This paper examines whether or not Chinese native speakers (CNSs) have difficulties in understanding English counterfactuals, whether CNSs have counterfactual reasoning problems in their own language, what the causes ...This paper examines whether or not Chinese native speakers (CNSs) have difficulties in understanding English counterfactuals, whether CNSs have counterfactual reasoning problems in their own language, what the causes of these difficulties may be, and the problems in teaching English subjunctives. It also proposes on how to improve CNSs’ English counterfactual comprehension.展开更多
Grounded upon the interactive relationship between intercultural communication(IC)and foreign language education and the recent gradual salience of communicative language teaching(CLT)in foreign language grammar learn...Grounded upon the interactive relationship between intercultural communication(IC)and foreign language education and the recent gradual salience of communicative language teaching(CLT)in foreign language grammar learning sectors,the study reported in this paper deals with the issue of teaching Korean grammar to non-native speakers in terms of teaching Korean as a foreign language(TKFL).This paper attempts to examine and analyze several Korean language textbooks prepared for foreign learners of Korean,which is used overseas,especially in Hong Kong(HK).It is also attempted to evaluate the textbooks in terms of CLT and communicative competence.By doing so,we can further understand the methods of Korean grammar instruction provided to foreigners as a second language or a foreign language.展开更多
The study attempts to explore native and non-native English speakers’attitudes towards accents and pronunciation-related issues.The sample group surveyed is composed of non-native English speakers,specifically,Italia...The study attempts to explore native and non-native English speakers’attitudes towards accents and pronunciation-related issues.The sample group surveyed is composed of non-native English speakers,specifically,Italian students studying at the University of Calabria(Italy)and native English speakers from Alberta University(Canada)and Florida Atlantic University(USA).An online link to a questionnaire was sent via email to all participants and was used as a research instrument to collect quantitative data.The research questions will investigate learners’attitudes in relation to the following aspects:accent and identity,beliefs about native/non-native accents,impact of pronunciation on communication,and learners’expectations towards pronunciation teaching.Firstly,mean scores in relation to the aforementioned aspects will be examined.Secondly,differences between native/non-native speakers’responses will be statistically analysed.Thirdly,non-native learners’responses will be correlated with their proficiency level in English to identify the extent to which language competence may affect learners’attitudes.The study aims to gain useful insights that may hopefully raise students and teachers’awareness of what models we expect learners to imitate and attain in the English language classroom,how appropriate and relevant these may be especially in the globalized English world where non-native speakers will increasingly use English in a diversity of forms to achieve their communicative goals.The preliminary results will be presented and pedagogical considerations suggested.展开更多
The paper concerns the issue of ELF (English as a lingua franca) in the European and Asian context. The authors start from a brief conceptual perspective to shed light on salient aspects related to ELF. Then, this p...The paper concerns the issue of ELF (English as a lingua franca) in the European and Asian context. The authors start from a brief conceptual perspective to shed light on salient aspects related to ELF. Then, this paper discusses the study investigating the interactions among NNS (non-native speakers) of English in the naturalistic settings, namely in Zhangjiajie (China), Masouri (Kalymnos/Greece), and Unterwasser (Switzerland). The main objective of the research based on the qualitative methodology was to analyze the ELF interactions from the linguistic point of view focusing on lexicogrammar and pragmatic features. The secondary objective was to establish whether the identified ELF features contributed to communication intelligibility. The obtained results indicated a few significant similarities with the Seidlhofer's list of the ELT characteristics. Furthermore, it was established in the study that the ELF features did not interfere with effective communication between interlocutors展开更多
The intelligibility of Thai speakers’English pronunciation from Chinese listeners’perspectives have not been analyzed deeply in current researches.As is known to all,the interconnection between China and Thailand is...The intelligibility of Thai speakers’English pronunciation from Chinese listeners’perspectives have not been analyzed deeply in current researches.As is known to all,the interconnection between China and Thailand is greatly developed with the sup⁃port of‘One Belt and One Road initiative’.However,it is inevitable for non-native English speakers to encounter some pronuncia⁃tion problems,which would affect them to communicate with each other.As for Chinese English learners,Thai accent to some ex⁃tent would be a great challenge during the conversation with Thai speakers.In order to promote a better communication,it is neces⁃sary to analyze the origin of Thai speakers’English pronunciation problems.Therefore,this research based on the previous studies to categorize the common pronunciation problems among Thai speakers.However,there are numerous English learners in Thailand that have various language proficiency.In this respect,two Thai speakers with different IELTS scores have been selected for com⁃parison,and six postgraduate students in the Education University of Hong Kong are invited to serve as a listener.As a result,this research will base on the listeners’feedback to highlight some suggestions to enhance the intelligibility of Thai speakers’pronun⁃ciation.展开更多
