Bilingual Vocational Training Program for Chinese Chefs.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

China Inst. in America, New York, NY.

This document contains materials that can be used by instructors in an English-as-a-second-language course for Chinese kitchen workers or chefs. The materials consist of lessons on various topics that occur in the everyday life of Chinese chefs. Topics include: English names for Chinese dishes; phrases to employ when meeting people and when using…

Chinese Students' Perceptions of the Value of Test Preparation Courses for the TOEFL iBT: Merit, Worth, and Significance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ma, Jia; Cheng, Liying

2015-01-01

Test preparation for high-stakes English language tests has received increasing research attention in the language assessment field; however, little is known about what aspects of test preparation students attend to and value. In this study, we considered the perspectives of 12 Chinese students who were enrolled in various academic programs in a…

Learning Effects of an Experimental EFL Program in Second Life

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Charles Xiaoxue; Calandra, Brendan; Hibbard, Susan T.; McDowell Lefaiver, Mary L.

2012-01-01

This paper reports on the effects an experimental English as a Foreign Language (EFL) program in Second Life (SL) had on Chinese student EFL learning. The study took an evaluative approach using quasi-experimental design with participants from one Chinese university and one American university in the southeastern United States. Results indicated…

Sources of Materials for Minority Languages: A Preliminary List.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education, Arlington, VA.

A list is presented of resources for information on bilingual programs and materials in languages other than Spanish. The entries are arranged in four categories: "East Asian,""Native American,""Territories of the Pacific," and "Other Languages." The specific languages listed are: Cambodian, Chinese, Hmong, Japanese, Korean, Laotian, Thai,…

Learner Performance in Mandarin Immersion and High School World Language Programs: A Comparison

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xu, Xiaoqiu; Padilla, Amado M.; Silva, Duarte M.

2015-01-01

This study compared the Mandarin performance of elementary immersion program students and high school world language program students in the same school district. A cross-sectional design was employed to gather information on Mandarin proficiency of fourth and fifth graders and Level 4 and Level 5 (AP Chinese) high school students who took the…

Intensive Summer Institute: Program Evaluation. 1991. NFLRC Research Notes.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ross, Steven

This report evaluates a 6-week intensive summer program for language teachers at the University of Hawaii. Thirty-two high school or college teachers and teacher trainees of Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese, and Spanish participated. Participants were led by master teachers who provided exemplary teaching, organized language-specific activities,…

Reading depends on writing, in Chinese.

PubMed

Tan, Li Hai; Spinks, John A; Eden, Guinevere F; Perfetti, Charles A; Siok, Wai Ting

2005-06-14

Language development entails four fundamental and interactive abilities: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Over the past four decades, a large body of evidence has indicated that reading acquisition is strongly associated with a child's listening skills, particularly the child's sensitivity to phonological structures of spoken language. Furthermore, it has been hypothesized that the close relationship between reading and listening is manifested universally across languages and that behavioral remediation using strategies addressing phonological awareness alleviates reading difficulties in dyslexics. The prevailing view of the central role of phonological awareness in reading development is largely based on studies using Western (alphabetic) languages, which are based on phonology. The Chinese language provides a unique medium for testing this notion, because logographic characters in Chinese are based on meaning rather than phonology. Here we show that the ability to read Chinese is strongly related to a child's writing skills and that the relationship between phonological awareness and Chinese reading is much weaker than that in reports regarding alphabetic languages. We propose that the role of logograph writing in reading development is mediated by two possibly interacting mechanisms. The first is orthographic awareness, which facilitates the development of coherent, effective links among visual symbols, phonology, and semantics; the second involves the establishment of motor programs that lead to the formation of long-term motor memories of Chinese characters. These findings yield a unique insight into how cognitive systems responsible for reading development and reading disability interact, and they challenge the prominent phonological awareness view.

Non-Native Chinese Language Learners' Attitudes towards Online Vision-Based Motion Games

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hao, Yungwei; Hong, Jon-Chao; Jong, Jyh-Tsorng; Hwang, Ming-Yueh; Su, Chao-Ya; Yang, Jin-Shin

2010-01-01

Learning to write Chinese characters is often thought to be a very challenging and laborious task. However, new learning tools are being designed that might reduce learners' tedium. This study explores one such tool, an online program in which learners can learn Chinese characters through vision-based motion games. The learner's gestures are…

Strategies for Internationalization of Higher Education. A Case Study--the Nordic Centre at Fudan University, Shanghai, China.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Holtermann, Sigrid

1996-01-01

The Nordic Centre at Fudan University (China) links it with Norwegian universities, and has resulted in: a new Norwegian School of Management program; a Chinese-Norwegian dictionary; short credit courses on Scandinavian affairs for Chinese students; language courses and examinations for Norwegian students of Chinese; establishment of a library on…

The China Project.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gross, Steve; Juefei, Wang

1991-01-01

Nearly half of all Vermont school districts have participated in the China Project since its inception in 1986. During the program's first two years, participants examined Chinese history, politics, economy, geography, philosophy, arts, ancient inventions, foreign policy, social life, women's social status, the Chinese language, and the Beijing…

Teacher Training in a Synchronous Cyber Face-to-Face Classroom: Characterizing and Supporting the Online Teachers' Learning Process

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Yuping; Chen, Nian-Shing; Levy, Mike

2010-01-01

This article discusses the learning process undertaken by language teachers in a cyber face-to-face teacher training program. Eight tertiary Chinese language teachers attended a 12-week training program conducted in an online synchronous learning environment characterized by multimedia-based, oral and visual interaction. The term "cyber…

Taiwan's Chinese Language Development and the Creation of Language Teaching Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tsai, Cheng-Hui; Wang, Chuan Po

2015-01-01

Chinese Teaching in Taiwan in recent years in response to the international trend of development, making at all levels of Chinese language teaching in full swing, for the recent boom in Chinese language teaching, many overseas Chinese language learning for children also had a passion while actively learning Chinese language, and even many overseas…

"That Didn't Work, Did It? I Need to Know How to Do that!" Delivering Classroom Activities to Maximise Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Conway, Clare; Richards, Heather; Harvey, Sharon; Roskvist, Annelies

2011-01-01

Many novice language teachers have difficulty putting into practice their developing knowledge of language teaching. This article focuses on one of seven case study teachers as an exemplar of those involved in a New Zealand in-service professional development program for teachers of languages (Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Spanish) in…

Research in the School of Languages and Linguistics at Griffith University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fenton-Smith, Ben; Walkinshaw, Ian

2014-01-01

Griffith University is set across five campuses in south-east Queensland, Australia, and has a student population of 43,000. The School of Languages and Linguistics (LAL) offers programs in linguistics, international English, Chinese, Italian, Japanese and Spanish, as well as English language enhancement courses. Research strands reflect the…

Curriculum design and German student exchange for Sino-German Bachelor program majored in optoelectronics engineering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zheng, Jihong; Fuhrmann, Thomas; Xu, Boqing; Schreiner, Rupert; Jia, Hongzhi; Zhang, Wei; Wang, Ning; Seebauer, Gudrun; Zhu, Jiyan

2017-08-01

Different higher education backgrounds in China and Germany led to challenges in the curriculum design at the beginning of our cooperative bachelor program in Optoelectronics Engineering. We see challenges in different subject requirements from both sides and in the German language requirements for Chinese students. The curriculum was optimized according to the ASIIN criteria, which makes it acceptable and understandable by both countries. German students are integrated into the Chinese class and get the same lectures like their Chinese colleagues. Intercultural and curriculum challenges are successfully solved. The results are summarized to provide an example for other similar international programs.

On Developing HyperCard Stacks for the Study of Chinese Characters: KanjiCard.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nakajima, Kazuko

1988-01-01

Describes "KanjiCard," an interactive self-tutorial program for beginning students of Japanese to learn Kanji, Chinese characters used in the Japanese language. The Macintosh-developed approach uses "HyperCard" technology, computer-assisted animation, and voice digitizing to achieve enhanced graphic presentation. (Author/CB)

Home Literacy Environment and Its Influence on Singaporean Children's Chinese Oral and Written Language Abilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Li; Tan, Chee Lay

2016-01-01

In a bilingual environment such as Singaporean Chinese community, the challenge of maintaining Chinese language and sustaining Chinese culture lies in promoting the daily use of Chinese language in oral and written forms among children. Ample evidence showed the effect of the home language and literacy environment (HLE), on children's language and…

Cognitive Development of Chinese Urban Only Children and Children with Siblings.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jiao, Shulan; And Others

1996-01-01

First- and fifth-grade only-children and children with siblings completed 11 cognitive tasks to investigate differences in cognitive abilities that may exist due to the Chinese 1-child family planning program. Superiority of grade one only-children over children with siblings appeared for memory processes, language skills, and mathematics.…

Global Learning Scales up

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schachter, Ron

2011-01-01

Becoming more global is a familiar refrain for many a school administrator or curriculum developer wrestling with delivering 21st century skills. Over the past decade, districts have expanded their foreign language programs, added Mandarin Chinese to the mix, and in some cases launched language immersion classes in their elementary schools. Others…

Is it culture or is it language? Examination of language effects in cross-cultural research on categorization.

PubMed

Ji, Li-Jun; Zhang, Zhiyong; Nisbett, Richard E

2004-07-01

Differences in reasoning styles between Chinese and European Americans held even when controlling for the language of testing. Bilingual Chinese organized objects in a more relational and less categorical way than European Americans, whether tested in English or in Chinese. Thus, culture affects categorization independent of the testing language. Nevertheless, language affected some Chinese bilinguals' categorization. The responses of Chinese from the Mainland and Taiwan were more relational when tested in Chinese than when tested in English. Responses of Chinese from Hong Kong and Singapore were equally relational when tested in Chinese and in English. Age and context of learning English are discussed to explain the differential language effects among different Chinese groups. Theoretical and methodological implications are discussed. Copyright 2004 American Psychological Association

"Sorry, but They Don't Want Chinese Americans to Participate": A Case Study of Tracking in an Ivy League Chinese Language Programme

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tian, Ye

2017-01-01

This study examines a Chinese language programme in an Ivy League institution through the lens of Tracking to re-conceptualise the achievement gap between Chinese heritage language learners (CHLLs) and non-heritage language learners. Like most prestigious universities in the U.S., Chinese language learners in this case study are put on one of two…

Dialogic and Hortatory Features in the Writing of Chinese Candidates for the IELTS Test

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mayor, Barbara M.

2006-01-01

Research conducted in the context of the IELTS Research Program indicates that there are recurrent features in the writing under test conditions of candidates from Chinese language backgrounds, particularly in terms of interpersonal tenor. These include a high level of interpersonal reference, combined with a heavily dialogic and hortatory style.…

Access and Aspirations: Careers in Teaching As Seen by Canadian University Students of Chinese and Punjabi-Sikh Ancestry.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beynon, June; Toohey, Kelleen

1995-01-01

Students of Chinese and Punjabi-Sikh ancestry are underrepresented in teacher education programs in British Columbia. Interviews with 34 college students from these ethnic groups found that career choice was influenced most strongly by parental expectations, and was also affected by cultural sex role attitudes, English language proficiency, and…

Clean Energy Solutions Center Services (Chinese Translation) (Fact Sheet)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Not Available

2014-04-01

This is the Chinese language translation of the Clean Energy Solutions Center (Solutions Center) fact sheet. The Solutions Center helps governments, advisors and analysts create policies and programs that advance the deployment of clean energy technologies. The Solutions Center partners with international organizations to provide online training, expert assistance, and technical resources on clean energy policy.

The Learning of Chinese Idioms through Multimedia Storytelling Prototype

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Ee Hui; Hew, Soon Hin; Choo, Siew Hwa

2016-01-01

In recent years, the growth of China has successfully boosted the Chinese language to be studied by people from different language-speaking societies. The Chinese language has become the most preferred second or third language among non-Chinese native novices due to the great development of China and global economic change. The Chinese idiom is…

Language-specific memory for everyday arithmetic facts in Chinese-English bilinguals.

PubMed

Chen, Yalin; Yanke, Jill; Campbell, Jamie I D

2016-04-01

The role of language in memory for arithmetic facts remains controversial. Here, we examined transfer of memory training for evidence that bilinguals may acquire language-specific memory stores for everyday arithmetic facts. Chinese-English bilingual adults (n = 32) were trained on different subsets of simple addition and multiplication problems. Each operation was trained in one language or the other. The subsequent test phase included all problems with addition and multiplication alternating across trials in two blocks, one in each language. Averaging over training language, the response time (RT) gains for trained problems relative to untrained problems were greater in the trained language than in the untrained language. Subsequent analysis showed that English training produced larger RT gains for trained problems relative to untrained problems in English at test relative to the untrained Chinese language. In contrast, there was no evidence with Chinese training that problem-specific RT gains differed between Chinese and the untrained English language. We propose that training in Chinese promoted a translation strategy for English arithmetic (particularly multiplication) that produced strong cross-language generalization of practice, whereas training in English strengthened relatively weak, English-language arithmetic memories and produced little generalization to Chinese (i.e., English training did not induce an English translation strategy for Chinese language trials). The results support the existence of language-specific strengthening of memory for everyday arithmetic facts.

First-Language Longitudinal Predictors of Second-Language Literacy in Young L2 Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shum, Kathy Kar-man; Ho, Connie Suk-Han; Siegel, Linda S.; Au, Terry Kit-fong

2016-01-01

Can young students' early reading abilities in their first language (L1) predict later literacy development in a second language (L2)? The cross-language relationships between Chinese (L1) and English (L2) among 87 Hong Kong students were explored in a longitudinal study. Chinese word-reading fluency, Chinese rapid digit naming, and Chinese rhyme…

An Instrument for Investigating Chinese Language Learning Environments in Singapore Secondary Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chua, Siew Lian; Wong, Angela F. L.; Chen, Der-Thanq

2009-01-01

This paper describes how a new classroom environment instrument, the "Chinese Language Classroom Environment Inventory (CLCEI)", was developed to investigate the nature of Chinese language classroom learning environments in Singapore secondary schools. The CLCEI is a bilingual instrument (English and Chinese Language) with 48 items…

Ethnic Contestation and Language Policy in a Plural Society: The Chinese Language Movement in Malaysia, 1952-1967

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yao Sua, Tan; Hooi See, Teoh

2014-01-01

The Chinese language movement was launched by the Chinese educationists to demand the recognition of Chinese as an official language to legitimise the status of Chinese education in the national education system in Malaysia. It began in 1952 as a response to the British attempt to establish national primary schools teaching in English and Malay to…

"CLASS Professional Standards" for K-12 Chinese Language Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Lucy C.; Lin, Yu-Lan; Su, Chih-Wen

2007-01-01

"CLASS Professional Standards" is a resource for Chinese teachers, foreign language specialists, school administrators, parents, and policy makers who recognize the importance of Chinese cultures taught by professional teachers of Chinese. The release of the book also marks the celebration of the Chinese Language Association of…

A Multicultural Social Studies Series for C.S.L. Students. Book 1. Europe.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chan, Yiu Man

This text is written primarily for students of Chinese as a second language who are continuing in the ESEA Title VII Chinese Bilingual Pilot Program at the secondary level, and introduces different aspects and general knowledge of Europe. The text is divided into twenty-five lessons, having the following headings: European Countries, Class, On the…

A Multicultural Social Studies Series for C.S.L. Students, Book 2.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moy, Mary C.; And Others

A multicultural social studies text for junior high school students of Chinese as a second language is presented. This level two text is designed for the Chinese Bilingual Pilot Program sponsored through the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, Title VII. The book consists of 25 lessons with no more than 50 characters each. Each lesson has a…

The Teaching of Chinese as a Second or Foreign Language: a Systematic Review of the Literature 2005-2015

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ma, Xiuli; Gong, Yang; Gao, Xuesong; Xiang, Yiqing

2017-01-01

This paper reports the results of a review of research articles on the teaching of Chinese as a second or foreign language published in four leading mainland Chinese journals during the years 2005-2015. The review found that Chinese language researchers are exploring a wide array of issues including language policy and planning, language learning…

Looking Chinese and Learning Chinese as a Heritage Language: The Role of Habitus

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mu, Guanglun Michael

2016-01-01

The identity-language link has been widely recognised. In Heritage Language research, the complex entanglement between Chinese ethnic identity and Chinese Heritage Language has gained increasing attention in recent decades. Both social psychological and poststructural schools have offered meaningful insights into this field, but have also received…

Higher Achievement and Improvement through Instruction with Computers and Scholarly Transition and Resource Systems Program. OREA Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berney, Tomi D.; Plotkin, Donna

Project HAITI STARS served 360 students, native speakers of Haitian Creole, Spanish, and Chinese, in its first year through supplementary instruction in English as a Second Language (ESL), native language arts (NLA), and bilingual mathematics, science, and social studies. The project provided students with academic and personal counseling,…

Teaching Accounting in English in Higher Education--Does the Language Matter?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cai, Huan; Wang, Meining; Yang, Yingmei

2018-01-01

Learning business related courses, especially accounting, in English is a challenge for many Chinese students. The purpose of this study is to provide some insights into the role of the language in accounting learning. We investigate this issue in the program of Teaching Business Related Courses in English for undergraduate students at Guangdong…

Validation of the "Chinese Language Classroom Learning Environment Inventory" for Investigating the Nature of Chinese Language Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lian, Chua Siew; Wong, Angela F. L.; Der-Thanq, Victor Chen

2006-01-01

The Chinese Language Classroom Environment Inventory (CLCEI) is a bilingual instrument developed for use in measuring students' and teachers' perceptions toward their Chinese Language classroom learning environments in Singapore secondary schools. The English version of the CLCEI was customised from the English version of the "What is…

Research among Learners of Chinese as a Foreign Language. Chinese Language Teachers Association Monograph Series. Volume IV

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Everson, Michael E., Ed.; Shen, Helen H., Ed.

2010-01-01

Cutting-edge in its approach and international in its authorship, this fourth monograph in a series sponsored by the Chinese Language Teachers Association features eight research studies that explore a variety of themes, topics, and perspectives important to a variety of stakeholders in the Chinese language learning community. Employing a wide…

International Symposium on Chinese Languages and Linguistics Proceedings (4th, Taipei, Taiwan, July 18-20, 1994).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ho, Dah-an, Ed.; Tseng, Chiu-yu, Ed.

This publication of proceedings, most in English and some in Chinese, of a conference on Chinese languages and linguistics include the following papers: "On Rule Effect and Dialect Classification" (Chin-Chuan Cheng); "Cross-Linguistic Typological Variation, Grammatical Relations, and the Chinese Language" (Bernard Comrie); "Is Chinese a Pragmatic…

The Three-Year (1995-1997) Workplace Literacy Program at Chinatown Manpower Project, Inc. Final Evaluation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Friedenberg, Joan E.

An external evaluation was conducted of the Workplace Literacy Program at Chinatown Manpower Project, Inc., which provided oral and written job-specific instruction in English as a second language to Chinese garment workers. The program was designed for underemployed garment industry workers with low English proficiency, including seamstresses,…

PROGRAMED SELF-INSTRUCTION IN MANDARIN CHINESE, OBSERVATIONS OF STUDENT PROGRESS WITH AN AUTOMATED AUDIO-VISUAL INSTRUCTIONAL DEVICE.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

CARROLL, JOHN B.

RESEARCH WAS UNDERTAKEN TO DETERMINE WHETHER SPOKEN AND WRITTEN FOREIGN LANGUAGE SKILLS COULD BE TAUGHT BY PROGRAMED SELF-INSTRUCTION USING THE MOST PRACTICAL AND WELL-DESIGNED AUDIOVISUAL TECHNIQUES AVAILABLE. THE PRESENTATION DEVICE, OR TEACHING MACHINE, WAS DESIGNED AND CONSTRUCTED TO SERVE THE SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS OF PROGRAMED SELF-INSTRUCTION…

Negotiation of Meaning and Language-Related Episodes in Synchronous, Audio-Based Chinese-German eTandem

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Renner, Julia

2017-01-01

The present paper examines negotiation of meaning and language-related episodes in Chinese-German eTandem interaction, focusing on Chinese as target language. Against the background of the interactionist approach to language learning and drawing upon Swain and Lapkin's (1998, Interaction and second language learning: Two adolescent French…

Newton High School Project Capable, 1982-1983. O.E.E. Evaluation Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Young, John; And Others

Project CAPABLE, in its first year of funding, provided instruction in English as a Second Language (ESL) and native language skills, as well as bilingual instruction in science and social studies, to approximately 500 Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese students in grades 9-12. The program operated at three sites in the New York City borough of…

Bilingual Resource Instruction for the Development of Gainful Employment Skills. Project BRIDGES 1988-89. OREA Evaluation Section Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berney, Tomi D.; Plotkin, Donna

Project BRIDGES, a 3-year program conducted for students of limited English proficiency (LEP) at three High Schools in Brooklyn (New York City) sought to develop the English language, academic, and vocational skills of a high-risk LEP population. The native languages of the participating students were Haitian Creole, Spanish, Chinese, Hebrew, and…

Newton High School Project CAPABLE 1984-1985. OEA Evaluation Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

1986

In 1984-85, Project CAPABLE was in its final year of a 3-year funding cycle at schools in New York City. The program provided instruction in English as a second language, native language arts, bilingual science, and bilingual social studies to 324 Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese-speaking students of limited English proficiency (LEP) in Grades 9…

Multilingual Education in Macao

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Young, Ming Yee Carissa

2009-01-01

This paper focuses on the current use of the three written languages (Chinese, Portuguese and English) and the four spoken languages (Chinese-Cantonese, Chinese-Putonghua, Portuguese and English) in Macao, a former Portuguese colony (1557-1999) which is now a Special Administrative Region of China. Chinese and Portuguese are official languages,…

[The therapeutic drug monitoring network server of tacrolimus for Chinese renal transplant patients].

PubMed

Deng, Chen-Hui; Zhang, Guan-Min; Bi, Shan-Shan; Zhou, Tian-Yan; Lu, Wei

2011-07-01

This study is to develop a therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) network server of tacrolimus for Chinese renal transplant patients, which can facilitate doctor to manage patients' information and provide three levels of predictions. Database management system MySQL was employed to build and manage the database of patients and doctors' information, and hypertext mark-up language (HTML) and Java server pages (JSP) technology were employed to construct network server for database management. Based on the population pharmacokinetic model of tacrolimus for Chinese renal transplant patients, above program languages were used to construct the population prediction and subpopulation prediction modules. Based on Bayesian principle and maximization of the posterior probability function, an objective function was established, and minimized by an optimization algorithm to estimate patient's individual pharmacokinetic parameters. It is proved that the network server has the basic functions for database management and three levels of prediction to aid doctor to optimize the regimen of tacrolimus for Chinese renal transplant patients.

Brain potentials reveal unconscious translation during foreign-language comprehension.

PubMed

Thierry, Guillaume; Wu, Yan Jing

2007-07-24

Whether the native language of bilingual individuals is active during second-language comprehension is the subject of lively debate. Studies of bilingualism have often used a mix of first- and second-language words, thereby creating an artificial "dual-language" context. Here, using event-related brain potentials, we demonstrate implicit access to the first language when bilinguals read words exclusively in their second language. Chinese-English bilinguals were required to decide whether English words presented in pairs were related in meaning or not; they were unaware of the fact that half of the words concealed a character repetition when translated into Chinese. Whereas the hidden factor failed to affect behavioral performance, it significantly modulated brain potentials in the expected direction, establishing that English words were automatically and unconsciously translated into Chinese. Critically, the same modulation was found in Chinese monolinguals reading the same words in Chinese, i.e., when Chinese character repetition was evident. Finally, we replicated this pattern of results in the auditory modality by using a listening comprehension task. These findings demonstrate that native-language activation is an unconscious correlate of second-language comprehension.

Identifying Chinese Heritage Learners' Motivations, Learning Needs and Learning Goals: A Case Study of a Cohort of Heritage Learners in an Australian University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xu, Hui Ling; Moloney, Robyn

2014-01-01

There is increasing enrolment of Chinese heritage language learners in tertiary Chinese language classrooms across Australia. Educated in English, Chinese heritage learners are of diverse national origins and the Chinese language varieties to which they have been exposed through family or community are also diverse. Recent research in this field…

LEP Students in Special High School Programs, 1987-88. Evaluation Section Report. OREA Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berney, Tomi D.; Asselle, Maria Grazia

The LEP (limited-English-proficient) Students in Special High Schools Program, funded from a variety of sources, was partially implemented in 1987-88. The program's aim was to provide 277 LEP students, whose native languages were Chinese, Haitian Creole/French, and Spanish, with equal access to 8 educational-option and 5 vocational/technical high…

National Workplace Literacy Program (NWL) at Chinatown Manpower Project, Inc. Final Performance Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tse, Ivy Au

The Chinatown Manpower Workplace Literacy Program was funded by the United States Department from November 1, 1993 to April 30, 1995. The program consisted of three 18-week cycles, each comprised of 50 hours of instruction of garment-related English and English as a Second Language aimed at upgrading the literacy level of Chinese workers;…

Long-Term Experience with Chinese Language Shapes the Fusiform Asymmetry of English Reading

PubMed Central

Mei, Leilei; Xue, Gui; Lu, Zhong-Lin; Chen, Chuansheng; Wei, Miao; He, Qinghua; Dong, Qi

2015-01-01

Previous studies have suggested differential engagement of the bilateral fusiform gyrus in the processing of Chinese and English. The present study tested the possibility that long-term experience with Chinese language affects the fusiform laterality of English reading by comparing three samples: Chinese speakers, English speakers with Chinese experience, and English speakers without Chinese experience. We found that, when reading words in their respective native language, Chinese and English speakers without Chinese experience differed in functional laterality of the posterior fusiform region (right laterality for Chinese speakers, but left laterality for English speakers). More importantly, compared with English speakers without Chinese experience, English speakers with Chinese experience showed more recruitment of the right posterior fusiform cortex for English words and pseudowords, which is similar to how Chinese speakers processed Chinese. These results suggest that long-term experience with Chinese shapes the fusiform laterality of English reading and have important implications for our understanding of the cross-language influences in terms of neural organization and of the functions of different fusiform subregions in reading. PMID:25598049

Reading the World through Words: Cultural Themes in Heritage Chinese Language Textbooks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Curdt-Christiansen, Xiao Lan

2008-01-01

This paper explores the social and cultural knowledge embedded in the textbooks for language and literacy education in a Chinese heritage language school, the Zhonguo School, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It examines how Chinese language arts textbooks introduce the child reader to cultural knowledge considered legitimate and valued in China as…

Understanding Teachers' Professional Identity and Beliefs in the Chinese Heritage Language School in the USA

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wu, Hsu-Pai; Palmer, Deborah K.; Field, Sherry L.

2011-01-01

Heritage language education has come to prominence worldwide. Despite the increasing number of Chinese heritage language learners and Chinese schools in the USA, little attention has been given to teachers. This study investigated three heritage language teachers' professional identity and beliefs about curriculum and instructional practices in a…

The evaluation of a culturally appropriate, community-based lifestyle intervention program for elderly Chinese immigrants with chronic diseases: a pilot study.

PubMed

Lu, Yifan; Dipierro, Moneika; Chen, Lingjun; Chin, Richard; Fava, Maurizio; Yeung, Albert

2014-03-01

The 'Healthy Habits Program' is a 6-month community-based program, which offers exercise facilities, training and weekly health education group to underserved elderly Chinese Americans with chronic medical diseases in their native languages. This pilot study evaluates the acceptability and the health effects of the 'Healthy Habits Program'. Ninety-nine subjects participated in the 'Healthy Habits Program' in 2011. Before and after the program, the participants were assessed in their physical and mental health using various fitness tests as well as measures of disability and psychological functioning. Participants provided overwhelmingly positive feedback on the program, which was associated with significant improvements in physical and mental health including a significant decrease in body mass index (BMI), blood pressure and increase in stamina. The participants reported lower mean scores on the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 item Scale (PHQ-9), indicating improved psychological well-being. These promising pilot study results from this lifestyle intervention program for elderly Chinese American immigrants with chronic diseases inform the design of a more definitive trial using a randomized design and larger sample size.

English and Chinese languages as weighted complex networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sheng, Long; Li, Chunguang

2009-06-01

In this paper, we analyze statistical properties of English and Chinese written human language within the framework of weighted complex networks. The two language networks are based on an English novel and a Chinese biography, respectively, and both of the networks are constructed in the same way. By comparing the intensity and density of connections between the two networks, we find that high weight connections in Chinese language networks prevail more than those in English language networks. Furthermore, some of the topological and weighted quantities are compared. The results display some differences in the structural organizations between the two language networks. These observations indicate that the two languages may have different linguistic mechanisms and different combinatorial natures.

Medicine use of elderly Chinese and Vietnamese immigrants and attitudes to home medicines review.

PubMed

White, Lesley; Klinner, Christiane

2012-01-01

There is a paucity of research into the perceptions of elderly Australian ethnic minorities towards public health services related to quality use of medicines. Among the six fastest growing ethnic groups in Australia, the Mandarin-speaking Chinese and Vietnamese constitute the largest elderly populations with poor English skills. This paper investigates the relationships of elderly Chinese and Vietnamese migrants with medicines, general practitioners and pharmacists, and how these relationships influence their awareness and attitudes of the home medicines review (HMR) program. Two semi-structured focus groups were held with a total of 17 HMR-eligible patients who have never received a HMR, one with Chinese and one with Vietnamese respondents, each in the respective community language. Confusion about medications and an intention to have a HMR were pronounced among all participants although none of them had heard of the program before participating in the focus groups. Respondents reported difficulties locating a pharmacist who spoke their native language, which contributed to an increased unmet need for medicine information. The Chinese group additionally complained about a lack of support from their general practitioners in relation to their medicine concerns and was adamant that they would prefer to have a HMR without the involvement of their general practitioner. Our results indicate a distinct HMR need but not use among elderly Chinese and Vietnamese eligible patients with poor English skills. Home medicines review service use and perceived medication problems are likely to improve with an increasing availability of bilingual and culturally sensitive health care providers.

Linkit: A CALL System for Learning Chinese Characters, Words, and Phrases

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shei, Chris; Hsieh, Hsun-Ping

2012-01-01

Teaching Chinese as a foreign language (TCFL) is increasingly becoming a mainstream profession and an independent academic discipline. However, there is little research in CALL targeting the Chinese language to date. This research attempts to show how a CALL system can be constructed following the unique properties of the Chinese language so it…

Semantic Radical Knowledge and Word Recognition in Chinese for Chinese as Foreign Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Su, Xiaoxiang; Kim, Young-Suk

2014-01-01

In the present study, we examined the relation of knowledge of semantic radicals to students' language proficiency and word reading for adult Chinese-as-a-foreign language students. Ninety-seven college students rated their proficiency in speaking, listening, reading, and writing in Chinese, and were administered measures of receptive and…

More than "Hello" and "Bye-Bye": Opening and Closing the Online Chats in Mandarin Chinese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, De

2014-01-01

Reporting on a descriptive study on the first semester Chinese language learners' openings and closings in online chats with age-peer native speakers of Chinese, this paper demonstrates the great promise that telecollaboration holds for foreign language education, and argues for an increasing role of pragmatics in Chinese language instruction, and…

Cross-Language Transfer of Insight into the Structure of Compound Words

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Jie; Anderson, Richard C.; Li, Hong; Dong, Qiong; Wu, Xinchun; Zhang, Yan

2010-01-01

Cross-language transfer of awareness of the structure of compound words was investigated among native speakers of Chinese who were learning English as a second language. Chinese fifth graders received instruction in the morphology of four types of compound words in either Chinese or English. They then completed both the Chinese and English…

Educating Teachers of "Chinese as a Local/Global Language": Teaching "Chinese with Australian Characteristics"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Singh, Michael; Han, Jinghe

2014-01-01

How can the education of teacher-researchers from China be framed in ways so that they might make Chinese learnable for primary and secondary school learners for whom English is their everyday language of instruction and communication. The concept "making Chinese learnable" and the characters of the language learners are explained in the…

The Use of Discourse Markers among Mandarin Chinese Teachers, and Chinese as a Second Language and Chinese as a Foreign Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tsai, Pei-Shu; Chu, Wo-Hsin

2017-01-01

This study investigates how the use of discourse markers reflects speaking fluency in Chinese learners. In this study, 220 min of online Chinese courses were transcribed, with 17 Chinese learners and 5 native Chinese teachers as participants. Half of the transcribed data were drawn from students living in Taipei, Taiwan, a Chinese-speaking…

Struggling to Thrive: The Impact of Chinese Language Assessments on Social Mobility of Hong Kong Ethnic Minority Youth

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Loh, Elizabeth K. Y.; Tam, Loretta C. W.

2016-01-01

The paper explores how the policy of alternative Chinese qualifications policy affects ethnic minorities' (EM) social mobility, and how such multi-exit assessment framework affects Chinese as a second language learning and teaching in Hong Kong. Chinese language (CL) qualifications other than the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE)…

Engaging a "Truly Foreign" Language and Culture: China through Chinese Film

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ning, Cynthia

2009-01-01

In this article, the author shares how she uses Chinese film in her Chinese language and culture classes. She demonstrates how Chinese films can help students "navigate the uncharted universe of Chinese culture" with reference to several contemporary Chinese films. She describes how intensive viewing of films can develop a deeper and…

75 FR 5767 - All Terrain Vehicle Chinese Language Webinar; Meeting

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-02-04

... CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION All Terrain Vehicle Chinese Language Webinar; Meeting AGENCY... announcing the following meeting: All Terrain Vehicle Chinese Language Webinar. The webinar will focus on CPSC's requirements for ATV's, including CPSC's Action Plan and mandatory vehicle requirements. Date...

Personality expression in Chinese language use.

PubMed

Qiu, Lin; Lu, Jiahui; Ramsay, Jonathan; Yang, Shanshan; Qu, Weina; Zhu, Tingshao

2017-12-01

To date, little research has investigated personality expressions in languages other than English. Given that the Chinese language has the largest number of native speakers in the world, it is vitally important to examine the associations between personality and Chinese language use. In this research, we analysed Chinese microblogs and identified word categories and factorial structures associated with personality traits. We also compared our results with previous findings in English and showed that linguistic expression of personality has both universal- and language-specific aspects. Expression of personality via content words is more likely to be consistent across languages than expression via function words. This makes an important step towards uncovering universal patterns of personality expression in language. © 2016 International Union of Psychological Science.

A Chinese Interactive Feedback System for a Virtual Campus

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Jui-Fa; Lin, Wei-Chuan; Jian, Chih-Yu; Hung, Ching-Chung

2008-01-01

Considering the popularity of the Internet, an automatic interactive feedback system for Elearning websites is becoming increasingly desirable. However, computers still have problems understanding natural languages, especially the Chinese language, firstly because the Chinese language has no space to segment lexical entries (its segmentation…

Teletext and TV Programs for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Japan.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Akiyama, Takashiro

1984-01-01

Teletext broadcasting in the Japanese Language was begun in 1983 by the NHK (Japanese Broadcasting Corporation). It adopts the Pattern Transmission Method, since over 3,000 Chinese characters, in addition to the 46 Katakana and 46 Hiragana syllabaries, are necessary to write sentences in Japanese. Currently, the teletext programs consist of news,…

How Do Chinese ESL Learners Recognize English Words during a Reading Test? A Comparison with Romance-Language-Speaking ESL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Hongli; Suen, Hoi K.

2015-01-01

This study examines how Chinese ESL learners recognize English words while responding to a multiple-choice reading test as compared to Romance-language-speaking ESL learners. Four adult Chinese ESL learners and three adult Romance-language-speaking ESL learners participated in a think-aloud study with the Michigan English Language Assessment…

Mandarin Chinese Function Catalog and Rolebook. Method for Determining Language Objectives and Criteria, Volume IX.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Setzler, Hubert H., Jr.; And Others

A Mandarin Chinese Function Catalog and Instructor Rolebook for Mandarin Chinese are presented. The catalog and rolebook are part of the communication/language objectives-based system (C/LOBS), which supports the front-end analysis efforts of the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center. The C/LOBS project, which is described in 13…

Phonological and Visual Similarity Effects in Chinese and English Language Users: Implications for the Use of Cognitive Resources in Short-Term Memory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cole, Rachel L.; Pickering, Susan J.

