiological brain activity has been shown to synchronize with the quasi-regular repetition of grammatical phrases in connected speech—so-called phrase-rate neural tracking. Current debate centers around whether this phenomenon is best explained in terms of the syntactic properties of phrases or in terms of syntax-external information, such as the sequential repetition of parts of speech. As these two factors were confounded in previous studies, much of the literature is compatible with both accounts. Here, we used electroencephalography (EEG) to determine if and when the brain is sensitive to both types of information. Twenty native speakers of Mandarin Chinese listened to isochronously presented streams of monosyllabic words, which contained either grammatical two-word phrases (e.g., catch fish, sell house) or non-grammatical word combinations (e.g., full lend, bread far). Within the grammatical conditions, we varied two structural factors: the position of the head of each phrase and the type of attachment. Within the non-grammatical conditions, we varied the consistency with which parts of speech were repeated. Tracking was quantified through evoked power and inter-trial phase coherence, both derived from the frequency-domain representation of EEG responses. As expected, neural tracking at the phrase rate was stronger in grammatical sequences than in non-grammatical sequences without syntactic structure. Moreover, it was modulated by both attachment type and head position, revealing the structure-sensitivity of phrase-rate tracking. We additionally found that the brain tracks the repetition of parts of speech in non-grammatical sequences. These data provide an integrative perspective on the current debate about neural tracking effects, revealing that the brain utilizes regularities computed over multiple levels of linguistic representation in guiding rhythmic computation.

How L2 Learners Process Different Means of Time Encoding in a Tenseless Language: An ERP Study of Mandarin.

In the past, research on the cognitive neural mechanism of second language (L2) learners' processing time information has focused on Indo-European languages. It has also focused on the temporal category expressed by morphological changes. However, there has been a lack of research on L2 learners' various time coding means, especially for Mandarin, which lacks morphological changes. Using event-related potentials (ERPs), we investigated the cognitive neural mechanism of L2 learners with native Indonesian background in processing two time coding means (time adverbs and aspect markers) in Chinese. Indonesian has time adverb encoding time information similar to that of Chinese, but there are no aspect markers similar to Chinese in Indonesian. We measured ERPs time locked to the time adverb " (cengjing)" and the aspect marker "verb + (verb + guo)" in two different conditions, i.e., a control condition (the correct sentence) and a temporal information violation. The experimental results showed that the native speaker group induced the biphasic N400-P600 effect under the condition of time adverb violation, and induced P600 under the condition of the aspect marker "verb + (verb + guo)" violation. Indonesian L2 learners of Chinese only elicited P600 for the violation of time adverbs, and there was no statistically significant N400 similar to that of Chinese native speakers. In the case of aspect marker violation, we observed no significant ERPs component for the Indonesian L2 learners of Chinese. Both groups of subjects induced elicited a widely distributed and sustained negativity on the post-critical words after "verb + (verb + guo)" and "(cengjing)". This showed that the neural mechanism of Indonesian L2 learners of Chinese processing Chinese time coding differs from that of Chinese native speakers.

Semantic effects on the perception of emotional prosody in native and non-native Chinese speakers

ABSTRACT While previous research has found an in-group advantage (IGA) favouring native speakers in emotional prosody perception over non-native speakers, the effects of semantics on emotional prosody perception remain unclear. This study investigated the effects of semantics on emotional prosody perception in Chinese words and sentences for native and non-native Chinese speakers. The critical manipulation was the congruence of prosodic (positive, negative) and semantic (positive, negative, and neutral) valence. Participants listened to a series of audio clips and judged whether the emotional prosody was positive or negative for each utterance. The results revealed an IGA effect: native speakers perceived emotional prosody more accurately and quickly than non-native speakers in Chinese words and sentences. Furthermore, a semantic congruence effect was observed in Chinese words, where both native and non-native speakers recognised emotional prosody more accurately in the semantic-prosody congruent condition than in the incongruent condition. However, in Chinese sentences, this congruence effect was only present for non-native speakers. Additionally, the IGA effect and semantic congruence effect on emotional prosody perception were influenced by prosody valence. These findings illuminate the role of semantics in emotional prosody perception, highlighting perceptual differences between native and non-native Chinese speakers.

