The goal of teaching English speaking is to improve students' communicative efficiency, or make students speak the target language clearly, coherently, accurately and fluently (Xu, 2005). However, in China, a numb...The goal of teaching English speaking is to improve students' communicative efficiency, or make students speak the target language clearly, coherently, accurately and fluently (Xu, 2005). However, in China, a number of students in an English speaking class tend to be passive and reluctant to speak out or be singled out publicly mainly due to their high anxiety, which, of course, becomes a significant constraint on improving their English proficiency. Therefore, how to create a relaxed atmosphere with a sense of security in the English speaking class to alleviate Chinese learners' anxiety and to provide them with as many opportunities as possible to practice speaking English and improve their English proficiency is one of the central tasks for language teachers.his paper will firstly outline my teaching context in China in physical, pedagogical, institutional and personal aspects. This will be followed by the definition and classification of language learning anxiety, and the analysis of various factors contributing to foreign language learners' anxiety as well as some suggestions of how to reduce the learners' anxiety in the oral class according to the current literature. Finally, some applications will be presented in my teaching context in the hope of decreasing Chinese students' anxiety to enhance their English speaking proficiency.展开更多
This study investigates how Chinese logogriphs are comprehended by learners of Chinese as a foreign language(CFL)with different Chinese proficiencies and cultural backgrounds.Eighty-eight CFL learners from four cultur...This study investigates how Chinese logogriphs are comprehended by learners of Chinese as a foreign language(CFL)with different Chinese proficiencies and cultural backgrounds.Eighty-eight CFL learners from four cultures(South Koreans,Southeast Asians,Western Caucasians and Arabs)were divided into two Chinese proficiency groups according to their HSK scores,and 15 L1 Chinese speakers also took part in the experiment as a control group.The participants were asked to write down how they interpreted Chinese logogriphs in questionnaires.An ANOVA analysis was conducted to examine the effects of Chinese proficiency and cultural background on logogriph comprehension.The results indicate that the accuracy of logogriph comprehension and the frequency of adopting logogriph-solving strategies positively correlated with the learners’Chinese proficiency,and that those with higher proficiency used more linguistic and cultural knowledge of the target language.As for cultural influence,Western Caucasians tended to think more visually than the other three cultural groups,and South Koreans and Southeast Asians were better at activating Chinese semantic knowledge.The closer the CFL learners’culture is to Chinese culture,the more similar strategies they adopted to those of L1 Chinese participants.Moreover,the participants’Chinese proficiency and cultural background show an interactive effect on their logogriph comprehension,with the former factor having a greater influence than the latter in this process.展开更多
The Chinese Proficiency Test(HSK)is a standardized test on Chinese language skills which has been widely introduced both in and outside China and has been playing an important role in the spread of Chinese learning al...The Chinese Proficiency Test(HSK)is a standardized test on Chinese language skills which has been widely introduced both in and outside China and has been playing an important role in the spread of Chinese learning all over the world.In 2003 Bulgaria hosted a beginner level HSK exam,which made it the first location to hold a Chinese language proficiency test on the Balkan Peninsula and ever since it has been very successful.The current paper provides a research on the current state of the Chinese Proficiency Test(HSK)аt the Confucius Institute in Sofia,Bulgaria,analyzes the factors related to the promotion of the Chinese Proficiency Test(HSK)and on this basis presents a few feasible recommendations to the benefit of the Chinese Proficiency Test(HSK).展开更多
The current research aims to find out the different beliefs held and different vocabulary strategies employed by nonEnglish majors of different proficiency levels. The data were collected through questionnaire and voc...The current research aims to find out the different beliefs held and different vocabulary strategies employed by nonEnglish majors of different proficiency levels. The data were collected through questionnaire and vocabulary tests. Results revealed that the learners at three levels all adopted wide-ranged strategies. But the high level students had greater vocabulary size and were more believed that words should be learnt through use, and they used more extended dictionary strategies, contextual guessing and note-taking strategies. It is encouraging that teachers should integrate explicit strategy instruction into classroom to help low level students achieve better learning results.展开更多