This study examined the NNSs' ability of modifying their interlanguage utterances in modified comprehensible output to give response to other-initiation and self-initiation,which was studied in both NS-NNS and NNS...This study examined the NNSs' ability of modifying their interlanguage utterances in modified comprehensible output to give response to other-initiation and self-initiation,which was studied in both NS-NNS and NNS-NNS interactions.It was the qualitative study by using two different tasks which were picture-dictation task and opinion-exchange task to collect the data.There were 32 participants whose age ranged of 22 to 37.The author proposed two hypotheses based on his expectation that NNS-NNS interactions would provide more opportunities for NNS participants to give comprehensible output for other-initiated clarification requests and self-initiated clarification attempts than NS-NNS interactions.The author was good at using numbers to illustrate and describe the data in his writing.展开更多
This paper attempts to argue that in the age of‘World Englishes', it is not necessary to differentiate native speaker teachers from non-native speaker teachers. It is concluded that non-native speaker teachers ca...This paper attempts to argue that in the age of‘World Englishes', it is not necessary to differentiate native speaker teachers from non-native speaker teachers. It is concluded that non-native speaker teachers can be as effective as their native colleagues and they have equal chance to achieve professional success, even though native speaker teachers have great advantages over non-native teachers in some aspects. It is time for employers, as well as ELT professionals to shut their eyes to the glaring differences between native speaker teachers and non-native speaker teachers and optimize such unique resources.展开更多
Academic literacy is the fundamental quality that scholars should possess in order to get socialized in their disciplinary communities, of which academic writing is one of the most important aspects. This article atte...Academic literacy is the fundamental quality that scholars should possess in order to get socialized in their disciplinary communities, of which academic writing is one of the most important aspects. This article attempts to summarize some common features of academic writing and the skills and background knowledge that are essential for successful writing. The next part focuses on the possible challenges that academic writing may pose on Chinese overseas students as they try to meet the requirements of the Western discourse communities. In the last part, it provides some recommendations to those who intend to study abroad and concludes that for both native and non-native speakers the learning of academic writing is a lifelong process of endless confliction and negotiation.展开更多
This review involved 234 theoretical research papers chosen from 13783 theses of Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages in China's Mainland during the period 2009-2018.Theoretical research mainly includes...This review involved 234 theoretical research papers chosen from 13783 theses of Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages in China's Mainland during the period 2009-2018.Theoretical research mainly includes two parts,theoretical analysis and theoretical application.The theoretical analysis and summary did not touch the core of the basic theory,and the macro height and depth were insufficient.Theoretical application rarely applied theories of this subject,mostly borrowed theories of other subjects to conduct experiments.There are more questions.The problems lead to doubt about the reliability of the thesis conclusion.For this reason,this review concludes with recommendations for Chinese researchers.展开更多
Integrating letters and sounds are essential for successful reading in alphabetic languages. It remains unclear if native speakers of non-alphabetic languages integrate letters and sounds in reading an alphabetic lan-...Integrating letters and sounds are essential for successful reading in alphabetic languages. It remains unclear if native speakers of non-alphabetic languages integrate letters and sounds in reading an alphabetic lan- guage in the same way as native alphabetic readers do. Chinese is a morpho-syllabic system (each character cor- responds to one syllable) and contrasts sharply with alphabetic languages such as English. Several fMRI studies have shown that native Chinese speakers apply their native language system to read English words. By using the cross- modal mismatch negativity (MMN) paradigm, we directly investigated letter-sound integration for reading in English among native Chinese speakers. To investigate the effect of native language background on letter-sound integration in second language reading, a group of native Korean English learners served as a comparison group. We compared MMN responses between an auditory only condition (only vowels presented) and two audiovisual conditions (AV0, vowel presented synchronously with the corresponding letter; AV200, the letter presented 200 ms before the corresponding vowel) for both native Chinese and native Korean speakers. Native Chinese speakers demonstrated significantly attenuated MMN amplitudes in audiovisual conditions compared with the auditory only condition, regardless of their phonological decoding speed. In con- trast, native Korean speakers showed amplified amplitude MMN in AV200 compared with that in the auditory only condition. The results suggest that native language may shape the brain responses of second language learners to reading a second language in the early stages. Native non- alphabetic language speakers may be unable to use visual information to facilitate their phonological processing in the early stage while naT:lye alphabetic language speakers are capable of integrating letter sounds automatically.展开更多
