An investigation into the speechlessness of Chinese native culture in Chinese EFL learners＇ intercultural communication in English

Based on a survey of intercultural competence in intercultural communication in English, this paper discusses the speechlessness of Chinese native culture in Chinese EFL learners＇ English intercultural communication, its effects as well as its pedagogical implications for English learning ＆ teaching in Chinese EFL context.

Chinese Native Speakers' Counterfactuals Revisited

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.

Research on the European and American Music Education Mode and Corresponding Influence on the Chinese Native Music Education

In this paper, we research on the European and American music education mode and corresponding influence on the Chinese native music education. At present our country education system reform has come to a critical period, especially the education reform in colleges and universities in the new stage of development. The serious influence is the quality of music teaching. Colleges and universities music education make and manage the school, the school for students to adopt a unified education model, unified teaching materials and teaching methods, make the music education of the college unification. Our proposed approach combines the advances of western education pattern with the native music education which will be effective and innovative.

Unsuccessful letter–sound integration in English reading by native Chinese speakers: evidence from an event related potentials study

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.

Interculturality,Identity,and Power:Experiences of Volunteer Chinese Teachers at Overseas Confucius Institutes

With the rapid expansion of Confucius Institutes globally,the Hanban launched a Volunteer Chinese Teachers(VCT)Program with the purpose of selecting a large number of college graduates and graduate students from Chinese universities to fill vacancies for overseas Chinese teachers.In spite of the multitude of students participating in the program,there has been a paucity of research attention on them.How do these students,most of whom have never been abroad before,manage their life in their host country and negotiate their new role as a VCT in an overseas Confucius Institute?What are their intercultural experiences as they venture into a new country to serve as a native teacher of Chinese?Based on in-depth interviews with a dozen VCTs teaching in linguistically and culturally different contexts,this study seeks to examine the dynamics of interculturality,identity and power relations involved in their overseas language teaching.

Bovine HSD17B8 gene and its relationship with growth and meat quality traits

17 β-Hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 8 （HSD17B8） is an important regulator of lipid and steroid metabolism. In the present study, we aimed to assess the effects of HSD17B8 on growth and meat quality traits in cattle. Transcription profile analysis showed that HSD17B8 was primarily expressed in the salpinx, liver, and testis. Meanwhile, we identified three SNPs （SNPI： intron 1-A91G; SNP2： exon 1-A90G; and SNP3： intron 8-A86G） of the bovine HSD17B8 gene and investigated its haplotype frequencies and linkage disequilibrium. The detected SNPs were found associated with growth traits （body weight, body length, height at withers, heart girth, hip width, and average daily gain） in native cattle populations （Nanyang and Jiaxian） as well as the meat quality traits （Warner- Bratzler shear force, rib area, dressing percentage, carcass weight, and backfat thickness） in commercial breeds （Angus, Hereford, Limousin, Luxi, Simmental, and Jinnan）. Our results provided evidence that polymorphisms in the HSD17B8 gene were associated with growth traits and meat quality traits. Moreover, our findings might be used for marker-assisted selection in beef cattle breeding program