The digital age in education inspires Chinese teachers to integrate Web 2.0 technologies into Chinese as a second language(CSL)curricula to enhance teaching effects.However,few studies examine the challenges that teac...The digital age in education inspires Chinese teachers to integrate Web 2.0 technologies into Chinese as a second language(CSL)curricula to enhance teaching effects.However,few studies examine the challenges that teachers face when integrating Web 2.0 technologies to improve student oral proficiency in Chinese.This study aims to investigate students’perceptions of the effectiveness of the Web 2.0 technology VoiceThread(VT).It examines the challenges of integrating VT to enhance student oral proficiency.The authors conducted two studies with 31 students responding to a questionnaire in Study 1 and 48 students responding to the same questionnaire in Study 2.All students are beginner-level CSL learners.Three results were obtained.Result 1 shows that documents and articles report VT as popular and easy to use,however,few teachers employed VT in their teaching practices.Result 2 indicates another discrepancy.Although students highly evaluated the usefulness of the VT-facilitated activities,they were reluctant to perform these activities.By comparing Study 1 and Study 2,the authors obtained Result 3:Students in Study 2 evaluated VT-integrated teaching practices consistently higher than those in Study 1.Teachers’using experiences primarily led these perception differences.This study provides CSL teachers with a vision of the opportunities and challenges that may occur when they integrate Web 2.0 technologies into curricular to improve CSL oral proficiency.展开更多
With a growing number of foreign language studies on proficiency outcomes,it is imperative to address the challenge of measuring students’proficiency development in a language program where standardized proficiency t...With a growing number of foreign language studies on proficiency outcomes,it is imperative to address the challenge of measuring students’proficiency development in a language program where standardized proficiency testing is not readily available.This article reports administering a Chinese elicited imitation test(EIT)by an instructor to track students’global oral proficiency development in a small language program in a mid-size U.S.public university.The test results from the EIT of second language(L2)Chinese suggest that this tool can provide the instructor with valuable insights into students’oral proficiency.This study also discusses the potential practical value of using this EIT in a language program with limited resources for standardized proficiency assessment.The hope is that this study will encourage language educators who are not already doing so to start using empirical evidence from a valid and reliable proficiency measurement tool to reflect on,improve,and guide their instructional practices.展开更多
Rather than looking at variables like grammatical feature type,proficiency,and L1 as separate,we must start to view them as interrelated and codependent.In this way,educators may finally learn how to maximize the effe...Rather than looking at variables like grammatical feature type,proficiency,and L1 as separate,we must start to view them as interrelated and codependent.In this way,educators may finally learn how to maximize the effect of corrective feedback(CF).A meta-analysis of 13 studies was conducted to examine four styles of CF(implicit prompt,implicit reformulation,explicit prompt,and explicit reformulation)along with the following variables:grammatical feature type,L1 similarity(with Mandarin Chinese),and proficiency level.Results suggest that effect size is highly dependent upon the grammatical feature targeted.Explicit feedback appears to have a scaffolding effect for more semantically or syntactically complex grammatical features.Implicit reformulations(recasts)also provide scaffolding,yielding larger effect sizes than implicit prompts when used with L1 dissimilar features that are more semantically or syntactically complex.展开更多
The purpose of this paper is to study effect factors of adaptation to university life of Chinese International Students in Korea. 374 Korean language trainees are chosen as investigation objects by means of random clu...The purpose of this paper is to study effect factors of adaptation to university life of Chinese International Students in Korea. 374 Korean language trainees are chosen as investigation objects by means of random cluster sampling. Questionnaire data are collected by using the survey form and then paths of effect factors on adaption to university life of Korean training Chinese students in Korea are analyzed. The results indicate that Korean language proficiency, physical symptoms, loneliness, self-efficacy, acculturation stress are direct effect factors on Chinese students adapting to university life in Korea. Besides, Korean language proficiency, physical symptoms, loneliness are not only direct effect factors on self-efficacy and acculturation stress but also indirect effect factors on Chinese students adapting to university life in Korea. In order to improve ability of Korean training Chinese students adapting to university life in Korea, Korean language proficiency and self-efficacy should be improved. And, some effective interventions should be given to reducing physical symptoms, loneliness and acculturation stress.展开更多
This is the author’s second consecutive year of doing the research.As the economy of China is booming,there is a rapid increase in the number of foreign students coming to The University of Hong Kong to learn Chinese...This is the author’s second consecutive year of doing the research.As the economy of China is booming,there is a rapid increase in the number of foreign students coming to The University of Hong Kong to learn Chinese.As Chinese is one of the popular subjects for them to choose,in 2019,there are around 1000 foreign students(undergraduates or exchange students)learning Chinese as a foreign language course.A language teacher is a facilitator and an instructor of Chinese learning for foreign students.However,in the real world,there are always some good language learners and some less talented language learners in one classroom.So,what is the secret of the good Chinese learners?What can the language instructors do in order to support good Chinese learners and help the less talented learners to learn Chinese?In the TESOL field,there are a lot of researches have been done by scholars.In the early 1970s,several researchers isolated and defined the concept of good language learner.But in teaching Chinese as a foreign language field,there are relatively fewer researches.So,from January 2017 to May 2019,I conducted a survey about good Chinese learners in CHIN9503 and CHIN9504 classes.The survey consisted of an interview with several questions and the author will discuss the result of a survey and its implications in this paper.This research is done in a macro way rather than micro way.Thus,this holistic research focuses on finding good Chinese learners rather than focusing on learners’individual differences.展开更多