This paper investigates the impacts of intercultural experience through English as a lingua franca (ELF) on language attitudes, with the focus on Chinese speakers' narratives of ELF experience in relation to their ...This paper investigates the impacts of intercultural experience through English as a lingua franca (ELF) on language attitudes, with the focus on Chinese speakers' narratives of ELF experience in relation to their views of Englishes. The data retrieved through 769 questionnaires and 35 interviews with Chinese users of English revealed the impacts in four aspects. First, the lack of ELF experience helps to maintain the assumption that conformity to native English is necessary for interactants to understand each other. Second, ELF experience triggers the question about the exclusive connection between nativeness and intelligibility. Third, it raises challenges to the exclusive relevance of native English for successful intercultural communication. Fourth, it helps to develop an awareness of intercultural communication strategies as important for communicative effectiveness in the context of the diversity of English. Attitudes revealed in the four aspects all point to a concern with the issue what is intelligible English. This paper thus discusses intelligibility in relation to (non-) nativeness and the role of intercultural experience in making sense of the issue of intelligibility, which leads to the exploration of pedagogical implications of this study.展开更多
With the development of globalization,the use of English is no longer restricted to native speaker(NS)but also widely spread to non-native speaker(NNS).The importance of English learning is also acknowledged by Expand...With the development of globalization,the use of English is no longer restricted to native speaker(NS)but also widely spread to non-native speaker(NNS).The importance of English learning is also acknowledged by Expanding and Outer Circle,and English as a foreign language(EFL)education plays a significant role in China’s education.Admitting the fact that non-native English teachers(NNESTs)take up a large proportion of English teachers,English language teaching(ELT)is still greatly influenced by native-speakerism.This research aims to investigate language ideologies reflected in Chinese foreign language education policy(FLEP)at higher education level,and Chinese English learners’attitudes towards native-speakerism and English teachers.A mixed method of policy analysis and survey is adopted in this research.After conducting analysing two FLEPs in higher education level,it is found that linguistic instrumentalism is the prominent language ideology,although native-speakerism and standard English ideology is implicitly demonstrated.Questionnaire is used to investigate 58 Chinese English learners’attitudes,revealing that most participants do not demonstrate bias towards either NESTs or NNESTs.Instead,the strengths and weaknesses of both NEST and NNEST are identified,though participants adhere to native-speakerism in terms of English variety.Overall,English learner’s attitudes are consistent with language ideologies in FLEPs.This research may provide implications for future studies on addressing native-speakerism in Chinese FLEPs,as well as relationship of students’attitudes and language policies.展开更多
This paper aims to explore how the study of sociolinguistics can benefit teachers,particularly in the context of teaching English as a Foreign Language(EFL)in China.The article will first examine how sociolinguistic k...This paper aims to explore how the study of sociolinguistics can benefit teachers,particularly in the context of teaching English as a Foreign Language(EFL)in China.The article will first examine how sociolinguistic knowledge can reshape teachers’perceptions of“English,”focusing on aspects such as English varieties,World Englishes,and Chinese English.Following that,the article discusses the necessity of rethinking current practices in English language teaching,including the nativeness paradigm and the concept of communicative competence based on a reconceptualized view of“English.”Additionally,the discussion will focus on how teachers,informed by sociolinguistic awareness of non-native teachers’identities and teacher agency,can address and resolve existing challenges in EFL teaching.Finally,the article will conclude by summarizing the key issues discussed and highlighting the significance of studying sociolinguistics for language practitioners in China.展开更多
文摘This paper examines whether or not Chinese native speakers (CNSs) have difficulties in understanding English counterfactuals, whether CNSs have counterfactual reasoning problems in their own language, what the causes of these difficulties may be, and the problems in teaching English subjunctives. It also proposes on how to improve CNSs’ English counterfactual comprehension.
文摘Grounded upon the interactive relationship between intercultural communication(IC)and foreign language education and the recent gradual salience of communicative language teaching(CLT)in foreign language grammar learning sectors,the study reported in this paper deals with the issue of teaching Korean grammar to non-native speakers in terms of teaching Korean as a foreign language(TKFL).This paper attempts to examine and analyze several Korean language textbooks prepared for foreign learners of Korean,which is used overseas,especially in Hong Kong(HK).It is also attempted to evaluate the textbooks in terms of CLT and communicative competence.By doing so,we can further understand the methods of Korean grammar instruction provided to foreigners as a second language or a foreign language.
