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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Chinese as a second language'
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Hsieh, Fang-Yen. "Relative clause acquisition in second language Chinese and second language English." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2015. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.709395.
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Wang, Xiaojun. "Chinese syntactic systems and second language acquisition: Approaches to the teaching of Chinese as a second language." Diss., The University of Arizona, 1995. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/187340.
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The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the relation between the teaching of Chinese syntax and the acquisition process by adult learners based on multitheoretical and multimethodological approaches. Through a brief review of the features of Chinese syntax and a comparative study of three different syntactic analytic systems, a Chinese linguistic background is provided. A further study of pedagogical Chinese syntax was conducted by investigating the teaching materials and methods introduced in three commonly used Chinese textbooks. Based on the Chinese linguistic and pedagogical background, the surveys were designed to probe the learners' acquisition process of Chinese syntax. The studies involved a total of 73 subjects who are native English speakers learning Chinese at different universities. It has been found that: (1) adult learners' acquisition order and rate are closely related to their cognitive skills; (2) the scope of acquisition in adults is subject to time limitations; (3) analysis & analogy are the main methods used by adult learners in the acquisition of syntax; (4) the learning environment & the knowledge of the target syntax by adult learners are not required to be situationally linked; (5) the process of syntactic transfer is incomplete among adult learners due to the lack of target language input; (6) the general failure rate in L2 acquisition partially associates with the lack of the fully functional innate language faculty; (7) the adult learners' common mistakes in syntactic acquisition process are predictable due to syntactic transfer and the influences from L1; (8) different teaching methods result in different strengths in students; (9) there is a gap between grammatical competence & communicative competence in the adult learners' acquisition process. According to those features, I proposed nine pedagogical principles for the Chinese syntax teaching, and a case study of teaching Chinese structures with three post-verbal complements was conducted in order to have a field-test. The discussion in this dissertation has partially confirmed the claim made by psycho-linguistic researchers that learning a second language is a complex process. There is a hierarchical order in acquiring language competence, and the acquisition of hierarchically ordered skills requires integrated approaches.
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Shan, Chuan-Kuo. "Split intransitivity in Chinese as a second language." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2006. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.614014.
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Ou, Yingzhe, and 区颖哲. "Teaching Chinese as a second language through video." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2011. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B48368714.
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在科技发展的引导下，现今不少学校或者教育机构都提倡把多媒体引入课堂，而视像教学也在多媒体教学的范畴当中。目前对于多媒体应用于课堂的问题研究已有不少，但是多集中在需要图解分析的科目范畴，在语言教学研究方面相对较少，而在第二语言教学领域中又以英文作为第二语言教学的课题研究占多数。本研究旨在探讨在中文作为第二语言教学中，视像教学否能够有助于学生提高学习成效，同时又能达到活跃课堂，提高学习动机的目的。本研究通过借鉴已有的关于多媒体应用于教学或语言习得方面的相关文献，结合笔者所在实习学校的实验，透过课堂数据收集、对比分析法、问卷法、访谈法、观课等方法对课题进行分析论证，从而得出以下结论：1.学生在不同学习能力要求下的学习成效不一致，记忆型题目比能力型题目的学习成效要好，而两者与学生的先备知识相关性均不显著；2.视像教学中记忆型题目比非视像教学的记忆型题目成效要差，而两者在能力型题目中的成效差异不显著；3.视像教学能够有效提高学生的学习动机及课堂的集中度。
Under the guidance of scientific development, many schools and education institutions are currently encouraging the introduction of multimedia into the classrooms, with video teaching as one of the methods under multimedia teaching. There have been a lot of researches on the multimedia application into classroom, but most of them focused more on the subjects which need graphic analysis but the language teaching relatively. While the research on the Teaching English as a Second Language mostly account for the research in this field, this study aims to explore whether the video teaching could be helpful to improve students’ learning effects in Teaching Chinese as a second language, as well as enlivening the classroom and improving students’ learning motivation. Using some related literature review about the multimedia application into language teaching or acquisition for references, the author has designed an appropriate experiment fit for the teaching-practicum school, then adopted some methods such as data collection, comparing analysis, questionnaire, interview and class observation to proceed the analysis and demonstration and finally drew a conclusion as follows: 1. Students has different effects under different capability requirements, additionally, they performed better in memory-oriented tests than capability-oriented tests, both of whom have no significant co-relation with prior knowledge; 2.The effect of memory-oriented test in video teaching is worse than that in non-video teaching, but both in the capability-oriented tests have no significant effects; 3.Video teaching can improve students’ learning motivation and concentration in class effectively.published_or_final_version
Education
Master
Master of Education
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Dai, Ruyi. "Second language acquisition and processing of Chinese 'bei' passives." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2019. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/288880.
