Towards Lessening Learners’Aversive Emotions and Promoting Their Mental Health:Developing and Validating a Measurement of English Speaking Demotivation in the Chinese EFL Context

While a plethora of studies has been conducted to explore demotivation and its impact on mental health in second language(L2)education,scanty research focuses on demotivation in L2 speaking learning.Particularly,little research explores the measures to quantify L2 speaking demotivation.The present two-phase study attempts to develop and validate an English Speaking Demotivation Scale(ESDS).To this end,an independent sample of 207 Chinese tertiary learners of English as a Foreign Language(EFL)participated in the development phase,and another group of 188 Chinese EFL learners was recruited for the validation of the scale.Exploratory Factor Analysis(EFA)and Confirmatory Factor Analysis(CFA)were employed to determine the factor structure of the scale.The EFA results revealed a six-factor solution with Teacher-related Factors in Learning Spoken English(TFLSE),Interest and Valence in Learning Spoken English(IVLSE),Self-efficacy in Learning Spoken English(SELSE),Negative Peer Influence in Learning Spoken English(NPILSE),Undesirable Environment for Learning Spoken English(UELSE),and Negative Influence of Assessment and Learning Materials in speaking class(NIALM).In the validation phase,Confirmatory Factor Analysis(CFA)was performed to validate the internal structure of the scale.The CFA results showed that the model fits the data well.Overall,the ESDS is a robust and trustworthy psychometric tool that could be utilized to examine L2 speaking demotivation.Implications for diminishing EFL learners’demotivation,lessening their aversive emotions and promoting their mental health are also discussed.

“Voices of Heaven and Rhymes of God”——My English and Chinese Poetry Written from the Bible in Rhyme and Rhythm is Worth over Fifteen Towns together

Thanks to Heavens bestow me natural gift and literary talent, so that I not only like English and Chinese poems, but also can write poems in English and Chinese. After my 2nd book English Letters and Essays published by Sichuan University Press in March 2016, I began to write my 3rd book Voices of Heaven and Rhymes of God-My English and Chinese poetry written from the Bible in Rhyme and Rhythm. Imitating the most famous British, American and Italian poets, I have written more than one thousand English and Chinese bilingual poems from free poems, prose, addresses and narratives in the nine copies of the Bible in fourteen kinds of English metrical stanzas of poems, such as couplet, tercet, quatrain, cinquain, sixain, septet, octive, Spenserian stanza, ten-line stanza, sonnet, crown sonnet and long-stanzas (12, 13, 18) in rhyme and rhythm, in iambic pentameter and iambic tetrameter. And my Chinese poems in the version are in five, six, seven, eight and nine Chinese characters. We know the story in the Spring and Autumn Dynasty, Bian He’s Jade is the Jade of jades, the Treasure of treasures, and it is worth fifteen towns together. And I think my treasury Voices of Heaven and Rhymes of God is the Gem of jades and treasures, cause it brings us proverbs, wisdom, courage, confidence, strength, lifestyle etc. from the Bible, it really brings us heavenly grace, gift and wisdom. Voices of Heaven and Rhymes of God will be submitted out respectfully to common people;its soul is praising the Heavens sincerely, and hearing a universal singing.

An Introduction to the Dissemination of Chinese Culture in English Teaching in Colleges and Universities

Language and culture are closely related,and understanding the cultural knowledge embedded in the process of language learning is an important goal of English teaching in colleges and universities.At present,the dissemination of Chinese culture in English teaching in colleges and universities is lacking,which affects the improvement of students’intercultural communication skills.In order to effectively solve such problems,we need to take effective measures to disseminate Chinese culture by combining teaching content and students’characteristics.This paper summarizes the problems of Chinese culture dissemination in English teaching in colleges and universities,and explores effective countermeasures and teaching considerations,hoping to provide teachers with valuable guidelines.

The Translation and Introduction of Chinese Myth in English World

Different from Greek myth,Chinese myth is scattered among many kinds of ancient books such as The Classic of Mountains and Seas,Chuci,Huainanzi,etc.There is no Chinese classic that records mythology like the Odyssey and Iliad.After the 20th century,Chinese scholars began to collect and study myths.In the English world,missionaries began to translate and introduce Chinese myths from the middle and late 19th century,and then Chinese scholars and sinologists have been translating and introducing Chinese myths.At present,the English translation of Chinese mythology has made a lot of achievements,but there are also many misunderstandings.This paper explores the current situation of the English translation of Chinese mythology by analyzing several well-known translations.