2010-01-01

This study investigated the encoding strategies employed by Chinese and English language users when recalling sequences of pictured objects. The working memory performance of native English participants (n = 14) and Chinese speakers of English as a second language (Chinese ESL; n = 14) was compared using serial recall of visually-presented…

Let's Tweet in Chinese! Exploring How Learners of Chinese as a Foreign Language Self-Direct Their Use of Microblogging to Learn Chinese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hsiao, Ya Ping; Broeder, Peter

2014-01-01

Twitter is becoming increasingly popular as a medium for language learning. This study explores self-directed learning via social interactions that use Twitter as an interactive learning environment. The participants in this study were thirty university students of Chinese as a foreign language at levels 1 and 2 of the "Hanyu Shuiping…

Schools without Walls

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Howe, Dorothea

2008-01-01

The state of Ohio made globalizing its education a priority. The Ohio Department of Education benchmarked its practices against world-class standards, expanded visiting teacher programs, and promoted Chinese Mandarin language instruction and curriculum development in Ohio classrooms. Numerous partnerships extended and supported those practices.…

Dealing with Distinctiveness. Development of Chinese in the "Australian Curriculum: Languages"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scrimgeour, Andrew; Foster, Marnie; Mao, Weifeng

2013-01-01

This article explores some of the distinctive challenges in Chinese language education in schools and discusses how the development of the "Australian Curriculum: Chinese" has responded to these challenges. It details how the curriculum framework outlined in the "Shape of the Australian Curriculum: Languages" (ACARA, 2011)…

Stakeholder Views on the Roles, Challenges, and Future Prospects of Korean and Chinese Heritage Language-Community Language Schools in Phoenix: A Comparative Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

You, Byeong-keun; Liu, Na

2011-01-01

This study examines stakeholders' perspectives on Korean and Chinese heritage language and community language (HL-CL) schools and education in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area, Arizona. It investigates and compares the roles, major challenges, and future prospects of Korean and Chinese HL-CL schools as viewed by principals, teachers, and parents. To…

Teenagers Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language in a European Confucius Institute: The Relationship between Language Learner Strategies and Successful Learning Factors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cáceres-Lorenzo, MTeresa

2015-01-01

The present research aims to identify the factors involved in the successful completion of the "Young Chinese Test" 2-A1 (YCT 2-A1) at Spanish Confucius Institute (Canary Islands). Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) entails several learning difficulties compared with other European languages. This study was conducted on 61 monolingual…

The Influence of Chinese Character Handwriting Diagnosis and Remedial Instruction System on Learners of Chinese as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hsiao, Hsien-Sheng; Chang, Cheng-Sian; Chen, Chiao-Jia; Wu, Chia-Hou; Lin, Chien-Yu

2015-01-01

This study designed and developed a Chinese character handwriting diagnosis and remedial instruction (CHDRI) system to improve Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) learners' ability to write Chinese characters. The CFL learners were given two tests based on the CHDRI system. One test focused on Chinese character handwriting to diagnose the CFL…

Information Technology Progress in North Korea and Its Prospects

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-08-01

North Korean company agreed to develop a Korean- Chinese language-interpretation software together with a South Korean company, L&I Soft. The North...Chosun cuisine , and Chosun stamps. Furthermore, governmental agencies and university research institutes developed roughly 10 programs for the Science

Reading Comprehension, Working Memory and Higher-Level Language Skills in Children with SLI and/or Dyslexia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wong, Anita M.-Y.; Ho, Connie S.-H.; Au, Terry K.-F.; McBride, Catherine; Ng, Ashley K.-H.; Yip, Lesley P.-W.; Lam, Catherine C.-C.

2017-01-01

This study examined (1) whether working memory and higher-level languages skills--inferencing and comprehension monitoring--accounted for individual differences among Chinese children in Chinese reading comprehension, after controlling for age, Chinese word reading and oral language skills, and (2) whether children with specific language…

Designing between Pedagogies and Cultures: Audio-Visual Chinese Language Resources for Australian Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yuan, Yifeng; Shen, Huizhong

2016-01-01

This design-based study examines the creation and development of audio-visual Chinese language teaching and learning materials for Australian schools by incorporating users' feedback and content writers' input that emerged in the designing process. Data were collected from workshop feedback of two groups of Chinese-language teachers from primary…

Chinese Language Education in Europe: The Confucius Institutes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Starr, Don

2009-01-01

This article explores the background to the Chinese government's decision to embark on a programme of promoting the study of Chinese language and culture overseas. This includes the impact of Joseph Nye's concept of "soft power" in China, ownership of the national language, the Confucius connection, and how these factors interact with…

Chinese Language Teachers' Orientation to Reading Instruction and Their Instructional Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lau, Kit-ling

2007-01-01

This study aimed to develop a set of quantitative instruments to investigate Hong Kong Chinese language teachers' orientation to reading instruction, their instructional practices and the relation between these two constructs under the implementation of the new curriculum. A total of 493 Chinese language teachers from 170 secondary schools in Hong…

The Bilingual Program in Auxiliary Services for High Schools, 1982-1983. O.E.E. Evaluation Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lehman, Sheila; Schulman, Robert

In 1982-83, this program provided instruction in English as a Second Language and bilingual instruction in four content areas to 1,690 Spanish, Chinese, Haitian, Greek, and Italian students of limited English proficiency (LEP) at eight daytime and eight evening learning centers located at 15 different sites throughout New York City. Created in…

Institutions of Higher Education as Public Diplomacy Tools: China-Based University Programs for the 21st Century

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Metzgar, Emily T.

2016-01-01

Two flagship Chinese universities are home to newly established English-language graduate programs intended to arm international cohorts of future leaders with the skills, knowledge, and insights necessary to thrive in a world in which China will play a leading role. Employing the literature of international education and public diplomacy, this…

Adult Chinese as a Second Language Learners' Willingness to Communicate in Chinese: Effects of Cultural, Affective, and Linguistic Variables.

PubMed

Liu, Meihua

2017-06-01

The present research explored the effects of cultural, affective, and linguistic variables on adult Chinese as a second language learners' willingness to communicate in Chinese. One hundred and sixty-two Chinese as a second language learners from a Chinese university answered the Willingness to Communicate in Chinese Scale, the Intercultural Sensitivity Scale, Chinese Speaking Anxiety Scale, Chinese Learning Motivation Scale, Use of Chinese Profile, as well as the Background Questionnaire. The major findings were as follows: (1) the Willingness to Communicate in Chinese Scales were significantly negatively correlated with Chinese Speaking Anxiety Scale but positively correlated with length of stay in China and (2) Chinese Speaking Anxiety Scale was a powerful negative predictor for the overall willingness to communicate in Chinese and the Willingness to Communicate in Chinese Scales, followed by length of stay in China, Chinese Learning Motivation Scale, interaction attentiveness, and Chinese proficiency level. Apparently, students' willingness to communicate in Chinese is largely determined by their Chinese Speaking Anxiety Scale level and length of stay in China, mediated by other variables such as Chinese proficiency level and intercultural communication sensitivity level.

Cultural differences in strategic behavior: a study in computational estimation.

PubMed

Imbo, Ineke; Lefevre, Jo-Anne

2011-09-01

Imbo and LeFevre (2009) observed that Asians (responding in their 2nd language) selected strategies less adaptively than did non-Asians (responding in their 1st language). In the present research, we tested whether adaptive strategy selection is (a) really more resource demanding for Asians than for non-Asians or (b) more resource demanding for participants answering in a nonpreferred language. Three groups of participants were tested on a computational estimation task (e.g., 42 × 57 ≈ ?) in no-load and load conditions: 40 Belgian-educated adults who answered in their first language (Dutch), 40 Chinese-educated adults who answered in their first language (Chinese), and 40 Chinese-educated adults who answered in their second language (English). Although the Chinese were faster and more accurate than the Belgians, they selected strategies less adaptively. That is, the Chinese were less likely to choose the strategy that produced the best estimate; this was especially so when their working memory was loaded. Further, we also observed that the Chinese who answered in English were slower than the Chinese who answered in Chinese; this difference was larger for difficult strategies and under working memory load. These results are interpreted in terms of the encoding complex model, whereas the explanation for the adaptivity results is based on cultural differences in educational history. (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved.

Home Literacy Environment and English Language and Literacy Skills among Chinese Young Children Who Learn English as a Second Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yeung, Susanna S.; King, Ronnel B.

2016-01-01

The present study explored the home literacy environment for Chinese ESL kindergarteners and examined the relationships between home literacy practices and language and literacy skills. Ninety Hong Kong Chinese ESL kindergarteners were assessed for English vocabulary, phonological awareness, letter knowledge and word reading. Their parents…

English Phonological Awareness in Bilinguals: A Cross-Linguistic Study of Tamil, Malay and Chinese English-Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dixon, L. Quentin; Chuang, Hui-Kai; Quiroz, Blanca

2012-01-01

To test the lexical restructuring hypothesis among bilingual English-language learners, English phonological awareness (PA), English vocabulary and ethnic language vocabulary (Mandarin Chinese, Malay or Tamil) were assessed among 284 kindergarteners (168 Chinese, 71 Malays and 45 Tamils) in Singapore. A multi-level regression analysis showed that…

Humanistic Content in the Chinese Language Textbooks for Nine Year Compulsory Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Xiao; Sargent, Tanja

2011-01-01

In this paper, we employ quantitative and qualitative content analysis to investigate the nature of humanistic value content in the Chinese language arts curriculum and whether or not this varies across old and new versions of the textbooks. Our findings illustrate the various dimensions of humanistic value content in the Chinese language arts…

Exploring Potential Uses of ICT in Chinese Language Arts Instruction: Eight Teachers' Perspectives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Janet Mei-Chuen; Lee, Greg C.; Chen, Hsiu-Yen

2004-01-01

Eight experienced Chinese language arts teachers from a typical junior high school in Taiwan participated in this study to discuss the potential uses of information and communications technologies (ICT) in Chinese language arts instruction. After meeting for 12 roundtable sessions and using a web forum as a supplement for exchanging ideas, they…

Cross-Language Differences in Informational Masking of Speech by Speech: English versus Mandarin Chinese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wu, Xihong; Yang, Zhigang; Huang, Ying; Chen, Jing; Li, Liang; Daneman, Meredyth; Schneider, Bruce A.

2011-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to determine why perceived spatial separation provides a greater release from informational masking in Chinese than English when target sentences in each of the languages are masked by other talkers speaking the same language. Method: Monolingual speakers of English and Mandarin Chinese listened to…

Oral Spelling and Writing in a Logographic Language: Insights from a Chinese Dysgraphic Individual

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Han, Zaizhu; Bi, Yanchao

2009-01-01

The oral spelling process for logographic languages such as Chinese is intrinsically different from alphabetic languages. In Chinese only a subset of orthographic components are pronounceable and their phonological identities (i.e., component names) do not always correspond to the sound of the whole characters. We show that such phonological…

Where Research, Practice and the Authority Meet: A Collaborative Inquiry for Development of Technology-Enhanced Chinese Language Curricula

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wong, Lung Hsiang; Gao, Ping; Chai, Ching Sing; Chin, Chee Kuen

2011-01-01

This collaborative inquiry project brought together 14 Chinese Language teachers, 4 researchers and 2 Ministry of Education (MOE) curriculum specialists to co-design the Chinese Language curricula with the integrated use of information and communication technology (ICT). Three qualitative data sources--one-to-one interviews, focus group…

Adoption of Blogging by a Chinese Language Composition Class in a Vocational High School in Taiwan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lou, Shi-Jer; Wu, Shi-Chiao; Shih, Ru-Chu; Tseng, Kuo-Hung

2010-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of adopting blogging upon Chinese language composition instruction in a vocational high school in Taiwan. The researchers developed a model that utilises blogging in Chinese language composition instruction. Forty randomly selected students from a public vocational high school served as the…

The Global Reach of Chinese Soft Power: China’s Rise and America’s Decline?

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-09-01

Chinese-language television, music , and film are appealing to more developing nations. The Philippines hosts its own Chinese film festival and even... tourism , promoting the Chinese-culture and language by osmosis. As Beijing has relaxed its policies and encouraged outward investment, Chinese...Chinese Migrants and the Power of Guanxi,” Asia Times, 30 July 2004. 21 Beijing’s relaxation of tourism limits has also allowed more Chinese to

Acquisition of Compound Words in Chinese-English Bilingual Children: Decomposition and Cross-Language Activation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cheng, Chenxi; Wang, Min; Perfetti, Charles A.

2011-01-01

This study investigated compound processing and cross-language activation in a group of Chinese-English bilingual children, and they were divided into four groups based on the language proficiency levels in their two languages. A lexical decision task was designed using compound words in both languages. The compound words in one language contained…

On Chinese Culture Curriculum Planning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Catherine

2006-01-01

The importance of cultural elements in foreign language teaching has been widely accepted in recent years. This applies particularly to the teaching of Chinese as a foreign language (TCFL) to non-native Chinese speakers at tertiary level in mainland China. However, there is no commonly accepted blueprint that defines the parts of Chinese culture…

Saving Chinese-Language Education in Singapore

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Cher Leng

2012-01-01

Three-quarters of Singapore's population consists of ethnic Chinese, and yet, learning Chinese (Mandarin) has been a headache for many Singapore students. Recently, many scholars have argued that the rhetoric of language planning for Mandarin Chinese should be shifted from emphasizing its cultural value to stressing its economic value since…

Factors Influencing the Learning of Chinese Characters

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sung, Ko-Yin; Wu, Hsiao-Ping

2011-01-01

This survey study, which involved 108 language learners enrolled in first-year Chinese as a foreign language classrooms in the United States, intended to address the research questions, "What types of Chinese-character learning strategies do US learners use?" and "Do US learners' Chinese-character learning strategy use differ based on the…

L2 Chinese: Grammatical Development and Processing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mai, Ziyin

2016-01-01

Two recent books (Jiang, 2014, "Advances in Chinese as a second language"; Wang, 2013, "Grammatical development of Chinese among non-native speakers") provide new resources for exploring the role of processing in acquiring Chinese as a second language (L2). This review article summarizes, assesses and compares some of the…

The development of a Chinese-language instrument to measure social smoking motives among male Taiwanese smokers.

PubMed

Huang, Chih-Ling; Cheng, Chung-Ping; Huang, Hui-Wen

2013-10-01

The purpose of this study was to develop a scale to measure the social smoking motives of adult male smokers using a Chinese social context. Three phases were conducted between February 2006 and May 2009. First, the initial instrument development was guided by a literature review, interviews with smokers, and item analysis. Second, the validity and reliability of the refined scale were tested. The factor structures of the Social Smoking Measures (SSM-12) scale were validated. The final scale consists of 12 items. Two factors that account for 49.2% of the variance emerged from the exploratory factor analysis. Cronbach's alpha was .88, and test-retest reliability was .82. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the SSM model was a two-correlated factor. Field testing revealed the SSM-12 to be a reliable and valid Chinese-language instrument to measure social smoking motives, which can be used to guide nursing interventions that support culturally and socially appropriate smoking cessation programs.

Teaching Chinese Negotiating Style through Examination of Key Chinese Categories.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Myers, Dan

This study examined different shades of meaning that a single word may have in Chinese in an effort to better understand the relationship between language and culture. An understanding of the exact meaning of Chinese words and expressions can greatly assist non-Chinese in understanding both the language and the society as a whole. A total of 102…

Cracking the Chinese Character: Radical Sensitivity in Learners of Chinese as a Foreign Language and Its Relationship to Chinese Word Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tong, Xiuli; Yip, Joanna Hew Yan

2015-01-01

Radicals are building blocks of Chinese complex characters and exhibit certain positional, phonological and semantic regularities. This study investigated whether adult non-native learners of Mandarin Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) were aware of the positional (orthographic), phonological and semantic information of radicals, and whether such…

Direct evidence from intraoperative electrocortical stimulation indicates shared and distinct speech production center between Chinese and English languages.

PubMed

Wu, Jinsong; Lu, Junfeng; Zhang, Han; Zhang, Jie; Yao, Chengjun; Zhuang, Dongxiao; Qiu, Tianming; Guo, Qihao; Hu, Xiaobing; Mao, Ying; Zhou, Liangfu

2015-12-01

Chinese processing has been suggested involving distinct brain areas from English. However, current functional localization studies on Chinese speech processing use mostly "indirect" techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging and electroencephalography, lacking direct evidence by means of electrocortical recording. In this study, awake craniotomies in 66 Chinese-speaking glioma patients provide a unique opportunity to directly map eloquent language areas. Intraoperative electrocortical stimulation was conducted and the positive sites for speech arrest, anomia, and alexia were identified separately. With help of stereotaxic neuronavigation system and computational modeling, all positive sites elicited by stimulation were integrated and a series of two- and three-dimension Chinese language probability maps were built. We performed statistical comparisons between the Chinese maps and previously derived English maps. While most Chinese speech arrest areas located at typical language production sites (i.e., 50% positive sites in ventral precentral gyrus, 28% in pars opercularis and pars triangularis), which also serve English production, an additional brain area, the left middle frontal gyrus (Brodmann's areas 6/9), was found to be unique in Chinese production (P < 0.05). Moreover, Chinese speakers' inferior ventral precentral gyrus (Brodmann's area 6) was used more than that in English speakers. Our finding suggests that Chinese involves more perisylvian region (extending to left middle frontal gyrus) than English. This is the first time that direct evidence supports cross-cultural neurolinguistics differences in human beings. The Chinese language atlas will also helpful in brain surgery planning for Chinese-speakers. Copyright © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The Effects of Language on English Language Learners' Music Preferences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gosselin, Pei-Ying Lin

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of songs in different languages on English language learners' (ELLs) music preferences. The participants (N = 62) were Chinese graduate students from a state university in the Midwestern United States. The survey contained nine excerpts from popular songs in three languages: Chinese (the…

Cross-Lagged Cross-Subject Bidirectional Predictions among Achievements in Mathematics, English Language and Chinese Language of School Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mok, Magdalena Mo Ching; Zhu, Jinxin; Law, Cecilia Lai Kwan

2017-01-01

This study aimed to explore the cross-lagged association of achievements in mathematics and languages. While the effect of language on achievements in mathematics is well-documented, few studies have examined the reciprocal relationships among mathematics, the Chinese language and the English language in the same study. This study conducted a…

A Dual Coding Model of Processing Chinese as a Second Language: A Cognitive-Load Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sham, Diana Po Lan

2002-01-01

The research was conducted in Sydney and Hong Kong using students, from grades 5 to 9, whose first language or teaching medium was English, learning to read Chinese as second language. According to cognitive load theory, the processing of single Chinese characters accompanied by pictures should impose extraneous cognitive load and thus hinders…

A Critical Review of Research on Strategies in Learning Chinese as Both a Second and Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jiang, Xiaoli; Cohen, Andrew D.

2012-01-01

This article critically reviews strategy research on learning Chinese both as a second and foreign language. Through a careful examination of major data bases in both the Chinese and English languages, the article summarizes research in the field and the principal research methods used in the studies reviewed. Moreover, key limitations in research…

Which Learning Style is Most Effective in Learning Chinese as a Second Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ren, Guanxin

2013-01-01

Chinese is not only a tonal but also a visual language represented by tens of thousands of characters which are pictographic in nature. This presents a great challenge to learners whose mother tongue is alphabetical-based such as English. To assist English-speaking background learners to learn Chinese as a Second Language (CSL) well, a good…

The Role of Emotionality in Teacher Change: The Case of Chinese Language Teachers in Hong Kong

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Loh, Elizabeth K. Y.; Tam, Loretta C. W.

2017-01-01

Over the past decade, Chinese language teachers in Hong Kong have experienced a series of educational reforms. They are now expected to design and implement their own school-based Chinese language curriculum, and adopt innovative pedagogies and customized materials in the classroom. The current literature suggests that some teachers are not ready…

The Wor(l)d is a Collage: Multi-Performance by Chinese Heritage Language Speakers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

He, Agnes Weiyun

2013-01-01

This study examines the simultaneous use of English and Chinese by speakers of Chinese as a heritage language (CHL). It focuses on spontaneous, dynamic, and high-density mixing of the two languages within the smallest building block of a speaking turn: the turn constructional unit (TCU). Drawing upon data from different age and proficiency groups,…

CHINESE-MANDARIN FOR SECONDARY SCHOOL, PART 1--TEACHER'S HANDBOOK.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

San Francisco State Coll., CA.

THIS TEACHER'S HANDBOOK IS FOR LANGUAGE LABORATORY INSTRUCTION IN MANDARIN CHINESE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS. THE MATERIALS ARE PLANNED ACCORDING TO THE CHINESE CURRICULUM ADOPTED BY THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON CHINESE LANGUAGE INSTRUCTION IN CALIFORNIA PUBLIC SCHOOLS, AND CONSTITUTE THE FIRST LEVEL OF A 4-YEAR SEQUENCE TO BE USED BY NINTH-GRADE…

Using "Reading to Learn" (R2L) Pedagogy to Teach Discussion Genre to Non-Chinese-Speaking Students in Hong Kong

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shum, Mark Shiu-kee; Tai, Chung Pui; Shi, Dan

2018-01-01

Non-Chinese-speaking (NCS) South Asian students, as ethnic minority group in Hong Kong, are the main disadvantaged social cohort in Chinese language learning. It has been a challenge for L1 Chinese teachers to conduct L2 Chinese teaching to NCS students with diversified native languages and socio-cultural backgrounds. "Reading to Learn,…

Reading Comprehension Difficulties in Chinese-English Bilingual Children.

PubMed

Tong, Xiuhong; McBride, Catherine; Shu, Hua; Ho, Connie Suk-Han

2018-02-01

The co-occurrence of reading comprehension difficulties for first language (L1) Chinese and second language (L2) English and associated longitudinal cognitive-linguistic correlates in each language were investigated. Sixteen poor comprehenders in English and 16 poor comprehenders in Chinese, 18 poor readers in both, and 18 children with normal performance in both were identified at age 10. The prevalence rate for being poor in both was 52.94%, suggesting that approximately half of children who are at risk for Chinese reading comprehension difficulty are also at risk for English reading comprehension difficulty. Chinese word reading, phonological, and morphological awareness were longitudinal correlates of poor comprehension in Chinese. English word reading and vocabulary were longitudinal correlates of poor comprehension in English. Chinese phonological awareness was an additional correlate of poor comprehension in English. Moreover, poor comprehenders in both Chinese and English showed slower rapid automatized naming scores than the other groups. Findings highlight some factors that might be critical for reading comprehension in L1 Chinese and L2 English; fluency is likely to be a critical part of reading comprehension across languages. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Heritage-culture images disrupt immigrants' second-language processing through triggering first-language interference.

PubMed

Zhang, Shu; Morris, Michael W; Cheng, Chi-Ying; Yap, Andy J

2013-07-09

For bicultural individuals, visual cues of a setting's cultural expectations can activate associated representations, switching the frames that guide their judgments. Research suggests that cultural cues may affect judgments through automatic priming, but has yet to investigate consequences for linguistic performance. The present studies investigate the proposal that heritage-culture cues hinder immigrants' second-language processing by priming first-language structures. For Chinese immigrants in the United States, speaking to a Chinese (vs. Caucasian) face reduced their English fluency, but at the same time increased their social comfort, effects that did not occur for a comparison group of European Americans (study 1). Similarly, exposure to iconic symbols of Chinese (vs. American) culture hindered Chinese immigrants' English fluency, when speaking about both culture-laden and culture-neutral topics (study 2). Finally, in both recognition (study 3) and naming tasks (study 4), Chinese icon priming increased accessibility of anomalous literal translations, indicating the intrusion of Chinese lexical structures into English processing. We discuss conceptual implications for the automaticity and adaptiveness of cultural priming and practical implications for immigrant acculturation and second-language learning.

A Character Level Based and Word Level Based Approach for Chinese-Vietnamese Machine Translation.

PubMed

Tran, Phuoc; Dinh, Dien; Nguyen, Hien T

2016-01-01

Chinese and Vietnamese have the same isolated language; that is, the words are not delimited by spaces. In machine translation, word segmentation is often done first when translating from Chinese or Vietnamese into different languages (typically English) and vice versa. However, it is a matter for consideration that words may or may not be segmented when translating between two languages in which spaces are not used between words, such as Chinese and Vietnamese. Since Chinese-Vietnamese is a low-resource language pair, the sparse data problem is evident in the translation system of this language pair. Therefore, while translating, whether it should be segmented or not becomes more important. In this paper, we propose a new method for translating Chinese to Vietnamese based on a combination of the advantages of character level and word level translation. In addition, a hybrid approach that combines statistics and rules is used to translate on the word level. And at the character level, a statistical translation is used. The experimental results showed that our method improved the performance of machine translation over that of character or word level translation.

Welcoming Chinese investors in Indonesia: improving the competency of professional Indonesian-Mandarin translator

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ying, Y.; Mursitama, T. N.; Theresia; Mariana

2018-03-01

The study discusses the importance of improving the competency of Indonesian-Mandarin translators to increase economic relations between Indonesia and China. As China’s investment in Indonesia expands in various industry sectors, the need for qualified translators escalates. However, the situation described that Indonesia lacks competent and qualified translators in Mandarin. The study adopts the qualitative approach. Technically, the study utilizes a variety of secondary data consisting of documents, books, publications, and website to collect data based on the needs of qualified translators and how to improve their competency. In addition, primary data collection involves industry and translation service providers, from high schools, vocational schools, colleges, and Chinese language courses through interviews. In this respect, the study contributes to the development of the Mandarin Chinese translator competency through professional translator training programs. The competencies developed include Mandarin language skills in a variety of contexts or themes such as business, industry, accounting, taxation, law, and socio-political issues. The findings of this research indicate the significance to complement the lack of knowledge and skills that are not acquired during the college. Importantly, the authors propose a professional interpreter training model to meet the demand of Chinese investors in Indonesia eventually.

Examining the English Language Policy for Ethnic Minority Students in a Chinese University: A Language Ideology and Language Regime Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Han, Yawen; De Costa, Peter I.; Cui, Yaqiong

2016-01-01

We focus on the learning of English in a Chinese university in Jiangsu and the university's preferential language policy, which allowed Uyghur minority students from Xinjiang to be enrolled despite their lower scores in the entrance examination. Guided by the constructs of language ideologies [Kroskrity, P. V. (2000). "Regimes of language:…

Measuring Adult Learners' Foreign Language Anxiety, Motivational Factors, and Achievement Expectations: A Comparative Study between Chinese as a Second-Language Students and English as a Second-Language Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Li-Ching

2013-01-01

This dissertation focuses on interpreting the impacts of foreign language anxiety and individual characteristics on the achievement expectations of Chinese second-language learners and English second-language students at the university level. Four research questions are examined through quantitative design. In relation to methodology, this study…

Home Literacy Environment and Word Knowledge Development: A Study of Young Learners of Chinese as a Heritage Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Dongbo; Koda, Keiko

2011-01-01

This study examined young Heritage Language (HL) learners' home literacy environment and its impact on HL word-knowledge development, focusing on a group of Chinese-English bilingual children learning to read in Chinese as a Heritage Language in the United States. A home literacy survey revealed that parents mostly used HL to talk to children,…

Novel Noun and Verb Learning in Chinese-, English-, and Japanese-Speaking Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Imai, Mutsumi; Li, Lianjing; Haryu, Etsuko; Okada, Hiroyuki; Hirsh-Pasek, Kathy; Golinkoff, Roberta Michnick; Shigematsu, Jun

2008-01-01

When can children speaking Japanese, English, or Chinese map and extend novel nouns and verbs? Across 6 studies, 3- and 5-year-old children in all 3 languages map and extend novel nouns more readily than novel verbs. This finding prevails even in languages like Chinese and Japanese that are assumed to be verb-friendly languages (e.g., T. Tardif,…

Comparing Local and International Chinese Students' English Language Learning Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anthony, Margreat Aloysious; Ganesen, Sree Nithya

2012-01-01

According to Horwitz (1987) learners' belief about language learning are influenced by previous language learning experiences as well as cultural background. This study examined the English Language Learning Strategies between local and international Chinese students who share the same cultural background but have been exposed to different…

The New Zealand-Born Chinese Community of Auckland: Aspects of Language Maintenance and Shift.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sun, Susan

1999-01-01

Examines the Chinese immigrant community in Auckland, New Zealand and how they address the question of first language maintenance in their largely new English-speaking environment. Shows that language maintenance, especially the written language is going to be an uphill struggle. (Author/VWL)

Project Salud. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reyes, Richard H.

A bilingual vocational training program was instituted to provide fifty-six Spanish- and Chinese-speaking students with a chance to acquire English language skills and training as medical clerks simultaneously. Community benefits expected and evident need in the area for bilingual medical-clerical employees led to the choice of this field. The…

Students' Perceptions of an Internship Experience in China: A Pilot Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

He, Yunjuan; Qin, Xizhen

2017-01-01

This small-scale study reported American students' perception of the effect of their internship conducted in a study abroad program on their development of Chinese language proficiency, intercultural competence, and professional knowledge. The results indicate that a self-evaluated successful internship allows interns with intermediate-level…

Challenges of International Students in a Japanese University: Ethnographic Perspectives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Ju Seong

2017-01-01

The author investigates what challenges four international students (Vietnamese, Filipino, Brazilian, and Chinese) faced and how they coped with these dilemmas in a Japanese language program during the first semester in 2014. Multiple apparatuses (e.g., field notes, face-to-face oral interviews, focal group conversations, and semi-structured…

Reading Motivation and Reading Comprehension in Chinese and English among Bilingual Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Dan; Wong, Ka Ki; McBride-Chang, Catherine

2012-01-01

One hundred four Hong Kong Chinese fifth graders completed a questionnaire on eight separate motivational subscales related to reading separately for Chinese as a first language (L1) and English as a foreign language (EFL) in addition to measures of both Chinese and English reading comprehension. Motivations related to self-efficacy, curiosity,…

Becoming Laoshi in US High Schools: Case Studies of Three Foreign-Born Chinese Language Teacher Candidates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Xiao

2012-01-01

The foreign-born Chinese speakers that currently make up the largest component of those training to become Chinese language teachers encounter challenges during their internship that differ significantly from those experienced by interns who are more familiar with U.S. culture and institutions. Qualitative case studies of three Chinese language…

Effects of Using Self-Explanation on a Web-Based Chinese Sentence-Learning System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chang, Jia-Wei; Lee, Ming-Che; Su, Chien-Yuan; Wang, Tzone-I

2017-01-01

Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) learners generally encounter difficulty in using some special rules of Chinese grammar because such grammar points do not exist in their native languages. CFL learners require an effective learning strategy to assist them in acquiring a greater understanding of Chinese grammar. Thus, we integrated a…

The China Educational Development Yearbook, Volume 2. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Yearbooks: Educational Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dongping, Yang, Ed.; Chungqing, Chai, Ed.

2010-01-01

The second volume of the English-language The China Educational Development Yearbook offers international scholars a glimpse into key issues in Chinese education today from the perspective of Chinese academics, practitioners, and applied researchers. An edited translation of the 2009 volume of the Chinese-language "Blue Book of…

Relationships between Reading Comprehension and Its Components in Young Chinese-as-a-Second-Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wong, Yu Ka

2017-01-01

Based on the Simple View of Reading model, this study examines the relationships among Chinese reading comprehension and its two componential processes, Chinese character reading and listening comprehension, in young learners of Chinese as a second language (CSL) using a longitudinal design. Using relevant measures, a sample of 142 senior primary…

Measuring social desirability across language and sex: A comparison of Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale factor structures in English and Mandarin Chinese in Malaysia.

PubMed

Kurz, A Solomon; Drescher, Christopher F; Chin, Eu Gene; Johnson, Laura R

2016-06-01

Malaysia is a Southeast Asian country in which multiple languages are prominently spoken, including English and Mandarin Chinese. As psychological science continues to develop within Malaysia, there is a need for psychometrically sound instruments that measure psychological phenomena in multiple languages. For example, assessment tools for measuring social desirability could be a useful addition in psychological assessments and research studies in a Malaysian context. This study examined the psychometric performance of the English and Mandarin Chinese versions of the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale when used in Malaysia. Two hundred and eighty-three students (64% female; 83% Chinese, 9% Indian) from two college campuses completed the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale in their language of choice (i.e., English or Mandarin Chinese). Proposed factor structures were compared with confirmatory factor analysis, and multiple indicators-multiple causes models were used to examine measurement invariance across language and sex. Factor analyses supported a two-factor structure (i.e., Attribution and Denial) for the measure. Invariance tests revealed the scale was invariant by sex, indicating that social desirability can be interpreted similarly across sex. The scale was partially invariant by language version, with some non-invariance observed within the Denial factor. Non-invariance may be related to differences in the English and Mandarin Chinese languages, as well as cultural differences. Directions for further research include examining the measurement of social desirability in other contexts where both English and Mandarin Chinese are spoken (i.e., China) and further examining the causes of non-invariance on specific items. © 2016 The Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

Cross-language parafoveal semantic processing: Evidence from Korean-Chinese bilinguals.

PubMed

Wang, Aiping; Yeon, Junmo; Zhou, Wei; Shu, Hua; Yan, Ming

2016-02-01

In the present study, we aimed at testing cross-language cognate and semantic preview effects. We tested how native Korean readers who learned Chinese as a second language make use of the parafoveal information during the reading of Chinese sentences. There were 3 types of Korean preview words: cognate translations of the Chinese target words, semantically related noncognate words, and unrelated words. Together with a highly significant cognate preview effect, more critically, we also observed reliable facilitation in processing of the target word from the semantically related previews in all fixation measures. Results from the present study provide first evidence for semantic processing from parafoveally presented Korean words and for cross-language parafoveal semantic processing.

Towards Homogeneity in Home Languages: Malay, Chinese Foochow and Indian Tamil Families in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ting, Su-Hie; Mahadhir, Mahanita

2009-01-01

This preliminary study examines the languages used by parents with their children in Malay, Chinese Foochow and Indian Tamil families to find out how the similarity or dissimilarity in parents' ethnic language influenced the choice of language transmitted to children and how far standard languages have permeated the family domain in Kuching City…

The Impact of Biculturalism on Language and Literacy Development: Teaching Chinese English Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Palmer, Barbara C.; Chen, Chia-I; Chang, Sara; Leclere, Judith T.

2006-01-01

According to the 2000 United States Census, Americans age five and older who speak a language other than English at home grew 47 percent over the preceding decade. This group accounts for slightly less than one in five Americans (17.9%). Among the minority languages spoken in the United States, Asian-language speakers, including Chinese and other…

Implementation of Task-Based Language Teaching in Chinese as a Foreign Language: Benefits and Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bao, Rui; Du, Xiangyun

2015-01-01

Task-based language teaching (TBLT) has been drawing increased attention from language teachers and researchers in the past decade. This paper focuses on the effects of TBLT on beginner learners of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) in Denmark. Participatory observation and semi-structured interviews were carried out with 18 participants from two…

"Seamlessly" Learning Chinese: Contextual Meaning Making and Vocabulary Growth in a Seamless Chinese as a Second Language Learning Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wong, Lung-Hsiang; King, Ronnel B.; Chai, Ching Sing; Liu, May

2016-01-01

Second language learners are typically hampered by the lack of a natural environment to use the target language for authentic communication purpose (as a means for "learning by applying"). Thus, we propose MyCLOUD, a mobile-assisted seamless language learning approach that aims to nurture a second language social network that bridges…

Language Brokering as Young People's Work: Evidence from Chinese Adolescents in England

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hall, Nigel; Sham, Sylvia

2007-01-01

Language brokering describes the task in an intercultural language event undertaken by children in families with one or two non-national languages parents or caregivers. This paper examines the complex issues involved in being a language broker and explores these as they apply to a group of adolescents in Chinese families in the UK. The findings…

Neural Signatures of the Reading-Writing Connection: Greater Involvement of Writing in Chinese Reading than English Reading.

PubMed

Cao, Fan; Perfetti, Charles A

2016-01-01

Research on cross-linguistic comparisons of the neural correlates of reading has consistently found that the left middle frontal gyrus (MFG) is more involved in Chinese than in English. However, there is a lack of consensus on the interpretation of the language difference. Because this region has been found to be involved in writing, we hypothesize that reading Chinese characters involves this writing region to a greater degree because Chinese speakers learn to read by repeatedly writing the characters. To test this hypothesis, we recruited English L1 learners of Chinese, who performed a reading task and a writing task in each language. The English L1 sample had learned some Chinese characters through character-writing and others through phonological learning, allowing a test of writing-on-reading effect. We found that the left MFG was more activated in Chinese than English regardless of task, and more activated in writing than in reading regardless of language. Furthermore, we found that this region was more activated for reading Chinese characters learned by character-writing than those learned by phonological learning. A major conclusion is that writing regions are also activated in reading, and that this reading-writing connection is modulated by the learning experience. We replicated the main findings in a group of native Chinese speakers, which excluded the possibility that the language differences observed in the English L1 participants were due to different language proficiency level.

Neural Signatures of the Reading-Writing Connection: Greater Involvement of Writing in Chinese Reading than English Reading

PubMed Central

Cao, Fan; Perfetti, Charles A.

2016-01-01

Research on cross-linguistic comparisons of the neural correlates of reading has consistently found that the left middle frontal gyrus (MFG) is more involved in Chinese than in English. However, there is a lack of consensus on the interpretation of the language difference. Because this region has been found to be involved in writing, we hypothesize that reading Chinese characters involves this writing region to a greater degree because Chinese speakers learn to read by repeatedly writing the characters. To test this hypothesis, we recruited English L1 learners of Chinese, who performed a reading task and a writing task in each language. The English L1 sample had learned some Chinese characters through character-writing and others through phonological learning, allowing a test of writing-on-reading effect. We found that the left MFG was more activated in Chinese than English regardless of task, and more activated in writing than in reading regardless of language. Furthermore, we found that this region was more activated for reading Chinese characters learned by character-writing than those learned by phonological learning. A major conclusion is that writing regions are also activated in reading, and that this reading-writing connection is modulated by the learning experience. We replicated the main findings in a group of native Chinese speakers, which excluded the possibility that the language differences observed in the English L1 participants were due to different language proficiency level. PMID:27992505

Word Reading in L1 and L2 Learners of Chinese: Similarities and Differences in the Functioning of Component Processes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Dongbo

2017-01-01

This study examined the similarities and differences in the functioning of component processes underlying first language (L1) and second language (L2) word reading in Chinese. Fourth-grade Chinese children in Singapore were divided into L1 and L2 reader groups based on whether they used Mandarin or English as their home language. Both groups were…

Optimally Scheduling Basic Courses at the Defense Language Institute using Integer Programming

DTIC Science & Technology

2005-09-01

DLI’s manual schedules at best can train 8%, 7% and 64%. 15. NUMBER OF PAGES 59 14. SUBJECT TERMS Operations Research, Linear Programming...class in 2006, 2007, and 2008, whereas DLI’s manual schedules at best can train 8%, 7% and 64%. vi THIS PAGE...ARABIC INSTRUTOR LEVELS .....................................25 FIGURE 2. OCS1 AND OCS2 CHINESE-MANDARIN INSTRUTOR LEVELS ............26 FIGURE 3

Neural strategies for reading Japanese and Chinese sentences: a cross-linguistic fMRI study of character-decoding and morphosyntax.

