The Use of Children＇s Literature With University English as a Foreign Language Learners in Taiwan

This paper reports findings from a longitudinal qualitative study that investigated the use of children＇s literature for Taiwan Residents University English as a Foreign Language （EFL） students＇ reading. During the course of their sophomore year, 17 students participated and each student held two to seven individual reading sessions, to which they brought a self-selected children＇s picture storybook or children＇s novel they had finished reading on their own and orally read it to the researcher. Their oral reading and the discussion of each book with the researcher were audio recorded. To gain insight into the reading progress, these oral data were categorized and analyzed in terms of mispronunciation patterns, misunderstanding of vocabulary, misinterpretation of sentence or passage, and researcher＇s guidance. General findings of the 17 participants were presented in three categories： （1） vocabulary acquisition, （2） common comprehension problems, and （3） common pronunciation problems. Further analysis of two motivated students who read five to seven books revealed that （1） these two EFL learners gradually developed conscious awareness of their own pronunciation and comprehension errors and （2） they progressively acquired better competence to apply the pronunciation tips and reading comprehension techniques provided by the researcher during previous sessions. These findings and corresponding implications are discussed and further research suggestions are made.

A Comparison of the lexical processing in Children's Word Acquisition and in Adults' Word Learning

Children can acquire knowledge of their mother tongue easily in a relatively short time,whereas adults are too inferior to bear the comparison in learning a second language.This paper sets out to study the background and process of children's and adults' language learning,make comparison and contrast,and find out an effective way to promote adults' second language learning.

重述和澄清要求与儿童外语发展

比较重述和澄清要求两种反馈方式对中国外语课堂环境下儿童学习英语过去时态标识的不同作用。纠正性反馈能有效促进儿童外语学习。其中在对反馈的接纳方面,如果老师同时提供重述和澄清要求,儿童的接纳就更多一些,其次是澄清要求,再次是重述;而在反馈的作用方面,重述和澄清要求最能促进儿童外语的发展,其次是重述,再次是澄清要求。

中国儿童早期外语教育的几点思考

神经心理学的研究表明,语言的习得有其临界期,而第二语言习得的临界期问题一直未得到证实。认知心理学的研究也表明,语言对认知发展既有促进又有阻碍作用。而在中国,英语作为外语,缺乏真实的语用环境。这无疑会对儿童的英语习得造成障碍。因此,中国儿童的早期英语教育问题应从中国的国情出发,以促进儿童全面发展为目标,合理安排,不能提倡越早越好。

少儿外语培训市场的现状分析

随着改革开放的不断深化,我国的国际化进程在不断推进,对外语人才的需要也与日俱增。因此,外语学习受到了各个年龄段人群的高度重视,而外语培训市场也应运而生。在近几年,西安地区少儿外语培训市场如雨后春笋般成长起来,但随之而来的市场问题也不容忽视。本文针对目前西安地区少儿外语培训市场所存在的问题提出相关对策,以期有利于市场健康发展。