The study investigates: (1) how different idiom types, classified on the basis of a cross-linguistic comparison of Chinese and English idioms in terms of conceptual basis, affect English idiom comprehension as reveale...The study investigates: (1) how different idiom types, classified on the basis of a cross-linguistic comparison of Chinese and English idioms in terms of conceptual basis, affect English idiom comprehension as revealed from both the general performance and the on-line processing strategies adopted by Chinese EFL learners at different proficiency levels, and (2) to what extent can the observed learner behavior be accounted for within the theoretical framework of idiom comprehension. The study has provided empirical evidence for the configuration hypothesis of idiom comprehension.展开更多
文摘The goal of teaching English speaking is to improve students' communicative efficiency, or make students speak the target language clearly, coherently, accurately and fluently (Xu, 2005). However, in China, a number of students in an English speaking class tend to be passive and reluctant to speak out or be singled out publicly mainly due to their high anxiety, which, of course, becomes a significant constraint on improving their English proficiency. Therefore, how to create a relaxed atmosphere with a sense of security in the English speaking class to alleviate Chinese learners' anxiety and to provide them with as many opportunities as possible to practice speaking English and improve their English proficiency is one of the central tasks for language teachers.his paper will firstly outline my teaching context in China in physical, pedagogical, institutional and personal aspects. This will be followed by the definition and classification of language learning anxiety, and the analysis of various factors contributing to foreign language learners' anxiety as well as some suggestions of how to reduce the learners' anxiety in the oral class according to the current literature. Finally, some applications will be presented in my teaching context in the hope of decreasing Chinese students' anxiety to enhance their English speaking proficiency.
文摘This study investigates how Chinese logogriphs are comprehended by learners of Chinese as a foreign language(CFL)with different Chinese proficiencies and cultural backgrounds.Eighty-eight CFL learners from four cultures(South Koreans,Southeast Asians,Western Caucasians and Arabs)were divided into two Chinese proficiency groups according to their HSK scores,and 15 L1 Chinese speakers also took part in the experiment as a control group.The participants were asked to write down how they interpreted Chinese logogriphs in questionnaires.An ANOVA analysis was conducted to examine the effects of Chinese proficiency and cultural background on logogriph comprehension.The results indicate that the accuracy of logogriph comprehension and the frequency of adopting logogriph-solving strategies positively correlated with the learners’Chinese proficiency,and that those with higher proficiency used more linguistic and cultural knowledge of the target language.As for cultural influence,Western Caucasians tended to think more visually than the other three cultural groups,and South Koreans and Southeast Asians were better at activating Chinese semantic knowledge.The closer the CFL learners’culture is to Chinese culture,the more similar strategies they adopted to those of L1 Chinese participants.Moreover,the participants’Chinese proficiency and cultural background show an interactive effect on their logogriph comprehension,with the former factor having a greater influence than the latter in this process.
文摘The Chinese Proficiency Test(HSK)is a standardized test on Chinese language skills which has been widely introduced both in and outside China and has been playing an important role in the spread of Chinese learning all over the world.In 2003 Bulgaria hosted a beginner level HSK exam,which made it the first location to hold a Chinese language proficiency test on the Balkan Peninsula and ever since it has been very successful.The current paper provides a research on the current state of the Chinese Proficiency Test(HSK)аt the Confucius Institute in Sofia,Bulgaria,analyzes the factors related to the promotion of the Chinese Proficiency Test(HSK)and on this basis presents a few feasible recommendations to the benefit of the Chinese Proficiency Test(HSK).
文摘The current research aims to find out the different beliefs held and different vocabulary strategies employed by nonEnglish majors of different proficiency levels. The data were collected through questionnaire and vocabulary tests. Results revealed that the learners at three levels all adopted wide-ranged strategies. But the high level students had greater vocabulary size and were more believed that words should be learnt through use, and they used more extended dictionary strategies, contextual guessing and note-taking strategies. It is encouraging that teachers should integrate explicit strategy instruction into classroom to help low level students achieve better learning results.