PubMed

Huang, Koongliang; Itoh, Kosuke; Kwee, Ingrid L; Nakada, Tsutomu

2012-09-01

Japanese and Chinese share virtually identical morphographic characters invented in ancient China. Whereas modern Chinese retained the original morphographic functionality of these characters (hanzi), modern Japanese utilizes these characters (kanji) as complex syllabograms. This divergence provides a unique opportunity to systematically investigate brain strategies for sentence reading in Japanese-Chinese bi-literates. Accordingly, we investigated brain activation associated with Japanese and Chinese reading in 14 native Japanese speakers literate in Mandarin and 14 native Mandarin speakers literate in Japanese using functional magnetic resonance imaging performed on a 3T system. The activation pattern exhibited clearly distinct features specific for each language. Regardless of the subject's native language literacy, Chinese reading activated an area significantly larger than Japanese reading, suggesting that brain processes involved in Chinese reading were much more complex than Japanese reading. Significant recruitment of corresponding cortical areas in the right hemisphere with Chinese reading was also apparent. The activation patterns associated with Japanese reading by native Japanese literates was highly consistent with previous reports, and included the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), left posterior temporal lobe (PTL), and left ventral premotor cortex (PMv). The activation pattern associated with Chinese reading by native Chinese literates was also highly consistent with previous reports, namely the left IFG, left PTL, left PMv, left anterior temporal lobe (ATL), and bilateral parieto occipital lobes (LPOL). The activation pattern associated with Chinese reading by native Japanese literates was virtually identical to that by native Chinese literates, whereas the activation pattern associated with Japanese reading by native Chinese literates was signified by additional activation of LPOL compared to that by native Japanese literate. The study indicated that IFG and PTL are universal language areas, while PMv is the area for decoding complex syllabograms. LPOL is the "Chinese language area," while ATL is essential for languages with analytic morphosyntax. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Unified Phonetic Transcription for Teaching and Learning Chinese Languages

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shieh, Jiann-Cherng

2011-01-01

In order to preserve distinctive cultures, people anxiously figure out writing systems of their languages as recording tools. Mandarin, Taiwanese and Hakka languages are three major and the most popular dialects of Han languages spoken in Chinese society. Their writing systems are all in Han characters. Various and independent phonetic…

Standardizing Chinese Sign Language for Use in Post-Secondary Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Christina Mien-Chun; Gerner de Garcia, Barbara; Chen-Pichler, Deborah

2009-01-01

There are over 100 languages in China, including Chinese Sign Language. Given the large population and geographical dispersion of the country's deaf community, sign variation is to be expected. Language barriers due to lexical variation may exist for deaf college students in China, who often live outside their home regions. In presenting an…

Communication through Foreign Languages: An Economic Force in Chinese Enterprises.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hildebrandt, Herbert W.; Liu, Jinyun

1991-01-01

Second-language use by Chinese business managers illustrates that second-language competence is driven partly by economic and political forces. Although Russian language knowledge is typical of the older managers, English and Japanese are favored by younger managers, reflecting the wane of Russian political influence and the growing importance of…

Oracle Bones and Mandarin Tones: Demystifying the Chinese Language.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Michigan Univ., Ann Arbor. Project on East Asian Studies in Education.

This publication will provide secondary level students with a basic understanding of the development and structure of Chinese (guo yu) language characters. The authors believe that demystifying the language helps break many cultural barriers. The written language is a good place to begin because its pictographic nature is appealing and inspires…

Effects of language experience and expectations on attention to consonants and tones in English and Mandarin Chinese.

PubMed

Lin, Mengxi; Francis, Alexander L

2014-11-01

Both long-term native language experience and immediate linguistic expectations can affect listeners' use of acoustic information when making a phonetic decision. In this study, a Garner selective attention task was used to investigate differences in attention to consonants and tones by American English-speaking listeners (N = 20) and Mandarin Chinese-speaking listeners hearing speech in either American English (N = 17) or Mandarin Chinese (N = 20). To minimize the effects of lexical differences and differences in the linguistic status of pitch across the two languages, stimuli and response conditions were selected such that all tokens constitute legitimate words in both languages and all responses required listeners to make decisions that were linguistically meaningful in their native language. Results showed that regardless of ambient language, Chinese listeners processed consonant and tone in a combined manner, consistent with previous research. In contrast, English listeners treated tones and consonants as perceptually separable. Results are discussed in terms of the role of sub-phonemic differences in acoustic cues across language, and the linguistic status of consonants and pitch contours in the two languages.

Characteristics of number transcoding errors of Chinese- versus English-speaking Alzheimer's disease patients.

PubMed

Ting, Simon Kang Seng; Chia, Pei Shi; Kwek, Kevin; Tan, Wilnard; Hameed, Shahul

2016-10-01

Number processing disorder is an acquired deficit in mathematical skills commonly observed in Alzheimer's disease (AD), usually as a consequence of neurological dysfunction. Common impairments include syntactic errors (800012 instead of 8012) and intrusion errors (8 thousand and 12 instead of eight thousand and twelve) in number transcoding tasks. This study aimed to understand the characterization of AD-related number processing disorder within an alphabetic language (English) and ideographical language (Chinese), and to investigate the differences between alphabetic and ideographic language processing. Chinese-speaking AD patients were hypothesized to make significantly more intrusion errors than English-speaking ones, due to the ideographical nature of both Chinese characters and Arabic numbers. A simplified number transcoding test derived from EC301 battery was administered to AD patients. Chinese-speaking AD patients made significantly more intrusion errors (p = 0.001) than English speakers. This demonstrates that number processing in an alphabetic language such as English does not function in the same manner as in Chinese. The impaired inhibition capability likely contributes to such observations due to its competitive lexical representation in brain for Chinese speakers.

True reason for Zipf's law in language

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dahui, Wang; Menghui, Li; Zengru, Di

2005-12-01

Analysis of word frequency have historically used data that included English, French, or other language, data typically described by Zipf's law. Using data on traditional and modern Chinese literatures, we show here that Chinese character frequency stroked Zipf's law based on literature before Qin dynasty; however, it departed from Zipf's law based on literature after Qin dynasty. Combined with data about English dictionaries and Chinese dictionaries, we show that the true reason for Zipf's Law in language is that growth and preferential selection mechanism of word or character in given language.

Increasing the Number of African American Students in Undergraduate Level Classes of Chinese: A Call to Action

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Huiwen

2015-01-01

Chinese language is the only ideographic language remaining in the world (Osaka, 1976). It conveys affluent Chinese culture and has great influences on the East Asian countries (Miyake, 2013). In the economic globalization of the world, China's economy and international influence are expanding. For these reasons and many more the Chinese language…

Variability in Chinese as a Foreign Language Learners' Development of the Chinese Numeral Classifier System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Jie; Lu, Xiaofei

2013-01-01

This study examined variability in Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) learners' development of the Chinese numeral classifier system from a dynamic systems approach. Our data consisted of a longitudinal corpus of 657 essays written by CFL learners at lower and higher intermediate levels and a corpus of 100 essays written by native speakers (NSs)…

The Role of Radical Awareness in Chinese-As-A-Second-Language Learners' Chinese Character Reading Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wong, Yu Ka

2017-01-01

In this paper, the role of radical awareness in Chinese character reading development among young Chinese-as-a-second-language (CSL) learners is evaluated in terms of a structural property of the writing system: the distribution of elementary, one-radical (i.e. one-element) simple characters as against majority, multi-radical compound characters.…

English-Chinese Cross-Language IR Using Bilingual Dictionaries

DTIC Science & Technology

2006-01-01

specialized dictionaries together contain about two million entries [6]. 4 Monolingual Experiment The Chinese documents and the Chinese translations of... monolingual performance. The main performance-limiting factor is the limited coverage of the dictionary used in query translation. Some of the key con...English-Chinese Cross-Language IR using Bilingual Dictionaries Aitao Chen , Hailing Jiang , and Fredric Gey School of Information Management

Mapping the unconscious maintenance of a lost first language.

PubMed

Pierce, Lara J; Klein, Denise; Chen, Jen-Kai; Delcenserie, Audrey; Genesee, Fred

2014-12-02

Optimal periods during early development facilitate the formation of perceptual representations, laying the framework for future learning. A crucial question is whether such early representations are maintained in the brain over time without continued input. Using functional MRI, we show that internationally adopted (IA) children from China, exposed exclusively to French since adoption (mean age of adoption, 12.8 mo), maintained neural representations of their birth language despite functionally losing that language and having no conscious recollection of it. Their neural patterns during a Chinese lexical tone discrimination task matched those observed in Chinese/French bilinguals who have had continual exposure to Chinese since birth and differed from monolingual French speakers who had never been exposed to Chinese. They processed lexical tone as linguistically relevant, despite having no Chinese exposure for 12.6 y, on average, and no conscious recollection of that language. More specifically, IA participants recruited left superior temporal gyrus/planum temporale, matching the pattern observed in Chinese/French bilinguals. In contrast, French speakers who had never been exposed to Chinese did not recruit this region and instead activated right superior temporal gyrus. We show that neural representations are not overwritten and suggest a special status for language input obtained during the first year of development.

Writing System Modulates the Association between Sensitivity to Acoustic Cues in Music and Reading Ability: Evidence from Chinese-English Bilingual Children.

PubMed

Zhang, Juan; Meng, Yaxuan; Wu, Chenggang; Zhou, Danny Q

2017-01-01

Music and language share many attributes and a large body of evidence shows that sensitivity to acoustic cues in music is positively related to language development and even subsequent reading acquisition. However, such association was mainly found in alphabetic languages. What remains unclear is whether sensitivity to acoustic cues in music is associated with reading in Chinese, a morphosyllabic language. The present study aimed to answer this question by measuring music (i.e., musical metric perception and pitch discrimination), language (i.e., phonological awareness, lexical tone sensitivity), and reading abilities (i.e., word recognition) among 54 third-grade Chinese-English bilingual children. After controlling for age and non-verbal intelligence, we found that both musical metric perception and pitch discrimination accounted for unique variance of Chinese phonological awareness while pitch discrimination rather than musical metric perception predicted Chinese lexical tone sensitivity. More importantly, neither musical metric perception nor pitch discrimination was associated with Chinese reading. As for English, musical metric perception and pitch discrimination were correlated with both English phonological awareness and English reading. Furthermore, sensitivity to acoustic cues in music was associated with English reading through the mediation of English phonological awareness. The current findings indicate that the association between sensitivity to acoustic cues in music and reading may be modulated by writing systems. In Chinese, the mapping between orthography and phonology is not as transparent as in alphabetic languages such as English. Thus, this opaque mapping may alter the auditory perceptual sensitivity in music to Chinese reading.

Teaching Chinese as a Second Language: From Taiwan to the United States

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hsu, Shuliang

2014-01-01

Teaching Chinese as a second language in Taiwan vs. in the United States. How are they different? What are the challenges to teachers? This article will bring to you interesting findings from the perspective of a native speaking Chinese teacher.

Development of Culturally Appropriate Support Strategies to Increase Uptake of Nicotine Replacement Therapy Among Russian- and Chinese-Speaking Smokers in New York City.

PubMed

Quinn, Erin C; Sacks, Rachel; Farley, Shannon M; Thihalolipavan, Sayone

2017-06-01

Approximately 80,000 New York City smokers are Chinese or Russian speakers. To increase utilization of smoking cessation services among these populations, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene developed linguistically and culturally tailored outreach strategies to promote and enhance its annual Nicotine Patch and Gum Program. In 2010, online web applications in Chinese and Russian were introduced. In 2011, input was sought from the community to develop Russian-language radio and newspaper ads, and a Russian-speaking liaison provided phone-assisted online enrollment support. In 2012, Chinese newspaper ads were introduced, and a Cantonese- and Mandarin-speaking liaison was hired to provide enrollment support. In 2010, 51 Russian speakers and 40 Chinese speakers enrolled in the program via web application. In 2011, 510 Russian speakers applied via the web application, with 463 assisted by the Russian-speaking liaison; forty-four Chinese speakers applied online. In 2012, 394 Russian speakers applied via the web application; 363 were assisted by the Russian-speaking liaison. Eighty-five Chinese smokers applied online via the web application; seventy were assisted by the Chinese-speaking liaison. Following the implementation of culturally tailored cessation support interventions, ethnic Russian smokers' uptake of cessation support increased tenfold, while Chinese smokers' uptake doubled. Although linguistically appropriate resources are an essential foundation for reaching immigrant communities with high smoking rates, devising culturally tailored strategies to increase quit rates is critical to programmatic success.

Communicative Language Teaching in the Chinese Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hu, Wei

2010-01-01

In order to explore effective ways to develop Chinese English learners' communicative competence, this study first briefly reviews the advantages of communicative language teaching (CLT) method which widely practiced in the Western countries and analyzes in details its obstacles in Chinese classroom context. Then it offers guidelines for…

A Character Level Based and Word Level Based Approach for Chinese-Vietnamese Machine Translation

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

Chinese and Vietnamese have the same isolated language; that is, the words are not delimited by spaces. In machine translation, word segmentation is often done first when translating from Chinese or Vietnamese into different languages (typically English) and vice versa. However, it is a matter for consideration that words may or may not be segmented when translating between two languages in which spaces are not used between words, such as Chinese and Vietnamese. Since Chinese-Vietnamese is a low-resource language pair, the sparse data problem is evident in the translation system of this language pair. Therefore, while translating, whether it should be segmented or not becomes more important. In this paper, we propose a new method for translating Chinese to Vietnamese based on a combination of the advantages of character level and word level translation. In addition, a hybrid approach that combines statistics and rules is used to translate on the word level. And at the character level, a statistical translation is used. The experimental results showed that our method improved the performance of machine translation over that of character or word level translation. PMID:27446207

Are lexical tones musical? Native language's influence on neural response to pitch in different domains.

PubMed

Chen, Ao; Peter, Varghese; Wijnen, Frank; Schnack, Hugo; Burnham, Denis

2018-04-21

Language experience shapes musical and speech pitch processing. We investigated whether speaking a lexical tone language natively modulates neural processing of pitch in language and music as well as their correlation. We tested tone language (Mandarin Chinese), and non-tone language (Dutch) listeners in a passive oddball paradigm measuring mismatch negativity (MMN) for (i) Chinese lexical tones and (ii) three-note musical melodies with similar pitch contours. For lexical tones, Chinese listeners showed a later MMN peak than the non-tone language listeners, whereas for MMN amplitude there were no significant differences between groups. Dutch participants also showed a late discriminative negativity (LDN). In the music condition two MMNs, corresponding to the two notes that differed between the standard and the deviant were found for both groups, and an LDN were found for both the Dutch and the Chinese listeners. The music MMNs were significantly right lateralized. Importantly, significant correlations were found between the lexical tone and the music MMNs for the Dutch but not the Chinese participants. The results suggest that speaking a tone language natively does not necessarily enhance neural responses to pitch either in language or in music, but that it does change the nature of neural pitch processing: non-tone language speakers appear to perceive lexical tones as musical, whereas for tone language speakers, lexical tones and music may activate different neural networks. Neural resources seem to be assigned differently for the lexical tones and for musical melodies, presumably depending on the presence or absence of long-term phonological memory traces. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

CRIE: An automated analyzer for Chinese texts.

PubMed

Sung, Yao-Ting; Chang, Tao-Hsing; Lin, Wei-Chun; Hsieh, Kuan-Sheng; Chang, Kuo-En

2016-12-01

Textual analysis has been applied to various fields, such as discourse analysis, corpus studies, text leveling, and automated essay evaluation. Several tools have been developed for analyzing texts written in alphabetic languages such as English and Spanish. However, currently there is no tool available for analyzing Chinese-language texts. This article introduces a tool for the automated analysis of simplified and traditional Chinese texts, called the Chinese Readability Index Explorer (CRIE). Composed of four subsystems and incorporating 82 multilevel linguistic features, CRIE is able to conduct the major tasks of segmentation, syntactic parsing, and feature extraction. Furthermore, the integration of linguistic features with machine learning models enables CRIE to provide leveling and diagnostic information for texts in language arts, texts for learning Chinese as a foreign language, and texts with domain knowledge. The usage and validation of the functions provided by CRIE are also introduced.

Different mechanisms in learning different second languages: Evidence from English speakers learning Chinese and Spanish.

PubMed

Cao, Fan; Sussman, Bethany L; Rios, Valeria; Yan, Xin; Wang, Zhao; Spray, Gregory J; Mack, Ryan M

2017-03-01

Word reading has been found to be associated with different neural networks in different languages, with greater involvement of the lexical pathway for opaque languages and greater invovlement of the sub-lexical pathway for transparent langauges. However, we do not know whether this language divergence can be demonstrated in second langauge learners, how learner's metalinguistic ability would modulate the langauge divergence, or whether learning method would interact with the language divergence. In this study, we attempted to answer these questions by comparing brain activations of Chinese and Spanish word reading in native English-speaking adults who learned Chinese and Spanish over a 2 week period under three learning conditions: phonological, handwriting, and passive viewing. We found that mapping orthography to phonology in Chinese had greater activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and left inferior temporal gyrus (ITG) than in Spanish, suggesting greater invovlement of the lexical pathway in opaque langauges. In contrast, Spanish words evoked greater activation in the left superior temporal gyrus (STG) than English, suggesting greater invovlement of the sublexical pathway for transparant languages. Furthermore, brain-behavior correlation analyses found that higher phonological awareness and rapid naming were associated with greater activation in the bilateral IFG for Chinese and in the bilateral STG for Spanish, suggesting greater language divergence in participants with higher meta-linguistic awareness. Finally, a significant interaction between the language and learning condition was found in the left STG and middle frontal gyrus (MFG), with greater activation in handwriting learning than viewing learning in the left STG only for Spanish, and greater activation in handwriting learning than phonological learning in the left MFG only for Chinese. These findings suggest that handwriting facilitates assembled phonology in Spanish and addressed phonology in Chinese. In summary, our study suggests different mechanisms in learning different L2s, providing important insights into neural plasticity and important implications in second language education. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Teaching Mathematics in Two Languages: A Teaching Dilemma of Malaysian Chinese Primary Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lim, Chap Sam; Presmeg, Norma

2011-01-01

This paper discusses a teaching dilemma faced by mathematics teachers in the Malaysian Chinese primary schools in coping with the latest changes in language policy. In 2003, Malaysia launched a new language policy of teaching mathematics using English as the language of instruction in all schools. However, due to the complex sociocultural demands…

Impact of Home Language and Literacy Support on English-Chinese Biliteracy Acquisition among Chinese Heritage Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lu, Chan; Koda, Keiko

2011-01-01

Studies on monolingual children have shown that home language and literacy support is crucial in children's early literacy acquisition. However, such support has not been examined as thoroughly among bilingual children, including heritage speakers. This study investigated the effect of home language and literacy support on important precursors of…

Evaluating Language Environment Analysis System Performance for Chinese: A Pilot Study in Shanghai

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gilkerson, Jill; Zhang, Yiwen; Xu, Dongxin; Richards, Jeffrey A.; Xu, Xiaojuan; Jiang, Fan; Harnsberger, James; Topping, Keith

2015-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate performance of the Language Environment Analysis (LENA) automated language-analysis system for the Chinese Shanghai dialect and Mandarin (SDM) languages. Method: Volunteer parents of 22 children aged 3-23 months were recruited in Shanghai. Families provided daylong in-home audio recordings using…

Rainbows. ILGWU Worker-Family Education Program, Local 23-25--Chinatown Site.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

International Ladies Garment Workers' Union, New York, NY. Local 23-25.

The student magazine created by the English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) classes of a local unit of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union is a collection of personal opinions, reports, and creative writing with illustrations. The Chinese immigrant community, where the magazine was produced, is reflected in the magazine's content. Sections…

Language Planning, Naming and Character Use in China

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhao, Shouhui; Baldauf, Richard B., Jr.

2007-01-01

As Chinese characters ("hanzi") have three aspects--as a technical writing system, an aesthetic visual art (Chinese calligraphy), and a highly-charged cultural symbolic system--changing them is a complex process. In the 1950s when language planning campaigns were launched to modernise Chinese through "hanzi" standardisation,…

Cross-Language Transfer of Morphological Awareness in Chinese-English Bilinguals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pasquarella, Adrian; Chen, Xi; Lam, Katie; Luo, Yang C.; Ramirez, Gloria

2011-01-01

This study examined cross-language transfer of morphological awareness in Chinese-English bilingual children. One hundred and thirty-seven first to fourth graders participated in the study. The children were tested on parallel measures of compound awareness, vocabulary, word reading and reading comprehension in Chinese and English. They also…

Chinese Tertiary English Educators' Perceptions of Foreign Teacher Involvement in Their Professional Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bleistein, Tasha Maria

2013-01-01

China continues to invite expatriate tertiary-level English language educators to teach. Foreign English language teachers and local Chinese English educators who wish to develop professionally have an ever-increasing body of research regarding Chinese culture, education, professional development, and intercultural communication; however, research…

Chinese-Cantonese (Toishan) Basic Course.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Defense Language Inst., Washington, DC.

This seven-volume series constitutes the Defense Language Institute (Army Language School) 47-week course in the Toishan dialect of Cantonese. Beginning lessons present the tone and sound system in romanized script. Chinese characters are introduced in the fourth lesson. (See related document AL 001 479, "Chinese Cantonese Basic Course,"…

Disordered eating and body image in Chinese and Caucasian students in the United States.

PubMed

Baillie, Lauren E; Copeland, Amy L

2013-08-01

This study evaluated the roles of exposure to Western culture and language choice and gender differences in disordered eating symptoms in Chinese and Caucasian students. 796 Caucasian and 194 Chinese students completed measures of eating disorder symptoms, body image, and body esteem. Participants chose their survey language (English or Chinese). Caucasian women had higher levels of body dissatisfaction than Chinese women. Women of both ethnicities reported more disordered eating symptoms and body dissatisfaction than men; these differences were smaller for the Chinese group. Differences emerged on certain dimensions of body esteem between Chinese women who responded in Chinese and those who responded in English. There were few differences between ethnicities, suggesting that mechanisms other than Western culture play a role. Cultural variables may account for the degree of intra-ethnic gender differences. Individuals who complete studies in their native language may differ from their English-responding counterparts in areas of body esteem. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Text generation from Taiwanese Sign Language using a PST-based language model for augmentative communication.

PubMed

Wu, Chung-Hsien; Chiu, Yu-Hsien; Guo, Chi-Shiang

2004-12-01

This paper proposes a novel approach to the generation of Chinese sentences from ill-formed Taiwanese Sign Language (TSL) for people with hearing impairments. First, a sign icon-based virtual keyboard is constructed to provide a visualized interface to retrieve sign icons from a sign database. A proposed language model (LM), based on a predictive sentence template (PST) tree, integrates a statistical variable n-gram LM and linguistic constraints to deal with the translation problem from ill-formed sign sequences to grammatical written sentences. The PST tree trained by a corpus collected from the deaf schools was used to model the correspondence between signed and written Chinese. In addition, a set of phrase formation rules, based on trigger pair category, was derived for sentence pattern expansion. These approaches improved the efficiency of text generation and the accuracy of word prediction and, therefore, improved the input rate. For the assessment of practical communication aids, a reading-comprehension training program with ten profoundly deaf students was undertaken in a deaf school in Tainan, Taiwan. Evaluation results show that the literacy aptitude test and subjective satisfactory level are significantly improved.

A Multistate Asian-Language Tobacco Quitline: Addressing a Disparity in Access to Care.

PubMed

Cummins, Sharon E; Wong, Shiushing; Bonnevie, Erika; Lee, Hye-Ryeon; Goto, Cynthia J; McCree Carrington, Judy; Kirby, Carrie; Zhu, Shu-Hong

2015-10-01

We conducted a dissemination and implementation study to translate an intervention protocol for Asian-language smokers from an efficacy trial into an effective and sustainable multistate service. Three state tobacco programs (in California, Colorado, and Hawaii) promoted a multistate cessation quitline to 3 Asian-language-speaking communities: Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese. The California quitline provided counseling centrally to facilitate implementation. Three more states joined the program during the study period (January 2010-July 2012). We assessed the provision of counseling, quitting outcomes, and dissemination of the program. A total of 2004 smokers called for the service, with 88.3% opting for counseling. Among those opting for counseling, the 6-month abstinence rate (18.8%) was similar to results of the earlier efficacy trial (16.4%). The intervention protocol, based on an efficacy trial, was successfully translated into a multistate service and further disseminated. This project paved the way for the establishment of a national quitline for Asian-language speakers, which serves as an important strategy to address disparities in access to care.

A structural–functional basis for dyslexia in the cortex of Chinese readers

PubMed Central

Siok, Wai Ting; Niu, Zhendong; Jin, Zhen; Perfetti, Charles A.; Tan, Li Hai

2008-01-01

Developmental dyslexia is a neurobiologically based disorder that affects ≈5–17% of school children and is characterized by a severe impairment in reading skill acquisition. For readers of alphabetic (e.g., English) languages, recent neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that dyslexia is associated with weak reading-related activity in left temporoparietal and occipitotemporal regions, and this activity difference may reflect reductions in gray matter volume in these areas. Here, we find different structural and functional abnormalities in dyslexic readers of Chinese, a nonalphabetic language. Compared with normally developing controls, children with impaired reading in logographic Chinese exhibited reduced gray matter volume in a left middle frontal gyrus region previously shown to be important for Chinese reading and writing. Using functional MRI to study language-related activation of cortical regions in dyslexics, we found reduced activation in this same left middle frontal gyrus region in Chinese dyslexics versus controls, and there was a significant correlation between gray matter volume and activation in the language task in this same area. By contrast, Chinese dyslexics did not show functional or structural (i.e., volumetric gray matter) differences from normal subjects in the more posterior brain systems that have been shown to be abnormal in alphabetic-language dyslexics. The results suggest that the structural and functional basis for dyslexia varies between alphabetic and nonalphabetic languages. PMID:18391194

Chinese American Adolescents’ Perceptions of the Language Brokering Experience as a Sense of Burden and Sense of Efficacy

PubMed Central

Wu, Nina H.

2009-01-01

Children of immigrants who do translations and who interpret for others using their heritage language and English are known as language brokers. Although prior research suggests that children of immigrants’ perceptions of the language brokering experience vary greatly—from feeling a sense of efficacy to feeling a sense of burden—what remains unanswered in the literature is identification of the antecedents and processes that help to explain the varying psychological experience of language brokers. Using data from a two-wave prospective longitudinal study of 256 Chinese American adolescents, the present study tested potential mechanisms that may be responsible for adolescents’ perceptions of the language brokering experience as a sense or burden or sense of efficacy. The results demonstrate that adolescents’ Chinese orientation sets in motion a family process that is linked to variations in the perceptions of adolescents’ language brokering experience. Adolescents who are more Chinese oriented have a stronger sense of familial obligation, and these adolescents are more likely to perceive that they matter to their parents. Adolescents’ perceived sense of mattering to parents, in turn, is associated positively with a sense efficacy, and negatively with a sense of burden as language brokers. Those adolescents who are less Chinese oriented have a weaker sense of familial obligation, and these adolescents are more likely to feel a sense of alienation from their parents. Adolescents’ sense of perceived alienation from parents, in turn, is associated with a sense of burden as language brokers. Implications for developing interventions for children who act as language brokers for their parents are discussed. PMID:19636765

Constructing Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in Chinese Heritage Language Classrooms: A Multiple-Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wu, Hsu-Pai

2011-01-01

Culturally relevant pedagogy uses cultural references to develop students' knowledge and identities thereby empowering them academically, socially and politically. This article examined how four Chinese heritage languages teachers constructed culturally relevant pedagogy in their language instructions. Qualitative cross-case analysis indicated…

Motivational Effects of Standardized Language Assessment on Chinese Young Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhao, Chuqiao

2016-01-01

This review paper examines how standardized language assessment affects Chinese young learners' motivation for second-language learning. By presenting the historical and contemporary contexts of the testing system in China, this paper seeks to demonstrate the interrelationship among cultural, social, familial, and individual factors, which…

When Bilinguals Choose a Single Word to Speak: Electrophysiological Evidence for Inhibition of the Native Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Misra, Maya; Guo, Taomei; Bobb, Susan C.; Kroll, Judith F.

2012-01-01

Behavioral and event-related potential (ERP) measures are reported for a study in which relatively proficient Chinese-English bilinguals named identical pictures in each of their two languages. Production occurred only in Chinese (the first language, L1) or only in English (the second language, L2) in a given block with the order counterbalanced…

Language Maintenance and Language Shift among Chinese Immigrant Parents and Their Second-Generation Children in the U.S.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Donghui

2010-01-01

This study examines the language experiences of two distinct Chinese immigrant groups in the U.S.: a Mandarin-speaking group and a Fujianese-speaking group across two generations. The different language trajectories of the parents' generation, along with their social class and different settlement patterns in the U.S., shaped the second-generation…

Development of the Language Subtest in a Developmental Assessment Scale to Identify Chinese Preschool Children with Special Needs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wong, Anita M. -Y.; Leung, Cynthia; Siu, Elaine K. -L.; Lam, Catherine C. -C.; Chan, Grace P. -S.

2011-01-01

This study reports on the development of the language subtest in the Preschool Developmental Assessment Scale (PDAS) for Cantonese-Chinese speaking children. A pilot pool of 158 items covering the two language modalities and the three language domains was developed. This initial item set was subsequently revised based on Rasch analyses of data…

Training Pre-Service Chinese Language Teachers to Create Instructional Video to Enhance Classroom Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Lih-Ching Chen; Wang, Ming-Chian Ken

2014-01-01

Foreign language instruction is a complex and challenging task made even more so by situations in which the learner's native language is radically different from the foreign language being mastered. Nowhere is this more evident than in the case of native English speakers seeking to learn Mandarin Chinese. The rapid increase in the availability and…

"Do You Know Your Language?" How Teachers of Punjabi and Chinese Ancestries Construct Their Family Languages in Their Personal and Professional Lives.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beynon, June; Ilieva, Roumiana; Dichupa, Marela; Hirji, Shemina

2003-01-01

Focuses on how teachers of minority ancestries construct and represent their family language identities. Drawing on poststructural, postcolonial and sociocultural theory on culture, identity, and language, examined the complex nature of linguistic identities of 25 teachers of Chinese and 20 teachers of Punjabi ancestries. (Author/VWL)

An Exploration of Language Anxiety in L2 Academic Context for Chinese International Students in U.S. Universities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhao, Qing

2013-01-01

This mix-methods study examined the language anxiety levels that the Chinese international students perceived in second language (L2) academic context at four universities in the northeastern region of the United States of America; it explored the impact of language anxiety that these students perceived on their academic learning; it also…

An Exploration of the Use of Mobile Applications to Support the Learning of Chinese Characters Employed by Students of Chinese as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mason, Amanda; Wenxin, Zhang

2017-01-01

At present, there are few studies which explore the learning strategies employed by students of Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) and even fewer that focus specifically on mobile application use. This study provides insights into how adult learners at varying levels of proficiency employ mobile apps to support their Chinese character learning.…

The Short Form 36 English and Chinese versions were equivalent in a multiethnic Asian population.

PubMed

Tan, Maudrene L S; Wee, Hwee-Lin; Lee, Jeannette; Ma, Stefan; Heng, Derrick; Tai, E-Shyong; Thumboo, Julian

2013-07-01

The primary aim of this article was to evaluate measurement equivalence of the English and Chinese versions of the Short Form 36 version 2 (SF-36v2) and Short Form 6D (SF-6D). In this cross-sectional study, health-related quality of life (HRQoL) was measured from 4,973 ethnic Chinese subjects using the SF-36v2 questionnaire. Measurement equivalence of domain and utility scores for the English- and Chinese-language SF-36v2 and SF-6D were assessed by examining the score differences between the two languages using linear regression models, with and without adjustment for known determinants of HRQoL. Equivalence was achieved if the 90% confidence interval (CI) of the differences in scores, due to language, fell within a predefined equivalence margin. Compared with English-speaking Chinese, Chinese-speaking Chinese were significantly older (47.6 vs. 55.5 years). All SF-36v2 domains were equivalent after adjusting for known HRQoL. SF-6D utility/items had the 90% CI either fully or partially overlap their predefined equivalence margin. The English- and Chinese-language versions of the SF-36v2 and SF-6D demonstrated equivalence. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Genetic and Environmental Overlap between Chinese and English Reading-Related Skills in Chinese Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wong, Simpson W. L.; Chow, Bonnie Wing-Yin; Ho, Connie Suk-Han; Waye, Mary M. Y.; Bishop, Dorothy V. M.

2014-01-01

This twin study examined the relative contributions of genes and environment on 2nd language reading acquisition of Chinese-speaking children learning English. We examined whether specific skills-visual word recognition, receptive vocabulary, phonological awareness, phonological memory, and speech discrimination-in the 1st and 2nd languages have…

Character Reading Fluency, Word Segmentation Accuracy, and Reading Comprehension in L2 Chinese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shen, Helen H.; Jiang, Xin

2013-01-01

This study investigated the relationships between lower-level processing and general reading comprehension among adult L2 (second-language) beginning learners of Chinese, in both target and non-target language learning environments. Lower-level processing in Chinese reading includes the factors of character-naming accuracy, character-naming speed,…

Native Chinese-Speaking K-12 Language Teachers' Beliefs and Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lü, Chan; Lavadenz, Magaly

2014-01-01

This study investigated the relationships between the beliefs and practices of K-12 native Chinese teachers on Chinese language and literacy instruction. Using a descriptive-exploratory design, this study employed a mixed-methods approach consisting of three steps: (1) a teacher beliefs questionnaire, (2) classroom observations and videotaping,…

Conceptions of Language Teaching of Chinese-Born Language Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Packevicz, Michael Joseph, Jr.

2012-01-01

In the educational world, there is a growing amount of scholarship directed toward China. Much Western writing has focused on the supposedly deficient aspects of Chinese education: rote memorization, large class size, teacher-centered methodology. While there are those who challenge the deficiency view of Chinese education--Watkins and Biggs, Jin…

Comparing Teachers' Judgments of Learners' Speech in Chinese as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Orton, Jane

2014-01-01

Pedagogical norms for Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) shared by teachers, curriculum writers, and resource designers inside and outside of Chinese societies are yet to be established. To initiate and inform dialogue within the CFL community over shared expectations of learners, this study compared the judgments of students' oral presentations…

Metacognitive Awareness of EFL Student Writers in a Chinese ELT Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ruan, Zhoulin

2014-01-01

This paper reports on an investigation into metacognitive awareness of Chinese English as a foreign language (EFL) student writers, under a threefold metacognition framework--person, task, and strategy variables, and within the broader domain of cognitive writing theories. Data were collected in a Chinese tertiary English language teaching (ELT)…

Cognitive and Linguistic Factors Affecting Alphasyllabary Language Users Comprehending Chinese Text

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shum, Mark Shiu Kee; Ki, Wing Wah; Leong, Che Kan

2014-01-01

Two groups of 13 to14-year-old alphasyllabary language users (mainly Hindi and Urdu), in integrated or designated school settings (respectively 40 and 48 students), were compared with 59 Chinese students in comprehending 4 elementary Chinese texts, each with three inferential questions requiring short open-ended written answers. Three constructs…

Cultural Views, Language Ability, and Mammography Use in Chinese American Women

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liang, Wenchi; Wang, Judy; Chen, Mei-Yuh; Feng, Shibao; Yi, Bin; Mandelblatt, Jeanne S.

2009-01-01

Mammography screening rates among Chinese American women have been reported to be low. This study examines whether and how culture views and language ability influence mammography adherence in this mostly immigrant population. Asymptomatic Chinese American women (n = 466) aged 50 and older, recruited from the Washington, D.C. area, completed a…

Communicative Development in Bilingually Exposed Chinese Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reetzke, Rachel; Zou, Xiaobing; Sheng, Li; Katsos, Napoleon

2015-01-01

Purpose: We examined the association of bilingual exposure with structural and pragmatic language development in Chinese children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Method: The parents of 54 children with ASD exposed to 1 (n = 31) or 2 (n = 23) Chinese languages completed (a) a questionnaire to evaluate their child's competence in structural…

An Investigation of Three Chinese Students' English Writing Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mu, Congjun; Carrington, Suzanne

2007-01-01

The purpose of this study is to investigate the writing processes of second language (L2) writers, specifically examining the writing strategies of three Chinese post-graduate students in an Australian higher education institution. The study was prompted by the paucity of second language writing strategies of Chinese students in an authentic…

Interventional Cultural and Language Assistance Program: Associations between Cultural and Linguistic Factors and Satisfaction with Cancer Care

PubMed Central

Costas-Muniz, R; Amir, J; Paris, M; Spratt, D; Arevalo-Perez, J; Fareedy, S; González, CJ; Gany, F; Camacho-Rivera, M; Osborne, JR

2017-01-01

Addressing language and cultural nuance is required to improve the quality of care among all patients. The tenth version of the National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health Care (CLAS) recommends implementing ongoing assessments to integrate specific actions into measurement and continuous quality improvement activities. To this end, we have created the Interventional Cultural and Language Assistance Program (ICLAP). As part of ICLAP, we conducted a cross-sectional needs assessment survey with 564 consecutive patients receiving outpatient Positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET/CT) imaging at a comprehensive cancer center in the five most prevalent languages of New York City: English, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, and Arabic. The purpose of this study is to describe the language assistance characteristics and needs of a sample of patients receiving care in the cancer center. We examined the relationship between race, ethnicity, birthplace, communication and language assistance characteristics and the satisfaction with the care received. Our results show that race and ethnicity, birthplace, cultural beliefs, language assistance, and communication characteristics were all factors associated with patients’ satisfaction with care, illustrating that there is an unmet need among cancer patients to have cultural and linguistic sensitive services. PMID:29423339

Development of a conceptually equivalent Chinese-language translation of the US Household Food Security Survey Module for Chinese immigrants to the USA.