文摘The study attempts to explore native and non-native English speakers’attitudes towards accents and pronunciation-related issues.The sample group surveyed is composed of non-native English speakers,specifically,Italian students studying at the University of Calabria(Italy)and native English speakers from Alberta University(Canada)and Florida Atlantic University(USA).An online link to a questionnaire was sent via email to all participants and was used as a research instrument to collect quantitative data.The research questions will investigate learners’attitudes in relation to the following aspects:accent and identity,beliefs about native/non-native accents,impact of pronunciation on communication,and learners’expectations towards pronunciation teaching.Firstly,mean scores in relation to the aforementioned aspects will be examined.Secondly,differences between native/non-native speakers’responses will be statistically analysed.Thirdly,non-native learners’responses will be correlated with their proficiency level in English to identify the extent to which language competence may affect learners’attitudes.The study aims to gain useful insights that may hopefully raise students and teachers’awareness of what models we expect learners to imitate and attain in the English language classroom,how appropriate and relevant these may be especially in the globalized English world where non-native speakers will increasingly use English in a diversity of forms to achieve their communicative goals.The preliminary results will be presented and pedagogical considerations suggested.
文摘The paper concerns the issue of ELF (English as a lingua franca) in the European and Asian context. The authors start from a brief conceptual perspective to shed light on salient aspects related to ELF. Then, this paper discusses the study investigating the interactions among NNS (non-native speakers) of English in the naturalistic settings, namely in Zhangjiajie (China), Masouri (Kalymnos/Greece), and Unterwasser (Switzerland). The main objective of the research based on the qualitative methodology was to analyze the ELF interactions from the linguistic point of view focusing on lexicogrammar and pragmatic features. The secondary objective was to establish whether the identified ELF features contributed to communication intelligibility. The obtained results indicated a few significant similarities with the Seidlhofer's list of the ELT characteristics. Furthermore, it was established in the study that the ELF features did not interfere with effective communication between interlocutors
文摘The intelligibility of Thai speakers’English pronunciation from Chinese listeners’perspectives have not been analyzed deeply in current researches.As is known to all,the interconnection between China and Thailand is greatly developed with the sup⁃port of‘One Belt and One Road initiative’.However,it is inevitable for non-native English speakers to encounter some pronuncia⁃tion problems,which would affect them to communicate with each other.As for Chinese English learners,Thai accent to some ex⁃tent would be a great challenge during the conversation with Thai speakers.In order to promote a better communication,it is neces⁃sary to analyze the origin of Thai speakers’English pronunciation problems.Therefore,this research based on the previous studies to categorize the common pronunciation problems among Thai speakers.However,there are numerous English learners in Thailand that have various language proficiency.In this respect,two Thai speakers with different IELTS scores have been selected for com⁃parison,and six postgraduate students in the Education University of Hong Kong are invited to serve as a listener.As a result,this research will base on the listeners’feedback to highlight some suggestions to enhance the intelligibility of Thai speakers’pronun⁃ciation.
文摘This study examined the NNSs' ability of modifying their interlanguage utterances in modified comprehensible output to give response to other-initiation and self-initiation,which was studied in both NS-NNS and NNS-NNS interactions.It was the qualitative study by using two different tasks which were picture-dictation task and opinion-exchange task to collect the data.There were 32 participants whose age ranged of 22 to 37.The author proposed two hypotheses based on his expectation that NNS-NNS interactions would provide more opportunities for NNS participants to give comprehensible output for other-initiated clarification requests and self-initiated clarification attempts than NS-NNS interactions.The author was good at using numbers to illustrate and describe the data in his writing.
文摘This paper attempts to argue that in the age of‘World Englishes', it is not necessary to differentiate native speaker teachers from non-native speaker teachers. It is concluded that non-native speaker teachers can be as effective as their native colleagues and they have equal chance to achieve professional success, even though native speaker teachers have great advantages over non-native teachers in some aspects. It is time for employers, as well as ELT professionals to shut their eyes to the glaring differences between native speaker teachers and non-native speaker teachers and optimize such unique resources.
文摘Academic literacy is the fundamental quality that scholars should possess in order to get socialized in their disciplinary communities, of which academic writing is one of the most important aspects. This article attempts to summarize some common features of academic writing and the skills and background knowledge that are essential for successful writing. The next part focuses on the possible challenges that academic writing may pose on Chinese overseas students as they try to meet the requirements of the Western discourse communities. In the last part, it provides some recommendations to those who intend to study abroad and concludes that for both native and non-native speakers the learning of academic writing is a lifelong process of endless confliction and negotiation.
