The Effect of the Native Language and Culture on EFL Writing of Chinese Students

According to an error analysis on Chinese college students' writing,the native language and culture have great influence onsecond-language writing.On the basis of error analysis,this paper put forward some countermeasures to improve Chinese students' Eng-lish writing skill.

On Migration and Illiteracy--Dealing With Texts in L2 Italian Initial-Literacy Classes

Acquiring the language spoken in the host country is crucial for social inclusion of migrants.From this perspective,illiteracy represents a social problem since it has repercussions on second-language acquisition/learning process.In order to investigate the role of illiteracy in L2 Italian acquisition,the paper aims at analyzing the oral productions of L2 Italian learners with equal L1 but a different level of education,i.e.,low educated vs.non-educated.The learners’productions are collected through semi-structured video interviews.From the perspective of the conversational analysis,the interviews are transcribed and studied taking into account also non-verbal aspects of the oral interactions.The learners belong to the specific category of the“unaccompanied foreign minors”.These minors are characterized by a particular sociolinguistic profile as they are often plurilinguals with a low,very low,or zero level of education.The lack of previous schooling limits the competence in languages(including L1)to oral competence alone,and this has repercussions on second-language acquisition and,therefore,on social inclusion.In fact,a certain competence in writing and reading has an important impact on mental processes.The low or zero familiarity with written texts has inevitable consequences in the second-language acquisition process,in terms of lack of meta-textual and meta-linguistic reflection.From the comparison of the interviews,the characteristics of the learners’interlanguages show that the learners deal with the non-inflectional initial phase of the second-language acquisition process:Their linguistic varieties are certainly basic varieties.Actually,data show significant differences in the learners’performance depending on(il)literacy,which is the only parameter differentiating the learners’profile.In particular,literacy,namely a certain,albeit low,level of education and proficiency in writing skills,has positive repercussions on the performance in terms of a greater awareness of verb and verbal categories,greater skill in oral interaction,greater communicative efficacy,greater accuracy and fluency.In addition,as part of communicative competence,textual competence has also important implications both on second-language learning and on improving read-write skills.Within a literacy pathway,working on texts is normally destined to the advanced literacy class.Actually,some specific textual activities can be successfully proposed in the initial literacy class,in order to immediately accustom learners to some types of text.The results of these textual activities are also illustrated.

A Brief Review on the Theoretic Researches of Schema Theory

In this paper,the relationship of L2 learners’background knowledge and their L2 comprehension is explored through a brief review of both theoretical and experimental research studies on Schema Theory.The results indicate that successful activation of prior knowledge significantly aids learners’reading and listening comprehension,whereas,failure to activate appropriate culture-specific schemata due to linguistic or cultural background knowledge deficiencies hinders them largely from perfecting their performance.

研究生学术论文写作与发表情境下的情绪调节策略研究

本研究基于成就情境下的情绪调节整合模型,采用问卷调查我国363名研究生在英文学术论文写作与发表过程中情绪调节策略的使用情况,并通过14个访谈探索影响情绪调节策略选择的因素。结果表明:研究生采取情境选择、情境修正、注意分配、认知改变、反应调节共五大类策略调节情绪,且不同策略使用频率差异鲜明;观念、情绪强度等内部因素与写作情境、人际关系等外部因素共同作用于策略选择,其中观念类因素起关键作用。以上结果拓宽了二语写作情绪调节研究范围,从情绪调节策略子类与学业情境特征两方面丰富了成就情境下的情绪调节整合模型,并揭示了情绪调节策略选择的内在机制。