From the perspective of the poverty of stimulus argument and the cognitive development theory, this paper attempts to reveal the mechanism of language acquisition. The poverty of stimulus argument theoretically proves...From the perspective of the poverty of stimulus argument and the cognitive development theory, this paper attempts to reveal the mechanism of language acquisition. The poverty of stimulus argument theoretically proves the hypothesis that based on their finite linguistic experience, children can construct their complete language knowledge system. Language acquisition is the process of acquisition of core grammar and of mental representation of vocabulary. Parameter values must be set in the process of children's core grammar acquisition. Vocabulary of natural language is stored and processed in the form of conceptual representation, which is associated with syntactic structures by projection rules and bounded by various well-formed rules. The cognitive development theory claims that language acquisition is a development process of universal grammar into particular grammar, which is redescribed at a higher level.展开更多
The paper discusses 3 significant differences between Chinese and English. It proposes that because of the differences, the transfer of mother tongue into the target language tends to appear in the negative form. The ...The paper discusses 3 significant differences between Chinese and English. It proposes that because of the differences, the transfer of mother tongue into the target language tends to appear in the negative form. The negative transfer of Chinese into English is the major cause of the so-called Chinglish. The paper states some forms of the negative transfer.展开更多
The paper discusses SL learners' lexical competence from O'Connor's Five Steps of Vocabulary Acquisition Theory, Collins & Loftus's Semantic Network Theory and Fay & Cutler's Mental Lexicon Theory. From the dis...The paper discusses SL learners' lexical competence from O'Connor's Five Steps of Vocabulary Acquisition Theory, Collins & Loftus's Semantic Network Theory and Fay & Cutler's Mental Lexicon Theory. From the discussion, the author finds that second language learners' lexical competence includes the following aspects: the ability to recall the words which are similar to the target words in spelling and pronunciation; the ability to recall the synonyms of the target words; the ability to recall the antonyms of the target words; and the ability to recall the related words which come together with the target words in a context. Meanwhile it advances some strategies to develop the corresponding competence.展开更多
The present study employed a quantitative and network approach to detect alignment effects in second language(L2) continuation tasks designed on the xu-argument(Wang, 2016). The materials used in this study were 6 sub...The present study employed a quantitative and network approach to detect alignment effects in second language(L2) continuation tasks designed on the xu-argument(Wang, 2016). The materials used in this study were 6 sub-corpora consisting of two selected input stories and two groups of L2 written production based on two continuation tasks. During continuation, the participants were required to continue in English a story with its ending removed, with one group reading and continuing the Chinese version and the other group the English version, and then switching their roles in the two tasks. Results show that the alignment effect differs across the two versions of continuation. Specifically, compared with the Chinese-version continuation, L2 learners produced more use of unigrams and bigrams similar to the input story in terms of lexical items, frequency and ranking correlations in the English-version task;on the other hand, the English-version continuation can facilitate generating linguistic networks that are much closer to the native English networks. Moreover, this research corroborates that written production in L2 continuation tasks can be influenced by input content.展开更多
How to promote interaction in cooperative learning tasks is discussed from a theoretical perspective in order to maximize the benefits of cooperative learning. A classroom instructional model is presented and examined...How to promote interaction in cooperative learning tasks is discussed from a theoretical perspective in order to maximize the benefits of cooperative learning. A classroom instructional model is presented and examined to illustrate how successful and effective interaction is carried out to create the optimal conditions for second language acquisition.展开更多
There has been a consensus that vocabulary knowledge has become a major contributor to L2 learners'efficient communication and comprehension.Incidental vocabulary acquisition relates to lexical gains as a by-produ...There has been a consensus that vocabulary knowledge has become a major contributor to L2 learners'efficient communication and comprehension.Incidental vocabulary acquisition relates to lexical gains as a by-product resulting from accomplishing another activity which is not aimed at learning vocabulary.This article intends to provide a digest of research on incidental vocabulary acquisition over the past few decades by primarily focusing on related theoretical frameworks,possible explanatory variables mediating incidental vocabulary learning,and tasks targeted at enhancing incidental lexical growth.In line with analyses of findings yielded from an impressive number of illuminating studies conducted,this article calls for a diversification of efforts in relation to multi-word lexical items,multi-modal e-learning technologies,and insights from neuroscience that may warrant more scholarly attention.These possible areas would further enrich the current scope of L2 incidental vocabulary acquisition research.展开更多