PubMed

Kwan, Christine Ml; Napoles, Anna M; Chou, Jeyling; Seligman, Hilary K

2015-02-01

To develop a conceptually equivalent Chinese-language translation of the eighteen-item US Household Food Security Survey Module. In the current qualitative study, we (i) highlight methodological challenges which arise in developing survey instruments that will be used to make comparisons across language groups and (ii) describe the development of a Chinese-language translation of the US Household Food Security Survey Module, called the San Francisco Chinese Food Security Module. Community sites in San Francisco, CA, USA. We conducted cognitive interviews with twenty-two community members recruited from community sites hosting food pantries and with five professionals recruited from clinical settings. Development of conceptually equivalent surveys can be difficult. We highlight challenges related to dialect, education, literacy (e.g. preferences for more or less formal phrasing), English words and phrases for which there is no Chinese language equivalent (e.g. 'balanced meals' and 'eat less than you felt you should') and response formats. We selected final translations to maximize: (i) consistency of the Chinese translation with the intent of the English version; (ii) clarity; and (iii) similarities in understanding across dialects and literacy levels. Survey translation is essential for conducting research in many communities. The challenges encountered illustrate how literal translations can affect the conceptual equivalence of survey items across languages. Cognitive interview methods should be routinely used for survey translation when such non-equivalence is suspected, such as in surveys addressing highly culturally bound behaviours such as diet and eating behaviours. Literally translated surveys lacking conceptual equivalence may magnify or obscure important health inequalities.

Pinyin and English Invented Spelling in Chinese-Speaking Students Who Speak English as a Second Language.

PubMed

Ding, Yi; Liu, Ru-De; McBride, Catherine A; Fan, Chung-Hau; Xu, Le; Wang, Jia

2018-05-07

This study examined pinyin (the official phonetic system that transcribes the lexical tones and pronunciation of Chinese characters) invented spelling and English invented spelling in 72 Mandarin-speaking 6th graders who learned English as their second language. The pinyin invented spelling task measured segmental-level awareness including syllable and phoneme awareness, and suprasegmental-level awareness including lexical tones and tone sandhi in Chinese Mandarin. The English invented spelling task manipulated segmental-level awareness including syllable awareness and phoneme awareness, and suprasegmental-level awareness including word stress. This pinyin task outperformed a traditional phonological awareness task that only measured segmental-level awareness and may have optimal utility to measure unique phonological and linguistic features in Chinese reading. The pinyin invented spelling uniquely explained variance in Chinese conventional spelling and word reading in both languages. The English invented spelling uniquely explained variance in conventional spelling and word reading in both languages. Our findings appear to support the role of phonological activation in Chinese reading. Our experimental linguistic manipulations altered the phonological awareness item difficulties.

Mother Tongue Education in Singapore: Concerns, Issues and Controversies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ng, Chin Leong Patrick

2014-01-01

In 1966, the Singapore Government implemented the English-knowing bilingual policy which made it mandatory for all Chinese students to study English as a "First Language" and the Chinese language (CL) as a "Mother Tongue Language" in Singapore schools. Using key literature relevant to Singapore's bilingual educational policy…

Reading, Writing, and Animation in Character Learning in Chinese as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xu, Yi; Chang, Li-Yun; Zhang, Juan; Perfetti, Charles A.

2013-01-01

Previous studies suggest that writing helps reading development in Chinese in both first and second language settings by enabling higher-quality orthographic representation of the characters. This study investigated the comparative effectiveness of reading, animation, and writing in developing foreign language learners' orthographic knowledge…

Oral Reading in Bilingual Aphasia: Evidence from Mongolian and Chinese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weekes, Brendan Stuart; Su, I. Fan; Yin, Wengang; Zhang, Xihong

2007-01-01

Cognitive neuropsychological studies of bilingual patients with aphasia have contributed to our understanding of how the brain processes different languages. The question we asked is whether differences in script have any impact on language processing in bilingual aphasic patients who speak languages with different writing systems: Chinese and…

Interlingual and Interdialectal Borrowings in Chinese.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chao, Y.R.

The processes involved in "borrowing" words and structures between languages and among dialects are discussed and illustrated. Interlingual borrowings between Chinese and other languages have taken place in several different ways. Sometimes the sounds of the foreign word are imitated using the sounds of the borrowing language ("leidar" for 'radar'…

Orthographic Consistency and Individual Learner Differences in Second Language Literacy Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Sun-A; Packard, Jerome; Christianson, Kiel; Anderson, Richard C.; Shin, Jeong-Ah

2016-01-01

This study investigated whether orthographic consistency and individual learner differences including working memory (WM), first language (L1) background, and second language (L2) proficiency affect Chinese L2 learners' literacy acquisition. Seventy American college students in beginning or intermediate Chinese classes participated in a character…

Metacognitive Beliefs and Strategies in Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Jinghui; Spencer, Ken; Xing, Minjie

2009-01-01

The study investigates the effects of second-year university students' metacognitive beliefs and strategies on learning Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL). The analysis shows that metacognitive beliefs, which identify students who are confident about their ability to learn a foreign language, are positively associated with students' CFL…

(Dis)connections between Specific Language Impairment and Dyslexia in Chinese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wong, Anita M.-Y.; Ho, Connie S.-H.; Au, Terry K.-F.; Kidd, Joanna C.; Ng, Ashley K.-H.; Yip, Lesley P.-W.; Lam, Catherine C.-C.

2015-01-01

Specific language impairment (SLI) and dyslexia are found to co-occur in school-aged children learning Chinese, a non-alphabetic language (Wong, Kidd, Ho, & Au in "Sci Stud Read" 14:30--57, 2010). This paper examined the "Distinct" hypothesis--that SLI and dyslexia have different cognitive deficits and behavioural…

Development and evaluation of a Chinese-language newborn feeding hotline: a prospective cohort study.

PubMed

Janssen, Patricia A; Livingstone, Verity H; Chang, Bruce; Klein, Michael C

2009-01-29

Preference for formula versus breast feeding among women of Chinese descent remains a concern in North America. The goal of this study was to develop an intervention targeting Chinese immigrant mothers to increase their rates of exclusive breastfeeding. We convened a focus group of immigrant women of Chinese descent in Vancouver, British Columbia to explore preferences for method of infant feeding. We subsequently surveyed 250 women of Chinese descent to validate focus group findings. Using a participatory approach, our focus group participants reviewed survey findings and developed a priority list for attributes of a community-based intervention to support exclusive breastfeeding in the Chinese community. The authors and focus group participants worked as a team to plan, implement and evaluate a Chinese language newborn feeding information telephone service staffed by registered nurses fluent in Chinese languages. Participants in the focus group reported a strong preference for formula feeding. Telephone survey results revealed that while pregnant Chinese women understood the benefits of breastfeeding, only 20.8% planned to breastfeed exclusively. Only 15.6% were breastfeeding exclusively at two months postpartum. After implementation of the feeding hotline, 20% of new Chinese mothers in Vancouver indicated that they had used the hotline. Among these women, the rate of exclusive breastfeeding was 44.1%; OR 3.02, (95% CI 1.78-5.09) compared to women in our survey. Initiation of a language-specific newborn feeding telephone hotline reached a previously underserved population and may have contributed to improved rates of exclusive breastfeeding.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)-aided therapeutics of Chinese speech area-related lesions: screening of fMRI-stimulating mode and its clinical applications.

PubMed

Wu, Nan; Xie, Bing; Wu, Guo-Cai; Lan, Chuan; Wang, Jian; Feng, Hua

2010-01-01

Language area-related lesion is a serious issue in neurosurgery. Removing the lesion in the language area and at the same time preserving language functions is a great challenge. In this study, we aimed to screen functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) based task types suitable for activation of Broca and Wernicke areas in Chinese population, characterize lesion properties of functional area of Chinese language in brain, and assess the potential of fMRI-guided neuronavigation in clinical applications. Blood oxygen level-dependent fMRI has been used to localize language area prior to operation. We carried out extensive fMRI analyses and conducted operation on patients with lesions in speech area. fMRI tests revealed that the reciting task in Chinese can steadily activate the Broca area, and paragraph comprehension task in Chinese can effectively activate the Wernicke area. Cortical stimulation of patients when being awake during operation validated the sensitivity and accuracy of fMRI. The safe distance between language activation area and removal of the lesion in language area was determined to be about 10 mm. Further investigation suggested that navigation of fMRI combined with diffuse tensor imaging can decrease the incidence of postoperative dysfunction and increase the success rate for complete removal of lesion. Taken together, these findings may be helpful to clinical therapy for language area-related lesions.

Model of the Dynamic Construction Process of Texts and Scaling Laws of Words Organization in Language Systems

PubMed Central

Li, Shan; Lin, Ruokuang; Bian, Chunhua; Ma, Qianli D. Y.

2016-01-01

Scaling laws characterize diverse complex systems in a broad range of fields, including physics, biology, finance, and social science. The human language is another example of a complex system of words organization. Studies on written texts have shown that scaling laws characterize the occurrence frequency of words, words rank, and the growth of distinct words with increasing text length. However, these studies have mainly concentrated on the western linguistic systems, and the laws that govern the lexical organization, structure and dynamics of the Chinese language remain not well understood. Here we study a database of Chinese and English language books. We report that three distinct scaling laws characterize words organization in the Chinese language. We find that these scaling laws have different exponents and crossover behaviors compared to English texts, indicating different words organization and dynamics of words in the process of text growth. We propose a stochastic feedback model of words organization and text growth, which successfully accounts for the empirically observed scaling laws with their corresponding scaling exponents and characteristic crossover regimes. Further, by varying key model parameters, we reproduce differences in the organization and scaling laws of words between the Chinese and English language. We also identify functional relationships between model parameters and the empirically observed scaling exponents, thus providing new insights into the words organization and growth dynamics in the Chinese and English language. PMID:28006026

Model of the Dynamic Construction Process of Texts and Scaling Laws of Words Organization in Language Systems.

PubMed

Li, Shan; Lin, Ruokuang; Bian, Chunhua; Ma, Qianli D Y; Ivanov, Plamen Ch

2016-01-01

Scaling laws characterize diverse complex systems in a broad range of fields, including physics, biology, finance, and social science. The human language is another example of a complex system of words organization. Studies on written texts have shown that scaling laws characterize the occurrence frequency of words, words rank, and the growth of distinct words with increasing text length. However, these studies have mainly concentrated on the western linguistic systems, and the laws that govern the lexical organization, structure and dynamics of the Chinese language remain not well understood. Here we study a database of Chinese and English language books. We report that three distinct scaling laws characterize words organization in the Chinese language. We find that these scaling laws have different exponents and crossover behaviors compared to English texts, indicating different words organization and dynamics of words in the process of text growth. We propose a stochastic feedback model of words organization and text growth, which successfully accounts for the empirically observed scaling laws with their corresponding scaling exponents and characteristic crossover regimes. Further, by varying key model parameters, we reproduce differences in the organization and scaling laws of words between the Chinese and English language. We also identify functional relationships between model parameters and the empirically observed scaling exponents, thus providing new insights into the words organization and growth dynamics in the Chinese and English language.

Subtlety of Ambient-Language Effects in Babbling: A Study of English- and Chinese-Learning Infants at 8, 10, and 12 Months

PubMed Central

Lee, Chia-Cheng; Jhang, Yuna; Chen, Li-mei; Relyea, George; Oller, D. Kimbrough

2016-01-01

Prior research on ambient-language effects in babbling has often suggested infants produce language-specific phonological features within the first year. These results have been questioned in research failing to find such effects and challenging the positive findings on methodological grounds. We studied English- and Chinese-learning infants at 8, 10, and 12 months and found listeners could not detect ambient-language effects in the vast majority of infant utterances, but only in items deemed to be words or to contain canonical syllables that may have made them sound like words with language-specific shapes. Thus, the present research suggests the earliest ambient-language effects may be found in emerging lexical items or in utterances influenced by language-specific features of lexical items. Even the ambient-language effects for infant canonical syllables and words were very small compared with ambient-language effects for meaningless but phonotactically well-formed syllable sequences spoken by adult native speakers of English and Chinese. PMID:28496393

Aspects of the Two Language System and Three Language Problem in the Changing Society of Hong Kong.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tsou, Benjamin K.

1996-01-01

Presents details of the language shifts among the various sections of the Chinese-speaking population in Hong Kong and analyzes patterns of allegiance. Notes that complex social, economic, and political pressures will affect future language in Hong Kong and that, within the domains of family, work, and others, the use of Modern Standard Chinese is…

The Pedagogical, Linguistic, and Content Features of Popular English Language Learning Websites in China: A Framework for Analysis and Design

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kettle, Margaret; Yuan, Yifeng; Luke, Allan; Ewing, Robyn; Shen, Huizhong

2012-01-01

As increasing numbers of Chinese language learners choose to learn English online, there is a need to investigate popular websites and their language learning designs. This paper reports on the first stage of a study that analyzed the pedagogical, linguistic, and content features of 25 Chinese English Language Learning (ELL) websites ranked…

Exploring the Relationships between Independent Listening and Listening-Reading-Writing Tasks in Chinese Language Testing: Toward a Better Understanding of the Construct Underlying Integrated Writing Tasks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhu, Xinhua; Li, Xueyan; Yu, Guoxing; Cheong, Choo Mui; Liao, Xian

2016-01-01

Integrated assessment tasks have been increasingly used in language tests, but the underlying constructs of integrated tasks remain elusive. This study aimed to improve understanding of the construct of integrated writing tasks in Chinese Language examinations in Hong Kong by looking at the language competences measured in the…

Mother-adolescent language proficiency and adolescent academic and emotional adjustment among Chinese American families.

PubMed

Liu, Lisa L; Benner, Aprile D; Lau, Anna S; Kim, Su Yeong

2009-04-01

This study examined the role of adolescents' and mothers' self-reports of English and heritage language proficiency in youth's academic and emotional adjustment among 444 Chinese American families. Adolescents who were proficient in English tended to exhibit higher reading achievement scores, math achievement scores, and overall GPA. Mothers who were English proficient tended to have children with higher academic achievement and fewer depressive symptoms. Results also indicated that adolescents' heritage language maintenance was associated with positive adjustment, particularly amongst foreign-born youth and for youth whose parents were highly proficient in the heritage language. Mother-adolescent match in heritage language proficiency was related to higher math achievement scores and overall GPA. Additionally, higher heritage language proficiency was associated with fewer depressive symptoms for foreign-born but not U.S.-born youth. Overall, the findings suggest that proficiency in both the English and heritage language may confer advantages to Chinese American youth.

A Computer Text Analysis of Four Cohesion Devices in English Discourse by Native and Nonnative Writers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reid, Joy

1992-01-01

In a contrastive rhetoric study of nonnative English speakers, 768 essays written in English by native speakers of Arabic, Chinese, Spanish, and English were examined using the Writer's Workbench program to determine whether distinctive, quantifiable differences in the use of 4 cohesion devices existed among the 4 language backgrounds. (Author/LB)

Revisiting the Lau Decision: 20 Years After. Proceedings of a National Commemorative Symposium (San Francisco, California, November 3-4, 1994).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ARC Associates, Inc. Oakland, CA.

The "Lau" decision of 1974, which was related to the education of Chinese-speaking students in San Francisco (California), ushered in new programs, teaching approaches, frameworks, legislation, and government agencies designed to redress fundamental inequities in the educational opportunities available to language minority students. This…

From Inception to Reflection: Ohio's K-4 Content-Enriched Mandarin Chinese Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robinson, Deborah W.

2009-01-01

In 2006 the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) submitted and received a three-year Foreign Language Assistance Program grant from the U.S. Department of Education to write and pilot a K-4 content-enriched Mandarin curriculum and to build online professional development modules to support the curriculum. Once funded, ODE formed an advisory…

A View from Within: A Case Study of Chinese Heritage Community Language Schools in the United States.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Xueying, Ed.

A collection of essays on Chinese heritage community language schools in the United States addresses these topics: the schools, their curricula, and organization (Theresa Hsu Chao); school administration and management (Chao, Lydia Chen, Edward Chang); academic curriculum (Pay-Fen Serena Wang); non-heritage Chinese learners: practices and…

Preparedness of Chinese Students for American Culture and Communicating in English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rawlings, Melody; Sue, Edna

2013-01-01

What Chinese students learn about American culture and the English language in the classrooms of China does not adequately prepare them for the reality of American culture and communication in English. In this study, the constructs of American culture and models of English language taught in Chinese classrooms are compared with the reality of…

Chinese International Students' Social Connectedness, Social and Academic Adaptation: The Mediating Role of Global Competence

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meng, Qian; Zhu, Chang; Cao, Chun

2018-01-01

This study examined global competence of Chinese international students sojourning in a non-Anglophone European country as a mediator between foreign language proficiency (i.e., English and local language) and social and academic adaptation, and social connectedness in international community. A sample of 206 Chinese students in Belgium responded…

Sustaining Teacher Change through Participating in a Comprehensive Approach to Teaching Chinese Literacy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tse, Shek Kam; Ip, Olivia King Ming; Tan, Wei Xiong; Ko, Hwa-Wei

2012-01-01

An overview is presented of a three-year project aimed at helping Chinese language teachers in Taiwan refine ways that Chinese, an ideographic language that differs markedly from alphabetic English, is taught in primary schools. Guided by university staff in Taiwan, Hong Kong University and a Taiwanese non-government social enterprise, 20…

Exploring Singapore Primary School Students' Perceptions of Chinese Asynchronous Online Discussions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chin, Wong Wan; Sum, Cheung Wing; Foon, Hew Khe

2008-01-01

Background: Asynchronous online discussion (AOD) has found widespread use in tertiary education and adult learning environment; however, there has been little research on its use in elementary school, especially in the context of the teaching of the Chinese Language. This study explores the use of AOD in a Chinese Language class in a primary…

The Acquisition of English Lexical Stress by Chinese-Speaking Learners: An OT Account

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yuan, Man; Cheng, Wei

2017-01-01

Lexical stress is an important contributor to foreign accent as well as intelligibility of second language (L2) speech. The present study intends to find out to what extent Chinese-speaking learners whose native language has less evident stress can acquire English lexical stress. A production test was administered to nine advanced Chinese learners…

The Challenges of Chinese: A Preliminary Study of UK Learners' Perceptions of Difficulty

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hu, Bo

2010-01-01

This study aims to highlight aspects of difficulty encountered by Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) learners and to explore the factors underlying these aspects. Data were gathered through a Chinese Language Learning Difficulty Survey from 164 CFL learners, mostly in British higher education. The survey data provided useful exploratory findings.…

Language, Academic, Socio-Cultural and Financial Adjustments of Mainland Chinese Students Studying in Hong Kong

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cheung, Alan C. K.

2013-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine language, academic, social-cultural and financial adjustments facing mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong. Design/methodology/approach: The current study employed both quantitative and qualitative methods and included over 300 mainland Chinese students from seven major universities in Hong Kong.…

Developing Orthographic Awareness among Beginning Chinese Language Learners: Investigating the Influence of Beginning Level Textbooks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fan, Hui-Mei

2010-01-01

The present study is based on the theoretical assumptions that frequency of characters and their structural components, as well as the frequency types of structural components, are important to enable learners of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) to discover the underlying structure of Chinese characters. In the CFL context, since reliable…

The Effect of Radical-Based Grouping in Character Learning in Chinese as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xu, Yi; Chang, Li-Yun; Perfetti, Charles A.

2014-01-01

The logographic nature of the Chinese writing system creates a huge hurdle for Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) learners. Existing literature (e.g., Shen, [Shen, H. H., 2010]; Taft & Chung, [Taft, M., 1999]) suggests that radical knowledge facilitates character learning. In this project, we selected 48 compound characters in eight radical…

Flipping the Classroom in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Jia; Yin, Chengxu; Wang, Wei

2018-01-01

Through an in-depth analysis of quantitative and qualitative data, this article offers a case study of the advantages and challenges in the application of the flipped learning approach in the instruction of Chinese as a foreign language at the beginning level. Data were collected from two first-year Chinese classes (one in traditional and the…

Toward a Dynamic Interactive Model of Non-Native Chinese Character Processing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tong, Xiuli; Kwan, Joyce Lok Yin; Wong, Denise Wai Man; Lee, Stephen Man Kit; Yip, Joanna Hew Yan

2016-01-01

Previous studies have suggested that word processing in English as a second language (L2) is affected by first language (L1) orthographic features. However, little is known about what affects L2 Chinese character processing in adult Chinese learners with different L1 orthographies such as Japanese, Korean, and English. With a picture-character…

A Comparative Study of Language Reforms in China and Japan. Skidmore College Faculty Research Lecture 1969.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chu, Yu-Kuang; Nishimoto, Koji

1969-01-01

Chinese and Japanese, although they are unrelated languages, nevertheless have similar writing systems, since Japanese writing employs a mixed system of Chinese characters and phonetic script. Because Chinese characters are difficult to learn, however, reform movements to simplify the writing system to make the task of learning easier for a…

The Intelligibility of Chinese-Accented English to International and American Students at a U.S. University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hardman, Jocelyn Brooks

2010-01-01

This study investigated the intelligibility of Chinese graduate students to their Indian, Chinese, Korean, and American peers. Specifically, the researcher sought to determine the teaching priorities for English for Academic Purposes in the US, where listeners have a wide variety of native languages. Research on Second Language Acquisition…

Politics, Economics, Society, and Overseas Chinese Teaching: A Case Study of Australia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Ping

2016-01-01

The history and current state of Chinese teaching in Australia has largely been determined by two key factors: first, the country's policy on languages, and in particular its policy regarding foreign language education; and second, its immigrants and overseas students from Chinese-speaking countries and regions. Beginning in the 1980s, Chinese…

A Standalone but Not Lonely Language: Chinese Linguistic Environment and Education in Singapore Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Min, Huang; Kangdi, Cheng

2016-01-01

Bilingual education policy in Singapore permits the students learn both English as working language and mother tongues, such as Chinese, as L2 anchoring to culture heritage. Starting from historical and sociolinguistic reasons, this paper is intended to provide a panoramic view of Chinese education in Singapore, clarify and compare Chinese…

Wellness Centre: An Evidence-Guided Approach to Delivering Culturally Relevant Community Psychogeriatric Services for Chinese Elders

PubMed Central

Chan, Kar C.; Sadavoy, Joel

2012-01-01

Ethnic elders are commonly reluctant to access mental health services and their mental health problems are often overlooked and detected late in the course of illness. Prior studies identified major barriers to ethnic seniors accessing appropriate mental health care demonstrating that language and cultural beliefs cannot be ignored if effective mental health services are to be provided to patients from diverse cultural groups. These are particularly important when care is needed by less acculturated immigrant ethnic seniors for whom language barriers are often greatest. Differences in conceptions of mental distress affect ethnic seniors' choice of help-seeking and often discourage or divert aged persons from utilizing mainstream conventional psychiatric care. Despite the extensive need for appropriate service models for ethnic populations, there have been limited data and models to illustrate how these programs can be systematically and effectively integrated within the mainstream mental health service framework. This paper describes an innovative, mainstream, community-based psychogeriatric service delivery model developed for Chinese seniors in Toronto, Canada, aiming at improving their access to care and enhancing earlier mental health problem detection. The important concepts and strategies of designing and operating a culturally acceptable program are illustrated supported by program data and the challenges analyzed. PMID:23762771

Dissimilation in the Second Language Acquisition of Mandarin Chinese Tones

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Hang

2016-01-01

This article extends Optimality Theoretic studies to the research on second language tone phonology. Specifically, this work analyses the acquisition of identical tone sequences in Mandarin Chinese by adult speakers of three non-tonal languages: English, Japanese and Korean. This study finds that the learners prefer not to use identical lexical…

Chinese Language and Culture Curriculum: Teacher's Manual [and] Student Activity Book.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Soh, Yong-Kian; And Others

This curriculum is designed to introduce Chinese language and culture in the elementary grades, and consists of a teacher's manual and student activity book. The teacher's guide consists of an introductory section, which outlines the rationale, objectives, suggested teaching techniques and materials, and language and culture content of the…

Enculturating Seamless Language Learning through Artifact Creation and Social Interaction Process

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wong, Lung-Hsiang; Chai, Ching Sing; Aw, Guat Poh; King, Ronnel B.

2015-01-01

This paper reports a design-based research (DBR) cycle of MyCLOUD (My Chinese ubiquitOUs learning Days). MyCLOUD is a seamless language learning model that addresses identified limitations of conventional Chinese language teaching, such as the decontextualized and unauthentic learning processes that usually hinder reflection and deep learning.…

Language related differences of the sustained response evoked by natural speech sounds.

PubMed

Fan, Christina Siu-Dschu; Zhu, Xingyu; Dosch, Hans Günter; von Stutterheim, Christiane; Rupp, André

2017-01-01

In tonal languages, such as Mandarin Chinese, the pitch contour of vowels discriminates lexical meaning, which is not the case in non-tonal languages such as German. Recent data provide evidence that pitch processing is influenced by language experience. However, there are still many open questions concerning the representation of such phonological and language-related differences at the level of the auditory cortex (AC). Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we recorded transient and sustained auditory evoked fields (AEF) in native Chinese and German speakers to investigate language related phonological and semantic aspects in the processing of acoustic stimuli. AEF were elicited by spoken meaningful and meaningless syllables, by vowels, and by a French horn tone. Speech sounds were recorded from a native speaker and showed frequency-modulations according to the pitch-contours of Mandarin. The sustained field (SF) evoked by natural speech signals was significantly larger for Chinese than for German listeners. In contrast, the SF elicited by a horn tone was not significantly different between groups. Furthermore, the SF of Chinese subjects was larger when evoked by meaningful syllables compared to meaningless ones, but there was no significant difference regarding whether vowels were part of the Chinese phonological system or not. Moreover, the N100m gave subtle but clear evidence that for Chinese listeners other factors than purely physical properties play a role in processing meaningful signals. These findings show that the N100 and the SF generated in Heschl's gyrus are influenced by language experience, which suggests that AC activity related to specific pitch contours of vowels is influenced in a top-down fashion by higher, language related areas. Such interactions are in line with anatomical findings and neuroimaging data, as well as with the dual-stream model of language of Hickok and Poeppel that highlights the close and reciprocal interaction between superior temporal gyrus and sulcus.

The Proximate Phonological Unit of Chinese-English Bilinguals: Proficiency Matters

PubMed Central

Verdonschot, Rinus Gerardus; Nakayama, Mariko; Zhang, Qingfang; Tamaoka, Katsuo; Schiller, Niels Olaf

2013-01-01

An essential step to create phonology according to the language production model by Levelt, Roelofs and Meyer is to assemble phonemes into a metrical frame. However, recently, it has been proposed that different languages may rely on different grain sizes of phonological units to construct phonology. For instance, it has been proposed that, instead of phonemes, Mandarin Chinese uses syllables and Japanese uses moras to fill the metrical frame. In this study, we used a masked priming-naming task to investigate how bilinguals assemble their phonology for each language when the two languages differ in grain size. Highly proficient Mandarin Chinese-English bilinguals showed a significant masked onset priming effect in English (L2), and a significant masked syllabic priming effect in Mandarin Chinese (L1). These results suggest that their proximate unit is phonemic in L2 (English), and that bilinguals may use different phonological units depending on the language that is being processed. Additionally, under some conditions, a significant sub-syllabic priming effect was observed even in Mandarin Chinese, which indicates that L2 phonology exerts influences on L1 target processing as a consequence of having a good command of English. PMID:23646107

The perception of FM sweeps by Chinese and English listeners.

PubMed

Luo, Huan; Boemio, Anthony; Gordon, Michael; Poeppel, David

2007-02-01

Frequency-modulated (FM) signals are an integral acoustic component of ecologically natural sounds and are analyzed effectively in the auditory systems of humans and animals. Linearly frequency-modulated tone sweeps were used here to evaluate two questions. First, how rapid a sweep can listeners accurately perceive? Second, is there an effect of native language insofar as the language (phonology) is differentially associated with processing of FM signals? Speakers of English and Mandarin Chinese were tested to evaluate whether being a speaker of a tone language altered the perceptual identification of non-speech tone sweeps. In two psychophysical studies, we demonstrate that Chinese subjects perform better than English subjects in FM direction identification, but not in an FM discrimination task, in which English and Chinese speakers show similar detection thresholds of approximately 20 ms duration. We suggest that the better FM direction identification in Chinese subjects is related to their experience with FM direction analysis in the tone-language environment, even though supra-segmental tonal variation occurs over a longer time scale. Furthermore, the observed common discrimination temporal threshold across two language groups supports the conjecture that processing auditory signals at durations of approximately 20 ms constitutes a fundamental auditory perceptual threshold.

Chinese English Learners' Strategic Competence.

PubMed

Wang, Dianjian; Lai, Hongling; Leslie, Michael

2015-12-01

The present study aims to investigate Chinese English learners' ability to use communication strategies (CSs). The subjects are put in a relatively real English referential communication setting and the analyses of the research data show that Chinese English learners, when encountering problems in foreign language (FL) communication, are characterized by the frequent use of substitution, approximation, circumlocution, literal translation, exemplification, word-coinage, repetition, and the infrequent use of cultural-knowledge and paralinguistic CSs. The rare use of paralinguistic strategies is found to be typical of Chinese English learners. The high frequency of literal translation, one first language (L1)-based strategy in our study sample, suggests that FL learners' use of L1-based CSs may depend more upon the developmental stage of their target language than the typology distance between L1 and the target language. The frequency of repetition reveals one fact that the Chinese English learners lack variety and flexibility in their use of CSs. Based on these findings, it was indicated that learners' use of CSs is influenced by a variety of factors, among which the development stage of their interlanguage and their cultural background are identified as two important factors. Some implications are finally suggested for the English foreign language teaching practice in China.

Development of a conceptually equivalent Chinese-language translation of the US Household Food Security Survey Module for Chinese immigrants to the USA

PubMed Central

Kwan, Christine ML; Napoles, Anna M; Chou, Jeyling; Seligman, Hilary K

2014-01-01

Objective To develop a conceptually equivalent Chinese-language translation of the eighteen-item US Household Food Security Survey Module. Design In the current qualitative study, we (i) highlight methodological challenges which arise in developing survey instruments that will be used to make comparisons across language groups and (ii) describe the development of a Chinese-language translation of the US Household Food Security Survey Module, called the San Francisco Chinese Food Security Module. Setting Community sites in San Francisco, CA, USA. Subjects We conducted cognitive interviews with twenty-two community members recruited from community sites hosting food pantries and with five professionals recruited from clinical settings. Results Development of conceptually equivalent surveys can be difficult. We highlight challenges related to dialect, education, literacy (e.g. preferences for more or less formal phrasing), English words and phrases for which there is no Chinese language equivalent (e.g. ‘balanced meals’ and ‘eat less than you felt you should’) and response formats. We selected final translations to maximize: (i) consistency of the Chinese translation with the intent of the English version; (ii) clarity; and (iii) similarities in understanding across dialects and literacy levels. Conclusions Survey translation is essential for conducting research in many communities. The challenges encountered illustrate how literal translations can affect the conceptual equivalence of survey items across languages. Cognitive interview methods should be routinely used for survey translation when such non-equivalence is suspected, such as in surveys addressing highly culturally bound behaviours such as diet and eating behaviours. Literally translated surveys lacking conceptual equivalence may magnify or obscure important health inequalities. PMID:24642365

A tale of two writing systems: double dissociation and metalinguistic transfer between Chinese and English word reading among Hong Kong children.

PubMed

Tong, Xiuli; Tong, Xiuhong; McBride-Chang, Catherine

2015-01-01

This study investigated the rate of school-aged Chinese-English language learners at risk for reading difficulties in either Chinese or English only, or both, among second and fifth graders in Hong Kong. In addition, we examined the metalinguistic skills that distinguished those who were poor in reading Chinese from those who were poor in reading English. The prevalence of poor English readers among children identified to be poor in Chinese word recognition across the five participating schools was approximately 42% at Grade 2 and 57% at Grade 5. Across grades, children who were poor readers of both languages tended to have difficulties in phonological and morphological awareness. Poor readers of English only were found to manifest significantly poorer phonological awareness, compared to those who were poor readers of Chinese only; their average tone awareness score was also lower relative to normally developing controls. Apart from indicating possible dissociations between Chinese first language (L1) word reading and English second language (L2) word reading, these findings suggested that the degree to which different metalinguistic skills are important for reading in different writing systems may depend on the linguistic features of the particular writing system. © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2013.

Development and evaluation of a Chinese-language newborn feeding hotline: A prospective cohort study

PubMed Central

Janssen, Patricia A; Livingstone, Verity H; Chang, Bruce; Klein, Michael C

2009-01-01

Background Preference for formula versus breast feeding among women of Chinese descent remains a concern in North America. The goal of this study was to develop an intervention targeting Chinese immigrant mothers to increase their rates of exclusive breastfeeding. Methods We convened a focus group of immigrant women of Chinese descent in Vancouver, British Columbia to explore preferences for method of infant feeding. We subsequently surveyed 250 women of Chinese descent to validate focus group findings. Using a participatory approach, our focus group participants reviewed survey findings and developed a priority list for attributes of a community-based intervention to support exclusive breastfeeding in the Chinese community. The authors and focus group participants worked as a team to plan, implement and evaluate a Chinese language newborn feeding information telephone service staffed by registered nurses fluent in Chinese languages. Results Participants in the focus group reported a strong preference for formula feeding. Telephone survey results revealed that while pregnant Chinese women understood the benefits of breastfeeding, only 20.8% planned to breastfeed exclusively. Only 15.6% were breastfeeding exclusively at two months postpartum. After implementation of the feeding hotline, 20% of new Chinese mothers in Vancouver indicated that they had used the hotline. Among these women, the rate of exclusive breastfeeding was 44.1%; OR 3.02, (95% CI 1.78–5.09) compared to women in our survey. Conclusion Initiation of a language-specific newborn feeding telephone hotline reached a previously underserved population and may have contributed to improved rates of exclusive breastfeeding. PMID:19178746

On Chinese Loan Words from English Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yan, Yun; Deng, Tianbai

2009-01-01

In the recent twenty years, with China's reform and opening policy to the outside world, there is a sharp increase in English loan words in Chinese. On the one hand, it demonstrates that China's soft power has been booming up. But on the other hand, some language pollution in the meanwhile is caused by non-standard use of loan words in Chinese.…

Students Learn about Chinese Culture through the Folktale "Yeh-Shen": Emphasizing Figurative Language Interpretation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Palmer, Barbara C.; Sun, Lingzhi; Leclere, Judith T.

2012-01-01

This article will analyze the figurative language that reflects Chinese traditional society and culture in "Yeh-Shen." The authors will consider both the figures of speech and the figures of thought (to include symbolism) that provide insight into an understanding of the Chinese culture through a reading of "Yeh-Shen." This analysis can be used by…

Testing the Improvement of English as a Foreign Language Instruction among Chinese College Students through Computerized Graphic Visuals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Quan; Miller, Michael; Bai, Kang

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine if animated illustrations would increase the recall and comprehension of a subject matter, English as a foreign language (EFL), among Chinese college students. The study was specifically designed to identify the influence of graphics on Chinese EFL students' learning by comparing abstract versus concrete…

The Effects of L2 Proficiency on Pragmatics Instruction: A Web-Based Approach to Teaching Chinese Expressions of Gratitude

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Li

2017-01-01

This study investigated whether the effects of pragmatics instruction delivered via a self-access website in a Chinese as a foreign language learning environment vary according to learners' language proficiency. The website provided learners with explicit instruction in how to express gratitude appropriately in Chinese and offered them pragmatic…

Native Language Experience Shapes Neural Basis of Addressed and Assembled Phonologies

PubMed Central

Mei, Leilei; Xue, Gui; Lu, Zhong-Lin; He, Qinghua; Wei, Miao; Zhang, Mingxia; Dong, Qi; Chen, Chuansheng

2015-01-01

Previous studies have suggested differential engagement of addressed and assembled phonologies in reading Chinese and alphabetic languages (e.g., English) and the modulatory role of native language in learning to read a second language. However, it is not clear whether native language experience shapes the neural mechanisms of addressed and assembled phonologies. To address this question, we trained native Chinese and native English speakers to read the same artificial language (based on Korean Hangul) either through addressed (i.e., whole-word mapping) or assembled (i.e., grapheme-to-phoneme mapping) phonology. We found that, for both native Chinese and native English speakers, addressed phonology relied on the regions in the ventral pathway, whereas assembled phonology depended on the regions in the dorsal pathway. More importantly, we found that the neural mechanisms of addressed and assembled phonologies were shaped by native language experience. Specifically, two key regions for addressed phonology (i.e., the left middle temporal gyrus and right inferior temporal gyrus) showed greater activation for addressed phonology in native Chinese speakers, while one key region for assembled phonology (i.e., the left supramarginal gyrus) showed more activation for assembled phonology in native English speakers. These results provide direct neuroimaging evidence for the effect of native language experience on the neural mechanisms of phonological access in a new language and support the assimilation-accommodation hypothesis. PMID:25858447

An Investigation Into Second Language Aptitude for Advanced Chinese Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Winke, Paula

2013-01-01

In this study I examine the construct of aptitude in learning Chinese as a second language (L2) to an advanced level. I test 2 hypotheses: first, that L2 aptitude comprises 4 components--working memory, rote memory, grammatical sensitivity, and phonemic coding ability--and second, that L2 aptitude affects learning both directly and indirectly…

Variation in Second Language Learners' Strategies among Non-Native English Speakers from Three Language/Culture Backgrounds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ebsworth, Miriam Eisenstein; Tang, Frank Lixing; Razavi, Nikta; Aiello, Jacqueline

2014-01-01

This study explored the effects of cultural and linguistic background, L2 proficiency, and gender on language learning strategies for 263 college-level learners from Chinese, Russian, and Latino backgrounds. Data based on the SILL (Oxford, 2001) revealed that Russian students used significantly more strategies than the Chinese students in three…

An Exploration of Chinese EFL Learners' Unwillingness to Communicate and Foreign Language Anxiety

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Meihua; Jackson, Jane

2008-01-01

This article reports the results of a study of the unwillingness to communicate, and anxiety of Chinese learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) in English language classrooms. A 70-item survey of 547 first-year undergraduate non-English majors revealed that (a) Most of the students were willing to participate in interpersonal…

Why Some Imperfectives Are Interpreted Imperfectly: A Study of Chinese Learners of Japanese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gabriele, Alison; McClure, William

2011-01-01

The study investigates whether advanced second language (L2) learners can extend beyond the grammatical properties of the first language (L1) to successfully acquire tense and aspect. We examine the acquisition of the semantics of the imperfective marker "te-iru" in Japanese by native speakers of Mandarin Chinese, a language that…

Beliefs and Practices Regarding Intercultural Competence among Chinese Teachers of English at a Chinese University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tian, Jie

2013-01-01

The foreign/world language (FL/WL) profession has become more concerned with intercultural dimensions of language teaching and learning. Various models and theories have been suggested from both inside and outside the language education field to help teachers understand the intercultural dimensions in teaching and improve their practices regarding…

Second Language and Literacy Learning in School and at Home: An Ethnographic Study of Chinese Canadian First Graders' Experiences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Guofang

2007-01-01

Based on the theoretical perspectives of socio-constructivism and language socialization, this study reports two Chinese Canadian first grader's experiences of language and literacy learning in and out of school in a unique sociocultural setting where they were "the mainstream." The article examines the students' reading and writing…

Dynamic spatial organization of the occipito-temporal word form area for second language processing.

