Promoting the Learners’Motivation in Learning Chinese as a Second Language:From Demotivation to Motivational Strategies

Motivation is a key factor that influences the outcome of second language(L2)learning.Chinese as a second language(CSL)learners,however,may experience demotivation in their Chinese learning process which will,more often than not,reduce their learning interest and eventually affect their learning effect,therefore,it is necessary to enhance the learners’motivation level.This article first reviews the research literature in motivation in general,then discusses the CSL learners’demotivation in their Chinses learning process studying in China.Finally,it introduces motivational strategies to activate CSL learners’motivation in learning Chinese.

On the Cognition of Second Language Mental Lexicon and Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language

Teaching Chinese as a foreign language is actually the teaching of Chinese as a second language by international Chinese teachers.People must learn vocabulary as a language element in the process of language acquisition.Without vocabulary,there is no language.When we master the vocabulary of a language,we rely on mental lexicon,which is vocabulary that has been stored in the brain for a long time.Through the study of second language mental lexicon,it can be used effectively,and corresponding teaching methods can be used in the vocabulary teaching of Chinese as a foreign language to help students learn Chinese quickly and effectively.

A Study on the Compilation of Dictionaries for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language Based on the Second Language Acquisition Theory

This article intends to demonstrate the principles for dictionary compilation.To summarize,general rules are to be followed.At the same time,this article probes into the differences of Chinese to Chinese dictionary,Chinese to foreign language dictionary,dictionaries for the preparation of certain exams,learner’s dictionaries for reviewing errors,dictionaries with multimedia and dictionaries built via the Internet..In all,one of the key factors for dictionary compilation is the professionalism of editors and writers.The training of the people involved is vital,which would contribute to setting up a better order of the market.Acknowledgements should also be given to achievements in dictionary compilation.Revisions and polishing are required to improve the dictionaries on the market that have already won the acclaim so as to put their influence to the best display.

Research on the Application of Chinese-Style Songs in the Field of Chinese Second Language Teaching

In recent years,traditional Chinese culture has been continuously revived,integrated into the times and entered people’s daily lives.Chinese-style songs,as a combination of traditional cultural connotations and emerging song forms,have gradually emerged on the music stage in China and even around the world.In the field of teaching Chinese as a second language,the research on teaching Chinese songs has received increasing attention.This article combines the theory of the association between music and language to summarize the research results of Chinese-style songs and their application in the field of teaching Chinese as a second language in the past 30 years.The current research problems are discussed,and suggestions are proposed in order to provide some reference value for teaching Chinese as a second language.

Critical Pedagogy and Teaching English as a Foreign Language in Chinese College Context

In the field of second language acquisition(SLA),weight has been increasingly attached to the role that a problem-pos ing model of education plays in English as second/foreign language(ES/FL)teaching and learning.By exploring various concepts of the problem-posing approach,also known as critical pedagogy,and its implications for English language teaching(ELT)in the Chinese postsecondary EFL context,the paper makes a tentative attempt to acknowledge the future directions of implementing critical pedagogy in the EFL context.Therefore,the paper is inspired by the ever-increasing popularity of the critical pedagogical approach in the ESL context.The application of critical orientation in language education derives from critical theories of the Frankfurt School,which centers on Marxist societal beliefs of struggling against social inequalities.With the concept of critical pedagogy drawing increasing attention from language educators and teachers alike in English-speaking countries;non-native English teachers who teach in the EFL context has also begun to focus their attention on the educational philosophy as a means to help transform traditional oppressed status of the Chinese EFL learners.From this perspective,this paper,by investigating the multi-dimensional implied meanings of implementing critical pedagogy in the EFL context,unraveling how it works as a way of"doing"in second language(L2)teaching and learning,identifying the probable contexts of critical pedagogy and the contesta tions surrounding critical pedagogy,aims to address the significance of implementing critical pedagogy as an effective way of re forming the ailing English education condition in China.

A Study of Effective Feedback from Teachers in the Classroom of Chinese as a Second Language

Feedback is the teacher's response and evaluation to the students'performance in class,and it is also an important part of classroom interaction.This article focuses on two aspects:the use of positive feedback and corrective feedback from teachers,aiming to explore the impact of teachers feedback behavior on teaching effect.

Applying Nearpod to the Teaching Chinese as a Second Language Class to Enhance Interactions and Collaborations in the Secondary Schools

The quick spread of the epidemic since 2019 together with fast advancing of technology has exposed teachers to online education,including Teaching Chinese as a Second Language(TCSL)classrooms.Some Chinese as a Second Language(CSL)teachers were reluctant to utilize technology tools in their teaching due to the lack of technological knowledge.Thus,this study designed a CSL curriculum with the lens of the TPACK framework(Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge).Nearpod was specifically adopted as a web-based technology tool to support the teaching Chinese language due to its powerful functions provided.Nearpod allows teachers to design interactive activities in multiple ways to facilitate interactions and collaboration in the CSL learning process.This paper aimed to help Chinese teachers improve their understanding of how to effectively integrate technology into CSL teaching.Chinese teachers will develop a deeper comprehension of distance teaching from the perspectives of technology,pedagogy,and content knowledge,enhance students’deeper learning,and promote interaction and collaboration in L2 class.The effective use of the technology can develop language skills in a meaningful context knowledge with the guidance of pedagogical content knowledge.