Based on the literature review on learner-centered classroom, this essay is to explore now to create a learner-centered classroom in Chinese context so as to design a workshop for those teaching professionals all over...Based on the literature review on learner-centered classroom, this essay is to explore now to create a learner-centered classroom in Chinese context so as to design a workshop for those teaching professionals all over China to create a learner-centered classroom. The workshop conducted mainly focuses on what is a learner-centered classroom, why and how to create a learner-centered classroom, meanwhile, it aims at helping the participants work out a practical framework which can be eventually put to their everyday teaching.展开更多
We live in an age of changes. And these changes in science, technology, economy, political systems, and immigration patterns, especially the emergence of Internet, have created a world in which we increasingly interac...We live in an age of changes. And these changes in science, technology, economy, political systems, and immigration patterns, especially the emergence of Internet, have created a world in which we increasingly interact with people from different cultures. The levels of students' cultural awareness toward the target language (English) have a profound influence on the foreign language teaching (English) practice and performance. Obviously linguistic knowledge alone is not enough to secure successful interactions with native speakers in cross cultural communications. Cultural mistakes are worse than linguistic ones because they tend to cause misjudgments, or ill feelings between native and foreign speakers. Therefore, this paper mainly discusses the relationship between culture and language, explaining cultural awareness, providing some principles of cultural knowledge teaching and some techniques to develop students' cultural awareness through foreign language (English) teaching in high schools.展开更多
Since 1970s, action research is well claimed in education. This article tries to give a brief introduction of some major relevant information about action research, and then it explores the significance of adopting ac...Since 1970s, action research is well claimed in education. This article tries to give a brief introduction of some major relevant information about action research, and then it explores the significance of adopting action research in EFLT. Moreover, it proposes a possible way, namely collaborative action research in EFLT.展开更多
The goal of language instruction for EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners has always been a hot topic in SLA (Second Language Acquisition). First, Alan Davies's view to regard native speaker's proficienc...The goal of language instruction for EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners has always been a hot topic in SLA (Second Language Acquisition). First, Alan Davies's view to regard native speaker's proficiency as the goal of both L2 and EFL learners is retorted. And then another complete and realistic goal for EFL learners, that is, understandable and acceptable interlanguage of EFL learners themselves is sought out. Furthermore, the four characteristics of EFL learners' IL are to be summarized. Finally, one needs to notice the fact that interlanguage is dynamic and has a close relation to SLA and EFL study.展开更多
Based on empirical research and qualitative analysis, this paper aims to explore the effects of interlingual strategies on L2 vocabulary teaching. The results show that, during L2 vocabulary teaching process, the prop...Based on empirical research and qualitative analysis, this paper aims to explore the effects of interlingual strategies on L2 vocabulary teaching. The results show that, during L2 vocabulary teaching process, the proper application of interlingual strategies can effectively facilitate the memorization of new words, and the bilingual method (both English explanation and Chinese translation) is welcomed by most subjects. Therefore, using L1 as a means of semantization or as a tool for checking and validating L2 learners' understanding of word meaning should not be completely rejected, especially for adult Chinese EFL learners.展开更多
It is difficult for L2 English learners in general, and especially Chinese learners of English, to form idiomatic collocations. This article presents a comparison of the use of intensifier-verb collocations in English...It is difficult for L2 English learners in general, and especially Chinese learners of English, to form idiomatic collocations. This article presents a comparison of the use of intensifier-verb collocations in English by native speaker students and Chinese ESL learners, paying particular attention to verbs which collocate with intensifiers. The data consisted of written production from three corpora: two of these are native English corpora: the British Academic Written English(BAWE) Corpus and Michigan Corpus of Upper-Level Student Papers(MICUSP). The third one is a recently created Chinese Learner English corpus, Ten-thousand English Compositions of Chinese Learners(TECCL).Findings suggest that Chinese learners of English produce significantly more intensifier-verb collocations than native speaker students, but that their English attests a smaller variety of intensifier-verb collocations compared with the native speakers. Moreover, Chinese learners of English use the intensifier-verb collocation types just-verb, only-verb and really-verb very frequently compared with native speaker students. As regards verb collocates, the intensifiers hardly, clearly,well, strongly and deeply collocate with semantically different verbs in native and Chinese learner English. Compared with the patterns in Chinese learner English, the intensifiers in native speaker English collocate with a more stable and restricted set of verb collocates.展开更多
The present paper discusses three major sources of negative effect of classroom instruction on L2 learners' pragmatic development: inadequate or inappropriate metapragmatic input, non-authentic classroom discourse a...The present paper discusses three major sources of negative effect of classroom instruction on L2 learners' pragmatic development: inadequate or inappropriate metapragmatic input, non-authentic classroom discourse and grammar-oriented pedagogy, then proposes some pedagogical suggestions on developing pragmatic competence.展开更多