PubMed

Gao, Yue; Sun, Yafeng; Lu, Chunming; Ding, Guosheng; Guo, Taomei; Malins, Jeffrey G; Booth, James R; Peng, Danling; Liu, Li

2017-08-01

Despite the left occipito-temporal region having shown consistent activation in visual word form processing across numerous studies in different languages, the mechanisms by which word forms of second languages are processed in this region remain unclear. To examine this more closely, 16 Chinese-English and 14 English-Chinese late bilinguals were recruited to perform lexical decision tasks to visually presented words in both their native and second languages (L1 and L2) during functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning. Here we demonstrate that visual word form processing for L1 versus L2 engaged different spatial areas of the left occipito-temporal region. Namely, the spatial organization of the visual word form processing in the left occipito-temporal region is more medial and posterior for L2 than L1 processing in Chinese-English bilinguals, whereas activation is more lateral and anterior for L2 in English-Chinese bilinguals. In addition, for Chinese-English bilinguals, more lateral recruitment of the occipito-temporal region was correlated with higher L2 proficiency, suggesting higher L2 proficiency is associated with greater involvement of L1-preferred mechanisms. For English-Chinese bilinguals, higher L2 proficiency was correlated with more lateral and anterior activation of the occipito-temporal region, suggesting higher L2 proficiency is associated with greater involvement of L2-preferred mechanisms. Taken together, our results indicate that L1 and L2 recruit spatially different areas of the occipito-temporal region in visual word processing when the two scripts belong to different writing systems, and that the spatial organization of this region for L2 visual word processing is dynamically modulated by L2 proficiency. Specifically, proficiency in L2 in Chinese-English is associated with assimilation to the native language mechanisms, whereas L2 in English-Chinese is associated with accommodation to second language mechanisms. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Cultural views, language ability, and mammography use in Chinese American women.

PubMed

Liang, Wenchi; Wang, Judy; Chen, Mei-Yuh; Feng, Shibao; Yi, Bin; Mandelblatt, Jeanne S

2009-12-01

Mammography screening rates among Chinese American women have been reported to be low. This study examines whether and how culture views and language ability influence mammography adherence in this mostly immigrant population. Asymptomatic Chinese American women (n = 466) aged 50 and older, recruited from the Washington, D.C. area, completed a telephone interview. Regular mammography was defined as having two mammograms at age-appropriate recommended intervals. Cultural views were assessed by 30 items, and language ability measured women's ability in reading, writing, speaking, and listening to English. After controlling for risk perception, worry, physician recommendation, family encouragement, and access barriers, women holding a more Chinese/Eastern cultural view were significantly less likely to have had regular mammograms than those having a Western cultural view. English ability was positively associated with mammography adherence. The authors' results imply that culturally sensitive and language-appropriate educational interventions are likely to improve mammography adherence in this population.

Cultural Views, Language Ability, and Mammography Use in Chinese American Women

PubMed Central

Liang, Wenchi; Wang, Judy; Chen, Mei-Yuh; Feng, Shibao; Yi, Bin; Mandelblatt, Jeanne S.

2013-01-01

Mammography screening rates among Chinese American women have been reported to be low. This study examines whether and how culture views and language ability influence mammography adherence in this mostly immigrant population. Asymptomatic Chinese American women (n = 466) aged 50 and older, recruited from the Washington, D.C. area, completed a telephone interview. Regular mammography was defined as having two mammograms at age-appropriate recommended intervals. Cultural views were assessed by 30 items, and language ability measured women’s ability in reading, writing, speaking, and listening to English. After controlling for risk perception, worry, physician recommendation, family encouragement, and access barriers, women holding a more Chinese/Eastern cultural view were significantly less likely to have had regular mammograms than those having a Western cultural view. English ability was positively associated with mammography adherence. The authors’ results imply that culturally sensitive and language-appropriate educational interventions are likely to improve mammography adherence in this population. PMID:19233947

A Sociolinguistic Profile of 100 Mothers from Middle to Upper-Middle Socio-Economic Backgrounds in Penang-Chinese Community: What Languages Do They Speak at Home with Their Children?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Low, Hui Min; Nicholas, Howard; Wales, Roger

2010-01-01

This paper reports the findings of a survey of 100 mothers of Chinese children aged between 6 and 36 months from middle to upper-middle socio-economic backgrounds in Penang, Malaysia. The findings include the language backgrounds of these mothers, their contextual uses of multiple languages and their language choices with their children. Through…

A cross-language study of perception of lexical stress in English.

PubMed

Yu, Vickie Y; Andruski, Jean E

2010-08-01

This study investigates the question of whether language background affects the perception of lexical stress in English. Thirty native English speakers and 30 native Chinese learners of English participated in a stressed-syllable identification task and a discrimination task involving three types of stimuli (real words/pseudowords/hums). The results show that both language groups were able to identify and discriminate stress patterns. Lexical and segmental information affected the English and Chinese speakers in varying degrees. English and Chinese speakers showed different response patterns to trochaic vs. iambic stress across the three types of stimuli. An acoustic analysis revealed that two language groups used different acoustic cues to process lexical stress. The findings suggest that the different degrees of lexical and segmental effects can be explained by language background, which in turn supports the hypothesis that language background affects the perception of lexical stress in English.

Writing System Modulates the Association between Sensitivity to Acoustic Cues in Music and Reading Ability: Evidence from Chinese–English Bilingual Children

PubMed Central

Zhang, Juan; Meng, Yaxuan; Wu, Chenggang; Zhou, Danny Q.

2017-01-01

Music and language share many attributes and a large body of evidence shows that sensitivity to acoustic cues in music is positively related to language development and even subsequent reading acquisition. However, such association was mainly found in alphabetic languages. What remains unclear is whether sensitivity to acoustic cues in music is associated with reading in Chinese, a morphosyllabic language. The present study aimed to answer this question by measuring music (i.e., musical metric perception and pitch discrimination), language (i.e., phonological awareness, lexical tone sensitivity), and reading abilities (i.e., word recognition) among 54 third-grade Chinese–English bilingual children. After controlling for age and non-verbal intelligence, we found that both musical metric perception and pitch discrimination accounted for unique variance of Chinese phonological awareness while pitch discrimination rather than musical metric perception predicted Chinese lexical tone sensitivity. More importantly, neither musical metric perception nor pitch discrimination was associated with Chinese reading. As for English, musical metric perception and pitch discrimination were correlated with both English phonological awareness and English reading. Furthermore, sensitivity to acoustic cues in music was associated with English reading through the mediation of English phonological awareness. The current findings indicate that the association between sensitivity to acoustic cues in music and reading may be modulated by writing systems. In Chinese, the mapping between orthography and phonology is not as transparent as in alphabetic languages such as English. Thus, this opaque mapping may alter the auditory perceptual sensitivity in music to Chinese reading. PMID:29170647

Factors Influencing Social, Cultural, and Academic Transitions of Chinese International ESL Students in U.S. Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ota, Akiko

2013-01-01

The U.S. is the leading nation for international students to pursue higher education; the majority of whom are from countries with significant differences in culture and language from American students. As such, many international students start higher education in ESL support programs. While on the surface international students supposedly add…

Teaching Writing in Grades 4-6 in Urban Schools in the Greater China Region

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hsiang, Tien Ping; Graham, Steve

2016-01-01

A random sample of 1102 grade 4-6 Chinese language arts teachers in Beijing, Macao, and Taipei City were surveyed about their instructional writing practices. Seventy-eight percent (n = 857) of the teachers completed the survey. Teachers were generally positive about the usefulness of their college teacher preparation program. They slightly agreed…

Recognizing Chinese characters in digital ink from non-native language writers using hierarchical models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bai, Hao; Zhang, Xi-wen

2017-06-01

While Chinese is learned as a second language, its characters are taught step by step from their strokes to components, radicals to components, and their complex relations. Chinese Characters in digital ink from non-native language writers are deformed seriously, thus the global recognition approaches are poorer. So a progressive approach from bottom to top is presented based on hierarchical models. Hierarchical information includes strokes and hierarchical components. Each Chinese character is modeled as a hierarchical tree. Strokes in one Chinese characters in digital ink are classified with Hidden Markov Models and concatenated to the stroke symbol sequence. And then the structure of components in one ink character is extracted. According to the extraction result and the stroke symbol sequence, candidate characters are traversed and scored. Finally, the recognition candidate results are listed by descending. The method of this paper is validated by testing 19815 copies of the handwriting Chinese characters written by foreign students.

Can Learning a Foreign Language Foster Analytic Thinking?-Evidence from Chinese EFL Learners' Writings.

PubMed

Jiang, Jingyang; Ouyang, Jinghui; Liu, Haitao

2016-01-01

Language is not only the representation of thinking, but also shapes thinking. Studies on bilinguals suggest that a foreign language plays an important and unconscious role in thinking. In this study, a software-Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count 2007-was used to investigate whether the learning of English as a foreign language (EFL) can foster Chinese high school students' English analytic thinking (EAT) through the analysis of their English writings with our self-built corpus. It was found that: (1) learning English can foster Chinese learners' EAT. Chinese EFL learners' ability of making distinctions, degree of cognitive complexity and degree of thinking activeness have all improved along with the increase of their English proficiency and their age; (2) there exist differences in Chinese EFL learners' EAT and that of English native speakers, i. e. English native speakers are better in the ability of making distinctions and degree of thinking activeness. These findings suggest that the best EFL learners in high schools have gained native-like analytic thinking through six years' English learning and are able to switch their cognitive styles as needed.

Word-Processor or Pencil-and-Paper? A Comparison of Students' Writing in Chinese as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhu, Yu; Mark Shum, Shiu-Kee; Brian Tse, Shek-Kam; Liu, Jinghui Jack

2016-01-01

A study is reported of the performance and attainment of 32 students from overseas studying elementary Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) in a Chinese university. With an AB-BA design, they were asked to use two forms of writing media to present two essays: one a word-processed essay entitled "My Favourite Female" and the other a…

Word Recognition and Cognitive Profiles of Chinese Pre-School Children at Risk for Dyslexia through Language Delay or Familial History of Dyslexia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McBride-Chang, Catherine; Lam, Fanny; Lam, Catherine; Doo, Sylvia; Wong, Simpson W. L.; Chow, Yvonne Y. Y.

2008-01-01

Background: This study sought to identify cognitive abilities that might distinguish Hong Kong Chinese kindergarten children at risk for dyslexia through either language delay or familial history of dyslexia from children who were not at risk and to examine how these abilities were associated with Chinese word recognition. The cognitive skills of…

JPRS Report China

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-04-25

Chinese 7 Apr 88p6 [Excerpt] Washington, 5 Apr—Han Xu, Chinese Ambas- sador to the United States, made a speech at the Sidwell Friends School in...deeper interest in studying each other’s languages. Han Xu particularly mentioned the achievements made by the Sidwell Friends School in running...Chinese language courses for middle school students in Washington. The ambassador also talked about both countries’ achievements in scientific

Cross-Language Transfer of Word Reading Accuracy and Word Reading Fluency in Spanish-English and Chinese-English Bilinguals: Script-Universal and Script-Specific Processes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pasquarella, Adrian; Chen, Xi; Gottardo, Alexandra; Geva, Esther

2015-01-01

This study examined cross-language transfer of word reading accuracy and word reading fluency in Spanish-English and Chinese-English bilinguals. Participants included 51 Spanish-English and 64 Chinese-English bilinguals. Both groups of children completed parallel measures of phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, word reading accuracy,…

Chinese Learners of English See Chinese Words When Reading English Words

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ma, Fengyang; Ai, Haiyang

2018-01-01

The present study examines when second language (L2) learners read words in the L2, whether the orthography and/or phonology of the translation words in the first language (L1) is activated and whether the patterns would be modulated by the proficiency in the L2. In two experiments, two groups of Chinese learners of English immersed in the L1…

Just ask: hospice familiarity in Asian and Hispanic adults.

PubMed

Pan, Cynthia X; Abraham, Olga; Giron, Fatima; LeMarie, Priscilla; Pollack, Simcha

2015-05-01

Previous research documents the under-utilization of hospice services by minority ethnic groups, but less data exist for Asian and Hispanic Americans. It is unclear whether these low utilization rates are a result of attitudinal or information barriers, or both. To examine self-reported familiarity and attitudes toward hospice among Asian and Hispanic groups in ethnically diverse Queens County, NY. We surveyed diverse adults during health fairs, at senior centers, and church programs directed at ethnic populations. Respondents completed surveys in their preferred language: Spanish, Chinese (Mandarin), and Korean. Analysis of variance was used to compare continuous variables among language groups; Fisher's exact test compared categorical variables. A total of 604 community adults were surveyed: 99 Chinese, 349 Korean, 156 Spanish. Respondents were mostly female, average age 53 years. Familiarity with hospice varied significantly among the groups (P < 0.001) and was lower in the Hispanic (16%) and higher in the Chinese (45%) and Korean (56%) groups. Personal experiences with hospice were low (8-16%) in all groups. A majority (75-94%) responded they would share hospice information with loved ones, but the Hispanic group was significantly less likely to do so compared with Chinese and Korean Americans. Between 74 and 95% reported willingness to receive future information about hospice, but the Korean group was significantly less likely to want information. When surveyed in their preferred language, Asian and Hispanic adults reported variable levels of familiarity with hospice services. Most responded positively to receiving future information and would tell friends and family members about hospice. Copyright © 2015 American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Mother-Adolescent Language Proficiency and Adolescent Academic and Emotional Adjustment Among Chinese American Families

PubMed Central

Benner, Aprile D.; Lau, Anna S.; Kim, Su Yeong

2009-01-01

This study examined the role of adolescents’ and mothers’ self-reports of English and heritage language proficiency in youth’s academic and emotional adjustment among 444 Chinese American families. Adolescents who were proficient in English tended to exhibit higher reading achievement scores, math achievement scores, and overall GPA. Mothers who were English proficient tended to have children with higher academic achievement and fewer depressive symptoms. Results also indicated that adolescents’ heritage language maintenance was associated with positive adjustment, particularly amongst foreign-born youth and for youth whose parents were highly proficient in the heritage language. Mother-adolescent match in heritage language proficiency was related to higher math achievement scores and overall GPA. Additionally, higher heritage language proficiency was associated with fewer depressive symptoms for foreign-born but not U.S.-born youth. Overall, the findings suggest that proficiency in both the English and heritage language may confer advantages to Chinese American youth. PMID:19636729

Comparison of directed and weighted co-occurrence networks of six languages

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gao, Yuyang; Liang, Wei; Shi, Yuming; Huang, Qiuling

2014-01-01

To study commonalities and differences among different languages, we select 100 reports from the documents of the United Nations, each of which was written in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish languages, separately. Based on these corpora, we construct 6 weighted and directed word co-occurrence networks. Besides all the networks exhibit scale-free and small-world features, we find several new non-trivial results, including connections among English words are denser, and the expression of English language is more flexible and powerful; the connection way among Spanish words is more stringent and this indicates that the Spanish grammar is more rigorous; values of many statistical parameters of the French and Spanish networks are very approximate and this shows that these two languages share many commonalities; Arabic and Russian words have many varieties, which result in rich types of words and a sparse connection among words; connections among Chinese words obey a more uniform distribution, and one inclines to use the least number of Chinese words to express the same complex information as those in other five languages. This shows that the expression of Chinese language is quite concise. In addition, several topics worth further investigating by the complex network approach have been observed in this study.

The Contribution of Phonological and Morphological Awareness in Chinese-English Bilingual Reading Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Candise Y.; Cheng, Chenxi; Wang, Min

2018-01-01

The current study examined the contribution of cross-language phonological and morphological awareness to reading acquisition in bilingual children. Participants were 140 children (M[subscript age] = 8.26 years) between Grades 1-4 who learned Chinese as their first language and English as their second language. Awareness of phoneme, onset-rime,…

Variation in Second Language Learners' Strategies among Non-Native English Speakers from Three Language/Culture Backgrounds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ebsworth, Miriam Eisenstein; Tang, Frank Lixing; Razavi, Nikta; Aiello, Jacqueline

2014-01-01

This study explored the effects of cultural and linguistic background, L2 proficiency, and gender on language learning strategies for 263 college-level learners from Chinese, Russian, and Latino backgrounds. Data based on the SILL (Oxford, 2001) revealed that Russian students used significantly more strategies than the Chinese students in three…

Motivators that Do Not Motivate: The Case of Chinese EFL Learners and the Influence of Culture on Motivation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Judy F.; Warden, Clyde A.; Chang, Huo-Tsan

2005-01-01

Language learning motivation plays an important role in both research and teaching, yet language learners are still largely understood in terms of North American and European cultural values. This research explored language learning motivation constructs in a Chinese cultural setting, where large numbers of students are required to study English.…

Differential Influences of Parental Home Literacy Practices and Anxiety in English as a Foreign Language on Chinese Children's English Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chow, Bonnie Wing-Yin; Chui, Barbie Hiu-Tung; Lai, Michael Wei-Chun; Kwok, Sylvia Y. C. L.

2017-01-01

This study investigated the differential influences of maternal and paternal factors on Chinese children's English as a foreign language development. It took into account both behavioral (i.e. parental home literacy practices, HLP; and children's vocabulary knowledge) and emotional (i.e. parental and children's foreign language reading anxiety,…

The Tongue in Between: Some Thoughts on the Teaching of Chinese as a Second Language in Singapore

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tan, Chee Lay

2014-01-01

In Singapore's unique and complex linguistic environment, it is common to have Chinese-language learners from many different backgrounds in the same school classroom, which is why Singapore is nicknamed as a "language laboratory." In this paper, I hope to examine our linguistic environment and response strategies from different angles,…

Negotiating Power and Access to Second Language Resources: A Study on Short-Term Chinese MBA Students in America

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shi, Xingsong

2011-01-01

By looking into a group of 13 Chinese master's in business administration students' study abroad experience in the United States, this study contends that being situated in the second language (L2) communicative context does not guarantee international students complete access to language and cultural resources in the host society. Due to limited…

The Impact of an Online Learning Community Project on University Chinese as a Foreign Language Students' Motivation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cai, Shengrong; Zhu, Wei

2012-01-01

This study investigated the impact of an online learning community project on university students' motivation in learning Chinese as a foreign language. A newly proposed second language (L2) motivation theory--the L2 motivational self system (Dornyei, 2005, 2009)--guided this study. A concurrent transformative mixed-methods design was employed to…

Investigating the Use of a Smartphone Social Networking Application on Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sung, Ko-Yin; Poole, Frederick

2017-01-01

This study explored college students' use of a popular smartphone social networking application, WeChat, in a tandem language learning project. The research questions included (1) How do Chinese-English dyads utilize the WeChat app for weekly language learning?, and (2) What are the perceptions of the Chinese-English dyads on the use of the WeChat…

Foreign Language Reading Anxiety in a Chinese as a Foreign Language Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhou, Jing

2017-01-01

This study examined the foreign language (FL) reading anxiety level of learners of Chinese as a FL (n = 76) in the United States. Data from an FL reading anxiety survey, a background information survey and a face-to-face interview indicated that there was no significant difference in reading anxiety level among four course levels. In general,…

A Needs Analysis for Chinese Language Teaching at a University in the United States

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huang, Chuanning

2014-01-01

This paper presents the results of a one-year language curriculum needs analysis project aimed at developing a deeper understanding of the learning needs of first and second year Chinese language students at a university in the United States. The purpose of this project was to provide a foundation for further curriculum development of the…

Contribution of Oral Language Skills, Linguistic Skills, and Transcription Skills to Chinese Written Composition among Fourth-Grade Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yeung, Pui-sze; Ho, Connie Suk-han; Chan, David Wai-ock; Chung, Kevin Kien-hoa

2013-01-01

The present study aimed to investigate the contribution of oral language skills, linguistic skills, and transcription skills to Chinese written composition among Grade 4 students in Hong Kong. Measures assessing verbal working memory, oral language skills, linguistic skills (i.e., syntactic skills and discourse skills), transcription skills (i.e.,…

The Pathway to English Word Reading in Chinese ESL Children: The Role of Spelling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Dan; Liu, Yingyi; Sun, Huilin; Wong, Richard Kwok; Yeung, Susanna Siu-sze

2017-01-01

The present longitudinal study investigated the role of spelling as a bridge between various reading-related predictors and English word reading in Chinese children learning English as a Second Language (ESL). One hundred and forty-one 5-year-old kindergarten children from Hong Kong, whose first language (L1) was Cantonese and second language (L2)…

Are Alphabetic Language-Derived Models of L2 Reading Relevant to L1 Logographic Background Readers?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ehrich, John Fitzgerald; Zhang, Lawrence Jun; Mu, Jon Congjun; Ehrich, Lisa Catherine

2013-01-01

In this paper, we argue that second language (L2) reading research, which has been informed by studies involving first language (L1) alphabetic English reading, may be less relevant to L2 readers with non-alphabetic reading backgrounds, such as Chinese readers with an L1 logographic (Chinese character) learning history. We provide both…

Cultural and linguistic isolation: the breast cancer experience of Chinese-Australian women - a qualitative study.

PubMed

Kwok, Cannas; White, Kathryn

2011-08-01

Although Chinese-Australian women are at higher risk of developing breast cancer after migration to Australia, information on their experience is limited. This paper explores Chinese-Australian women's perceptions of the meaning and experience of a breast cancer diagnosis, treatment and coping mechanism. Three focus groups were conducted with 23 Chinese-Australian women diagnosed with breast cancer in their native language (Cantonese or Mandarin). Following transcription and translation, interview data was analysed by content analysis. Culturally specific values, beliefs and language barriers played a significant role in shaping the women's breast cancer experiences and their response to the diagnosis. Of note these women found the experience isolating and distressing, factors that were compounded by the lack of culturally sensitive resources and information. In providing information for Chinese-Australian women with breast cancer, culture, language and migration experience need to be taken into account.

Why do Chinese Canadians not consult mental health services: health status, language or culture?

PubMed

Chen, Alice W; Kazanjian, Arminée; Wong, Hubert

2009-12-01

Data from the Canadian Community Health Survey Cycle 1.1 showed that Chinese immigrants to Canada and Chinese individuals born in Canada were less likely than other Canadians to have contacted a health professional for mental health reasons in the previous year in the province of British Columbia. The difference persisted among individuals at moderate to high risk for depressive episode. Both immigrant and Canadian-born Chinese showed similar characteristics of mental health service use. The demographic and health factors that significantly affected their likelihood to consult mental health services included Chinese language ability, restriction in daily activities, frequency of medical consultations, and depression score. Notwithstanding lower levels of mental illness in ethnic Chinese communities, culture emerged as a major factor explaining differences in mental health consultation between Chinese and non-Chinese Canadians.

Two languages, two personalities? Examining language effects on the expression of personality in a bilingual context.

PubMed

Chen, Sylvia Xiaohua; Bond, Michael Harris

2010-11-01

The issue of whether personality changes as a function of language is controversial. The present research tested the cultural accommodation hypothesis by examining the impact of language use on personality as perceived by the self and by others. In Study 1, Hong Kong Chinese-English bilinguals responded to personality inventories in Chinese or English on perceived traits for themselves, typical native speakers of Chinese, and typical native speakers of English. Study 2 adopted a repeated measures design and collected data at three time points from written measures and actual conversations to examine whether bilinguals exhibited different patterns of personality, each associated with one of their two languages and the ethnicity of their interlocutors. Self-reports and behavioral observations confirmed the effects of perceived cultural norms, language priming, and interlocutor ethnicity on various personality dimensions. It is suggested that use of a second language accesses the perceived cultural norms of the group most associated with that language, especially its prototypic trait profiles, thus activating behavioral expressions of personality that are appropriate in the corresponding linguistic-social context.

The Effects of Wiki-Based Recursive Process Writing on Chinese Narrative Essays for Chinese as a Second Language (CSL) Students in Singapore

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chin, Chee Kuen; Gong, Cheng; Tay, Boon Pei

2015-01-01

This paper reports on the effects of using wiki-based process writing in Singapore's Chinese as a Second Language (CSL) scenarios. A group of 32 Secondary 1 (Seventh Grade) students ("Students") received various forms of online scaffolding at different steps of the writing process over two years. A whole set of teaching materials on 45…

Characteristics of Chinese-English bilingual dyslexia in right occipito-temporal lesion.

PubMed

Ting, Simon Kang Seng; Chia, Pei Shi; Chan, Yiong Huak; Kwek, Kevin Jun Hong; Tan, Wilnard; Hameed, Shahul; Tan, Eng-King

2017-11-01

Current literature suggests that right hemisphere lesions produce predominant spatial-related dyslexic error in English speakers. However, little is known regarding such lesions in Chinese speakers. In this paper, we describe the dyslexic characteristics of a Chinese-English bilingual patient with a right posterior cortical lesion. He was found to have profound spatial-related errors during his English word reading, in both real and non-words. During Chinese word reading, there was significantly less error compared to English, probably due to the ideographic nature of the Chinese language. He was also found to commit phonological-like visual errors in English, characterized by error responses that were visually similar to the actual word. There was no significant difference in visual errors during English word reading compared with Chinese. In general, our patient's performance in both languages appears to be consistent with the current literature on right posterior hemisphere lesions. Additionally, his performance also likely suggests that the right posterior cortical region participates in the visual analysis of orthographical word representation, both in ideographical and alphabetic languages, at least from a bilingual perspective. Future studies should further examine the role of the right posterior region in initial visual analysis of both languages. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Systematic review of economic evaluations of vaccination programs in mainland China: Are they sufficient to inform decision making?

PubMed

Pan, Xiong-Fei; Griffiths, Ulla K; Pennington, Mark; Yu, Hongjie; Jit, Mark

2015-11-17

The purpose of the study was to systematically review economic evaluations of vaccine programs conducted in mainland China. We searched for economic evaluations of vaccination in China published prior to August 3, 2015 in eight English-language and three Chinese-language databases. Each article was appraised against the 19-item Consensus on Health Economic Criteria list (CHEC-list). We found 23 papers evaluating vaccines against hepatitis B (8 articles), Streptococcus pneumoniae (5 articles), human papillomavirus (3 articles), Japanese encephalitis (2 articles), rotavirus (2 articles), hepatitis A (1 article), Enterovirus 71 (1 article) and influenza (1 article). Studies conformed to a mean of 12 (range: 6-18) items in the CHEC-list criteria. Five of six Chinese-language articles conformed to fewer than half of the 19 criteria items. The main criteria that studies failed to conform to included: inappropriate measurement (20 articles) and valuation (18 articles) of treatment and/or vaccination costs, no discussion about distributional implications (18 articles), missing major health outcomes (14 articles), no discussion about generalizability to other contexts (14 articles), and inadequate sensitivity analysis (13 articles). In addition, ten studies did not include major cost components of vaccination programs, and nine did not report outcomes in terms of life years even in cases where QALYs or DALYs were calculated. Only 13 studies adopted a societal perspective for analysis. All studies concluded that the appraised vaccination programs were cost-effective except for one evaluation of universal 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV-7) in children. However, three of the five studies on PCV-7 showed poor overall quality, and the number of studies on vaccines other than hepatitis B vaccine and PCV-7 was limited. In conclusion, major methodological flaws and reporting problems exist in current economic evaluations of vaccination programs in China. Local guidelines for good practice and reporting, institutional mechanisms and education may help to improve the overall quality of these evaluations. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Support needs of Chinese immigrant cancer patients.

PubMed

Leng, Jennifer; Lee, Trevor; Li, Yanjun; Stern, Charles; Chen, Mei Hsuan; Winkel, Gary; Gany, Francesca

2014-01-01

To enable better psychosocial, informational, and practical support of Chinese patients with cancer, this study was conducted to identify the specific support needs of Chinese immigrant cancer patients. The Cancer Portal Project at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center's Center for Immigrant Health and Cancer Disparities is a patient navigation program that assists underserved and minority cancer patients in obtaining social and economic assistance at ten New York City cancer clinics. This need assessment was conducted as part of the Portal Project. Sixty-four questions were added to the existing Portal Intake Form about the needs and preferences for Chinese-language support and survivorship services. Descriptive analysis was performed, as well as an exploratory principal component's factor analysis to determine if there were any patterns in the services and programs in which patients were interested. Ninety-six patients were approached for participation; 59 agreed to participate. Eighty-eight percent of participants were born in China. Ninety-seven percent preferred to speak Mandarin, Cantonese, or Fujianese in the healthcare setting. When asked about general interest in support programs, 53 % of the participants were "very interested," 27 % were "maybe interested," and 17 % were "not interested." Programs in which more participants were "very interested" included those that would provide information about obtaining financial assistance (79 %) and social assistance (74 %), information on treatment options (67 %), help in coping with the burden of illness on the family (65 %), and information about general healthcare (63 %). The factor analysis resulted in the identification of five factors: social/financial/treatment and care issues, nutrition and exercise/networking/general health care, coping with fear and stress, herbs and dietary supplements, and acupuncture and acupressure. In this study, 80 % of the participants expressed interest in programs tailored for Chinese cancer patients. The most frequently preferred topics for potential services were information-based. Findings provide a foundation for future research and the development of culturally and linguistically targeted support programs and interventions for this unique population.

The Use of Segmental and Suprasegmental Information in Lexical Access: A First- and Second-Language Chinese Investigation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Connell, Katrina

2017-01-01

The present study investigated first language (L1) and second language (L2) Chinese categorization of tones and segments and use of tones and segments in lexical access. Previous research has shown that English listeners rely more on pitch height than pitch direction when perceiving lexical tones; however, it remains unclear if this superior use…

Processing Modifier-Head Agreement in L1 and L2 Finnish: An Eye-Tracking Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vainio, Seppo; Pajunen, Anneli; Hyönä, Jukka

2016-01-01

This study investigated the effect of first language (L1) on the reading of modifier-head case agreement in second language (L2) Finnish by native Russian and Chinese speakers. Russian is similar to Finnish in that both languages use case endings to mark grammatical roles, whereas such markings are absent in Chinese. The critical nouns were…

Subtlety of Ambient-Language Effects in Babbling: A Study of English- and Chinese-Learning Infants at 8, 10, and 12 Months

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Chia-Cheng; Jhang, Yuna; Chen, Li-mei; Relyea, George; Oller, D. Kimbrough

2017-01-01

Prior research on ambient-language effects in babbling has often suggested infants produce language-specific phonological features within the first year. These results have been questioned in research failing to find such effects and challenging the positive findings on methodological grounds. We studied English- and Chinese-learning infants at 8,…

Investigating the Target Language Usage in and outside Business English Classrooms for Non-English Major Undergraduates at a Chinese University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xie, Qing

2017-01-01

This article reports an investigative study on the target language use in and outside business English classrooms for non-English major undergraduates in a Chinese university context. The aims of the study are to identify the actual situation of target language use in business English teaching and to suggest ways for improvements. The study uses…

A Country in Focus: Empirical Studies on Foreign Language Learning and Teaching in China (2008-2011)--A Review of Selected Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gao, Xuesong; Liao, Yanyi; Li, Yuxia

2014-01-01

In this review, we highlight 60 articles from 1,120 empirical studies in leading language learning and teaching journals published on the Chinese mainland during the years 2008-2011. In preparing the review, we have found Chinese researchers addressing a wide range of topics including language learners' cognitive processes, their language…

Event-Related Brain Potential Investigation of Preparation for Speech Production in Late Bilinguals

PubMed Central

Wu, Yan Jing; Thierry, Guillaume

2011-01-01

It has been debated how bilinguals select the intended language and prevent interference from the unintended language when speaking. Here, we studied the nature of the mental representations accessed by late fluent bilinguals during a rhyming judgment task relying on covert speech production. We recorded event-related brain potentials in Chinese–English bilinguals and monolingual speakers of English while they indicated whether the names of pictures presented on a screen rhymed.  Whether bilingual participants focussed on rhyming selectively in English or Chinese, we found a significant priming effect of language-specific sound repetition. Surprisingly, however, sound repetitions in Chinese elicited significant priming effects even when the rhyming task was performed in English. This cross-language priming effect was delayed by ∼200  ms as compared to the within-language effect and was asymmetric, since there was no priming effect of sound repetitions in English when participants were asked to make rhyming judgments in Chinese. These results demonstrate that second language production hinders, but does not seal off, activation of the first language, whereas native language production appears immune to competition from the second language. PMID:21687468

Predicting health literacy among English-as-a-second-Language older Chinese immigrant women to Canada: comprehension of colon cancer prevention information.

PubMed

Todd, Laura; Hoffman-Goetz, Laurie

2011-06-01

Inadequate health literacy has been identified as a barrier to the utilization of health-care services, including cancer screening. This study examined predictors of health literacy among 106 older Chinese immigrant women to Canada and how colon cancer information presented in their first versus second language affected health literacy skill. Only 38.7% of the women had adequate health literacy based on Short Test of Functional Health Literacy for Adults, and 54.3% had adequate comprehension of the colon cancer information. Comprehension of the cancer information was significantly lower among women who received the information in English compared with those who received the information in Chinese. Age, acculturation, self-reported proficiency reading English, and education were significant predictors of health literacy but varied depending on the measure of health literacy used and language of the information. Presentation of cancer prevention information in one's first rather than second language improves health literacy but does not eliminate comprehension difficulties for older ESL Chinese immigrants.

Interoperation transfer in Chinese-English bilinguals' arithmetic.

PubMed

Campbell, Jamie I D; Dowd, Roxanne R

2012-10-01

We examined interoperation transfer of practice in adult Chinese-English bilinguals' memory for simple multiplication (6 × 8 = 48) and addition (6 + 8 = 14) facts. The purpose was to determine whether they possessed distinct number-fact representations in both Chinese (L1) and English (L2). Participants repeatedly practiced multiplication problems (e.g., 4 × 5 = ?), answering a subset in L1 and another subset in L2. Then separate groups answered corresponding addition problems (4 + 5 = ?) and control addition problems in either L1 (N = 24) or L2 (N = 24). The results demonstrated language-specific negative transfer of multiplication practice to corresponding addition problems. Specifically, large simple addition problems (sum > 10) presented a significant response time cost (i.e., retrieval-induced forgetting) after their multiplication counterparts were practiced in the same language, relative to practice in the other language. The results indicate that our Chinese-English bilinguals had multiplication and addition facts represented in distinct language-specific memory stores.

[Information quality and health risks in Spanish-language retail websites for Chinese herbal medicine].

PubMed

Tejedor-García, Noelia; García-Pastor, Coral; Benito-Martínez, Selma; de Lucio-Cazaña, Francisco Javier

The growing use of purchase online via Internet retailers favours the access to potentially toxic natural products. It also contributes to the quick dissemination of the claims made by the retailers on efficacy and safety, these claims being not always based upon reliable information. Here, we have conducted an online search to find Spanish-language retail websites for Chinese herbal medicine and we have analysed them for the quality of product information and the potential health risks. i) Online search in Google España to find Spanish-language retail websites for Chinese herbal medicine in which we analysed both the claims regarding possible health benefits and adequate safe use indications ii) Identification of potentially toxic herbs in the websites iii) Quantification of Chinese herbal medicines withdrawn by the Agencia Española de Medicamentos y Productos Sanitarios (AEMPS). 1) Only one third of the 30 Spanish-language retail websites found which sell Chinese herbal medicine observe the law, given that the other websites include illegal Western disease claims as marketing tools, 2) Five websites provide some safety information, 3) Two websites offer potentially toxic herbs and 4) Chinese herbal medicine adulterated with sibutramine, silfenafil or their analogues make a considerable percentage of the total products withdrawn by the AEMPS. Online health seekers should be warned about misinformation on retail websites for Chinese herbal medicine and directed to a Spanish government Web site for guidance in safely navigating the Internet for buying Chinese herbal medicine. Copyright © 2017 SESPAS. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Teaching Business Chinese Online.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Hang

2002-01-01

Discusses a comprehensive approach to teaching business Chinese online that is beng developed in the language learning laboratory at the University of Illinois. The courseware consists of two complementary parts: a business Chinese workbook and a business Chinese simulation. (Author/VWL)

Is a High Tone Pointy? Speakers of Different Languages Match Mandarin Chinese Tones to Visual Shapes Differently

PubMed Central

Shang, Nan; Styles, Suzy J.

