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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

An Analysis of Value Differences in English and Chinese Idioms from the Perspective of Intercultural Communication

Idioms are the essence and gems of human wisdom and an important carrier of national culture. As a special form of language, they play an important role in intercultural communication. Due to the uniqueness of each culture, English and Chinese idioms are different in many aspects, values included. The present paper attempts to analyze the different values in English and Chinese idioms from three aspects: dependence vs independence, past-time orientation vs future-time orientation, and harmony vs competition. And the authors hope that it will be of some practical significance in people's intercultural communication.

The Study on the Differences of Sense of Words between English and Chinese in Translation

Translation is not only the process of transforming langue form, but also the process of interacting one thinking means and concept with another. Moreover, so as to ensure accuracy of translation, one needs to comprehend the sense of words in the source language correctly, and take appropriate approach to resolve the differences between Chinese and English through analyzing the causes. Therefore, this paper will study the differences of sense of words between English and Chinese in translation.

A Study on the Different Levels of“Attention”in the Processing of English Subjunctive Mood by Chinese Learners

“Attention”is a very vital cognitive mechanism.Cognitive psychology considers“attention”as the focus of mental activity and consciousness on an object.People engage their senses and memory to actively process the object in front of them.Theories of second language acquisition suggest that a large amount of input is the basis for language acquisition.At the same time,what is actively noticed by the learner can be effectively internalized.Thus,“attention”is also a non-linguistic factor that plays a significant role in language acquisition.The subjunctive mood is a major challenge in the teaching of English grammar.Generally speaking,the verbs in a sentence are used to distinguish between subjunctive and declarative sentences.In this paper,experimental utterances were written based on previous research by using verbs that are easy to cause ambiguity and confusion,and then set up the reinforced and non-reinforced attention conditions with different levels of“attention”to investigate whether there are different results and effects on subjects’comprehension of sentences under different levels of“attention”conditions.Under the different levels of“attention”,the subjects were examined to see whether there were different results in comprehension of the sentences and the impact of the different levels of“attention”.It was found that subjects in the reinforced“attention”condition comprehended sentences better,answered questions faster,and answered questions more correctly than subjects in the non-reinforced condition.This study also shed some light on English second language grammar teaching.

On the social-cultural changes of English and Chinese words from ＂jiayou＂

Word is the most active factor in the research of culture connotations and it is essential in understanding the culture of target language. This article not only attempts to analyze non-equivalence in semantic and cultural connotation of words between Chinese and English words from cross-cultural perspective, but also highlights the profound understanding of the relation of culture, and language is the best way to avoid cross-cultural barriers and obstacles. Finally, by elaborating the loan words between two different cultures, the paper maintains the cultural integration out of respect, appreciation and acceptance is the embodiment of human social and cultural development of human society and the vitality of the cultural changes.

The Contrastive Study on the Use of Politeness in Chinese Preface and English Preface

Based on Leech's maxims of politeness, this paper conducts a contrastive study between the use of politeness strategies in 30 Chinese prefaces and that in 30 English prefaces which are published about English study.

Research on the Training Mode of “the Combination of College Students’ Extracurricular English Autonomous Learning and Chinese Culture” Based on WeChat Platform

In today’s college English extracurricular learning,college students often neglect the combination of English language learning and the input of Chinese traditional cultural knowledge,paying too much attention to Western culture learning,ignoring their traditional culture and lead to be speechless when encountering cultural exchange activities.The author believes that college students should pay attention to the input of Chinese traditional cultural content in the process of independent English learning outside the classroom.The creative team of college students led by the author through the WeChat platform,in Xinjiang Agricultural University,conducted a combination of Chinese culture input and English autonomous learning,aiming at strengthening the effectiveness of English learning,improving the self-learning ability and intercultural communication skills.

A Comparative Study on the Tense-Aspect of Auxiliary in English and Chinese

The aim of the paper is to give a general comparison about the structural composition of the AUX in English and Chinese mainly from the perspective of tense-aspect.Based on the basic construction of English AUX system,which includes such elements as Tense,Modal,Perfect aspect,Progressive aspect and Passive,the paper focuses on comparing the syntactic characteristics of tense element in the two languages.The final part of the paper briefly summarized predicted learning problems that Chinese learners of English as well as English learners of Chinese would have in learning English and Chinese respectively.

To What Extent and in What Areas Do Chinese Students Encounter Difficulties with the English Spelling

Writing system is totally different from Chinese writing system.From Chinese learners of English know that,English words are seen as illogical and inconsistent.Learning English spelling presents some difficulties for Chinese students because of inconsistencies in English words.But what type of errors do Chinese students make? The intention of this paper is to find out the types of errors for Chinese students and the cause for these mistakes in order to find an approach to improve their spelling accuracy.

The Differences of Cultural Connotations between English and Chinese Idioms

The paper analyses the cultural differences in English and Chinese idioms from three aspects and tries to figures out the underlying reasons of those differences.It is necessary for us to understand and learn about the cultural differences between English and Chinese idioms and a good mastery of those differences can help us get rid of the communicative barriers and understanding barriers.

English Phonetics Problems under the Chinese Mother-tongue and Dialect Cultures and its Countermeasures

Many people do believe that the pronunciation just related to the phonetic transcription, if we can master it, then we have good pronunciation. However, during the process of language study, we can found that the phonetics is affected by many factors. The consonants problems or vowels problems or during the process of learning, their phonetics is also affected by their mother tongue and local dialect.

Intercultural Language Education and the Challenges Chinese College English Teachers Face

Currently,intercultural language education is a topic which receives much interest due to the rise of globalization,but theories and practice in this field are on the preliminary stage of development in China.To understand ILE better,its background,theory basis,goals,related researches are reviewed and analyzed.Since ILE is relatively new in China,language teachers are facing new challenges in developing intercultural teaching competence to achieve the success of language education.Such challenges consist of understanding the language itself,the difficulty in understanding and teaching culture,designing practical classroom activities and selecting content.

The Implications of Different Attributes in English and Chinese for Translation Teaching

Comparative study between English and Chinese attributes has been a research hotspot.The differences between English and Chinese attributes are elaborated by examples and translation strategies of English and Chinese attributes are discussed in this paper,from which the implications for translation teaching are stated at the same time.

A Comparative Study of the Usage of Vague Expressions in English and Chinese Cosmetic Advertisements

Vagueness is one of the basic characteristic of natural language. Vague language is employed widely in advertising language. In this research cosmetic advertisements in Chinese and English magazines are selected and analyzed. The results show that in Chinese and English cosmetic advertisements vague adjectives are the most frequently adopted, and that vague nouns and verbs are employed greatly. Comparatives, superlatives, hedges, numerals, quantifiers and pronouns are also used in advertisements.