This paper explores Chinese college students' motivation for learning oral English, which is normally considered as an important factor contributing to learners' speaking proficiency in Second Language Learning. The...This paper explores Chinese college students' motivation for learning oral English, which is normally considered as an important factor contributing to learners' speaking proficiency in Second Language Learning. The theoretical studies on motivation in Second Language Learning are firstly reviewed. Based on the literature review, Chinese college students' motivation in oral English learning is examined in terms of the Chinese context. Finally, five specific helpful strategies are put forward to facilitate students' optimal oral English learning.展开更多
It has been debated whether preference for subject-extracted relative clauses in language processing is a universal rule, with evidence from both first and second language acquisition studies. But very few studies foc...It has been debated whether preference for subject-extracted relative clauses in language processing is a universal rule, with evidence from both first and second language acquisition studies. But very few studies focus on learners of Chinese as a second language. The current research studied Chinese subject/object-extracted relative clauses processing among the learners of Chinese as a second language by a self-paced reading experiment. The results demonstrate a faster and more accurate processing of subject-extracted relative clauses in both subject and object modifying conditions, adding more evidence to the universal preference for the subject-extracted relative clauses. Both Frequency-Based Accounts and Memory-Based Accounts are discussed related to the current findings.展开更多
It has been widely agreed that the approaches teachers apply to language teaching, the attitudes students have, their motivation and target language proficiency are directly influenced or determined by their beliefs a...It has been widely agreed that the approaches teachers apply to language teaching, the attitudes students have, their motivation and target language proficiency are directly influenced or determined by their beliefs about language teaching and language learning respectively. This paper reports on a study which explored Mongolian teacher, Han teacher and Mongolian learner beliefs about the English teaching and learning of Inner Mongolian university students, with particular focus on the students' second language ability, the languages for classroom instruction and materials development. The results of the study indicate that there are belief differences among teachers and students; in particular, the beliefs of the Han teachers differ from those of Mongolian students. This study concludes that in order to improve Mongolian students' English teaching and learning, it is of vital importance to fill the belief discrepancy between teachers and students with regard to L3 acquisition, which is regarded as one of the crucial factors influencing the teaching and learning of English for Mongolian students in multilingual contexts in Inner Mongolia, China.展开更多
Following a cross-sectional design, the present study investigated the acquisition of English requests by Chinese learners at three proficiency levels with open production questionnaires. It was found that L2 linguist...Following a cross-sectional design, the present study investigated the acquisition of English requests by Chinese learners at three proficiency levels with open production questionnaires. It was found that L2 linguistic proficiency, L1 pragmatic transfer and classroom instruction have interactive effect on learners' L2 pragmatic development. A range of acquisitional features were found-learners' employment of direct request strategies decreased, the employment of conventionally indirect strategies increased and the number and variety of internal modifiers increased with the increase of proficiency. It was also found that L1 pragmatic transfer worked on various aspects of learners' requestive behavior and that inadequate or inappropriate input from the teaching materials and the EFL classroom arrangements might constrain their pragmatic development.展开更多
Identifying, describing and analyzing errors have been seen by many linguists as one of the main ways of investigating L2 acquisition.The present paper will focus on analyzing an advanced English learner' s errors...Identifying, describing and analyzing errors have been seen by many linguists as one of the main ways of investigating L2 acquisition.The present paper will focus on analyzing an advanced English learner' s errors in naturally occurring speech. Firstly, it describes in detail the errors that a Chinese advanced learner made in her first few months' the naturalistic communication, then analyzes the main types and causes of errors.Lastly, there is a conclusion that language errors are caused by the limits of human language (L1/L2) abilities and L2 errors are closely related to L1 interference.展开更多
文摘From the perspective of the poverty of stimulus argument and the cognitive development theory, this paper attempts to reveal the mechanism of language acquisition. The poverty of stimulus argument theoretically proves the hypothesis that based on their finite linguistic experience, children can construct their complete language knowledge system. Language acquisition is the process of acquisition of core grammar and of mental representation of vocabulary. Parameter values must be set in the process of children's core grammar acquisition. Vocabulary of natural language is stored and processed in the form of conceptual representation, which is associated with syntactic structures by projection rules and bounded by various well-formed rules. The cognitive development theory claims that language acquisition is a development process of universal grammar into particular grammar, which is redescribed at a higher level.
文摘The paper discusses 3 significant differences between Chinese and English. It proposes that because of the differences, the transfer of mother tongue into the target language tends to appear in the negative form. The negative transfer of Chinese into English is the major cause of the so-called Chinglish. The paper states some forms of the negative transfer.