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.

Economic and Technical Assessment of the Chinese Plum Varieties Using Multi-Criteria Analysis Methods

Economic and Technical Assessment of the Chinese Plum Varieties Using Multi-Criteria Analysis Methods

A formalized statement of traditional terminology in Middle Chinese phonology

Abstract Ever since its birth in the pre-linguistic period, traditional Chinese phonology has contributed essentially to the study, both philological and linguistic, of historical Chinese phonology; nevertheless, a systematic retrospect of this academic custom from the pure perspective of linguistics remains largely blank. Concentrating on classical philological resources, this essay works out a clearly defined set of terminology with little dependence on the phonetic natures of these units, which may serve as an evaluative metric on the phonological reconstruction of Middle Chinese as well as a review of the long-ignored academic tradition of phonological studies in ancient Chinese philology.

Mo modulating the structure of monoclinic vanadium dioxide boosting the aqueous ammonium-ion storage for high-performance supercapacitor

Supercapacitors (SCs) using ammonium-ion (NH4+) as the charge carrier (NH4+-SCs) have attracted continuous attention and vanadium-based materials are proved to have high-efficient NH4+-storage properties. Monoclinic vanadium dioxide, VO2(B), as an anode material applied to SCs has been rarely reported and modulating its electronic structure for boosted NH4+-storage is full of challenge. In this work, molybdenum-doped VO2(B) (Mo-doped VO2(B)) is designed and synthesize to enhance its NH4+-storage. The introduction of Mo atom into the crystal structure of VO2(B) can modulate its crystal structure and bring in some defects. Experimental results manifest that Mo-doped VO2(B) with 2 % Mo-doping shows the best electrochemical properties. Mo-doped VO2(B) achieves the specific capacitance of 1403 F g−1 (390 mAh g−1) at 0.1 A g−1 and the capacitance retention of about 98 % after 5000 cycle, superior to that of VO2(B) (893 F g−1, 248 mAh g−1 at 0.1 A g−1 and 60 % capacitance retention. The hybrid supercapacitor (HSC) assembled by Mo-doped VO2(B) and active carbon delivers good electrochemical performance with the energy density of 38.6 Wh kg−1 at power density of 208.3 W kg−1. This work proves that the Mo-doping is an efficient strategy for boosted NH4+-storage of VO2(B) and this strategy is like a Chinese idiom “like adding wings to a tiger” to guide the design of electrode materials for high-efficient NH4+-storage.

Lexical niche and sustainability: an ecolinguistic perspective

Abstract This paper proposes the innovative concept of lexical niche to analyze the ecology of vocabulary from an ecolinguistic perspective. Through the examination of niche breadth and overlap, we quantitatively assess the vitality and competition of six typical Chinese eating verbs: shi (食), fan (饭), can (餐), dan (啖), ru (茹), and chi (吃). The analysis reveals their diachronic evolution in the history of the Chinese language (temporal niche), their synchronic distribution in Chinese dialects (spatial niche), and their verb-object collocation (functional niche). The findings indicate the following: (1) Shi, fan, can, dan, and ru originated in Early Old Chinese, while chi emerged in Late Old Chinese. (2) The niche breadths of the six eating verbs are as follows: 2.585, −2.391, −2.242, −0.108, −1.734, and 3.889, respectively. Chi demonstrates the highest vitality, followed by shi; fan, can, dan, and ru exhibit extremely low vitality. (3) Shi originated in the Pre-Qin dynasty, serving as the dominant eating verb in ancient times with robust competition. However, in modern times, it has evolved into a morpheme for compound words, displaying weak sustainability. Chi, born in the Han dynasty, replaced shi as the dominant eating verb by the late Tang dynasty, establishing itself as the most competitive verb to date, characterized by strong sustainability.