Four Dimensions of Integrating Chinese Culture Into College English Teaching From the Perspective of Tyler’s Basic Principles

Integrating Chinese culture into college English can not only enhance students’humanities literacy and cultivate their cultural confidence,but also facilitate the inheritance and international dissemination of Chinese culture.Taking Tyler’s curriculum framework as the starting point,this paper analyzes some factors that affect the integration of Chinese culture into the college English teaching and proposes some strategies for the integration of Chinese culture into college English teaching by innovating teaching objectives,enriching teaching contents,transforming modes of course delivery,and reconstructing the assessment system.

The Role and Value of Sociolinguistics in English Language Teaching

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.

A Study on the Integration of Chinese Culture in High School English Teaching

The inseparable relationship between language and culture indicates that culture teaching is indispensable in English teaching.The ultimate goal of culture teaching in English teaching is to cultivate learners’cross-cultural communication skills.Cross-cultural communication is a two-way process,which requires not only knowledge of English culture but also the use of English as a medium for disseminating Chinese culture to the outside world.However,in actual English teaching,the teaching of Chinese culture is a mere formality,and the teaching effect is not obvious.Therefore,it is necessary to conduct a survey and research on Chinese culture teaching in high school English classrooms to understand its current situation,existing problems,and their causes,so as to provide suggestions for Chinese culture teaching in high school.

Application of Traditional Chinese Culture in Cross-Cultural English Education:A Case Study of the Maritime Silk Road in Guangdong Province

The phenomenon of aphasia in Chinese culture is serious.The existing English teaching materials emphasize too much Western culture education and lack traditional Chinese cultural elements.Therefore,this paper takes the Guangdong Maritime Silk Road as an example to study the specific application of traditional Chinese culture in cross-cultural English education.This paper first summarizes the significance of cross-cultural integration into college English education and then points out the serious phenomenon of Chinese cultural aphasia.Next,the paper focuses on English education,using English textbooks as a starting point to explore and integrate strategies related to excellent traditional Chinese culture from the Guangdong Maritime Silk Road.By integrating traditional Chinese culture into business English classes(with the Guangdong Maritime Silk Road as an example),the study explores the influence of such cultural integration on students’cross-cultural communication skills,cultural identity,and learning effects.The results showed that the P value of the experimental group and the control group was<0.05,that is,cultural integration had a positive effect on improving the effect of cross-cultural English education.The overall scores and cultural confidence of the experimental group are higher than those of the control group,which proves that cross-cultural teaching has a positive effect on the improvement of students’scores.

English Writing Autonomy and Literacy among Chinese College Students

The purpose of this study is to examine the current situation of English writing autonomy and literacy among Chinese college students,to analyze their performance,scale,and distribution as well as influencing factors,and to explore the correlation between English writing autonomy and literacy.This study will provide an in-depth analysis of the current situation of Chinese college students’English writing autonomy and literacy,reveal the scale,distribution,and influencing factors,as well as put forward strategies to enhance them,so as to provide a reference for the reform and development of college English education.

Challenges and Countermeasures in Integrating Chinese Traditional Culture into English Listening and Speaking Course

Foreign language education involves not only language education but also cultural education.It is the new mission of today’s foreign language education to integrate Chinese traditional culture into foreign language teaching and cultivate foreign language talents who can tell Chinese stories well and spread Chinese voice.As a basic course for English majors,English Listening and Speaking faces many challenges when it is integrated into Chinese traditional culture,such as complex teaching content,limited teaching resources,insufficient teachers’literacy,and students’listening and speaking difficulties.In order to solve these problems,teachers and universities should work together to sort out the connotation of Chinese traditional culture,develop audio-visual teaching materials,organize teacher training,and innovate teaching methods,so as to effectively promote the connection between Chinese traditional culture and English Listening and Speaking curriculum system.