Factors influencing English Language Learners' performance on the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test

本研究调查了英语学习者个体特点对其在安大略省中学读写测试(OSSLT)成绩的潜在影响。研究者收集了参加OSSLT考试学生的个体因素和与其父母受教育程度、社会经济地位相关的学校因素,将这些因素和学生OSSLT考试成绩(N=4311)进行相关性分析。研究变量包括:课后读写活动、家庭语言使用和该校学生家庭平均经济社会地位。分析结果体现了考试成绩和个体因素以及学校因素的相关性。具体而言,与高分相关的读写活动包括互联网使用、文学和非小说类的阅读;父母受教育水平(而非收入水平)是一项独立的积极预测指标,该指标对OSSLT学生阅读和写作成绩的影响因素分别占到了20%和9%。

Erasable/Inerasable L1 Transfer in Interlanguage Phonology:An Optimality Theory Analysis of/aʊn/and Sentence Stress in Chinese Learners of English

The areas affected by the L1 transfer to L2,such as phonotactics and stress,appear to have different degrees of erasability through training and practice.This paper attempts a theoretical analysis to account for empirical observations of L1 transfer in diphthong-coda coalescence and in sentence stress for Chinese learners of English in an American accent training course.Using the framework and tableau method of Optimality Theory(Prince and Smolensky 1993),the phonological paradigm that views languages’differences as symptomatic of differences in rankings of a set of universal violable constraints,this paper posits the underlying ranking at work in(a)the segmental case where[aŋ]is the observed output for/aʊn/;(b)the suprasegmental case where no stress contrast is observed for a pair of phonologically similar sentences with contrastive stress.It is argued that,in the segmental case,the coalescence of the second vowel of a diphthong with an alveolar nasal coda results from the high ranking of markedness constraints,including Complex Syllable;and in the suprasegmental case,sentence stress is greatly affected by changes in the ranking of the constraint culminativity.Aside from shedding light on the understudied issue of diphthong-coda coalescence,this research also contributes to the discussion of the comparative erasability of L1 transfer for the two areas and demonstrates how a deduction-based theoretical method may actually have practical implications for guiding the design of L2 teaching methodology of English pronunciation as well as for promoting native English speakers’clearer understanding of Chinese learners of English on the global stage.

The Use of an Elicited Imitation Test to Measure Global Oral Proficiency of L2 Chinese at the Postsecondary Classroom Level

With a growing number of foreign language studies on proficiency outcomes,it is imperative to address the challenge of measuring students’proficiency development in a language program where standardized proficiency testing is not readily available.This article reports administering a Chinese elicited imitation test(EIT)by an instructor to track students’global oral proficiency development in a small language program in a mid-size U.S.public university.The test results from the EIT of second language(L2)Chinese suggest that this tool can provide the instructor with valuable insights into students’oral proficiency.This study also discusses the potential practical value of using this EIT in a language program with limited resources for standardized proficiency assessment.The hope is that this study will encourage language educators who are not already doing so to start using empirical evidence from a valid and reliable proficiency measurement tool to reflect on,improve,and guide their instructional practices.

基于多层面Rasch模型的英语口试信度分析

英语口语考试涉及面广,难以用单一指标衡量信度,而多层面Rasch模型可以从考生、评分员、评分标准和评分量表等角度探讨影响成绩的测量误差。可以某校中外合作专业大一新生分级考试中的英语口试成绩为研究对象,运用Facets软件进行分析。研究发现,虽然评分员的主观评分会产生一定的测量误差,使考生实际测量值和预测值存在出入,但这差异并不足以影响考生的最终报道成绩。此外,多层面Rasch模型证明:考生、评分员、评分标准和量表这四个层面具有良好的内部一致性,总体较为理想,因此,可认为该校组织的英语口语考试具有良好的信度。

Twitter Application to Chinese Language Learning:Lessons and Suggestions

本行动研究将推特对140字符的要求和中初级中文二语学习者在宽松环境中进行语言输出的需求联系起来,把推特引入大学中文二语课堂。基于学生推特行为的描述性统计数据和学生对期末调查问卷的反馈,本文反思和总结了此次教学探索的经验教训。作者提出,把推特这样的社交应用用作教育工具,任务性学习或项目性学习方面的教学结构设计仍然是必要的。作者也探讨了如何利用推特的社交功能建设中文二语学习者和教育者的学习社区。

Challenges of Employing VoiceThread to Enhance U.S.Collegiate Chinese Language Learners’Oral Proficiency