Y. R. Chao's Fāngyīn diàochá biǎogé and Its Role in the Evolution of Chinese Dialect Research Methodology

Y. R. Chao's Fāngyīn diàochá biǎogé and Its Role in the Evolution of Chinese Dialect Research Methodology

Language Portraits of Four Transnational Educators from China: Experiences, Ideologies, and Teaching Practices

This study uses language portraits (Busch, 2018) to shed light on the relationship between the multilingual experiences and teaching practices of four transnational educators who have lived, studied, and taught across China and the United States. Using multimodal thematic analysis methods (Coffey, 2015; Purkarthofer & De Korne, 2020), this approach highlights the ways in which language experiences and teaching practices are mediated by language ideologies. This approach enables the participants to visualise and describe their linguistic repertoires and multilingual experiences in relation to teaching practices in the focus group interview. Findings show that these educators from China value Chinese as a resource for teaching and learning. They hold an asset-oriented view of the students’ home languages and are willing to incorporate their home languages to support classroom teaching and learning. Although they have mixed feelings about English, due to negative learning experiences, they are aware of the economic value of the language, which sustains their efforts to improve their English proficiency and influences their career plans. Overall, the educators evidence an emerging, yet rudimentary, multilingual awareness. The entrenched ideology of Mandarin monolingualism, which prioritises Putonghua (Standard Mandarin) over other Chinese dialects, along with the global dominance of English and its associated language ideology, has profoundly influenced teaching practices in multilingual classrooms.

Silica Gel Chromatographic Methods for Identification, Isolation and Purification of Gossypol Acetic Acid.

Several cottonseed varieties are cultivated in different countries. Each variety produces a different amount of gossypol as a natural toxic compound. The rising interest in cottonseed products (oil and feed) increases the demand for establishing simple methods for gossypol detection. Silica gel-based methods are ideal for its isolation, purification, and characterization. Silica gel-based methods are variants and can be used as simple methods for tracking plants' compounds. In this study, gossypol was isolated, characterized, and purified as gossypol acetic acid in the form of yellow crystals. Methods used for its characterization were TLC, preparative TLC, silica gel column, UV/IR spectrophotometer, and HPLC (robust spherical silica gel). A comparative study between its amount in both the Egyptian and Chinese varieties was performed. Under the experimental conditions, the Egyptian's cottonseed contains 8.705 gm/kg, while the Chinese's cottonseed contains 5.395 gm/kg. The TLC used in this study proved to be fast, accurate, and inexpensive. It can be used for gossypol acetic acid evaluation and quantification. Additionally, using TLC as a pre-purification step will give a pre-judgment for the sample's purity and quality. This step will protect the expensive HPLC silica gel-based column from any unexpected impurities. During each step, the silica gel itself could be simply removed by paper filtration. Collectively, the different silica gel-based methods as well as the other used methods are recommended for better Gossypol acetic acid isolation, purification, and characterization, as well as for maintaining HPLC columns.

Implementation of an Automatic Meeting Minute Generation System Using YAMNet with Speaker Identification and Keyword Prompts

Producing conference/meeting minutes requires a person to simultaneously identify a speaker and the speaking content during the course of the meeting. This recording process is a heavy task. Reducing the workload for meeting minutes is an essential task for most people. In addition, providing conference/meeting highlights in real time is helpful to the meeting process. In this study, we aim to implement an automatic meeting minutes generation system (AMMGS) for recording conference/meeting minutes. A speech recognizer transforms speech signals to obtain the conference/meeting text. Accordingly, the proposed AMMGS can reduce the effort in recording the minutes. All meeting members can concentrate on the meeting; taking minutes is unnecessary. The AMMGS includes speaker identification for Mandarin Chinese speakers, keyword spotting, and speech recognition. Transferring learning on YAMNet lets the network identify specified speakers. So, the proposed AMMGS can automatically generate conference/meeting minutes with labeled speakers. Furthermore, the AMMGS applies the Jieba segmentation tool for keyword spotting. The system detects the frequency of words’ occurrence. Keywords are determined from the highly segmented words. These keywords help an attendant to stay with the agenda. The experimental results reveal that the proposed AMMGS can accurately identify speakers and recognize speech. Accordingly, the AMMGS can generate conference/meeting minutes while the keywords are spotted effectively.