文摘This review involved 234 theoretical research papers chosen from 13783 theses of Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages in China's Mainland during the period 2009-2018.Theoretical research mainly includes two parts,theoretical analysis and theoretical application.The theoretical analysis and summary did not touch the core of the basic theory,and the macro height and depth were insufficient.Theoretical application rarely applied theories of this subject,mostly borrowed theories of other subjects to conduct experiments.There are more questions.The problems lead to doubt about the reliability of the thesis conclusion.For this reason,this review concludes with recommendations for Chinese researchers.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(31221003)National Basic Research Program of China(2014CB846103)
文摘Integrating letters and sounds are essential for successful reading in alphabetic languages. It remains unclear if native speakers of non-alphabetic languages integrate letters and sounds in reading an alphabetic lan- guage in the same way as native alphabetic readers do. Chinese is a morpho-syllabic system (each character cor- responds to one syllable) and contrasts sharply with alphabetic languages such as English. Several fMRI studies have shown that native Chinese speakers apply their native language system to read English words. By using the cross- modal mismatch negativity (MMN) paradigm, we directly investigated letter-sound integration for reading in English among native Chinese speakers. To investigate the effect of native language background on letter-sound integration in second language reading, a group of native Korean English learners served as a comparison group. We compared MMN responses between an auditory only condition (only vowels presented) and two audiovisual conditions (AV0, vowel presented synchronously with the corresponding letter; AV200, the letter presented 200 ms before the corresponding vowel) for both native Chinese and native Korean speakers. Native Chinese speakers demonstrated significantly attenuated MMN amplitudes in audiovisual conditions compared with the auditory only condition, regardless of their phonological decoding speed. In con- trast, native Korean speakers showed amplified amplitude MMN in AV200 compared with that in the auditory only condition. The results suggest that native language may shape the brain responses of second language learners to reading a second language in the early stages. Native non- alphabetic language speakers may be unable to use visual information to facilitate their phonological processing in the early stage while naT:lye alphabetic language speakers are capable of integrating letter sounds automatically.
文摘This paper investigates the impacts of intercultural experience through English as a lingua franca (ELF) on language attitudes, with the focus on Chinese speakers' narratives of ELF experience in relation to their views of Englishes. The data retrieved through 769 questionnaires and 35 interviews with Chinese users of English revealed the impacts in four aspects. First, the lack of ELF experience helps to maintain the assumption that conformity to native English is necessary for interactants to understand each other. Second, ELF experience triggers the question about the exclusive connection between nativeness and intelligibility. Third, it raises challenges to the exclusive relevance of native English for successful intercultural communication. Fourth, it helps to develop an awareness of intercultural communication strategies as important for communicative effectiveness in the context of the diversity of English. Attitudes revealed in the four aspects all point to a concern with the issue what is intelligible English. This paper thus discusses intelligibility in relation to (non-) nativeness and the role of intercultural experience in making sense of the issue of intelligibility, which leads to the exploration of pedagogical implications of this study.
文摘With the development of globalization,the use of English is no longer restricted to native speaker(NS)but also widely spread to non-native speaker(NNS).The importance of English learning is also acknowledged by Expanding and Outer Circle,and English as a foreign language(EFL)education plays a significant role in China’s education.Admitting the fact that non-native English teachers(NNESTs)take up a large proportion of English teachers,English language teaching(ELT)is still greatly influenced by native-speakerism.This research aims to investigate language ideologies reflected in Chinese foreign language education policy(FLEP)at higher education level,and Chinese English learners’attitudes towards native-speakerism and English teachers.A mixed method of policy analysis and survey is adopted in this research.After conducting analysing two FLEPs in higher education level,it is found that linguistic instrumentalism is the prominent language ideology,although native-speakerism and standard English ideology is implicitly demonstrated.Questionnaire is used to investigate 58 Chinese English learners’attitudes,revealing that most participants do not demonstrate bias towards either NESTs or NNESTs.Instead,the strengths and weaknesses of both NEST and NNEST are identified,though participants adhere to native-speakerism in terms of English variety.Overall,English learner’s attitudes are consistent with language ideologies in FLEPs.This research may provide implications for future studies on addressing native-speakerism in Chinese FLEPs,as well as relationship of students’attitudes and language policies.
文摘This paper aims to explore how the study of sociolinguistics can benefit teachers,particularly in the context of teaching English as a Foreign Language(EFL)in China.The article will first examine how sociolinguistic knowledge can reshape teachers’perceptions of“English,”focusing on aspects such as English varieties,World Englishes,and Chinese English.Following that,the article discusses the necessity of rethinking current practices in English language teaching,including the nativeness paradigm and the concept of communicative competence based on a reconceptualized view of“English.”Additionally,the discussion will focus on how teachers,informed by sociolinguistic awareness of non-native teachers’identities and teacher agency,can address and resolve existing challenges in EFL teaching.Finally,the article will conclude by summarizing the key issues discussed and highlighting the significance of studying sociolinguistics for language practitioners in China.