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This doctoral dissertation reports on an empirical study, which takes a feature-based approach and probes the L2 acquisition and processing of Chinese bei passives by adult English native speakers. In Chinese, an individual passive marker bei is used to mark passive constructions. Whilst historically used as a lexical verb, bei is in the process of being grammaticalised (i.e. semi-lexical) and hence contains a semantic component (Liu, 2012a). Three forms of bei passives and their semantic properties have been investigated: basic long bei passives (i.e. with an external argument), basic short bei passives (i.e. without an external argument), and the retained-object construction of bei. In total, 75 English native speakers with intermediate and advanced Chinese proficiency, and 33 native Mandarin Chinese speakers (serving as a control group) were tested by a series of on-line methods (a self-paced reading task and a reaction-time picture elicited word rearrangement task) and off-line methods (an untimed acceptability judgement task and a fill-in-the-blank task). The current study finds that the reconfiguration of target semantic features of bei is a gradual process and occurs feature-by-feature, depending on consistent and ample input-based evidence. This lends support to the Feature Reassembly Hypothesis (Lardiere, 2005, 2008, 2009). It is also found that morphosyntax-semantics mismatches lead to acquisitional difficulties, as predicted by the Bottleneck Hypothesis (Slabakova, 2008, 2009b), which shares a similar view to the Feature Reassembly Hypothesis. In addition, L1 English L2 Chinese learners are found to be subject to the formation strategy of English short passives, in line with Montrul (2001). A disjunction in L2 performance between off-line and on-line tasks has been found in the advanced learners, who show target-like on-line sensitivity to violations of semantic constraints on bei but fail to converge on the target grammar in off-line judgements. These findings are compatible with Ullman's (2001, 2005) declarative-procedural model and suggest that the increase in convergence on real-time comprehension and production in the advanced learners is a result of the more involved procedural system. The general findings of the current study lend support to the view (Sorace, 2009; White, 2011) that representational and processing difficulties must be teased apart in L2 acquisition.
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Lu, Yuan. "The acquisition of Chinese connectives by second language learners." Diss., University of Iowa, 2017. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/5560.
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This study investigates the acquisition of Chinese connectives by second language learners under the theoretical framework of usage-based theory. Language is not a random set of words and phrases, but rather a coherent and cohesive set of utterances. As such, learning a second language (L2) entails, among other processes, learners’ development of employing cohesive devices to construct a coherent discourse in their target language. One type of cohesive devices frequently used by L2 learners is connectives. In Chinese, connectives are utilized to denote various semantic relationships between the clauses in a compound sentence. Due to their flexibility and complexity in nature, Chinese connectives present a huge challenge to L2 learners’ learning. However, to date no study has been set up to explore the learners’ development of Chinese connectives within L2 Chinese research community.
This study aims to fill this gap in the literature and build an L2 acquisitional model of Chinese connectives under the theoretical framework of Constructionist Usage-based Theory. Constructionist Usage-based Theory maintains that the basic unit of language is constructions and that the syntactic and lexical form of constructions and its corresponding semantic and discourse functions are conventionalized in language usage. According to these notions, language learning is believed to be driven by the factors grounded in the form and function of constructions in language usage. This study specifically examines how the factors of frequency, form, function, contingency (interaction of form and function), and L1-tuned attention affect L2 Chinese learners’ development of Chinese connectives. Furthermore, the study investigates the learners’ knowledge about the distribution of Chinese connectives across different proficiency levels.