The digital age in education inspires Chinese teachers to integrate Web 2.0 technologies into Chinese as a second language(CSL)curricula to enhance teaching effects.However,few studies examine the challenges that teachers face when integrating Web 2.0 technologies to improve student oral proficiency in Chinese.This study aims to investigate students’perceptions of the effectiveness of the Web 2.0 technology VoiceThread(VT).It examines the challenges of integrating VT to enhance student oral proficiency.The authors conducted two studies with 31 students responding to a questionnaire in Study 1 and 48 students responding to the same questionnaire in Study 2.All students are beginner-level CSL learners.Three results were obtained.Result 1 shows that documents and articles report VT as popular and easy to use,however,few teachers employed VT in their teaching practices.Result 2 indicates another discrepancy.Although students highly evaluated the usefulness of the VT-facilitated activities,they were reluctant to perform these activities.By comparing Study 1 and Study 2,the authors obtained Result 3:Students in Study 2 evaluated VT-integrated teaching practices consistently higher than those in Study 1.Teachers’using experiences primarily led these perception differences.This study provides CSL teachers with a vision of the opportunities and challenges that may occur when they integrate Web 2.0 technologies into curricular to improve CSL oral proficiency.

An Exploration of the Influence of Willingness to Communicate on Second Language Communication

This qualitative study aims at exploring the influence of L2 learners' willingness to communicate(WTC) on second language communication. The participants involved in this study were 7 beginners learning Mandarin in a Chinese university whose native languages were totally different. Multiple sources of data were collected, including classroom observations, semistructured interviews and stimulated recalls. The results indicate that the students with higher level of WTC were more fluent in L2 Chinese communication, and the student whose native language or second language is Russian performed better in Chinese communication.

A Case Study of Linking in English and Chinese

For second language learners, understanding native speakers can be difficult because they talk fluently and unconsciously with natural language skills. In English, native speakers link words together according to certain rules, two or more words may sound like one. This research prepares some English and Chinese sentences for students with different language backgrounds to read, the recorded pronunciations are analyzed to find out the factors that affect word linking, such as mother language, speaking situation, dialect, familiarity with the language, and the frequency of using it, etc.

Producing Podcasts in a Chinese Classroom: A Digital Humanities Project

This action research which situates itself in the context of Digital Humanities focuses on engaging students of Introductory Chinese course with an assignment to create podcasts in the form of an interview.Requiring students to integrate the aural,oral,and textural information via technology so as to carry a conversation with an interlocutor challenges them to convey their thoughts from the language they think in into meaningful ideas using the target language.In this way,students are“pushed”to convert their listening,speaking,and writing from being isolated components into a more dynamic and cohesive mode of communicating.As they explore expressing their ideas in the language they are learning,they develop the skills and sensibility needed to critically analyze their own work.Although limited in scale,the podcast format urges students to transform what they need to learn into a familiar product.

Research on Effect of Age Parameter in Second Language Acquisition

In the filed of Second Language Acquisition (SLA),language learners'final competence and learning efficiency could be greatly influenced by individual differences,including language aptitude,learners'motivation,first language context and age.These individual differences mentioned above are always regarded as the remarkable parameters in the study on SLA.As one of the most influential parameter,age newly has been re-fetched by contemporary SLA researchers and in this research field critical and sensitive period hypothesis are set as highly valuable research target to explore the problems of learning rate,teaching method ology and language policy.This article firstly introduces the basic theoretical framework of critical and sensitive period hypothesis,and then explores the relation of these two hypotheses and the SLA by existing experimental results.Based on detailed theoretical introduction and exploration of recent research experiment,implications of critical and sensitive period hypothesis are further ap plied in the Chinese teaching context,i.e.the feasibility of age-based multi-methodology teaching method.Meanwhile,exist ing limitations of current major research in this filed also will be presented in order to assist the future experimental study in Chi nese teaching context,especially university ESL teaching.

互动语言学在汉语二语教学中的应用:理论基础与实践设计

二语教学是互动语言学极有发展前景的一个研究领域。本文简要阐述了将互动语言学应用于汉语二语教学的理论基础,并结合已有研究提出互动视角下汉语二语教学实践设计的基本思路。总体来看,互动语言学能应用于汉语二语教学有三个重要的理论基础:1)二语发展以言谈互动为原始环境;2)二语习得以互动能力为终极目标;3)二语能力以社会行为表达为核心要素。在此基础上,文章提出汉语二语教学实践四点基本思路:1)开发真实自然的汉语教材;2)创设面向交际的互动语境;3)运用基于互动的教学策略;4)开发多种模态的教学资源。

日本中文教育发展述评

文章通过历时分析、对比分析、文本分析等方法考察了日本中文教育的具体情况,发现:中文是日本诸多领域中的第二外语,但与作为第一外语的英语间存在显著差距;日本中文线上教学实践中,对线上教学模式基本持有肯定态度,偏好使用YouTube等视频教学资源。推进日本的中文教育发展,需要在客观把握当前中文教育发展实态的基础上,重视强化中文的领域语言价值,精准分析日本当下中文教育的本地化需求,大力推进中文教育的数字化发展。