The aroma profiles of dried gonggans: Characterization of volatile compounds in oven-dried and freeze-dried gonggan

Dehydration is an effective method for the long-term storage and aroma retention of gonggan (Citrus sinensis Osb. ‘Deqing Gonggan’), which is a Chinese variety of citrus, with unique and characteristic floral, fruity, and citrus flavors. However, the aroma profiles of gonggans prepared using oven- and freeze-drying, the most widely-used drying methods, remain unclear. In this study, a total of 911 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were detected in dried gonggan. These were primarily composed of alcohols (7.69%), aldehydes (7.03%), esters (15.38%), ketones (7.58%), and terpenoids (23.19%). A total of 67 odorants contributed significantly to the overall aroma of dried gonggans, with the major odor qualities being detected as green, citrus, fruity, floral, and sweet. These were mainly attributed to the presence of aldehydes, esters, and terpenoids. Freeze-drying was more effective in maintaining the unique citrus and mandarin-like aromas attributed to compounds such as limonene, citrial, β-myrcene, β-pinene, and γ-terpinene. Moreover, (E,E)-2,4-decadienal had the highest relative odor activity value (rOAV) in freeze-dried gonggans, followed by (E)-2-nonenal, furaneol, (E, E)-2, 4-nonadienal, and E-2-undecenal. Oven-drying promoted the accumulation of terpenes such as octatriene, trans-β-ocimene, cyclohexanone, copaene, and ɑ-irone, imparting a soft aroma of flowers, fruits, and sweet. Increasing the temperature led to an increase in existing VOCs or the generation of new VOCs through phenylpropanoid, terpenoid, and fatty acid metabolism. The findings of this study offer insights into an optimized procedure for producing high-quality dried gonggans. These insights can be valuable for the fruit-drying industry, particularly for enhancing the quality of dried fruits.

Cross-linguistic perception of Spanish intonation by Chinese speakers: Effects of linguistic experience and prosodic features

This study aims to explore the cross-linguistic perception of Spanish intonation patterns and the role of linguistic experience and prosodic features in identifying the question-statement contrasts. To this end, 43 Spanish native listeners and 75 Chinese learners of Spanish were presented with auditory stimuli in a gating paradigm for the recognition of sentence types. The results showed that listeners’ perception of target intonational contours was highly dependent on their language experience. Although Spanish listeners outperformed Chinese learners in perceiving different intonational cues, most Chinese learners were able to correctly identify sentence types after hearing the initial F0 peak due to the positive transfer of their tonal processing ability in their native language. In addition, our data revealed that the position of the final stressed syllable might also be a relevant factor for discriminating the sentence type depending on the length of the utterance. Overall, the findings seem to suggest a complex integration mechanism for cross-linguistic intonation perception, in which listeners’ language specificity and the prosodic structures of the materials should be accounted for evaluating non-native auditory performance.

A Study on the Strategies for Translating Four-Character Idioms into English from Cross-Cultural Perspective

As one of the important representatives of Chinese culture, Chinese literary works are rich in four-character idioms with far-reaching meanings, which should be paid full attention to in the process of translation. Cross-cultural theory is a comparative analysis of attribution and difference of cultural phenomena, aiming at the understanding of cultural differences. Based on a cross-cultural perspective, this paper analyzes the four-character idioms in Qian Zhongshu's work, Besieged City, which translated by Jeanne Kelly and Nathan K.Mao from three aspects: thinking pattens, communication audience and purpose, and translation aesthetics. The conclusion shows that to a certain extent, the translator's selection of specific translation strategies can effectively convey the meaning of Chinese four-character idioms, make the target language fit with the cultural context of the original text, and achieve the purpose of cross-cultural communication.