文摘The digital age in education inspires Chinese teachers to integrate Web 2.0 technologies into Chinese as a second language(CSL)curricula to enhance teaching effects.However,few studies examine the challenges that teachers face when integrating Web 2.0 technologies to improve student oral proficiency in Chinese.This study aims to investigate students’perceptions of the effectiveness of the Web 2.0 technology VoiceThread(VT).It examines the challenges of integrating VT to enhance student oral proficiency.The authors conducted two studies with 31 students responding to a questionnaire in Study 1 and 48 students responding to the same questionnaire in Study 2.All students are beginner-level CSL learners.Three results were obtained.Result 1 shows that documents and articles report VT as popular and easy to use,however,few teachers employed VT in their teaching practices.Result 2 indicates another discrepancy.Although students highly evaluated the usefulness of the VT-facilitated activities,they were reluctant to perform these activities.By comparing Study 1 and Study 2,the authors obtained Result 3:Students in Study 2 evaluated VT-integrated teaching practices consistently higher than those in Study 1.Teachers’using experiences primarily led these perception differences.This study provides CSL teachers with a vision of the opportunities and challenges that may occur when they integrate Web 2.0 technologies into curricular to improve CSL oral proficiency.
文摘With a growing number of foreign language studies on proficiency outcomes,it is imperative to address the challenge of measuring students’proficiency development in a language program where standardized proficiency testing is not readily available.This article reports administering a Chinese elicited imitation test(EIT)by an instructor to track students’global oral proficiency development in a small language program in a mid-size U.S.public university.The test results from the EIT of second language(L2)Chinese suggest that this tool can provide the instructor with valuable insights into students’oral proficiency.This study also discusses the potential practical value of using this EIT in a language program with limited resources for standardized proficiency assessment.The hope is that this study will encourage language educators who are not already doing so to start using empirical evidence from a valid and reliable proficiency measurement tool to reflect on,improve,and guide their instructional practices.
文摘Rather than looking at variables like grammatical feature type,proficiency,and L1 as separate,we must start to view them as interrelated and codependent.In this way,educators may finally learn how to maximize the effect of corrective feedback(CF).A meta-analysis of 13 studies was conducted to examine four styles of CF(implicit prompt,implicit reformulation,explicit prompt,and explicit reformulation)along with the following variables:grammatical feature type,L1 similarity(with Mandarin Chinese),and proficiency level.Results suggest that effect size is highly dependent upon the grammatical feature targeted.Explicit feedback appears to have a scaffolding effect for more semantically or syntactically complex grammatical features.Implicit reformulations(recasts)also provide scaffolding,yielding larger effect sizes than implicit prompts when used with L1 dissimilar features that are more semantically or syntactically complex.
文摘The purpose of this paper is to study effect factors of adaptation to university life of Chinese International Students in Korea. 374 Korean language trainees are chosen as investigation objects by means of random cluster sampling. Questionnaire data are collected by using the survey form and then paths of effect factors on adaption to university life of Korean training Chinese students in Korea are analyzed. The results indicate that Korean language proficiency, physical symptoms, loneliness, self-efficacy, acculturation stress are direct effect factors on Chinese students adapting to university life in Korea. Besides, Korean language proficiency, physical symptoms, loneliness are not only direct effect factors on self-efficacy and acculturation stress but also indirect effect factors on Chinese students adapting to university life in Korea. In order to improve ability of Korean training Chinese students adapting to university life in Korea, Korean language proficiency and self-efficacy should be improved. And, some effective interventions should be given to reducing physical symptoms, loneliness and acculturation stress.
文摘This is the author’s second consecutive year of doing the research.As the economy of China is booming,there is a rapid increase in the number of foreign students coming to The University of Hong Kong to learn Chinese.As Chinese is one of the popular subjects for them to choose,in 2019,there are around 1000 foreign students(undergraduates or exchange students)learning Chinese as a foreign language course.A language teacher is a facilitator and an instructor of Chinese learning for foreign students.However,in the real world,there are always some good language learners and some less talented language learners in one classroom.So,what is the secret of the good Chinese learners?What can the language instructors do in order to support good Chinese learners and help the less talented learners to learn Chinese?In the TESOL field,there are a lot of researches have been done by scholars.In the early 1970s,several researchers isolated and defined the concept of good language learner.But in teaching Chinese as a foreign language field,there are relatively fewer researches.So,from January 2017 to May 2019,I conducted a survey about good Chinese learners in CHIN9503 and CHIN9504 classes.The survey consisted of an interview with several questions and the author will discuss the result of a survey and its implications in this paper.This research is done in a macro way rather than micro way.Thus,this holistic research focuses on finding good Chinese learners rather than focusing on learners’individual differences.
文摘The study investigates: (1) how different idiom types, classified on the basis of a cross-linguistic comparison of Chinese and English idioms in terms of conceptual basis, affect English idiom comprehension as revealed from both the general performance and the on-line processing strategies adopted by Chinese EFL learners at different proficiency levels, and (2) to what extent can the observed learner behavior be accounted for within the theoretical framework of idiom comprehension. The study has provided empirical evidence for the configuration hypothesis of idiom comprehension.