文摘The paper discusses SL learners' lexical competence from O'Connor's Five Steps of Vocabulary Acquisition Theory, Collins & Loftus's Semantic Network Theory and Fay & Cutler's Mental Lexicon Theory. From the discussion, the author finds that second language learners' lexical competence includes the following aspects: the ability to recall the words which are similar to the target words in spelling and pronunciation; the ability to recall the synonyms of the target words; the ability to recall the antonyms of the target words; and the ability to recall the related words which come together with the target words in a context. Meanwhile it advances some strategies to develop the corresponding competence.
文摘The present study employed a quantitative and network approach to detect alignment effects in second language(L2) continuation tasks designed on the xu-argument(Wang, 2016). The materials used in this study were 6 sub-corpora consisting of two selected input stories and two groups of L2 written production based on two continuation tasks. During continuation, the participants were required to continue in English a story with its ending removed, with one group reading and continuing the Chinese version and the other group the English version, and then switching their roles in the two tasks. Results show that the alignment effect differs across the two versions of continuation. Specifically, compared with the Chinese-version continuation, L2 learners produced more use of unigrams and bigrams similar to the input story in terms of lexical items, frequency and ranking correlations in the English-version task;on the other hand, the English-version continuation can facilitate generating linguistic networks that are much closer to the native English networks. Moreover, this research corroborates that written production in L2 continuation tasks can be influenced by input content.
文摘How to promote interaction in cooperative learning tasks is discussed from a theoretical perspective in order to maximize the benefits of cooperative learning. A classroom instructional model is presented and examined to illustrate how successful and effective interaction is carried out to create the optimal conditions for second language acquisition.
基金This study is supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(G2019KY05202)Teaching Reform Project of NWPU2018(W015303).
文摘There has been a consensus that vocabulary knowledge has become a major contributor to L2 learners'efficient communication and comprehension.Incidental vocabulary acquisition relates to lexical gains as a by-product resulting from accomplishing another activity which is not aimed at learning vocabulary.This article intends to provide a digest of research on incidental vocabulary acquisition over the past few decades by primarily focusing on related theoretical frameworks,possible explanatory variables mediating incidental vocabulary learning,and tasks targeted at enhancing incidental lexical growth.In line with analyses of findings yielded from an impressive number of illuminating studies conducted,this article calls for a diversification of efforts in relation to multi-word lexical items,multi-modal e-learning technologies,and insights from neuroscience that may warrant more scholarly attention.These possible areas would further enrich the current scope of L2 incidental vocabulary acquisition research.
文摘Based on the literature review on learner-centered classroom, this essay is to explore now to create a learner-centered classroom in Chinese context so as to design a workshop for those teaching professionals all over China to create a learner-centered classroom. The workshop conducted mainly focuses on what is a learner-centered classroom, why and how to create a learner-centered classroom, meanwhile, it aims at helping the participants work out a practical framework which can be eventually put to their everyday teaching.
文摘We live in an age of changes. And these changes in science, technology, economy, political systems, and immigration patterns, especially the emergence of Internet, have created a world in which we increasingly interact with people from different cultures. The levels of students' cultural awareness toward the target language (English) have a profound influence on the foreign language teaching (English) practice and performance. Obviously linguistic knowledge alone is not enough to secure successful interactions with native speakers in cross cultural communications. Cultural mistakes are worse than linguistic ones because they tend to cause misjudgments, or ill feelings between native and foreign speakers. Therefore, this paper mainly discusses the relationship between culture and language, explaining cultural awareness, providing some principles of cultural knowledge teaching and some techniques to develop students' cultural awareness through foreign language (English) teaching in high schools.
文摘Since 1970s, action research is well claimed in education. This article tries to give a brief introduction of some major relevant information about action research, and then it explores the significance of adopting action research in EFLT. Moreover, it proposes a possible way, namely collaborative action research in EFLT.
文摘The goal of language instruction for EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners has always been a hot topic in SLA (Second Language Acquisition). First, Alan Davies's view to regard native speaker's proficiency as the goal of both L2 and EFL learners is retorted. And then another complete and realistic goal for EFL learners, that is, understandable and acceptable interlanguage of EFL learners themselves is sought out. Furthermore, the four characteristics of EFL learners' IL are to be summarized. Finally, one needs to notice the fact that interlanguage is dynamic and has a close relation to SLA and EFL study.