A Comparative Analysis of the Origin and Formation Between Chinese Characters and English Alphabets

This research is based on the framework of social constructivism,utilizing the principle of Human Universals as a methodology to compare the similarities and differences between the ideation and formation methods of Chinese characters and English alphabets.Through comparative analysis of the ideation of English letters(pictogramme)and the origin of Chinese characters,known as the"Six Categories Theory,"we discover their alignment in terms of social,traditional,and cultural aspects.This suggests that different ethnic groups share common features in terms of life experience,learning cognitive development,and thinking habits.This study also finds that the origins of English letters and Chinese characters share similar linguistic features in their methods of constructing letters/characters,such as pictographic,ideographic,and semantic characteristics.Exploring these commonalities contributes to promoting learning and communication between Chinese and English characters.Additionally,by focusing on socio-cultural aspects,traditional customs,and cognitive learning,this study aims to break away from the traditional linguistic research approach that solely focuses on language differences.This provides a broader perspective and richer dimensions for Chinese and English language learning,facilitating the development of cross-linguistic and cross-cultural communication.

English "DOG" and Chinese "GOU":Comparison on English and Chinese Cultural Connotations in Terms of Animal Words

Connotations refer to the additional meanings that a word or phrase has beyond its central meaning.These meanings show people's attitudes or feelings toward what the word or phrase refers to.People from different countries or regions may have different connotative reactions to the word or phrase because of their different social and cultural background.Such as the word "dog" in English and 狗(gou)in Chinese.Though they can be said to have the same denotative meaning,people from China and English-speaking countries havedifferent attitudes toward the above two words.This article is about to compare English and Chinese cultural connotations in terms of animal words.And the author hopes there will be fewer and fewer communicative problems arising from cultural differences in intercultural communication as long as people from different countries or regions could more and more understand each other's culture.

On the Reflection and Comparison of Gender Discrimination in English and Chinese

Languages play an important role in our lives. As a mirror of the society, they reflect different cultures, diversified customs and various values. Gender discrimination, as a notable phenomenon in the society, is thus inevitably reflected in the use of both English and Chinese.This paper tries to attach importance to the study of the reflection of gender discrimination in English and Chinese from the aspects of word formation, semantics, syntax and cultures in order to put forward some solutions to solve this problem.

Analysis of the motivation of Chinese words in comparison with English words

Motivation shows some kind of physical connection or causal relation between the signified and the signifier. Both Chinese and English consist of motivated words. This paper makes a comparison between the motivation of Chinese words and that of English words through the analysis of their phonetic motivation, morphological motivation, semantic motivation and writing motivation, with the aim to illustrate the motivation of Chinese words.

Comparison of the Speech Act of Requests between English and Chinese

Here it will make a comparison of the speech act of requests between English and Chinese.And then it is good for people to know and master the skill of making requests.

Word order and thinking mode of English and Chinese languages

This article aims to analyze the difference of word order between English and Chinese languages after making a constructive study of them and concludes that it is the reflection of different thinking characteristics of the two nationalities. The difference of history development, cultural tradition, social economy and geographic environment naturally produces the thinking mode with the national features. The different features certainly influence the language expression. It is because language is not only the main carrier of thinking but also the important expression form. So to well study the features of thinking mode is of great importance to translation, foreign language teaching and cross-cultural communication.

The Comparison of Connotative Meaning in Animal Words between Chinese and English Expressions and Their Translation

A good translation involves the language as well as the culture.Providing many convincing examples,this thesis attemptsto describe and discuss the differences and similarities in animal words between Chinese and English expressions so as to exploretheir cultural connotations and interaction with translation.

A Comparison of Love Metaphors in Chinese and English from the Perspective of Cognition

Metaphor is a figure of speech in which one thing is compared to another by saying that A is B or using words as"as"or"like".Love is human beings’eternal theme.Studying love metaphors in both English and Chinese language from the perspective of cognition can help people understand the working mechanism of love metaphors better.

A Comparative Study of Chinese and English Marriage Custom

Marriage is a very important part in one's life.But different countries have different wedding ceremonies because of the culture difference.western wedding is simple while Chinese wedding is complex.No matter you choose the Chinese style or the western style,you should marry the one you love best,and then you can enjoy a beautiful life.