Impact of task type and task complexity on negotiation of meaning in young learners of Chinese as a second language

Abstract Negotiation of meaning (NoM) has played a facilitative role in second language acquisition. However, the existing studies have primarily focused on adult English language learners. This study investigated the impact of task type and task complexity on NoM strategies among young learners of Chinese as a second language, an underexplored group. The participants were 110 students in Hong Kong aged 10–12, mainly from Pakistan, India, Philippines, and Nepal. They were asked to perform four tasks with different task types and levels of task complexity in Cantonese (the primary Chinese dialect spoken in Hong Kong). In terms of task type, the study found that required information exchange tasks (i.e., information gap tasks) produced significantly more clarification requests, confirmation checks, self-repetitions, and other repetitions in terms of total numbers and numbers per 100 Chinese characters than the optional exchange tasks (i.e., decision-making tasks). Complex tasks, on the other hand, elicited significantly more confirmation checks than simple tasks. These findings provide useful insights for designing tasks that can promote greater use of NoM strategies in classroom practice.

Comprehensive evaluation of drought tolerance of six Chinese chestnut varieties (clones) based on flavonoids and other physiological indexes

Flavonoids are crucial secondary metabolites that possess the ability to mitigate UV damage and withstand both biotic and abiotic stresses. Therefore, it is of immense significance to investigate the flavonoid content as a pivotal indicator for a comprehensive assessment of chestnut's drought tolerance. This study aimed to determine the flavonoid content and drought tolerance-related physiological and biochemical indices of six chestnut varieties (clones) grafted trees—Qianxi 42 (QX42), Qinglong 45 (QL45), Yanshanzaofeng (YSZF), Yanzi (YZ), Yanqiu (YQ), and Yanlong (YL)-under natural drought stress. The results were used to comprehensively analyze the drought tolerance ability of these varieties. The study revealed that the ranking of drought tolerance indices in terms of their ability to reflect drought tolerance was as follows: superoxide (oxide) dismutase (SOD) activity, ascorbate peroxidase (APX) activity, flavone content, catalase (CAT) activity, proline (PRO) content, soluble sugar content, peroxidase (POD) activity, betaine content, flavonol content, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) content, soluble protein content, superoxide ion (OFR) content, superoxide (ion OFR) production rate, malondialdehyde (MDA) content, chlorophyll content. Through principal component analysis, the contents of flavonoids and flavonols can be used as indicators for comprehensive evaluation of drought tolerance of chestnut. The comprehensive evaluation order of drought tolerance of grafted trees of 6 chestnut varieties (Clones) was: QL45 > QX42 > YQ > YZ > YSZF > YL.

Features of teaching Russian vocabulary to Chinese Philology Students using online dictionaries

Features of teaching Russian vocabulary to Chinese Philology Students using online dictionaries

Prosodic Weight Effect on Focal Accent of Standard Chinese

This study investigates the phonetic performance of narrow information focus, as compared to broad focus, within different sentential positions of the Chinese Subject-Verb-Object (S+V+O) syntax structure. Three acoustic parameters of focus, including the pitch range ratio, duration ratio, and intensity ratio, were taken to explore the ranking among these parameters and to analyse the impact of focus position on their interrelationships. The results showed that (1) Chinese, as a tonal language, exhibits a prosodic ranking characterized by duration > pitch range > intensity; (2) Chinese speakers tend to emphasize verbs within the S+V+O syntax structure, particularly when verbs are positioned in the middle of sentences. The prosodic ranking observed was Fmiddle > Finitial > Ffinal; (3) Pitch range and duration display interdependence as acoustic parameters, whereas intensity stands as an independent parameter. These results contribute to a deeper understanding of phonetic nuances within Chinese prosody, shedding light on the intricate interplay between focus, syntax, and prosody.