2017-01-01

Studies investigating cross-modal correspondences between auditory pitch and visual shapes have shown children and adults consistently match high pitch to pointy shapes and low pitch to curvy shapes, yet no studies have investigated linguistic-uses of pitch. In the present study, we used a bouba/kiki style task to investigate the sound/shape mappings for Tones of Mandarin Chinese, for three groups of participants with different language backgrounds. We recorded the vowels [i] and [u] articulated in each of the four tones of Mandarin Chinese. In Study 1 a single auditory stimulus was presented with two images (one curvy, one spiky). In Study 2 a single image was presented with two auditory stimuli differing only in tone. Participants were asked to select the best match in an online ‘Quiz.’ Across both studies, we replicated the previously observed ‘u-curvy, i-pointy’ sound/shape cross-modal correspondence in all groups. However, Tones were mapped differently by people with different language backgrounds: speakers of Mandarin Chinese classified as Chinese-dominant systematically matched Tone 1 (high, steady) to the curvy shape and Tone 4 (falling) to the pointy shape, while English speakers with no knowledge of Chinese preferred to match Tone 1 (high, steady) to the pointy shape and Tone 3 (low, dipping) to the curvy shape. These effects were observed most clearly in Study 2 where tone-pairs were contrasted explicitly. These findings are in line with the dominant patterns of linguistic pitch perception for speakers of these languages (pitch-change, and pitch height, respectively). Chinese English balanced bilinguals showed a bivalent pattern, swapping between the Chinese pitch-change pattern and the English pitch-height pattern depending on the task. These findings show for that the supposedly universal pattern of mapping linguistic sounds to shape is modulated by the sensory properties of a speaker’s language system, and that people with high functioning in more than one language can dynamically shift between patterns. PMID:29270147

Can Learning a Foreign Language Foster Analytic Thinking?—Evidence from Chinese EFL Learners' Writings

PubMed Central

Jiang, Jingyang; Ouyang, Jinghui; Liu, Haitao

2016-01-01

Language is not only the representation of thinking, but also shapes thinking. Studies on bilinguals suggest that a foreign language plays an important and unconscious role in thinking. In this study, a software—Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count 2007—was used to investigate whether the learning of English as a foreign language (EFL) can foster Chinese high school students’ English analytic thinking (EAT) through the analysis of their English writings with our self-built corpus. It was found that: (1) learning English can foster Chinese learners’ EAT. Chinese EFL learners’ ability of making distinctions, degree of cognitive complexity and degree of thinking activeness have all improved along with the increase of their English proficiency and their age; (2) there exist differences in Chinese EFL learners’ EAT and that of English native speakers, i. e. English native speakers are better in the ability of making distinctions and degree of thinking activeness. These findings suggest that the best EFL learners in high schools have gained native-like analytic thinking through six years’ English learning and are able to switch their cognitive styles as needed. PMID:27741270

Auditory Perception, Suprasegmental Speech Processing, and Vocabulary Development in Chinese Preschoolers.

PubMed

Wang, Hsiao-Lan S; Chen, I-Chen; Chiang, Chun-Han; Lai, Ying-Hui; Tsao, Yu

2016-10-01

The current study examined the associations between basic auditory perception, speech prosodic processing, and vocabulary development in Chinese kindergartners, specifically, whether early basic auditory perception may be related to linguistic prosodic processing in Chinese Mandarin vocabulary acquisition. A series of language, auditory, and linguistic prosodic tests were given to 100 preschool children who had not yet learned how to read Chinese characters. The results suggested that lexical tone sensitivity and intonation production were significantly correlated with children's general vocabulary abilities. In particular, tone awareness was associated with comprehensive language development, whereas intonation production was associated with both comprehensive and expressive language development. Regression analyses revealed that tone sensitivity accounted for 36% of the unique variance in vocabulary development, whereas intonation production accounted for 6% of the variance in vocabulary development. Moreover, auditory frequency discrimination was significantly correlated with lexical tone sensitivity, syllable duration discrimination, and intonation production in Mandarin Chinese. Also it provided significant contributions to tone sensitivity and intonation production. Auditory frequency discrimination may indirectly affect early vocabulary development through Chinese speech prosody. © The Author(s) 2016.

Inclusion of Minority Patients in Breast Cancer Clinical Trials: The Role of the Clinical Trial Environment

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-05-01

physical environment and the social environment surrounding clinical trials. Task 6: Identify Breast Cancer Physicians in California, Florida...any of the following languages with your patients? a. Spanish b. Chinese ( Cantonese or Mandarin) c. Tagalog d. Vietnamese e. Korean f...Spanish b. Chinese ( Cantonese or Mandarin) c. Tagalog d. Vietnamese e. Korean f. Russian g. Other language(s) Yes No 1

Developing Operationally-Proficient Linguists: It’s About Time

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-03-14

and Russian (0.3%).20 Third, following World War II, the United States emerged as the world’s economic power and English became the lingua...Defense Strategic Language List.58 Currently, NLFI languages include Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Urdu, Korean, Persian, and Russian and African...Chinese, Arabic, Vietnamese, Korean, Russian , Polish, is spoken, then that person would be a heritage speaker of that language.” Olga Kagan, “What is

Chinese Language Study in American Higher Education: State of the Art. Language in Education: Theory and Practice. No. 30.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eddy, Peter A.; And Others

A study was undertaken in order to provide current data and comprehensive information about Chinese language instruction in United States higher education. This report is based on the responses to a survey in 1979. In addition to the discussion of the survey responses, an examination of changes that have taken place since a previous report in 1969…

An fMRI Study of Grammatical Morpheme Processing Associated with Nouns and Verbs in Chinese

PubMed Central

Yu, Xi; Bi, Yanchao; Han, Zaizhu; Law, Sam-Po

2013-01-01

This study examined whether the degree of complexity of a grammatical component in a language would impact on its representation in the brain through identifying the neural correlates of grammatical morpheme processing associated with nouns and verbs in Chinese. In particular, the processing of Chinese nominal classifiers and verbal aspect markers were investigated in a sentence completion task and a grammaticality judgment task to look for converging evidence. The Chinese language constitutes a special case because it has no inflectional morphology per se and a larger classifier than aspect marker inventory, contrary to the pattern of greater verbal than nominal paradigmatic complexity in most European languages. The functional imaging results showed BA47 and left supplementary motor area and superior medial frontal gyrus more strongly activated for classifier processing, and the left posterior middle temporal gyrus more responsive to aspect marker processing. We attributed the activation in the left prefrontal cortex to greater processing complexity during classifier selection, analogous to the accounts put forth for European languages, and the left posterior middle temporal gyrus to more demanding verb semantic processing. The overall findings significantly contribute to cross-linguistic observations of neural substrates underlying processing of grammatical morphemes from an analytic and a classifier language, and thereby deepen our understanding of neurobiology of human language. PMID:24146745

Somatic and social: Chinese Americans talk about emotion.

PubMed

Tsai, Jeanne L; Simeonova, Diana I; Watanabe, Jamie T

2004-09-01

Empirical findings suggest that Chinese and Americans differ in the ways that they describe emotional experience, with Chinese using more somatic and social words than Americans. No one, however, has investigated whether this variation is related to differences between Chinese and American conceptions of emotion or to linguistic differences between the English and Chinese languages. Therefore, in two studies, the authors compared the word use of individuals who varied in their orientation to Chinese and American cultures (European Americans [EA], more acculturated Chinese Americans [CA], and less acculturated CA) when they were speaking English during emotional events. Across both studies, less acculturated CA used more somatic (e.g., dizzy) and more social (e.g., friend) words than EA. These findings suggest that even when controlling for language spoken, cultural conceptions of emotion may shape how people talk about emotion.

Relationships among Constructs of L2 Chinese Reading and Language Background

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hsu, Wei-Li

2016-01-01

Extensive research has been conducted on the relationships of Chinese-character recognition to reading development; strategic competence to reading comprehension; and home linguistic exposure to heritage language acquisition. However, studies of these relationships have been marked by widely divergent theoretical underpinnings, and their results…

Interactive Atlas of Heart Disease and Stroke

MedlinePlus

... View Table page Language: English 中文 Chinese Deutsch (German) Español (Spanish) Français (French) Italiano (Italian) 한국어 (Korean) ... DOC [3 pages] Language: English 中文 Chinese Deutsch (German) Español (Spanish) Français (French) Italiano (Italian) 한국어 (Korean) ...

Chinese Language Teaching and Information Technology.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ho, Man-koon

2000-01-01

Provides an overview of the theoretical arguments and problems encountered in the implementation of information technology in Chinese language teaching. States there is a belief that teaching and learning can be enhanced with the introduction of information technology, explaining that it may increase students' motivation to learn. (CMK)

Metaphors for Happiness in English and Mandarin Chinese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Polley, Carl A.

2012-01-01

Patterns of conceptualization reflected in figurative language are motivated by embodied experience, and comparisons of emotion metaphors in English, Mandarin Chinese and other languages have shown widespread similarity in such metaphors cross-culturally (Lakoff & Johnson 1980, 1999; King 1989; Yu 1996; Kovecses 2005). Nonetheless, we can also…

Effects of a phonological awareness program on English reading and spelling among Hong Kong Chinese ESL children.

PubMed

Yeung, Susanna S S; Siegel, Linda S; Chan, Carol K K

2013-05-01

This study investigated the effects of a 12-week language-enriched phonological awareness instruction on 76 Hong Kong young children who were learning English as a second language. The children were assigned randomly to receive the instruction on phonological awareness skills embedded in vocabulary learning activities or comparison instruction which consisted of vocabulary learning and writing tasks but no direct instruction in phonological awareness skills. They were tested on receptive and expressive vocabulary, phonological awareness at the syllable, rhyme and phoneme levels, reading, and spelling in English before and after the program implementation. The results indicated that children who received the phonological awareness instruction performed significantly better than the comparison group on English word reading, spelling, phonological awareness at all levels and expressive vocabulary on the posttest when age, general intelligence and the pretest scores were controlled statistically. The findings suggest that phonological awareness instruction embedded in vocabulary learning activities might be beneficial to kindergarteners learning English as a second language.

From the transnational to the Sinophone: lesbian representations in Chinese-language films.

PubMed

Wong, Alvin Ka Hin

2012-01-01

This article theorizes global lesbian cinema in Chinese-language films through regionalism, diaspora studies, and Sinophone studies. Through an inter-regional analysis of Butterfly (Yan Yan Mak, 2004, Hong Kong) and diasporic and Sinophone readings of Saving Face (Alice Wu, 2005, USA), I argue that Mak's film illustrates a Hong Kong regional retranslation of a Taiwanese lesbian story, which complicates any claim to a stable "Chinese" identity. Finally, Wu's representation of lesbianism also troubles the politics of Chineseness by pointing to the ways diasporic reproduction of "community" works through the disciplining of other non-normative sexualities.

Implementations of clinical functional magnetic resonance imaging using character-based paradigms for the prediction of Chinese language dominance.

PubMed

Liu, Ho-Ling; Wu, Chien-Te; Chen, Jian-Chuan; Hsu, Yuan-Yu; Wai, Yau-Yau; Wan, Yung-Liang

2003-01-01

Recently, functional MRI (fMRI) using word generation (WG) tasks has been shown to be effective for mapping the Chinese language-related brain areas. In clinical applications, however, patients' performance cannot be easily monitored during WG tasks. In this study, we evaluated the feasibility of a word choice (WC) paradigm in the clinical setting and compared the results with those from WG tasks. Intrasubject comparisons of fMRI with both WG and WC paradigms were performed on six normal human subjects and two tumor patients. Subject responses in the WC paradigm, based on semantic judgments, were recorded. Activation strength, extent, and laterality were evaluated and compared. Our results showed that fMRI with the WC paradigm evoked weaker neuronal activation than that with the WG paradigm in Chinese language-related brain areas. It was sufficient to reveal language laterality for clinical use, however. In addition, it resulted in less nonlanguage-specific brain activation. Results from the patient data demonstrated strong evidence for the necessity of incorporating response monitoring during fMRI studies, which suggested that fMRI with the WC paradigm is more appropriate to be implemented for the prediction of Chinese language dominance in clinical environments.

Processing temporal agreement in a tenseless language: an ERP study of Mandarin Chinese.

PubMed

Qiu, Yinchen; Zhou, Xiaolin

2012-03-29

Human languages are equipped with an impressive repertoire of time-encoding devices which vary significantly across different cultures. Previous research on temporal processing has focused on morphosyntactic processes in Indo-European languages. This study investigated the neural correlates of temporal processing in Mandarin Chinese, a language that is not morphologically marked for tense. In a sentence acceptability judgment task, we manipulated the agreement between semantically enriched temporal adverbs or a highly grammaticalized aspectual particle (-guo) and temporal noun phrases. Disagreement of both the temporal adverbs and the aspectual particle elicited a centro-parietal P600 effect in event-related potentials (ERPs) whereas only disagreeing temporal adverbs evoked an additional broadly distributed N400 effect. Moreover, a sustained negativity effect was observed on both the words following the critical ones and the last words in sentences with temporal disagreement. These results reveal both commonalities and differences between Chinese and Indo-European languages in temporal agreement processing. In particular, we demonstrate that temporal reference in Chinese relies on both lexical semantics and morphosyntactic processes and that the level of grammaticalization of linguistic devices representing similar temporal information is reflected in differential ERP responses. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Clinical observations of a Cantonese cognitive-behavioral treatment program for Chinese immigrants.

PubMed

Shen, Edward K; Alden, Lynn E; Söchting, Ingrid; Tsang, Pheobe

2006-01-01

In this article, the authors describe our clinical observations about the process of delivering a Cantonese-language cognitive- behavioral therapy program to treat depression in Hong Kong immigrants to Vancouver, Canada. Our experiences indicated that standard referral and assessment procedures were not optimal for this population. Other factors that required consideration were how to convert Cantonese terms for dysphoric affect into English equivalents and how to implement cognitive modification strategies when dealing with culture-syntonic beliefs about social relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

Negative pragmatic transfer in Chinese students' complimentary speech acts.

PubMed

Ren, Juanjuan; Gao, Xiaofang

2012-02-01

Summary.-This study was designed to examine negative pragmatic transfer of the speech act of English compliments by Chinese who learn English as a foreign language and to estimate the correlation between the amount of negative pragmatic transfer and English proficiency of the Chinese learners. Frequencies of students' performance showed that both in the favored compliments and the response strategies, differences were evident between Chinese English learners and native English speakers. This indicated that Chinese learners had trouble with the "slang" or "idioms" of the target language and tended to transfer negatively their L1 pragmatic norms to their L2 communication. Moreover, the favored compliment response strategies used by two groups of Chinese learners--who had different levels of English proficiency--differed, and negative pragmatic transfer decreased as proficiency in English increased.

Planning for Development or Decline? Education Policy for Chinese Language in Singapore

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Curdt-Christiansen, Xiao Lan

2014-01-01

This article examines how political discourse, language ideologies, recent Chinese curriculum reforms, and their representations in the media are inextricably related. Using the "Speak Mandarin Campaign" as background for the inquiry, I focus on textual features of the various media sources, TV advertisements, campaign slogans, official…

Awareness of Derivation and Compounding in Chinese-English Biliteracy Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Dongbo; Koda, Keiko

2014-01-01

This study examines the intra-and inter-lingual relationships between first and second language morphological awareness and reading comprehension among grade 6 Chinese learners of English as a foreign language in China. Morphological awareness measures covered compounding as well as derivation. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that within…

Developing Course Materials for Technology-Mediated Chinese Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kubler, Cornelius C.

2018-01-01

This article discusses principles involved in developing course materials for technology-mediated Chinese language learning, with examples from a new course designed to take into account the needs of distance and independent learners. Which learning environment is most efficient for a given learning activity needs to be carefully considered. It…

"Migratory Literature": A "Third Place" for Intercultural Teaching and Learning of Chinese as a Second Language?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hay, Trevor; Wang, Yongyang

2010-01-01

This paper, drawing upon multidisciplinary studies such as critical and cultural studies, literary criticism, intercultural communication and second language acquisition, suggests a specific literary genre--"migratory literature"--to support intercultural competence for learners of Chinese. We begin by elucidating key…

Applied Linguistics Research on Asianness

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kobayashi, Yoko

2011-01-01

As China is increasingly occupying the world's attention, its explosively expanding economical and political clout has also been felt in the applied linguistics domain, with the discussion on China's/Chinese language issues growing by leaps and bounds (e.g. China's English education policies, Chinese language classes in the West). Amid the world's…

Courseware Authoring and Delivering System for Chinese Language Instruction. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mao, Tang

A study investigated technical methods for simplifying and improving the creation of software for teaching uncommonly taught languages such as Chinese. Research consisted of assessment of existing authoring systems, domestic and overseas, available hardware, peripherals, and software packages that could be integrated into this project. Then some…

"Multilingualizing" Composition: A Diary Self-Study of Learning Spanish and Chinese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Severino, Carol

2017-01-01

Using her own experiences of keeping a journal while learning advanced Spanish creative writing and beginning Chinese during the same semester, the author illustrates that composition teachers' second language learning experiences--intimate and challenging encounters with a second language that multilingual composition students experience every…

Chinese Students' Approach to Learning English: Psycholinguistic and Sociolinguistic Perspectives.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

He, Hongwei

A study examined the historical, cultural, social, pedagogical, and psychological factors affecting Chinese students' language learning styles and attitudes, particularly concerning learning English as a Second Language (ESL). The first section offers an overview of considerations in understanding the cultural background that students bring to the…

Language Skills in Classical Chinese Text Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lau, Kit-ling

2018-01-01

This study used both quantitative and qualitative methods to explore the role of lower- and higher-level language skills in classical Chinese (CC) text comprehension. A CC word and sentence translation test, text comprehension test, and questionnaire were administered to 393 Secondary Four students; and 12 of these were randomly selected to…

The Construction of Pro-Science and Technology Discourse in Chinese Language Textbooks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Yongbing

2005-01-01

This paper examines the pro-science and technology discourse constructed in Chinese language textbooks currently used for primary school students nationwide in China. By applying analytical techniques of critical discourse analysis (CDA), the paper critically investigates how the discourse is constructed and what ideological forces are manifested…

Cultural Artefact, Ideology Export or Soft Power? Confucius Institute in Peru

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Park, Jae

2013-01-01

This paper presents a critical analysis of the transnational interplay of cultural, educational and economic forces that culminated with the establishment of a Chinese language and cultural centre in Peru, the Confucius Institute. Confucius Institutes are government-sponsored cultural centres devoted mainly to Chinese language education around the…

Intercultural Learning via Instant Messenger Interaction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jin, Li; Erben, Tony

2007-01-01

This paper reports on a qualitative study investigating the viability of instant messenger (IM) interaction to facilitate intercultural learning in a foreign language class. Eight students in a Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) class participated in the study. Each student was paired with a native speaker (NS) of Chinese, and each pair…

Developmental dyslexia in Chinese and English populations: dissociating the effect of dyslexia from language differences

PubMed Central

Hu, Wei; Lee, Hwee Ling; Zhang, Qiang; Liu, Tao; Geng, Li Bo; Seghier, Mohamed L.; Shakeshaft, Clare; Twomey, Tae; Green, David W.; Yang, Yi Ming

2010-01-01

Previous neuroimaging studies have suggested that developmental dyslexia has a different neural basis in Chinese and English populations because of known differences in the processing demands of the Chinese and English writing systems. Here, using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we provide the first direct statistically based investigation into how the effect of dyslexia on brain activation is influenced by the Chinese and English writing systems. Brain activation for semantic decisions on written words was compared in English dyslexics, Chinese dyslexics, English normal readers and Chinese normal readers, while controlling for all other experimental parameters. By investigating the effects of dyslexia and language in one study, we show common activation in Chinese and English dyslexics despite different activation in Chinese versus English normal readers. The effect of dyslexia in both languages was observed as less than normal activation in the left angular gyrus and in left middle frontal, posterior temporal and occipitotemporal regions. Differences in Chinese and English normal reading were observed as increased activation for Chinese relative to English in the left inferior frontal sulcus; and increased activation for English relative to Chinese in the left posterior superior temporal sulcus. These cultural differences were not observed in dyslexics who activated both left inferior frontal sulcus and left posterior superior temporal sulcus, consistent with the use of culturally independent strategies when reading is less efficient. By dissociating the effect of dyslexia from differences in Chinese and English normal reading, our results reconcile brain activation results with a substantial body of behavioural studies showing commonalities in the cognitive manifestation of dyslexia in Chinese and English populations. They also demonstrate the influence of cognitive ability and learning environment on a common neural system for reading. PMID:20488886

Developmental dyslexia in Chinese and English populations: dissociating the effect of dyslexia from language differences.

PubMed

Hu, Wei; Lee, Hwee Ling; Zhang, Qiang; Liu, Tao; Geng, Li Bo; Seghier, Mohamed L; Shakeshaft, Clare; Twomey, Tae; Green, David W; Yang, Yi Ming; Price, Cathy J

2010-06-01

Previous neuroimaging studies have suggested that developmental dyslexia has a different neural basis in Chinese and English populations because of known differences in the processing demands of the Chinese and English writing systems. Here, using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we provide the first direct statistically based investigation into how the effect of dyslexia on brain activation is influenced by the Chinese and English writing systems. Brain activation for semantic decisions on written words was compared in English dyslexics, Chinese dyslexics, English normal readers and Chinese normal readers, while controlling for all other experimental parameters. By investigating the effects of dyslexia and language in one study, we show common activation in Chinese and English dyslexics despite different activation in Chinese versus English normal readers. The effect of dyslexia in both languages was observed as less than normal activation in the left angular gyrus and in left middle frontal, posterior temporal and occipitotemporal regions. Differences in Chinese and English normal reading were observed as increased activation for Chinese relative to English in the left inferior frontal sulcus; and increased activation for English relative to Chinese in the left posterior superior temporal sulcus. These cultural differences were not observed in dyslexics who activated both left inferior frontal sulcus and left posterior superior temporal sulcus, consistent with the use of culturally independent strategies when reading is less efficient. By dissociating the effect of dyslexia from differences in Chinese and English normal reading, our results reconcile brain activation results with a substantial body of behavioural studies showing commonalities in the cognitive manifestation of dyslexia in Chinese and English populations. They also demonstrate the influence of cognitive ability and learning environment on a common neural system for reading.

Intervention Techniques Used With Autism Spectrum Disorder by Speech-Language Pathologists in the United States and Taiwan: A Descriptive Analysis of Practice in Clinical Settings.

PubMed

Hsieh, Ming-Yeh; Lynch, Georgina; Madison, Charles

2018-04-27

This study examined intervention techniques used with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in the United States and Taiwan working in clinic/hospital settings. The research questions addressed intervention techniques used with children with ASD, intervention techniques used with different age groups (under and above 8 years old), and training received before using the intervention techniques. The survey was distributed through the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association to selected SLPs across the United States. In Taiwan, the survey (Chinese version) was distributed through the Taiwan Speech-Language Pathologist Union, 2018, to certified SLPs. Results revealed that SLPs in the United States and Taiwan used 4 common intervention techniques: Social Skill Training, Augmentative and Alternative Communication, Picture Exchange Communication System, and Social Stories. Taiwanese SLPs reported SLP preparation program training across these common intervention strategies. In the United States, SLPs reported training via SLP preparation programs, peer therapists, and self-taught. Most SLPs reported using established or emerging evidence-based practices as defined by the National Professional Development Center (2014) and the National Standards Report (2015). Future research should address comparison of SLP preparation programs to examine the impact of preprofessional training on use of evidence-based practices to treat ASD.

Prosody-Syntax Integration in a Second Language: Contrasting Event-Related Potentials from German and Chinese Learners of English Using Linear Mixed Effect Models

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nickels, Stefanie; Steinhauer, Karsten

2018-01-01

The role of prosodic information in sentence processing is not usually addressed in second language (L2) instruction, and neurocognitive studies on prosody-syntax interactions are rare. Here we compare event-related potentials (ERP) of Chinese and German learners of English L2 to those of native English speakers and show how first language (L1)…

Motion Event Similarity Judgments in One or Two Languages: An Exploration of Monolingual Speakers of English and Chinese vs. L2 Learners of English.

PubMed

Ji, Yinglin

2017-01-01

Languages differ systematically in how to encode a motion event. English characteristically expresses manner in verb root and path in verb particle; in Chinese, varied aspects of motion, such as manner, path and cause, can be simultaneously encoded in a verb compound. This study investigates whether typological differences, as such, influence how first and second language learners conceptualize motion events, as suggested by behavioral evidences. Specifically, the performance of Chinese learners of English, at three proficiencies, was compared to that of two groups of monolingual speakers in a triads matching task. The first set of analyses regarding categorisation preferences indicates that participants across groups preferred the path-matched (rather than manner-matched) screens. However, the second set of analyses regarding reaction time suggests, firstly, that English monolingual speakers reacted significantly more quickly in selecting the manner-matched scenes compared with monolingual speakers of Chinese, who tended to use an approximately equal amount of time in making manner- and path-matched decisions, a finding that can arguably be mapped onto the typological difference between the two languages. Secondly, the pattern of response latency in low-level L2 learners looked more like that of monolingual speakers of Chinese. Only at intermediate and advanced levels of acquisition did the behavioral pattern of L2 learners become target-like, thus suggesting language-specific constraints from the L1 at an early stage of acquisition. Overall, our results suggest that motion event cognition may be linked to, among other things, the linguistic structure of motion description in particular languages.

Catquest-9SF questionnaire: validation of Malay and Chinese-language versions using Rasch analysis.

PubMed

Adnan, Tassha Hilda; Mohamed Apandi, Mokhlisoh; Kamaruddin, Haireen; Salowi, Mohamad Aziz; Law, Kian Boon; Haniff, Jamaiyah; Goh, Pik Pin

2018-01-05

Catquest questionnaire was originally developed in Swedish to measure patients' self-assessed visual function to evaluate the benefit of cataract surgery. The result of the Rasch analysis leading to the creation of the nine-item short form of Catquest, (Catquest-9SF), and it had been translated and validated in English. The aim is therefore to evaluate the translated Catquest-9SF questionnaire in Malay and Chinese (Mandarin) language version for measuring patient-reported visual function among cataract population in Malaysia. The English version of Catquest-9SF questionnaire was translated and back translated into Malay and Chinese languages. The Malay and Chinese translated versions were self-administered by 236 and 202 pre-operative patients drawn from a cataract surgery waiting list, respectively. The translated Catquest-9SF data and its four response options were assessed for fit to the Rasch model. The Catquest-9SF performed well in the Malay and Chinese translated versions fulfilling all criteria for valid measurement, as demonstrated by Rasch analysis. Both versions of questionnaire had ordered response thresholds, with a good person separation (Malay 2.84; and Chinese 2.59) and patient separation reliability (Malay 0.89; Chinese 0.87). Targeting was 0.30 and -0.11 logits in Malay and Chinese versions respectively, indicating that the item difficulty was well suited to the visual abilities of the patients. All items fit a single overall construct (Malay infit range 0.85-1.26, outfit range 0.73-1.13; Chinese infit range 0.80-1.51, outfit range 0.71-1.36), unidimensional by principal components analysis, and was free of Differential Item Functioning (DIF). These results support the good overall functioning of the Catquest-9SF in patients with cataract. The translated questionnaire to Malay and Chinese-language versions are reliable and valid in measuring visual disability outcomes in the Malaysian cataract population.

Chinese Students' Attitudes Towards the Use of English-Medium Instruction into the Curriculum Courses: A Case Study of a National Key University in Beijing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Muthanna, Abdulghani; Miao, Pei

2015-01-01

This article outlines the necessity for investigating the attitudes of local students towards the use of the English-medium instruction (EMI) strategy in their programs in China. It starts by presenting an overview of English as a global language, how English is emphasized in China, and briefly presents the concept of "Attitude" and how…

Can non-interactive language input benefit young second-language learners?

PubMed

Au, Terry Kit-Fong; Chan, Winnie Wailan; Cheng, Liao; Siegel, Linda S; Tso, Ricky Van Yip

2015-03-01

To fully acquire a language, especially its phonology, children need linguistic input from native speakers early on. When interaction with native speakers is not always possible - e.g. for children learning a second language that is not the societal language - audios are commonly used as an affordable substitute. But does such non-interactive input work? Two experiments evaluated the usefulness of audio storybooks in acquiring a more native-like second-language accent. Young children, first- and second-graders in Hong Kong whose native language was Cantonese Chinese, were given take-home listening assignments in a second language, either English or Putonghua Chinese. Accent ratings of the children's story reading revealed measurable benefits of non-interactive input from native speakers. The benefits were far more robust for Putonghua than English. Implications for second-language accent acquisition are discussed.

Data Acquisition and Linguistic Resources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Strassel, Stephanie; Christianson, Caitlin; McCary, John; Staderman, William; Olive, Joseph

All human language technology demands substantial quantities of data for system training and development, plus stable benchmark data to measure ongoing progress. While creation of high quality linguistic resources is both costly and time consuming, such data has the potential to profoundly impact not just a single evaluation program but language technology research in general. GALE's challenging performance targets demand linguistic data on a scale and complexity never before encountered. Resources cover multiple languages (Arabic, Chinese, and English) and multiple genres -- both structured (newswire and broadcast news) and unstructured (web text, including blogs and newsgroups, and broadcast conversation). These resources include significant volumes of monolingual text and speech, parallel text, and transcribed audio combined with multiple layers of linguistic annotation, ranging from word aligned parallel text and Treebanks to rich semantic annotation.

Language and the bicultural dialectical self.

PubMed

Boucher, Helen C; O'Dowd, Meghan C

2011-04-01

We examined the effect of language priming on naïve dialecticism, with special attention paid to effects on dialectical beliefs about the self. European Americans responding in English and bilingual Chinese responding in either Chinese or English completed several measures designed to tap dialectical thinking and dialectical self-perceptions, including tolerance of contradiction, change in thoughts and behavior over time and context, holistic beliefs, and self-concept inconsistency. As expected, those answering in Chinese reported greater dialecticism on most of these measures, relative to those responding in English. European American responses were highly similar to those of bilinguals responding in English. We discuss advantages of language priming and offer directions for future research.

Is editing the roadblock to the internationalization of Chinese academic journals?

PubMed

Lu, Jian-ping

2011-06-01

"China's internationalization" is in part realized through the dissemination of Chinese publications, such as academic journals. Therefore, editorial proficiency in the English language is of vital importance to the quality of the journals. This article analyzes the results of the two projects sponsored by the General Administration of Press and Publication of the People's Republic of China in 2007 and 2010 respectively, namely the "Analytical Evaluation of Language and Editing Quality of Chinese Academic Journals in English Language Issued in 2006", and the "Evaluation of Publication Quality of the China-Grown English Periodicals Issued in 2009, Sanctioned from 2005 to 2009", and proposes solutions to the problems presented therein.

Selected Translated Abstracts of Chinese-Language Climate Change Publications

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cushman, R.M.; Burtis, M.D.

1999-05-01

This report contains English-translated abstracts of important Chinese-language literature concerning global climate change for the years 1995-1998. This body of literature includes the topics of adaptation, ancient climate change, climate variation, the East Asia monsoon, historical climate change, impacts, modeling, and radiation and trace-gas emissions. In addition to the biological citations and abstracts translated into English, this report presents the original citations and abstracts in Chinese. Author and title indexes are included to assist the reader in locating abstracts of particular interest.

Chinese Translation Errors in English/Chinese Bilingual Children's Picture Books

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huang, Qiaoya; Chen, Xiaoning

2012-01-01

The aim of this study was to review the Chinese translation errors in 31 English/Chinese bilingual children's picture books. While bilingual children's books make definite contributions to language acquisition, few studies have examined the quality of these books, and even fewer have specifically focused on English/Chinese bilingual books.…

A Functional Study of "zhi [Chinese character omitted]" in the Chinese Nominal Group

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Weiwei; Li, Manliang

2017-01-01

Over the past decades, subjects concerned with the Chinese character "zhi [Chinese character omitted]", i.e. grammatical structure, in ancient Chinese language, have been widely explored. This paper conducts a research from a new dimension: the Cardiff Grammar, an integral part of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) which is famous for…

Social-Class Identity and English Learning: Studies of Chinese Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gao, Feng

2014-01-01

This article first looks at the complex conceptualization of Chinese learners' social-class identities with respect to a shifting Chinese class stratification. It then examines the link between social class and second-language learning in the Chinese context by reviewing several studies on Chinese learners' social-class backgrounds and their…

Chinese translation norms for 1,429 English words.

PubMed

Wen, Yun; van Heuven, Walter J B

2017-06-01

We present Chinese translation norms for 1,429 English words. Chinese-English bilinguals (N = 28) were asked to provide the first Chinese translation that came to mind for 1,429 English words. The results revealed that 71 % of the English words received more than one correct translation indicating the large amount of translation ambiguity when translating from English to Chinese. The relationship between translation ambiguity and word frequency, concreteness and language proficiency was investigated. Although the significant correlations were not strong, results revealed that English word frequency was positively correlated with the number of alternative translations, whereas English word concreteness was negatively correlated with the number of translations. Importantly, regression analyses showed that the number of Chinese translations was predicted by word frequency and concreteness. Furthermore, an interaction between these predictors revealed that the number of translations was more affected by word frequency for more concrete words than for less concrete words. In addition, mixed-effects modelling showed that word frequency, concreteness and English language proficiency were all significant predictors of whether or not a dominant translation was provided. Finally, correlations between the word frequencies of English words and their Chinese dominant translations were higher for translation-unambiguous pairs than for translation-ambiguous pairs. The translation norms are made available in a database together with lexical information about the words, which will be a useful resource for researchers investigating Chinese-English bilingual language processing.

Chinese Students' Perceptions of Native English-Speaking Teachers in EFL Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rao, Zhenhui

2010-01-01

The article reports the views of 20 Chinese English as a foreign Language (EFL) students on the strengths and weaknesses of native English-speaking (NES) teachers in EFL teaching. Responding to an open-ended questionnaire and in-depth interviews, EFL students named the following as NES teachers' strengths: native language authenticity, cultural…

The Brain Adapts to Orthography with Experience: Evidence from English and Chinese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cao, Fan; Brennan, Christine; Booth, James R.

2015-01-01

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we examined the process of language specialization in the brain by comparing developmental changes in two contrastive orthographies: Chinese and English. In a visual word rhyming judgment task, we found a significant interaction between age and language in left inferior parietal lobule and left…

A Review of Stroke Order in "Hanzi" Handwriting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Haiwei

2014-01-01

This article reviews the current research on stroke order of "hanzi" (as used to write the Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages) in teaching Chinese as a second language (CSL). Based on an extensive review of current research on stroke order, it first discusses the importance and difficulty of stroke order in "hanzi"…

Designing ICT Training Material for Chinese Language Arts Teachers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Janet Mei-Chuen; Wu, Cheng-Chih; Chen, Hsiu-Yen

The purpose of this research is to tailor the design of information and communications technology (ICT) training material to the needs of Chinese language arts teachers such that the training they receive will be conducive to effective integration of ICT into instruction. Eighteen experienced teachers participated in a Delphi-like survey that…

General Auditory Processing, Speech Perception and Phonological Awareness Skills in Chinese-English Biliteracy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chung, Kevin K. H.; McBride-Chang, Catherine; Cheung, Him; Wong, Simpson W. L.

2013-01-01

This study focused on the associations of general auditory processing, speech perception, phonological awareness and word reading in Cantonese-speaking children from Hong Kong learning to read both Chinese (first language [L1]) and English (second language [L2]). Children in Grades 2--4 ("N" = 133) participated and were administered…

Korean-Chinese Parents' Language Attitudes and Additive Bilingual Education in China

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gao, Fang; Park, Jae

2012-01-01

China's diversity of minority groups, marked by many languages and cultures, has led to much push and pull experience between homogenising forces and indigenous cultures. This is apparent in its bilingual education programme for ethnic minorities, among which Korean diaspora communities are to be counted. Korean-Chinese people in China have been…

ICT and an Exploratory Pedagogy for Classroom-Based Chinese Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhao, XingLong; Wang, MinJuan; Wu, Juan; He, KeKang

2011-01-01

This paper reports on a new pedagogy for Chinese language teaching and learning at elementary schools through exploratory classroom instruction using Information and Communication Technologies. The study used quantitative method to collect data from two elementary schools of China. The results showed that: (1) the three-in-one pedagogy of…

Language Learner Strategy by Chinese-Speaking EFL Readers When Comprehending Familiar and Unfamiliar Texts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Jia-Ying

2015-01-01

This study compares the language learner and test-taking strategies used by Chinese-speaking graduate students when confronted with familiar versus unfamiliar topics in an English multiple-choice format reading comprehension test. Thirty-six participants at a large mid-western university performed three tasks: A content knowledge vocabulary…

Processing Relative Clauses in Chinese as a Second Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xu, Yi

2014-01-01

This project investigates second language (L2) learners' processing of four types of Chinese relative clauses crossing extraction types and demonstrative-classifier (DCl) positions. Using a word order judgment task with a whole-sentence reading technique, the study also discusses how psycholinguistic theories bear explanatory power in L2 data. An…

What's in a Name? How Different Languages Result in Different Brains in English and Chinese Speakers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Chao

2010-01-01

The linguistic relativity hypothesis proposes that speakers of different languages perceive and conceptualize the world differently, but do their brains reflect these differences? In English, most nouns do not provide linguistic clues to their categories, whereas most Mandarin Chinese nouns provide explicit category information, either…

Chinese Learners' Acquisition of English Verbs: A Corpus-Driven Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Linxiao; Jo, Hie-myung

2012-01-01

Limited research has investigated advanced language learners' acquisition of English verbs. The current study examines and compares the acquisition pattern of English verbs among Chinese second language (L2) learners at both intermediate and advanced levels to answer the following questions: (1) Do L2 learners acquire regular verbs and irregular…

Where Is the Technology-Induced Pedagogy? Snapshots from Two Multimedia EFL Classrooms.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhong, Ying Xue; Shen, Hui Zhong

2002-01-01

Examines two Chinese multimedia secondary classrooms teaching English as a foreign language to identify changes that have taken place in technologically integrated classroom practice. Concludes that the traditional Chinese notion of teaching and the role of the teacher need to be redefined to allow a learner-centered multimedia language classroom…

Chinese Language Learning Motivation: A Comparative Study of Heritage and Non-Heritage Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wen, Xiaohong

2011-01-01

This study investigates attitudes and motivation that influence heritage and non-heritage students' learning of Chinese as a second language, examining the similarities and differences among three subgroups: bilingual, heritage motivated, and non-heritage learners. The study uses the socio-educational model by Gardner (1985), the internal…

The Construction of Cultural Values and Beliefs in Chinese Language Textbooks: A Critical Discourse Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Yongbing

2005-01-01

This article examines the discourses of cultural values and beliefs constructed in Chinese language textbooks currently used for primary school students nationwide in China. By applying story grammar analysis in the framework of critical discourse analysis, the article critically investigates how the discourses are constructed and what ideological…

Standardising the Chinese Language in Singapore: Issues of Policy and Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shang, Guowen; Zhao, Shouhui

2017-01-01

The selection of standards and norms constitutes the first and most important step for language standardisation. In this paper, we examine the standard establishment for Huayu (or Singapore Mandarin), a new Chinese variety that has emerged in Singapore as a result of centralised planning and inter-linguistic contact. Huayu is the officially…

Collaborative Tasks in Web Conferencing: A Case Study on Chinese Online

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guo, Sijia; Möllering, Martina

2017-01-01

This case study aimed to explore best practice in applying task-based language teaching (TBLT) via a Web-conferencing tool, Blackboard Collaborate, in a beginners' online Chinese course by evaluating the pedagogical values and limitations of the software and the tasks designed. Chapelle's (2001) criteria for computer-assisted language learning…

Perception of Tone and Aspiration Contrasts in Chinese Children with Dyslexia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cheung, Him; Chung, Kevin K. H.; Wong, Simpson W. L.; McBride-Chang, Catherine; Penney, Trevor B.; Ho, Connie S. H.