文摘Based on empirical research and qualitative analysis, this paper aims to explore the effects of interlingual strategies on L2 vocabulary teaching. The results show that, during L2 vocabulary teaching process, the proper application of interlingual strategies can effectively facilitate the memorization of new words, and the bilingual method (both English explanation and Chinese translation) is welcomed by most subjects. Therefore, using L1 as a means of semantization or as a tool for checking and validating L2 learners' understanding of word meaning should not be completely rejected, especially for adult Chinese EFL learners.
文摘It is difficult for L2 English learners in general, and especially Chinese learners of English, to form idiomatic collocations. This article presents a comparison of the use of intensifier-verb collocations in English by native speaker students and Chinese ESL learners, paying particular attention to verbs which collocate with intensifiers. The data consisted of written production from three corpora: two of these are native English corpora: the British Academic Written English(BAWE) Corpus and Michigan Corpus of Upper-Level Student Papers(MICUSP). The third one is a recently created Chinese Learner English corpus, Ten-thousand English Compositions of Chinese Learners(TECCL).Findings suggest that Chinese learners of English produce significantly more intensifier-verb collocations than native speaker students, but that their English attests a smaller variety of intensifier-verb collocations compared with the native speakers. Moreover, Chinese learners of English use the intensifier-verb collocation types just-verb, only-verb and really-verb very frequently compared with native speaker students. As regards verb collocates, the intensifiers hardly, clearly,well, strongly and deeply collocate with semantically different verbs in native and Chinese learner English. Compared with the patterns in Chinese learner English, the intensifiers in native speaker English collocate with a more stable and restricted set of verb collocates.
文摘The present paper discusses three major sources of negative effect of classroom instruction on L2 learners' pragmatic development: inadequate or inappropriate metapragmatic input, non-authentic classroom discourse and grammar-oriented pedagogy, then proposes some pedagogical suggestions on developing pragmatic competence.
文摘This paper explores Chinese college students' motivation for learning oral English, which is normally considered as an important factor contributing to learners' speaking proficiency in Second Language Learning. The theoretical studies on motivation in Second Language Learning are firstly reviewed. Based on the literature review, Chinese college students' motivation in oral English learning is examined in terms of the Chinese context. Finally, five specific helpful strategies are put forward to facilitate students' optimal oral English learning.
基金supported through the National Social Science Foundation of China(13BYY072)
文摘It has been debated whether preference for subject-extracted relative clauses in language processing is a universal rule, with evidence from both first and second language acquisition studies. But very few studies focus on learners of Chinese as a second language. The current research studied Chinese subject/object-extracted relative clauses processing among the learners of Chinese as a second language by a self-paced reading experiment. The results demonstrate a faster and more accurate processing of subject-extracted relative clauses in both subject and object modifying conditions, adding more evidence to the universal preference for the subject-extracted relative clauses. Both Frequency-Based Accounts and Memory-Based Accounts are discussed related to the current findings.
文摘It has been widely agreed that the approaches teachers apply to language teaching, the attitudes students have, their motivation and target language proficiency are directly influenced or determined by their beliefs about language teaching and language learning respectively. This paper reports on a study which explored Mongolian teacher, Han teacher and Mongolian learner beliefs about the English teaching and learning of Inner Mongolian university students, with particular focus on the students' second language ability, the languages for classroom instruction and materials development. The results of the study indicate that there are belief differences among teachers and students; in particular, the beliefs of the Han teachers differ from those of Mongolian students. This study concludes that in order to improve Mongolian students' English teaching and learning, it is of vital importance to fill the belief discrepancy between teachers and students with regard to L3 acquisition, which is regarded as one of the crucial factors influencing the teaching and learning of English for Mongolian students in multilingual contexts in Inner Mongolia, China.
文摘Following a cross-sectional design, the present study investigated the acquisition of English requests by Chinese learners at three proficiency levels with open production questionnaires. It was found that L2 linguistic proficiency, L1 pragmatic transfer and classroom instruction have interactive effect on learners' L2 pragmatic development. A range of acquisitional features were found-learners' employment of direct request strategies decreased, the employment of conventionally indirect strategies increased and the number and variety of internal modifiers increased with the increase of proficiency. It was also found that L1 pragmatic transfer worked on various aspects of learners' requestive behavior and that inadequate or inappropriate input from the teaching materials and the EFL classroom arrangements might constrain their pragmatic development.
文摘Identifying, describing and analyzing errors have been seen by many linguists as one of the main ways of investigating L2 acquisition.The present paper will focus on analyzing an advanced English learner' s errors in naturally occurring speech. Firstly, it describes in detail the errors that a Chinese advanced learner made in her first few months' the naturalistic communication, then analyzes the main types and causes of errors.Lastly, there is a conclusion that language errors are caused by the limits of human language (L1/L2) abilities and L2 errors are closely related to L1 interference.