2009-01-01

Background: Previous research has shown a relationship between speech perception and dyslexia in alphabetic writing. In these studies speech perception was measured using phonemes, a prominent feature of alphabetic languages. Given the primary importance of lexical tone in Chinese language processing, we tested the extent to which lexical tone and…

China: A Guide to Reference Sources in English and Chinese.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Su, Comp.; Slavin, Suzy M., Ed.

This guide to selected reference sources in the McGill University (Quebec) Library for Sinology (the study of the language, history, literature, and civilization of China) contains annotated listings for English and Chinese language materials in the following categories: (1) guides to the literature (6 references); (2) encyclopedias (3…

Co-Ethnic Network, Social Class, and Heritage Language Maintenance among Chinese Immigrant Families

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Donghui

2012-01-01

This ethnographic study investigated heritage language maintenance among two distinct groups of Chinese immigrant families (Mandarin and Fujianese) from the social network perspective. The results indicated that a co-ethnic network could be a double-edged sword, which works differently on children from different social classes. While the Mandarin…

"Chairperson" or "Chairman"?--A Study of Chinese EFL Teachers' Gender Inclusivity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Jackie F. K.

2015-01-01

Given the potential influence of teachers' linguistic practice on children's language use and gender role development, the present study seeks to examine the extent of linguistic discrimination present in teachers' language. A total of 215 Chinese EFL teachers were invited to participate in the survey, which included a series of elicitation tests…

Arithmetic processing in the brain shaped by cultures

PubMed Central

Tang, Yiyuan; Zhang, Wutian; Chen, Kewei; Feng, Shigang; Ji, Ye; Shen, Junxian; Reiman, Eric M.; Liu, Yijun

2006-01-01

The universal use of Arabic numbers in mathematics raises a question whether these digits are processed the same way in people speaking various languages, such as Chinese and English, which reflect differences in Eastern and Western cultures. Using functional MRI, we demonstrated a differential cortical representation of numbers between native Chinese and English speakers. Contrasting to native English speakers, who largely employ a language process that relies on the left perisylvian cortices for mental calculation such as a simple addition task, native Chinese speakers, instead, engage a visuo-premotor association network for the same task. Whereas in both groups the inferior parietal cortex was activated by a task for numerical quantity comparison, functional MRI connectivity analyses revealed a functional distinction between Chinese and English groups among the brain networks involved in the task. Our results further indicate that the different biological encoding of numbers may be shaped by visual reading experience during language acquisition and other cultural factors such as mathematics learning strategies and education systems, which cannot be explained completely by the differences in languages per se. PMID:16815966

From English to Chinese, Japanese, and Russian: extending research visibility with language translations of a conference slide presentation.

PubMed

Hoffecker, Lilian; Abbey, Dana

2017-01-01

The research demonstrates that a conference slide presentation translated into non-English languages reaches significantly larger and different audiences than an English presentation alone. The slides of a presentation from the Medical Library Association annual meeting were translated from English to Chinese, Japanese, and Russian and posted along with the English version to SlideShare, an open slide-hosting website. View counts, traffic sources, and geographic origins of the traffic for each language version were tracked over a twenty-two-month period. Total view counts for all 4 language versions amounted to 3,357 views, with the Chinese version accounting for 71% of the total views. The trends in view counts over time for the Japanese, Russian, and English versions were similar, with high interest at the beginning and a rapid drop and low level of viewing activity thereafter. The pattern of view counts for the Chinese version departed considerably from the other language versions, with very low activity at the beginning but a sharp rise 10 months later. This increase in activity was related to access to the presentations via a Taiwanese website that embedded the SlideShare website code. Language translation can be a difficult and time-consuming task. However, translation of a conference slide presentation with limited text is an achievable activity and engages an international audience for information that is often not noticed or lost. Although English is by far the primary language of science and other disciplines, it is not necessarily the first or preferred language of global researchers. By offering appropriate language versions, the authors of presentations can expand the reach of their work.

Language differences in the brain network for reading in naturalistic story reading and lexical decision.

PubMed

Wang, Xiaojuan; Yang, Jianfeng; Yang, Jie; Mencl, W Einar; Shu, Hua; Zevin, Jason David

2015-01-01

Differences in how writing systems represent language raise important questions about whether there could be a universal functional architecture for reading across languages. In order to study potential language differences in the neural networks that support reading skill, we collected fMRI data from readers of alphabetic (English) and morpho-syllabic (Chinese) writing systems during two reading tasks. In one, participants read short stories under conditions that approximate natural reading, and in the other, participants decided whether individual stimuli were real words or not. Prior work comparing these two writing systems has overwhelmingly used meta-linguistic tasks, generally supporting the conclusion that the reading system is organized differently for skilled readers of Chinese and English. We observed that language differences in the reading network were greatly dependent on task. In lexical decision, a pattern consistent with prior research was observed in which the Middle Frontal Gyrus (MFG) and right Fusiform Gyrus (rFFG) were more active for Chinese than for English, whereas the posterior temporal sulcus was more active for English than for Chinese. We found a very different pattern of language effects in a naturalistic reading paradigm, during which significant differences were only observed in visual regions not typically considered specific to the reading network, and the middle temporal gyrus, which is thought to be important for direct mapping of orthography to semantics. Indeed, in areas that are often discussed as supporting distinct cognitive or linguistic functions between the two languages, we observed interaction. Specifically, language differences were most pronounced in MFG and rFFG during the lexical decision task, whereas no language differences were observed in these areas during silent reading of text for comprehension.

The Voices of Thirteen Chinese and Taiwanese Parents Sharing Views about their Children Attending Chinese Heritage Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liao, Li-yuan; Larke, Patrica J.

2008-01-01

Many Chinese and Taiwanese parents in the United States see benefits of Chinese schools in providing their children the opportunity to learn Chinese culture and language. The results of this qualitative study involving interviews with thirteen Chinese and Taiwanese parents indicated that there were three main reasons why parents want to send their…

Brush Talk at the Conversation Table: Interaction between L1 and L2 Speakers of Chinese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hwang, Menq-Ju

2009-01-01

Chinese characters are used in both Chinese and Japanese writing systems. When literate speakers of either language experience problems in finding or understanding words, they often resort to using Chinese characters or "kanji" (i.e., Chinese characters used in Japanese writing) in their talk, a practice known as "brush talk" ("bitan" in Chinese,…

The Effect of Word-Unit Spacing upon the Reading Strategies of Non-Native Readers of Chinese: An Eye-Tracking Study.

DTIC Science & Technology

1986-01-01

theories have begun to emerge that may prove useful in understanding the processes involved in learning Chinese as a foreign language ...way texts do in English . To assess the manipulation of this variable in terms of foreign language reading behavior and development, this experiment...KI CHAPTER I THE PROBLEM Introduction One of the more noteworthy undertakings in foreign language research has been an attempt to understand

Does language affect personality perception? A functional approach to testing the Whorfian hypothesis.

PubMed

Chen, Sylvia Xiaohua; Benet-Martínez, Verónica; Ng, Jacky C K

2014-04-01

Whether language shapes cognition has long been a controversial issue. The present research adopts a functional approach to examining the effects of language use on personality perception and dialectical thinking. We propose that language use activates corresponding cultural mindsets, which in turn influence social perception, thinking, and behavior. Four studies recruited Chinese-English bilinguals (N = 129 in Study 1, 229 in Study 2, 68 in Study 3, 106 in Study 4) and used within-subjects and between-subjects design, written and behavioral reports, and self- and other perceptions. The four studies converged to show that Chinese-English bilinguals exhibit higher dialectical thinking and more variations in self- and observer ratings of personality when using the Chinese language than when using English. Furthermore, dialectical thinking predicted more self- and other-perceived variations in personality and behavior across bilingual contexts. These results highlight the important role of culture in understanding the relations between language and cognition, and attest to the malleability of personality perception and dialectical thinking within and across individuals in response to culture-related linguistic cues. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Teaching Oral Chinese in the United States

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cheng, Chin-Chuan

1976-01-01

Because Chinese language textbooks were judged inadequate in teaching vocabulary dealing with everyday life in the U.S. and in China, new methods and materials were introduced into an oral Chinese course. Prepared discussion topics, Chinese films, soap operas, and shortwave radio broadcasts were used. (CHK)

Home environmental influences on children's language and reading skills in a genetically sensitive design: Are socioeconomic status and home literacy environment environmental mediators and moderators?

PubMed

Chow, Bonnie Wing-Yin; Ho, Connie Suk-Han; Wong, Simpson W L; Waye, Mary M Y; Zheng, Mo

2017-12-01

This twin study examined how family socioeconomic status (SES) and home literacy environment (HLE) contributes to Chinese language and reading skills. It included 312 Chinese twin pairs aged 3 to 11. Children were individually administered tasks of Chinese word reading, receptive vocabulary and reading-related cognitive skills, and nonverbal reasoning ability. Information on home environment was collected through parent-reported questionnaires. Results showed that SES and HLE mediated shared environmental influences but did not moderate genetic influences on general language and reading abilities. Also, SES and HLE mediated shared environmental contributions to receptive vocabulary and syllable and rhyme awareness, but not orthographic skills. The findings of this study add to past twin studies that focused on alphabetic languages, suggesting that these links could be universal across languages. They also extend existing findings on SES and HLE's contributions to reading-related cognitive skills. © 2017 Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The effect of sign language structure on complex word reading in Chinese deaf adolescents.

PubMed

Lu, Aitao; Yu, Yanping; Niu, Jiaxin; Zhang, John X

2015-01-01

The present study was carried out to investigate whether sign language structure plays a role in the processing of complex words (i.e., derivational and compound words), in particular, the delay of complex word reading in deaf adolescents. Chinese deaf adolescents were found to respond faster to derivational words than to compound words for one-sign-structure words, but showed comparable performance for two-sign-structure words. For both derivational and compound words, response latencies to one-sign-structure words were shorter than to two-sign-structure words. These results provide strong evidence that the structure of sign language affects written word processing in Chinese. Additionally, differences between derivational and compound words in the one-sign-structure condition indicate that Chinese deaf adolescents acquire print morphological awareness. The results also showed that delayed word reading was found in derivational words with two signs (DW-2), compound words with one sign (CW-1), and compound words with two signs (CW-2), but not in derivational words with one sign (DW-1), with the delay being maximum in DW-2, medium in CW-2, and minimum in CW-1, suggesting that the structure of sign language has an impact on the delayed processing of Chinese written words in deaf adolescents. These results provide insight into the mechanisms about how sign language structure affects written word processing and its delayed processing relative to their hearing peers of the same age.

Comparative intelligibility investigation of single-channel noise-reduction algorithms for Chinese, Japanese, and English.

PubMed

Li, Junfeng; Yang, Lin; Zhang, Jianping; Yan, Yonghong; Hu, Yi; Akagi, Masato; Loizou, Philipos C

2011-05-01

A large number of single-channel noise-reduction algorithms have been proposed based largely on mathematical principles. Most of these algorithms, however, have been evaluated with English speech. Given the different perceptual cues used by native listeners of different languages including tonal languages, it is of interest to examine whether there are any language effects when the same noise-reduction algorithm is used to process noisy speech in different languages. A comparative evaluation and investigation is taken in this study of various single-channel noise-reduction algorithms applied to noisy speech taken from three languages: Chinese, Japanese, and English. Clean speech signals (Chinese words and Japanese words) were first corrupted by three types of noise at two signal-to-noise ratios and then processed by five single-channel noise-reduction algorithms. The processed signals were finally presented to normal-hearing listeners for recognition. Intelligibility evaluation showed that the majority of noise-reduction algorithms did not improve speech intelligibility. Consistent with a previous study with the English language, the Wiener filtering algorithm produced small, but statistically significant, improvements in intelligibility for car and white noise conditions. Significant differences between the performances of noise-reduction algorithms across the three languages were observed.

Brain white matter structure and COMT gene are linked to second-language learning in adults

PubMed Central

Mamiya, Ping C.; Richards, Todd L.; Coe, Bradley P.; Eichler, Evan E.; Kuhl, Patricia K.

2016-01-01

Adult human brains retain the capacity to undergo tissue reorganization during second-language learning. Brain-imaging studies show a relationship between neuroanatomical properties and learning for adults exposed to a second language. However, the role of genetic factors in this relationship has not been investigated. The goal of the current study was twofold: (i) to characterize the relationship between brain white matter fiber-tract properties and second-language immersion using diffusion tensor imaging, and (ii) to determine whether polymorphisms in the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene affect the relationship. We recruited incoming Chinese students enrolled in the University of Washington and scanned their brains one time. We measured the diffusion properties of the white matter fiber tracts and correlated them with the number of days each student had been in the immersion program at the time of the brain scan. We found that higher numbers of days in the English immersion program correlated with higher fractional anisotropy and lower radial diffusivity in the right superior longitudinal fasciculus. We show that fractional anisotropy declined once the subjects finished the immersion program. The relationship between brain white matter fiber-tract properties and immersion varied in subjects with different COMT genotypes. Subjects with the Methionine (Met)/Valine (Val) and Val/Val genotypes showed higher fractional anisotropy and lower radial diffusivity during immersion, which reversed immediately after immersion ended, whereas those with the Met/Met genotype did not show these relationships. Statistical modeling revealed that subjects’ grades in the language immersion program were best predicted by fractional anisotropy and COMT genotype. PMID:27298360

Brain white matter structure and COMT gene are linked to second-language learning in adults.

PubMed

Mamiya, Ping C; Richards, Todd L; Coe, Bradley P; Eichler, Evan E; Kuhl, Patricia K

2016-06-28

Adult human brains retain the capacity to undergo tissue reorganization during second-language learning. Brain-imaging studies show a relationship between neuroanatomical properties and learning for adults exposed to a second language. However, the role of genetic factors in this relationship has not been investigated. The goal of the current study was twofold: (i) to characterize the relationship between brain white matter fiber-tract properties and second-language immersion using diffusion tensor imaging, and (ii) to determine whether polymorphisms in the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene affect the relationship. We recruited incoming Chinese students enrolled in the University of Washington and scanned their brains one time. We measured the diffusion properties of the white matter fiber tracts and correlated them with the number of days each student had been in the immersion program at the time of the brain scan. We found that higher numbers of days in the English immersion program correlated with higher fractional anisotropy and lower radial diffusivity in the right superior longitudinal fasciculus. We show that fractional anisotropy declined once the subjects finished the immersion program. The relationship between brain white matter fiber-tract properties and immersion varied in subjects with different COMT genotypes. Subjects with the Methionine (Met)/Valine (Val) and Val/Val genotypes showed higher fractional anisotropy and lower radial diffusivity during immersion, which reversed immediately after immersion ended, whereas those with the Met/Met genotype did not show these relationships. Statistical modeling revealed that subjects' grades in the language immersion program were best predicted by fractional anisotropy and COMT genotype.

Case Studies of Multilingual/Multicultural Asian Deaf Adults: Strategies for Success.

PubMed

Wang, Qiuying; Andrews, Jean; Liu, Hsiu Tan; Liu, Chun Jung

2016-01-01

Case studies of adult d/Deaf or Hard of Hearing Multilingual Learners (DMLs) are few, especially studies of DMLs who learn more than one sign language and read logographic and alphabetic scripts. To reduce this paucity, two descriptive case studies are presented. Written questionnaires, face-to-face interviews, and self-appraisals of language-use rubrics were used to explore (a) the language and literacy histories of two adult Asian DMLs who had learned multiple languages: Chinese (spoken/written), English (written), Chinese Sign Language, and American Sign Language; and (b) how each language was used in different cultural communities with diverse conversational partners. Home literacy environment, family support, visual access to languages, peer and sibling support, role models, encouragement, perseverance, and Deaf identity all played vital roles in the participants' academic success. The findings provide insights into the acquisition of multiple languages and bi-literacy through social communication and academic content.

Promoting a Hand Hygiene Program Using Social Media: An Observational Study.

PubMed

Pan, Sung-Ching; Sheng, Wang-Huei; Tien, Kuei-Lien; Chien, Kuang-Tse; Chen, Yee-Chun; Chang, Shawn-Chwen

2016-01-01

Hand hygiene is an important component in infection control to protect patient safety and reduce health care-associated infection. Our aim was to evaluate the efficacy of different social media on the promotion of a hand hygiene (HH) program. The observational study was conducted from May 5 to December 31, 2014, at a 2600-bed tertiary care hospital. A 3-minute video of an HH campaign in 8 languages was posted to YouTube. The Chinese version was promoted through three platforms: the hospital website, the hospital group email, and the Facebook site of a well-known Internet illustrator. The video traffic was analyzed via Google Analytics. HH compliance was measured in November 2013 and 2014. There were 5252 views of the video, mainly of the Chinese-language version (3509/5252, 66.81%). The NTUH website had 24,000 subscribers, and 151 of them viewed the video (connection rate was 151/24,000, 0.63%). There were 9967 users of the hospital email group and the connection rate was 0.91% (91/9967). The connection rate was 6.17% (807/13,080) from Facebook, significantly higher than the other 2 venues (both P<.001). HH compliance sustained from 83.7% (473/565) in 2013 to 86.7% (589/679) in 2014 (P=.13) among all HCWs. Facebook had the highest connection rate in the HH video campaign. The use of novel social media such as Facebook should be considered for future programs that promote hand hygiene and other healthy behaviors.

Evaluating language environment analysis system performance for Chinese: a pilot study in Shanghai.

PubMed

Gilkerson, Jill; Zhang, Yiwen; Xu, Dongxin; Richards, Jeffrey A; Xu, Xiaojuan; Jiang, Fan; Harnsberger, James; Topping, Keith

2015-04-01

The purpose of this study was to evaluate performance of the Language Environment Analysis (LENA) automated language-analysis system for the Chinese Shanghai dialect and Mandarin (SDM) languages. Volunteer parents of 22 children aged 3-23 months were recruited in Shanghai. Families provided daylong in-home audio recordings using LENA. A native speaker listened to 15 min of randomly selected audio samples per family to label speaker regions and provide Chinese character and SDM word counts for adult speakers. LENA segment labeling and counts were compared with rater-based values. LENA demonstrated good sensitivity in identifying adult and child; this sensitivity was comparable to that of American English validation samples. Precision was strong for adults but less so for children. LENA adult word count correlated strongly with both Chinese characters and SDM word counts. LENA conversational turn counts correlated similarly with rater-based counts after the exclusion of three unusual samples. Performance related to some degree to child age. LENA adult word count and conversational turn provided reasonably accurate estimates for SDM over the age range tested. Theoretical and practical considerations regarding LENA performance in non-English languages are discussed. Despite the pilot nature and other limitations of the study, results are promising for broader cross-linguistic applications.

Motion Event Similarity Judgments in One or Two Languages: An Exploration of Monolingual Speakers of English and Chinese vs. L2 Learners of English

PubMed Central

Ji, Yinglin

2017-01-01

Languages differ systematically in how to encode a motion event. English characteristically expresses manner in verb root and path in verb particle; in Chinese, varied aspects of motion, such as manner, path and cause, can be simultaneously encoded in a verb compound. This study investigates whether typological differences, as such, influence how first and second language learners conceptualize motion events, as suggested by behavioral evidences. Specifically, the performance of Chinese learners of English, at three proficiencies, was compared to that of two groups of monolingual speakers in a triads matching task. The first set of analyses regarding categorisation preferences indicates that participants across groups preferred the path-matched (rather than manner-matched) screens. However, the second set of analyses regarding reaction time suggests, firstly, that English monolingual speakers reacted significantly more quickly in selecting the manner-matched scenes compared with monolingual speakers of Chinese, who tended to use an approximately equal amount of time in making manner- and path-matched decisions, a finding that can arguably be mapped onto the typological difference between the two languages. Secondly, the pattern of response latency in low-level L2 learners looked more like that of monolingual speakers of Chinese. Only at intermediate and advanced levels of acquisition did the behavioral pattern of L2 learners become target-like, thus suggesting language-specific constraints from the L1 at an early stage of acquisition. Overall, our results suggest that motion event cognition may be linked to, among other things, the linguistic structure of motion description in particular languages. PMID:28638355

Design, implementation, and evaluation of a computerized system to communicate with patients with limited native language proficiency in the perioperative period.

PubMed

Taicher, Brad M; Alam, Rammy I; Berman, Joshua; Epstein, Richard H

2011-01-01

Effective communication with patients having limited proficiency in the native language of anesthesia care providers during the perioperative period is often challenging. We describe how we developed, implemented, and evaluated a computerized system to convey frequently used prerecorded phrases related to perioperative anesthesia care in the languages we most often encounter in such patients. Phrases were chosen through a consensus process among anesthesia department members. These included routine sayings used to inform patients about what they should anticipate, what interventions we are performing, and how they can participate. Common questions requiring a "yes" or "no" answer were also identified. We recorded these phrases using native speakers who were both knowledgeable medically and familiar with the culture of the patients to provide accurate translations. We developed a software application that categorically grouped the phrases and allowed care providers to select a phrase and play the associated sound file to the patient and deployed the program on our touchscreen-enabled anesthesia information management system workstations. A convenience sample of obstetrical patients speaking a Chinese dialect with whom the language program was used were asked to complete an anonymous questionnaire, translated into Chinese, about their experience. Ninety-five percent lower confidence limits (LCLs) were calculated for response proportions. We approached 25 parturients with varying levels of English comprehension, and all agreed to use the language program. Each used it throughout her interaction with the anesthesia care providers during labor and delivery, and all patients completed the survey. Acceptance of the process was high, with all patients indicating that they would like to use it again were they to return for another procedure requiring anesthesia. Eighty-eight percent (LCL = 73%) indicated that having instructions in their native language made them feel more relaxed, whereas the experience was neutral in the remainder. Comprehension of the phrases presented was high, with 96% (LCL = 83%) indicating that they understood all instructions. Ninety-six percent (LCL = 83%) of patients indicated that they would be likely to refer friends and family to our institution based on the availability of this device. Although patient safety likely could be improved by use of a communication device such as the one we developed, our study was insufficiently powered to be able to measure this potential improvement. The process we describe should be useful wherever anesthesia care providers are not able to communicate in the same language as their patients.

Auditing Chinese Higher Education? The Perspectives of Returnee Scholars in an Elite University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yi, Lin

2011-01-01

Drawing upon fieldwork conducted in an elite Chinese university and English language literature of audit culture in higher education against the backdrop of Chinese higher education in transition, this paper has discovered that Chinese higher education is undergoing an auditing process. However, this Chinese audit regime is not only guarded by a…

Using a Radical-Derived Character E-Learning Platform to Increase Learner Knowledge of Chinese Characters

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Hsueh-Chih; Hsu, Chih-Chun; Chang, Li-Yun; Lin, Yu-Chi; Chang, Kuo-En; Sung, Yao-Ting

2013-01-01

The present study is aimed at investigating the effect of a radical-derived Chinese character teaching strategy on enhancing Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) learners' Chinese orthographic awareness. An e-learning teaching platform, based on statistical data from the Chinese Orthography Database Explorer (Chen, Chang, Chou, Sung, & Chang,…

Workplace Influences on Chinese TEFL Academics' Development as Researchers: A Study of Two Chinese Higher Education Institutions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bai, Li; Millwater, Jan; Hudson, Peter

2013-01-01

Workplace influences on Chinese Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) academics' development as researchers were examined in two Chinese higher education institutions in this qualitative collective case study. Data sources included research documentation and interviews with 12 Chinese TEFL academics. Both institutions were keen on research…

Participation in treatment decision-making among Chinese-Australian women with breast cancer.

PubMed

Kwok, Cannas; Koo, Fung Kuen

2017-03-01

Using Confucian philosophy as a conceptual framework, this article examines the extent to which cultural values and language affect the participation preferences and experiences of the breast cancer treatment decision-making (TDM) process among Chinese women with breast cancer in Australia. Three focus groups were conducted with 23 Chinese-Australian women diagnosed with breast cancer in their native language (Mandarin and Cantonese). Each interview was translated and transcribed. Content analysis was used to uncover the major themes. Four typologies emerged: the patient as an active decision maker, the patient as a passive decision maker, the patient as a reluctant decision maker and the patient as a reluctant passive decision maker. Language barriers, cultural expectation of doctor's role and family role in Chinese culture appear as influential factors in TDM process among this group of women. Intervention to improve doctors' cultural sensitivities in order to help them assess women's role preferences in TDM and the ability of doctors to communicate in a culturally appropriate manner, may improve the process of breast cancer TDM among women from Chinese background.

Enhancement of CLAIM (clinical accounting information) for a localized Chinese version.

PubMed

Guo, Jinqiu; Takada, Akira; Niu, Tie; He, Miao; Tanaka, Koji; Sato, Junzo; Suzuki, Muneou; Takahashi, Kiwamu; Daimon, Hiroyuki; Suzuki, Toshiaki; Nakashima, Yusei; Araki, Kenji; Yoshihara, Hiroyuki

2005-10-01

CLinical Accounting InforMation (CLAIM) is a standard for the exchange of data between patient accounting systems and electronic medical record (EMR) systems. It uses eXtensible Markup Language (XML) as a meta-language and was developed in Japan. CLAIM is subordinate to the Medical Markup Language (MML) standard, which allows the exchange of medical data between different medical institutions. It has inherited the basic structure of MML 2.x and the current version, version 2.1, contains two modules and nine data definition tables. In China, no data exchange standard yet exists that links EMR systems to accounting systems. Taking advantage of CLAIM's flexibility, we created a localized Chinese version based on CLAIM 2.1. Since Chinese receipt systems differ from those of Japan, some information such as prescription formats, etc. are also different from those in Japan. Two CLAIM modules were re-engineered and six data definition tables were either added or redefined. The Chinese version of CLAIM takes local needs into account, and consequently it is now possible to transfer data between the patient accounting systems and EMR systems of Chinese medical institutions effectively.

Bilingual/Multilingual Learners' Willingness to Communicate in and Anxiety on Speaking Chinese and Their Associations with Self-Rated Proficiency in Chinese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Meihua

2018-01-01

The present research explored bilingual/multilingual students' willingness to communicate in Chinese (WTCC) and foreign language anxiety (FLA) when speaking Chinese and their associations with self-rated proficiency in Chinese in a university in Beijing. The study recruited 167 bilingual and multilingual learners of Chinese to fill in a battery of…

The Role of Language in Religious Identity Making: A Case of a Caribbean-Chinese Youth

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Skerrett, Allison

2017-01-01

This article explores the processes of religious identity development in a Caribbean-Chinese adolescent who is from a multifaith, multilingual home. Findings include (1) the youth developed a Christian religious identity through his multiple situatedness within home and school worlds that privileged that faith and the dominant language of English…

A Case Study of Bilingual Student-Teachers' Classroom English: Applying the Education-Linguistic Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Han, Jinghe; Yao, Jun

2013-01-01

This paper explores the practicum experience of a group of bilingual student-teachers who taught Chinese using English to learners of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) in Western Sydney schools. Specifically it explores how these student-teachers used English as the instructional language in class and what strengths and weaknesses they…

Vocabulary Knowledge and Morphological Awareness in Chinese as a Heritage Language (CHL) Reading Comprehension Ability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Haomin; Koda, Keiko

2018-01-01

This study explored the role of vocabulary knowledge and morphological awareness in reading comprehension ability of Chinese as a heritage language (CHL) learners. One hundred ninety five CHL students participated in this study and completed a series of measures including two sets of vocabulary knowledge (one consisting of items pertaining to…

Second Language Acquisition of Mandarin Chinese Vocabulary: Context of Learning Effects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lan, Yu-Ju; Fang, Shin-Yi; Legault, Jennifer; Li, Ping

2015-01-01

In an increasingly multilingual world, it is important to examine methods that may lead to more efficient second language learning, as well as to analyze the mechanisms by which successful learning occurs. The purpose of the current study was to investigate how different learning contexts can impact the learning of Mandarin Chinese as a second…

Human Diversity and the Genealogy of Languages: Noah as the Founding Ancestor of the Chinese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hutton, Christopher

2008-01-01

The characteristics which were held to define the Chinese language within the Western intellectual tradition placed it for a time at the centre in discussions of the genealogy of mankind. The dominant premodern paradigm for the explanation of human linguistic diversity was Biblical exegesis, as discussed and elaborated within the framework of…

Challenges Facing Chinese Academic Staff in a UK University in Terms of Language, Relationships and Culture

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hsieh, Hui-hua

2012-01-01

The recruitment of international academic staff is viewed as one of the strategies to internationalise the universities. International academic staff, however, usually encounter many challenges when in a foreign context. This study aims to investigate the challenges of Chinese academic staff teaching in the UK in terms of language, relationships…

Literature on Early Literacy Instruction in Four Languages (Chinese, Korean, Navajo, Russian).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thurlow, Martha; Liu, Kristin; Albus, Debra; Shyyan, Vitaliy

2003-01-01

This report, sponsored by the Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA), is a summary of evidence-based research on teaching reading to Chinese, Korean, Navajo, and Russian children. It complements a recent summary of the literature on teaching reading to Spanish speaking students. There is a significant need for evidence-based research on…

Use of Formulaic Sequences in Monologues of Chinese EFL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Qi, Yan; Ding, Yanren

2011-01-01

The literature on formulaic language lacks sufficient research on how L2 learners make progress in native-like formulaicity of their target language. This study analyzed the use of formulaic sequences (FSs) by 56 Chinese university English majors in their prepared monologues at the beginning and end of a three-year period and compared the student…

Investigating Mobile-Assisted Oral Feedback in Teaching Chinese as a Second Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xu, Qi; Peng, Hongying

2017-01-01

This article reports on an exploratory study investigating mobile-assisted oral feedback in teaching Chinese as a second language (CSL). It is aimed at exploring the characteristics of mobile-assisted feedback on oral production with the smartphone social communication app WeChat as a case in point and examining learners' perceptions of…

A Case Study of Chinese University English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Students' Attitudes toward Learning Technologies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hayes, Kenneth Michael

2010-01-01

This qualitative case study investigates Chinese university English in the context of foreign language (EFL) learners' attitudes about video-aided instruction (VAI), video recording instruction, and mobile phone instruction (learning technologies). When I was working as an English teacher in Mainland China, several instructors and students stated…

Language in Transitional Hong Kong: Perspectives from the Public and Private Sectors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Evans, Stephen

2010-01-01

This article explores the impact of Hong Kong's transition from British colony to Chinese Special Administrative Region on patterns of language use in the domain of professional employment. In particular, it presents the findings of a large-scale multifaceted investigation into the roles of Putonghua, Cantonese, written Chinese and English in the…

Challenges of Chinese Language Education in Multi-Lingual Societies: Hong Kong and Singapore

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tong, Ho-kin; Goh, Yeng-seng

2008-01-01

This paper aims to study the current challenges of Chinese language education in the multilingual societies of Hong Kong and Singapore through policy documents. After the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997, the role of "Putonghua" is far more important than before due to political and economic reasons. However, the medium of…

Dyslexia in Chinese Language: An Overview of Research and Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chung, Kevin K. H.; Ho, Connie S. H.

2010-01-01

Dyslexia appears to be the most prevalent disability of students with special educational needs in many mainstream classes, affecting around 9.7% of the school population in Hong Kong. The education of these students is therefore of great concern to the community. In the present paper research into dyslexia in the Chinese language is briefly…

Cross-Validating Chinese Language Mental Health Recovery Measures in Hong Kong

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bola, John; Chan, Tiffany Hill Ching; Chen, Eric HY; Ng, Roger

2016-01-01

Objectives: Promoting recovery in mental health services is hampered by a shortage of reliable and valid measures, particularly in Hong Kong. We seek to cross validate two Chinese language measures of recovery and one of recovery-promoting environments. Method: A cross-sectional survey of people recovering from early episode psychosis (n = 121)…

Gesture Use in Story Recall by Chinese-English Bilinguals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nicoladis, Elena; Pika, Simone; Yin, Hui; Marentette, Paula

2007-01-01

Previous studies have shown inconsistent results concerning bilinguals' use of gestures to compensate for reduced proficiency in their second language (L2). These results could be because of differing task demands. In this study, we asked 16 intermediate English L2 speakers (whose first language [L1] was Chinese) to watch a story and tell it back…

The Impact of Academic Self-Efficacy, Acculturation Difficulties, and Language Abilities on Procrastination Behavior in Chinese International Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lowinger, Robert Jay; He, Zhaomin; Lin, Miranda; Chang, Mei

2014-01-01

This study examined the role of academic self-efficacy, acculturation difficulties, and language abilities on procrastination behavior using a convenience sample of 264 Chinese international students studying at three public universities in the United States. While there were no significant mean gender differences on any of the measures, results…

The Use of Literacy Bags Promotes Parental Involvement in Chinese Children's Literacy Learning in the English Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huang, SuHua

2013-01-01

This study employed an ethnographic methodology to explore the use of "literacy bags" (LBs) to promote parental involvement in Chinese children's literacy learning in the English language. It was conducted with a first-grade class consisting of 18 students and their parents in Taiwan. Data resources were obtained from teaching…

Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety among China Chinese Students Undergoing the Laureate English Programme in INTI International University, Malaysia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ampalagan, Meghavaani d/o; Sellupillai, Mogana d/o; Yap, Sze Sze

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between foreign language classroom anxiety (communication apprehension, test anxiety and fear of negative evaluation) among Mainland Chinese students undergoing the Laureate English Programme in INTI International University, Malaysia. The participants of this study consisted of 75…

Luce Pathways Project: A Pilot Project for Heritage Language Speakers of Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, and Japanese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nagano, Tomonori; Fernandez, Hector

2016-01-01

This article describes the development process of a project for heritage language speakers of Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, and Japanese at a high-enrollment community college in the northeast United States. This pilot project, funded by the Henry Luce Foundation, aimed to empower minority group students through active reinforcement of students'…

Assessment of Study Abroad Outcomes in Chinese as a Second Language: Gains in Cross-Cultural Adaptability, Language Contact and Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taguchi, Naoko; Xiao, Feng; Li, Shuai

2016-01-01

Participants were 109 American college students studying Chinese in a study-abroad programme in Beijing. Following Kelley and Meyer, intercultural competence was defined as cross-cultural adaptability involving four dimensions (emotional resilience, flexibility/openness, perceptual acuity and personal autonomy) and was measured with a survey. A…

Income, Language, and Citizenship Status: Factors Affecting the Health Care Access and Utilization of Chinese Americans.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jang, Michael; Lee, Evelyn; Woo, Kent

1998-01-01

The effects of income, language, and citizenship on the use of health-care services by Chinese Americans is examined (N=1808). Focus groups, a telephone survey, and key informant interviews were conducted. Data analysis included an acculturation index, demographic profile, and logistical regression. Health insurance and social factors are…

Power Relations in the Enactment of English Language Education Policy for Chinese Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Minglin

2017-01-01

The scale of English language education in China is astounding, but recent research has shown that the latest national English education policy for Chinese schools has not been implemented successfully due to various reasons. One reason given for the lack of success is the impracticability of the top-down policy itself excluding teachers'…

Profiling Perceptual Learning Styles of Chinese as a Second Language Learners in University Settings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sun, Peijian Paul; Teng, Lin Sophie

2017-01-01

This study revisited Reid's (1987) perceptual learning style preference questionnaire (PLSPQ) in an attempt to answer whether the PLSPQ fits in the Chinese-as-a-second-language (CSL) context. If not, what are CSL learners' learning styles drawing on the PLSPQ? The PLSPQ was first re-examined through reliability analysis and confirmatory factor…

China Accreditation Test for Translators and Interpreters (CATTI): Test Review Based on the Language Pairing of English and Chinese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhao, Hulin; Gu, Xiangdong

2016-01-01

Test Purpose: The CATTI aims to measure competence in translation and interpreting (including simultaneous and consecutive interpreting) between Chinese and seven foreign languages: English, Japanese, French, Arabic, Russian, German, or Spanish. The test is intended to cover a wide range of domains including business, government, academia, and…

Is editing the roadblock to the internationalization of Chinese academic journals?*

PubMed Central

Lu, Jian-ping

2011-01-01

“China’s internationalization” is in part realized through the dissemination of Chinese publications, such as academic journals. Therefore, editorial proficiency in the English language is of vital importance to the quality of the journals. This article analyzes the results of the two projects sponsored by the General Administration of Press and Publication of the People’s Republic of China in 2007 and 2010 respectively, namely the “Analytical Evaluation of Language and Editing Quality of Chinese Academic Journals in English Language Issued in 2006”, and the “Evaluation of Publication Quality of the China-Grown English Periodicals Issued in 2009, Sanctioned from 2005 to 2009”, and proposes solutions to the problems presented therein. PMID:21634045

Chinese Number Words, Culture, and Mathematics Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ng, Sharon Sui Ngan; Rao, Nirmala

2010-01-01

This review evaluates the role of language--specifically, the Chinese-based system of number words and the simplicity of Chinese mathematical terms--in explaining the relatively superior performance of Chinese and other East Asian students in cross-national studies of mathematics achievement. Relevant research is critically reviewed focusing on…

Chinese-Cantonese Dictionary of Common Chinese-Cantonese Characters.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Defense Language Inst., Washington, DC.

This dictionary contains 1,500 Chinese-Cantonese characters (selected from three frequency lists), and more than 6,000 Chinese-Cantonese terms (selected from three Cantonese-English dictionaries). The characters are arranged alphabetically according to the U.S. Army Language School System of Romanization, which is described in the…

Cross-language differences in the brain network subserving intelligible speech.

PubMed

Ge, Jianqiao; Peng, Gang; Lyu, Bingjiang; Wang, Yi; Zhuo, Yan; Niu, Zhendong; Tan, Li Hai; Leff, Alexander P; Gao, Jia-Hong

2015-03-10

How is language processed in the brain by native speakers of different languages? Is there one brain system for all languages or are different languages subserved by different brain systems? The first view emphasizes commonality, whereas the second emphasizes specificity. We investigated the cortical dynamics involved in processing two very diverse languages: a tonal language (Chinese) and a nontonal language (English). We used functional MRI and dynamic causal modeling analysis to compute and compare brain network models exhaustively with all possible connections among nodes of language regions in temporal and frontal cortex and found that the information flow from the posterior to anterior portions of the temporal cortex was commonly shared by Chinese and English speakers during speech comprehension, whereas the inferior frontal gyrus received neural signals from the left posterior portion of the temporal cortex in English speakers and from the bilateral anterior portion of the temporal cortex in Chinese speakers. Our results revealed that, although speech processing is largely carried out in the common left hemisphere classical language areas (Broca's and Wernicke's areas) and anterior temporal cortex, speech comprehension across different language groups depends on how these brain regions interact with each other. Moreover, the right anterior temporal cortex, which is crucial for tone processing, is equally important as its left homolog, the left anterior temporal cortex, in modulating the cortical dynamics in tone language comprehension. The current study pinpoints the importance of the bilateral anterior temporal cortex in language comprehension that is downplayed or even ignored by popular contemporary models of speech comprehension.

Cross-language differences in the brain network subserving intelligible speech

PubMed Central

Ge, Jianqiao; Peng, Gang; Lyu, Bingjiang; Wang, Yi; Zhuo, Yan; Niu, Zhendong; Tan, Li Hai; Leff, Alexander P.; Gao, Jia-Hong

2015-01-01

How is language processed in the brain by native speakers of different languages? Is there one brain system for all languages or are different languages subserved by different brain systems? The first view emphasizes commonality, whereas the second emphasizes specificity. We investigated the cortical dynamics involved in processing two very diverse languages: a tonal language (Chinese) and a nontonal language (English). We used functional MRI and dynamic causal modeling analysis to compute and compare brain network models exhaustively with all possible connections among nodes of language regions in temporal and frontal cortex and found that the information flow from the posterior to anterior portions of the temporal cortex was commonly shared by Chinese and English speakers during speech comprehension, whereas the inferior frontal gyrus received neural signals from the left posterior portion of the temporal cortex in English speakers and from the bilateral anterior portion of the temporal cortex in Chinese speakers. Our results revealed that, although speech processing is largely carried out in the common left hemisphere classical language areas (Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas) and anterior temporal cortex, speech comprehension across different language groups depends on how these brain regions interact with each other. Moreover, the right anterior temporal cortex, which is crucial for tone processing, is equally important as its left homolog, the left anterior temporal cortex, in modulating the cortical dynamics in tone language comprehension. The current study pinpoints the importance of the bilateral anterior temporal cortex in language comprehension that is downplayed or even ignored by popular contemporary models of speech comprehension. PMID:25713366

Phonological awareness and oral language proficiency in learning to read English among Chinese kindergarten children in Hong Kong.

PubMed

Yeung, Susanna S; Chan, Carol K K

2013-12-01

Learning to read is very challenging for Hong Kong children who learn English as a second language (ESL), as they must acquire two very different writing systems, beginning at the age of three. Few studies have examined the role of phonological awareness at the subsyllabic levels, oral language proficiency, and L1 tone awareness in L2 English reading among Hong Kong ESL kindergarteners. This study aims to investigate L1 and L2 phonological awareness and oral language proficiency as predictors of English reading among children with Chinese as L1. One hundred and sixty-one typically developing children with a mean age of 5.16 (SD=.35) selected from seven preschools in Hong Kong. Participants were assessed for English reading, English and Chinese phonological awareness at different levels, English oral language skills, and letter naming ability. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that both oral language proficiency and phonological awareness measures significantly predicted L2 word reading, when statistically controlled for age and general intelligence. Among various phonological awareness units, L2 phonemic awareness was the best predictor of L2 word reading. Cross-language transfer was shown with L1 phonological awareness at the tone level, uniquely predicting L2 word reading. The present findings show the important role of phonological awareness at the subsyllabic levels (rime and phoneme) and oral language proficiency in the course of L2 reading development in Chinese ESL learners. The significant contribution of L1 tone awareness to L2 reading suggests that phonological sensitivity is a general competence that ESL children need to acquire in early years. The findings have significant implications for understanding L2 reading development and curriculum development. © 2012 The British Psychological Society.

The Development of Word Recognition in a Second Language.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Muljani, D.; Koda, Keiko; Moates, Danny R.

1998-01-01

A study investigated differences in English word recognition in native speakers of Indonesian (an alphabetic language) and Chinese (a logographic languages) learning English as a Second Language. Results largely confirmed the hypothesis that an alphabetic first language would predict better word recognition in speakers of an alphabetic language,…

Foreign Language Teachers' Language Proficiency and Their Language Teaching Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Richards, Heather; Conway, Clare; Roskvist, Annelies; Harvey, Sharon

2013-01-01

Teachers' subject knowledge is recognized as an essential component of effective teaching. In the foreign language context, teachers' subject knowledge includes language proficiency. In New Zealand high schools, foreign languages (e.g. Chinese, French, German, Japanese and Spanish) have recently been offered to learners earlier in their schooling,…

Computer-Based Writing and Paper-Based Writing: A Study of Beginning-Level and Intermediate-Level Chinese Learners' Writing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kang, Hana

2011-01-01

Chinese writing is one of the most difficult challenges for Chinese learners whose first language writing system is alphabetic letters. Chinese teachers have incorporated computer-based writing into their teaching in the attempt to reduce the difficulties of writing in Chinese, with a particular emphasis on composing (as opposed to simply writing…

An Advanced Reader in Chinese International Relations. International Studies, East Asian Language Text, No. 3.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Wallace, Ed.

This modern Chinese textbook offers three main features. It contains a graded selection of Chinese writings on international relations by some of the most important modern Chinese writers, representing a wide range of viewpoints. Secondly, all new words and phrases encountered in the lessons are defined in Chinese, so that the reader becomes…

An Advanced Reader in Chinese Literature. International Studies, East Asian Language Texts, No. 1.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Wallace, Ed.

This modern Chinese textbook offers three main features. It contains a graded selection of writings in Chinese by some of the most important modern Chinese writers, representing a wide range of viewpoints. Secondly, all new words and phrases encountered in the lessons are defined in Chinese, so that the reader becomes accustomed to the use of…

The Roles of Pinyin Skill in English-Chinese Biliteracy Learning: Evidence from Chinese Immersion Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lü, Chan

2017-01-01

Pinyin is a sound-annotating system for Chinese characters using Roman letters. Teaching and learning Pinyin has been an important educational practice in Mainland China for native Chinese children, and it is also typically taught to beginning learners of Chinese as a foreign/second language in tertiary-level classrooms. However, whether it should…

Psychometric Evaluation of Chinese-Language 44-Item and 10-Item Big Five Personality Inventories, Including Correlations with Chronotype, Mindfulness and Mind Wandering

PubMed Central

Carciofo, Richard; Yang, Jiaoyan; Song, Nan; Du, Feng; Zhang, Kan

2016-01-01

The 44-item and 10-item Big Five Inventory (BFI) personality scales are widely used, but there is a lack of psychometric data for Chinese versions. Eight surveys (total N = 2,496, aged 18–82), assessed a Chinese-language BFI-44 and/or an independently translated Chinese-language BFI-10. Most BFI-44 items loaded strongly or predominantly on the expected dimension, and values of Cronbach's alpha ranged .698-.807. Test-retest coefficients ranged .694-.770 (BFI-44), and .515-.873 (BFI-10). The BFI-44 and BFI-10 showed good convergent and discriminant correlations, and expected associations with gender (females higher for agreeableness and neuroticism), and age (older age associated with more conscientiousness and agreeableness, and also less neuroticism and openness). Additionally, predicted correlations were found with chronotype (morningness positive with conscientiousness), mindfulness (negative with neuroticism, positive with conscientiousness), and mind wandering/daydreaming frequency (negative with conscientiousness, positive with neuroticism). Exploratory analysis found that the Self-discipline facet of conscientiousness positively correlated with morningness and mindfulness, and negatively correlated with mind wandering/daydreaming frequency. Furthermore, Self-discipline was found to be a mediator in the relationships between chronotype and mindfulness, and chronotype and mind wandering/daydreaming frequency. Overall, the results support the utility of the BFI-44 and BFI-10 for Chinese-language big five personality research. PMID:26918618

Psychometric Evaluation of Chinese-Language 44-Item and 10-Item Big Five Personality Inventories, Including Correlations with Chronotype, Mindfulness and Mind Wandering.

PubMed

Carciofo, Richard; Yang, Jiaoyan; Song, Nan; Du, Feng; Zhang, Kan

2016-01-01

The 44-item and 10-item Big Five Inventory (BFI) personality scales are widely used, but there is a lack of psychometric data for Chinese versions. Eight surveys (total N = 2,496, aged 18-82), assessed a Chinese-language BFI-44 and/or an independently translated Chinese-language BFI-10. Most BFI-44 items loaded strongly or predominantly on the expected dimension, and values of Cronbach's alpha ranged .698-.807. Test-retest coefficients ranged .694-.770 (BFI-44), and .515-.873 (BFI-10). The BFI-44 and BFI-10 showed good convergent and discriminant correlations, and expected associations with gender (females higher for agreeableness and neuroticism), and age (older age associated with more conscientiousness and agreeableness, and also less neuroticism and openness). Additionally, predicted correlations were found with chronotype (morningness positive with conscientiousness), mindfulness (negative with neuroticism, positive with conscientiousness), and mind wandering/daydreaming frequency (negative with conscientiousness, positive with neuroticism). Exploratory analysis found that the Self-discipline facet of conscientiousness positively correlated with morningness and mindfulness, and negatively correlated with mind wandering/daydreaming frequency. Furthermore, Self-discipline was found to be a mediator in the relationships between chronotype and mindfulness, and chronotype and mind wandering/daydreaming frequency. Overall, the results support the utility of the BFI-44 and BFI-10 for Chinese-language big five personality research.

Does Language Matter? Exploring Chinese-Korean Differences in Holistic Perception.

PubMed

Rhode, Ann K; Voyer, Benjamin G; Gleibs, Ilka H

2016-01-01

Cross-cultural research suggests that East Asians display a holistic attentional bias by paying attention to the entire field and to relationships between objects, whereas Westerners pay attention primarily to salient objects, displaying an analytic attentional bias. The assumption of a universal pan-Asian holistic attentional bias has recently been challenged in experimental research involving Japanese and Chinese participants, which suggests that linguistic factors may contribute to the formation of East Asians' holistic attentional patterns. The present experimental research explores differences in attention and information processing styles between Korean and Chinese speakers, who have been assumed to display the same attentional bias due to cultural commonalities. We hypothesize that the specific structure of the Korean language predisposes speakers to pay more attention to ground information than to figure information, thus leading to a stronger holistic attentional bias compared to Chinese speakers. Findings of the present research comparing different groups of English, Chinese, and Korean speakers provide further evidence for differences in East Asians' holistic attentional bias, which may be due to the influence of language. Furthermore, we also extend prior theorizing by discussing the potential impact of other cultural factors. In line with critical voices calling for more research investigating differences between cultures that are assumed to be culturally similar, we highlight important avenues for future studies exploring the language-culture relationship.

CoCAR: An Online Synchronous Training Model for Empowering ICT Capacity of Teachers of Chinese as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lan, Yu-Ju; Chang, Kuo-En; Chen, Nian-Shing

2012-01-01

In response to the need to cultivate pre-service Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) teachers' information and communication technology (ICT) competency in online synchronous environments, this research adopted a three-stage cyclical model named "cooperation-based cognition, action, and reflection" (CoCAR). The model was implemented in an 18-week…

Evaluative Language Used by Mandarin-Chinese-Speaking Dyads in Personal Narratives: Age and Socioeconomic Differences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lai, Wen-Feng; Chen, Yen-Yu

2016-01-01

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of age and family socioeconomic status (SES) on the evaluative language performance of Mandarin-Chinese-speaking young children and their mothers. The participants were 65 mother-child dyads recruited in Taiwan. Thirty-four of these dyads were from middle-class families and 31 were from…

Contributions of Morphological Awareness to Adult L2 Chinese Word Meaning Inferencing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ke, Sihui Echo; Koda, Keiko

2017-01-01

This study examined the contributions of morphological awareness (MA) to second language (L2) word meaning inferencing in English-speaking adult learners of Chinese (N = 50). Three research questions were posed: Are L2 learners sensitive to the morphological structure of unknown multi-character words? Does first language (L1) MA contribute to L2…

Input and Output in Code Switching: A Case Study of a Japanese-Chinese Bilingual Infant

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meng, Hairong; Miyamoto, Tadao

2012-01-01

Code switching (CS) (or language mixing) generally takes place in bilingual children's utterances, even if their parents adhere to the "one parent-one language" principle. The present case study of a Japanese-Chinese bilingual infant provides both quantitative and qualitative analyses on the impact of input on output, as manifested in CS. The…

"I Am Not Qualified to Be a Honkongese Because of My Accented Cantonese": Mainland Chinese Immigrant Students in Hong Kong

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gu, Mingyue Michelle

2011-01-01

This paper investigates the identity construction and language practice of a group of mainland Chinese immigrant students studying at a secondary school in Hong Kong, and explores the underlying reasons for, as well as the individual and group identities derived from, those language choices and practices. The data were collected through…

Native-Language Phonological Interference in Early Hakka-Mandarin Bilinguals' Visual Recognition of Chinese Two-Character Compounds: Evidence from the Semantic-Relatedness Decision Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wu, Shiyu; Ma, Zheng

2017-01-01

Previous research has indicated that, in viewing a visual word, the activated phonological representation in turn activates its homophone, causing semantic interference. Using this mechanism of phonological mediation, this study investigated native-language phonological interference in visual recognition of Chinese two-character compounds by early…

Incorporating Competency-Based Blended Learning in a Chinese Language Classroom: A Web 2.0 Drupal Module Design

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huang, Chung-Kai; Lin, Chun-Yu; Chiang, Yueh-Hui

2010-01-01

This study aims to create a blended learning environment, based on the concept of competency-based training, in a Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) classroom at an American university. Drupal platform and web 2.0 tools were used as supplements to traditional face-to-face classroom instruction. Students completed various selective tasks and…

Language Choices of CEOs of Chinese Family Business in Sarawak, Malaysia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ting, Su-Hie

2017-01-01

The study investigated the language choices of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of Chinese family business and the factors guiding their choices. Interviews were conducted with 17 CEOs of family businesses located in Sarawak, some of whom are the sons and grandsons of the founder of the business. The results showed that all the CEOs can speak their…

Tests of English Language as Significant Thresholds for College-Bound Chinese and the Washback of Test-Preparation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Matoush, Marylou M.; Fu, Danling

2012-01-01

Tests of English language mark significantly high thresholds for all college-bound students in the People's Republic of China. Many Chinese students hope to seek their fortunes at universities in the United States, or other English speaking countries. These students spend long hours, year after year, in test-preparation centres in order to develop…

Collaborating with Summer Camps to Prepare Chinese Language Teachers: Linking Theory to Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Lucy C.; Curran, Mary E.

2009-01-01

Because interest in Chinese instruction, as well as in languages such as Arabic, Korean, Yoruba, Urdu, and Hindi, is new in the K-12 context, teacher educators do not have many established settings where teacher candidates can observe and engage in best practice. At Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, with the support of grant funds from…

Reading in Asian Languages: Making Sense of Written Texts in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goodman, Kenneth S., Ed.; Wang, Shaomei, Ed.; Iventosch, Mieko, Ed.; Goodman, Yetta M., Ed.

2011-01-01

"Reading in Asian Languages" is rich with information about how literacy works in the non-alphabetic writing systems (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) used by hundreds of millions of people and refutes the common Western belief that such systems are hard to learn or to use. The contributors share a comprehensive view of reading as construction…

The Anxiety-Proficiency Relationship and the Stability of Anxiety: The Case of Chinese University Learners of English and Japanese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jin, Yinxing; de Bot, Kees; Keijzer, Merel

2015-01-01

Adopting a longitudinal design, this study investigates the effects of foreign language anxiety on foreign language proficiency over time within English and Japanese learning contexts. It also explores the stability of anxiety in English and Japanese over time and the stability of anxiety across English and Japanese. Chinese university students (N…

Sustaining Expertise through Collaborative/Peer-Mediated and Individual Reflections: The Experiences of Chinese English Language Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pawan, Faridah; Fan, Wenfang

2014-01-01

This exploratory investigation of the professional development of Chinese English Language teachers (ELTs) was part of a collaboration between two teacher educators, one from the U.S. and the other from China, during the 2011-2012 academic year. We were involved in the professional development in three schools (elementary, middle and high schools)…

Decolonization, Educational Language Policy and Nation Building in Plural Societies: The Development of Chinese Education in Malaysia, 1950-1970

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sua, Tan Yao

2013-01-01

The two decades from 1950 to 1970 were a crucial period of educational reorganization in Malaysia that stemmed from the decolonization after the Second World War. This educational reorganization sought to address the perennial issue of nation building via educational language policy. The development of Chinese education was under severe threat as…

A Case Study of Chinese Mongolian Students in ELT under the Background of MOOCs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhao, Lili

2015-01-01

In response to the current reform of college English teaching, a case study of Chinese Mongolian students in English language teaching under the influence of MOOCs is carried out in an attempt to examine the efficacy of the integration of information technology into English language teaching. After a brief introduction of the teaching mode of…

Using the Learners-as-Ethnographers Approach to Enhance Intercultural Learning among American College Students Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lu, Minhui

2012-01-01

This study explored how the learners-as-ethnographers (LAE) approach facilitated intercultural learning among American students learning Chinese as a foreign language. Two research questions addressed the effectiveness of the LAE approach and students' learning experiences in a non-immersion context. I designed six ethnographic tasks for the…

Word Reading Efficiency, Text Reading Fluency, and Reading Comprehension among Chinese Learners of English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jiang, Xiangying; Sawaki, Yasuyo; Sabatini, John

2012-01-01

This study examined the relationship among word reading efficiency, text reading fluency, and reading comprehension for adult English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. Data from 185 adult Chinese EFL learners preparing to take the Test-of-English-as-a-Foreign-Language[TM] (TOEFL[R]) were analyzed in this study. The participants completed a…

Chinese Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) Academics' Perceptions about Research in a Transitional Culture

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bai, Li; Millwater, Jan; Hudson, Peter

2012-01-01

Research capacity building has become a prominent theme in higher education institutions in China and across the world. However, Chinese Teaching English as a Foreign Language academics' research output has been quite limited. In order to build their research capacity, it is necessary to understand their perceptions about research. This case study…

Assemble Collocation and Colligation in Chinese Writing Web Tools for New Immigrants in Taiwan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lu, Meg; Lin, Chien Hui; Chuang, Tsung Yen; Ku, Tsun; Tsai, Chia Min

2011-01-01

CSL (Chinese as a second language) learning is an emergency task in Taiwan, especially when more and more new immigrants joined in Taiwan. However, there are just a few new immigrants who can finish all language courses. For this reason, this research intends to provide a training system to assist new immigrants observing and learning the phrase…

Toward Deepening Cultural and Language Understanding: The Design and Practice of a Hybrid Business Chinese Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Haidan

2014-01-01

This article introduces an ongoing effort to use Internet resources in an Advanced Business Chinese for Professionals (ABCP) course in order to deepen learners' language and cultural understanding. This course blends face-to-face (F2F) classroom instruction and online communications using Brix, an online course management system developed by the…

Supporting Orthographic Learning at the Beginning Stage of Learning to Read Chinese as a Second Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chang, Li-Yun; Xu, Yi; Perfetti, Charles A.; Zhang, Juan; Chen, Hsueh-Chih

2014-01-01

Learning to read a second language (L2) is especially challenging when a target L2 requires learning new graphic forms. Learning Chinese, which consists of thousands of characters composed of hundreds of basic writing units, presents such a challenge of orthographic learning for adult English speakers at the beginning stages of learning. In this…

Modeling the Chinese language as an evolving network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liang, Wei; Shi, Yuming; Huang, Qiuling

2014-01-01

The evolution of Chinese language has three main features: the total number of characters is gradually increasing, new words are generated in the existing characters, and some old words are no longer used in daily-life language. Based on the features, we propose an evolving language network model. Finally, we use this model to simulate the character co-occurrence networks (nodes are characters, and two characters are connected by an edge if they are adjacent to each other) constructed from essays in 11 different periods of China, and find that characters that appear with high frequency in old words are likely to be reused when new words are formed.

Malaysian Chinese and Their Mass Media: History and Survey.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lent, John A.

The traditions of the Chinese press in Malaysia go back 160 years to Malaysia's first Chinese-language newspaper, considered by scholars as the first modern periodical anywhere. Since then, this press has aided Christian missionary efforts in China and Southeast Asia, helped develop permanent Chinese communities in the Malay peninsula, called for…

A GRAMMAR OF SPOKEN CHINESE.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

CHAO, YUEN REN

THE AUTHOR OF THIS GRAMMAR STATES THAT THIS IS A "DISCUSSION BOOK" AND NOT AN INSTRUCTION BOOK FOR LEARNING CHINESE. HIS ANALYSIS OF CHINESE GRAMMAR IS BASED ON CURRENT LINGUISTIC METHODS AND ASSUMES THE READER HAS SOME KNOWLEDGE OF LINGUISTICS. THIS BOOK CONSTITUTES A REFERENCE WORK FOR LINGUISTS AND STUDENTS OF THE CHINESE LANGUAGE. MAJOR…

Chinese American Students Fight for Their Rights

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Yuxiang; Phillion, JoAnn

2007-01-01

Parental and community involvement play a key role in the Chinese American students' fight for their rights. In order to understand the reasons behind the parental and community support of Chinese students, a survey was conducted among Chinese parents to assess what they know about language loss, power, knowledge, and democracy. The results…

International Adoption and Bi-Cultural Identity Development: A Case Study of a Chinese Cultural School.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Manning, Linda D.

2001-01-01

Investigated how international adoptive families of Chinese children socialized their children biculturally. Interviews with and observations of adoptive families at a Chinese cultural school indicated that learning about the Chinese language and culture and interacting with others were the main ways that adopted children developed a sense of…

A Blended Collaborative Writing Approach for Chinese L2 Primary School Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wong, Lung-Hsiang; Chen, Wenli; Chai, Ching-Sing; Chin, Chee-Kuen; Gao, Ping

2011-01-01

This paper outlines an adaptable collaborative writing approach employing a wiki to address the typical weaknesses of young Singaporean Chinese students learning Chinese as second language (L2) in Chinese writing. These students' problems in writing include limited and incorrect use of vocabulary, English-style grammar, badly structured passages,…

Pictographic Metaphors as Vehicles of Symbolic Meaning toward Cross-Cultural Understanding.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pedersen, Paul

Symbolic meaning expressed by Chinese language characters is helpful to non-Chinese persons in understanding Chinese culture. The implicit metaphors in Chinese characters present pictographic descriptions of the meaning in the form of a story, situation, or symbol which places the otherwise abstract concept in a cultural context. All languages…

Scientific psychology within the Chinese language and cultural context.

PubMed

Shen, Heyong

2006-01-01

The Scientific Psychology that was founded by Wilhelm Wundt appeared in China in the late nineteenth century. The scholars translated the name of psychology into Chinese as Xin-Li-Xue, for which the meaning of the words looks like "heartology," i.e., "the study of the heart." In Chinese, the same core structure related to "heart" (Xin) is found in most of the terms of psychology, such as emotion, thinking, will, forgetting, and memory. By translating Xin as "heart" instead of "mind," we maintain an embodied approach to understanding the "principles of the heart." Through a historical approach to the influence of Western psychology, a cultural analysis of the meaning of the term psychology in Chinese, and a focus on the meeting of Eastern and Western psychology, we can witness the significance of psychology in the Chinese language and cultural context. I will use three parts to present psychology in the Chinese cultural context: the origins of Chinese psychology, from a historical approach; the meaning of "psychology" in Chinese, using a cultural analysis; and the meeting of Eastern and Western psychology, focusing on the development and future.

A meta-analysis of fMRI studies on Chinese orthographic, phonological, and semantic processing.

PubMed

Wu, Chiao-Yi; Ho, Moon-Ho Ringo; Chen, Shen-Hsing Annabel

2012-10-15

A growing body of neuroimaging evidence has shown that Chinese character processing recruits differential activation from alphabetic languages due to its unique linguistic features. As more investigations on Chinese character processing have recently become available, we applied a meta-analytic approach to summarize previous findings and examined the neural networks for orthographic, phonological, and semantic processing of Chinese characters independently. The activation likelihood estimation (ALE) method was used to analyze eight studies in the orthographic task category, eleven in the phonological and fifteen in the semantic task categories. Converging activation among three language-processing components was found in the left middle frontal gyrus, the left superior parietal lobule and the left mid-fusiform gyrus, suggesting a common sub-network underlying the character recognition process regardless of the task nature. With increasing task demands, the left inferior parietal lobule and the right superior temporal gyrus were specialized for phonological processing, while the left middle temporal gyrus was involved in semantic processing. Functional dissociation was identified in the left inferior frontal gyrus, with the posterior dorsal part for phonological processing and the anterior ventral part for semantic processing. Moreover, bilateral involvement of the ventral occipito-temporal regions was found for both phonological and semantic processing. The results provide better understanding of the neural networks underlying Chinese orthographic, phonological, and semantic processing, and consolidate the findings of additional recruitment of the left middle frontal gyrus and the right fusiform gyrus for Chinese character processing as compared with the universal language network that has been based on alphabetic languages. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Exploring the knowledge, attitudes and needs of advance care planning in older Chinese Australians.

PubMed

Yap, Sok Shin; Chen, Karren; Detering, Karen M; Fraser, Scott A

2017-05-23

To identify factors that influence the engagement of Chinese Australians with advance care planning. Despite the benefits of advance care planning, there is a low prevalence of advance care planning in the Chinese Australian community. Reasons for this are often cited as cultural considerations and taboos surrounding future medical planning and death; however, other logistical factors may also be important. This qualitative study used a thematic analysis grounded theory approach to explore facilitators and barriers to engagement in advance care planning. Semistructured interviews were conducted in-language (Mandarin or Cantonese) exploring the views of a purposive sample of 30 community-dwelling older Chinese Australians within Victoria, Australia. Three key themes were identified: knowledge of, attitudes towards and needs for undertaking advance care planning amongst the Chinese Australians. There was a low awareness of advance care planning amongst the participants and some confusion regarding the concept. Most participants reported positive attitudes towards advance care planning but acknowledged that others may be uncomfortable discussing death-related topics. Participants would want to know the true status of their health and plan ahead in consultation with family members to reduce the burden on the family and suffering for themselves. Language was identified as the largest barrier to overcome to increase advance care planning awareness. In-language materials and key support networks including GPs, family and Chinese community groups were identified as ideal forums for the promotion of advance care planning. The participants of this study were open to conversations regarding future medical planning and end-of-life care, suggesting the low uptake of advance care planning amongst Chinese Australians is not culturally motivated but may be due a lack of knowledge relating to advance care planning. The results highlight the need to provide access to appropriate in-language advance care planning resources and promotion of advance care planning across the Chinese community. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Cross-cultural measurement equivalence of the 5-level EQ-5D (EQ-5D-5L) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in Singapore.

PubMed

Wang, Ye; Tan, Ngiap-Chuan; Tay, Ee-Guan; Thumboo, Julian; Luo, Nan

2015-07-16

This study aimed to assess the measurement equivalence of the 5-level EQ-5D (EQ-5D-5L) among the English, Chinese, and Malay versions. A convenience sample of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus were enrolled from a public primary health care institution in Singapore. The survey questionnaire comprised the EQ-5D-5L and questions assessing participants' socio-demographic and clinical characteristics. Multiple linear regression models were used to assess the difference in EQ-5D-5L index (calculated using an interim algorithm) and EQ-visual analog scale (EQ-VAS) scores across survey language (Chinese vs. English, Malay vs. English, and Malay vs. Chinese). Measurement equivalence was examined by comparing the 90% confidence interval of difference in the EQ-5D-5L index and EQ-VAS scores with a pre-determined equivalence margin. Multiple logistic regression models were used to assess the response patterns of the 5 Likert-type items of the EQ-5D-5L across survey language. Equivalence was demonstrated between the Chinese and English versions and between the Malay and English versions of the EQ-5D-5L index scores. Equivalence was also demonstrated between the Chinese and English versions and between the Malay and Chinese versions of the EQ-VAS scores. Equivalence could not be determined between the Malay and Chinese versions of the EQ-5D-5L index score and between the Malay and English versions of the EQ-VAS score. No significant difference was found in responses to EQ-5D-5L items between any languages, except that patients who chose to complete the Chinese version were more likely to report "no problems" in mobility compared to those who completed the Malay version of the questionnaire. This study provided evidence for the measurement equivalence of the different language versions of EQ-5D-5L in Singapore.

Hepatitis - Multiple Languages

MedlinePlus

... Viral Hepatitis - العربية (Arabic) Bilingual PDF Health Information Translations Chinese, Simplified (Mandarin dialect) (简体中文) Expand Section Viral ... Chinese, Simplified (Mandarin dialect)) Bilingual PDF Health Information Translations Chinese, Traditional (Cantonese dialect) (繁體中文) Expand Section Viral ...

Circumcision - Multiple Languages

MedlinePlus

... Male Circumcision - العربية (Arabic) Bilingual PDF Health Information Translations Chinese, Simplified (Mandarin dialect) (简体中文) Expand Section Male ... Chinese, Simplified (Mandarin dialect)) Bilingual PDF Health Information Translations Chinese, Traditional (Cantonese dialect) (繁體中文) Expand Section Male ...

Gallstones - Multiple Languages

MedlinePlus

... Removal Surgery - العربية (Arabic) Bilingual PDF Health Information Translations Chinese, Simplified (Mandarin dialect) (简体中文) Expand Section Gall ... Chinese, Simplified (Mandarin dialect)) Bilingual PDF Health Information Translations Chinese, Traditional (Cantonese dialect) (繁體中文) Expand Section Gall ...

Dislocations - Multiple Languages

MedlinePlus

... Shoulder Sling - العربية (Arabic) Bilingual PDF Health Information Translations Chinese, Simplified (Mandarin dialect) (简体中文) Expand Section Wearing ... Chinese, Simplified (Mandarin dialect)) Bilingual PDF Health Information Translations Chinese, Traditional (Cantonese dialect) (繁體中文) Expand Section Wearing ...

Burns - Multiple Languages

MedlinePlus

... Burn Care - العربية (Arabic) Bilingual PDF Health Information Translations Chinese, Simplified (Mandarin dialect) (简体中文) Expand Section Burn ... Chinese, Simplified (Mandarin dialect)) Bilingual PDF Health Information Translations Chinese, Traditional (Cantonese dialect) (繁體中文) Expand Section Burn ...

Hypoglycemia - Multiple Languages

MedlinePlus

... Blood Sugar - العربية (Arabic) Bilingual PDF Health Information Translations Chinese, Simplified (Mandarin dialect) (简体中文) Expand Section Low ... Chinese, Simplified (Mandarin dialect)) Bilingual PDF Health Information Translations Chinese, Traditional (Cantonese dialect) (繁體中文) Expand Section Low ...

Headache - Multiple Languages

MedlinePlus

... Section Headaches - العربية (Arabic) Bilingual PDF Health Information Translations Chinese, Simplified (Mandarin dialect) (简体中文) Expand Section Headaches - ... Chinese, Simplified (Mandarin dialect)) Bilingual PDF ... Health Information Translations Chinese, Traditional (Cantonese dialect) (繁體中文) Expand Section Headaches - ...

Cataract - Multiple Languages

MedlinePlus

... Section Cataract - العربية (Arabic) Bilingual PDF Health Information Translations Chinese, Simplified (Mandarin dialect) (简体中文) Expand Section Cataract - ... Chinese, Simplified (Mandarin dialect)) Bilingual PDF ... Health Information Translations Chinese, Traditional (Cantonese dialect) (繁體中文) Expand Section Cataract - ...

The Influence of Cross-Language Similarity on within- and between-Language Stroop Effects in Trilinguals

PubMed Central

van Heuven, Walter J. B.; Conklin, Kathy; Coderre, Emily L.; Guo, Taomei; Dijkstra, Ton

2011-01-01

This study investigated effects of cross-language similarity on within- and between-language Stroop interference and facilitation in three groups of trilinguals. Trilinguals were either proficient in three languages that use the same-script (alphabetic in German–English–Dutch trilinguals), two similar scripts and one different script (Chinese and alphabetic scripts in Chinese–English–Malay trilinguals), or three completely different scripts (Arabic, Chinese, and alphabetic in Uyghur–Chinese–English trilinguals). The results revealed a similar magnitude of within-language Stroop interference for the three groups, whereas between-language interference was modulated by cross-language similarity. For the same-script trilinguals, the within- and between-language interference was similar, whereas the between-language Stroop interference was reduced for trilinguals with languages written in different scripts. The magnitude of within-language Stroop facilitation was similar across the three groups of trilinguals, but smaller than within-language Stroop interference. Between-language Stroop facilitation was also modulated by cross-language similarity such that these effects became negative for trilinguals with languages written in different scripts. The overall pattern of Stroop interference and facilitation effects can be explained in terms of diverging and converging color and word information across languages. PMID:22180749

Advances in heroin addiction treatment with traditional Chinese medicine: a systematic review of recent Chinese language journals.

PubMed

Jordan, James B; Tu, Xiang

2008-01-01

The aim of this review is to critically examine the clinical trial research on Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) as an intervention in treating heroin addiction in People's Republic of China. This review examines Chinese-language-only publications for the patent medicines: Shenfu Tuodu, Fukang Pian, and Shifu Sheng. Other compound medicines will be reviewed in future publications. A systematic review of the literature was conducted in Western and Chinese databases. Most trials were excluded because they did not declare randomization and had poor methodology or reporting. The majority of clinical evidence in the random controlled trials demonstrates good evidence for TCM patent medicines in heroin addiction treatment. When compared to typical Western medications, TCMs demonstrate fewer side-effects, in addition to equal measures of treatment efficacy and safety.

Classroom Discourse and Reading Comprehension in Bilingual Settings: A Case Study of Collaborative Reasoning in a Chinese Heritage Language Learners' Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tsai, Hsiao-Feng

2012-01-01

This dissertation examines the participation of one Chinese teacher and five 13 to 15 year-old Chinese heritage students in a classroom in a Chinese community school during group discussions about narrative texts. In this study, the teacher used Collaborative Reasoning (CR) (Anderson, et al., 2001) to help the Chinese heritage students extend…

Radiation Exposure - Multiple Languages

MedlinePlus

... Rays) - 繁體中文 (Chinese, Traditional (Cantonese dialect)) PDF California Dental Association Nuclear or Radiation Emergencies - 繁體中文 (Chinese, Traditional (Cantonese dialect)) Bilingual PDF ...

Development and Utility of Automatic Language Processing Technologies. Volume 2

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-04-01

speech for each word using the existing Treetagger program. 3. Stem the word using the revised RevP stemmer, “RussianStemmer2013. java ” (see Section...KBaselineParaphrases2013. java ,” with the paraphrase table and a LM built from the TED training data. Information from the LM was called using the new utility query_interp...GATE/ Java Annotation Patterns Engine (JAPE) interface and on transliteration of Chinese named entities. Available Linguistic Data Consortium (LDC

Conflicting Language Ideologies and Contradictory Language Practices in Singaporean Multilingual Families

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Curdt-Christiansen, Xiao Lan

2016-01-01

Informed by family language policy (FLP) as the theoretical framework, I illustrate in this paper how language ideologies can be incongruous and language policies can be conflicting through three multilingual families in Singapore representing three major ethnic groups--Chinese, Malay and Indian. By studying their family language audits, observing…