Specifically, this study aims to address four research questions: (1) what is the relationship between L2 learners’ proficiency level and language background and the acquisition of Chinese connectives?; (2) do L2 learners overuse or underuse Chinese connectives in constructing responses when the other in a pair is given and what errors do L2 learners make when using Chinese connectives?; (3) how can 12 target pairs of Chinese connectives be categorized into (hierarchical) groups based on L2 Chinese learners’ performance?; and (4) how do theoretically-motivated models represent the factorial structure underlying L2 acquisition of Chinese connectives?
To address the four research questions, this study elicited L2 Chinese learners’ performance in two tests: a mini-discourse completion test and a form-function association test. In the mini-discourse completion test, learners were required to supply a missing clause to complete a three-clause discourse in which one of paired connectives was embedded; in the form-function association test, learners were asked to choose options of paired connectives to link two given clauses where connectives were omitted.
Results showed that the development of all Chinese paired connectives was positively correlated to L2 learners’ L2 proficiency level. Learners with heritage language background seemed to have an advantage over less frequent and less prototypical connectives. Predominantly, L2 learners underused Chinese connectives, resulting from the cross-linguistic influence of disparity between English and Chinese connectives at the structural level in particular and between English and Chinese textual cohesion at the discourse level in general. Based on L2 learners’ performances in the two tests, the 12 pairs of Chinese connectives were classifier into four hierarchical groups. Confirmatory factor analyses showed that the usage-based factors (i.e., frequency, co-occurrence strength, formulaicity, prototypicality, contingency, and L1-tuned attention) jointly determined the L2 acquisition and development of Chinese connectives in a complex, adaptive, dynamic manner. Summarizing these findings, this study proposed a usage-based acquisitional model of L2 Chinese connectives, providing theoretical contributions to the usage-based theory and pedagogical implications for Chinese connectives.
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Yu, Xiao Ping. "Chinese Character Challenger : supplementary courseware for assisting students learning Chinese characters /." Link to the online version, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10019/1326.
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Mau, Ada. "On not speaking 'much' Chinese : identities, cultures and languages of British Chinese pupils." Thesis, University of Roehampton, 2013. https://pure.roehampton.ac.uk/portal/en/studentthesis/on-not-speaking-‘much’-chinese(2a8d425b-8ec8-4877-acf0-b396d3efe8a7).html.
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This thesis explores the complexity of identities and the everyday negotiations, as well as struggles that shape the lives of British Chinese pupils in England. It focuses on the links between heritage language education, ‘cultures’ and ethnicity. It analyses the ways in which values related to identities, bi/multilingualism and British Chinese pupils’ positions in multicultural British society, are accommodated, negotiated or resisted. In particular, this research looks at British Chinese pupils with limited Chinese language skills, most of whom are from the ‘second/third generation’ within the British Chinese ‘community’. A qualitative approach is employed to understand the experiences of these pupils by exploring their accounts of experiences in mainstream schooling and in (not) learning Chinese, and their perceptions of their positioning as British Chinese in relational, contextual and socially constructed terms. Identity will be understood as a fluid process involving multiple identifications in line with a poststructuralist view, but also as an active process negotiated by social actors under structural forces. Thus, this conception of identity will move away from essentialist accounts of fixed Chinese/British identities and conceive of the individual as having an active and reflexive role in identity construction. The concepts of ‘hybridity’ (Bhabha, 1994) and ‘Orientalism’ (Said, 1978) are used to highlight how the British Chinese pupils are both able to negotiate flexibly their identities but also are confined by certain essentialised, dominant discourses. This thesis argues that there is an emergent British Chinese identity in which young people recognise their flexible and complex, hybridised British Chinese identities, including the possibility of being both British and Chinese. The research contributes to on-going debates on British Chinese young people. The thesis highlights how the new visibility of the British Chinese population brings both risks and opportunities when creating new spaces to allow for the complex and flexible nature of their diverse and shifting identities.
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Ma, Lixia. "Acquisition of the perfective aspect marker "le" of Mandarin Chinese in discourse by American college learners." Diss., University of Iowa, 2006. http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/68.
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Li, Yu. "Comparison of the comprehension of three types of Chinese colloquial idioms by advanced Chinese L2 learners." Diss., University of Iowa, 2016. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/2112.
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This study explores how comprehension strategies, first language (L1), and contextual information affect the comprehension and interpretation of three types of colloquial idioms by Chinese as a second language (L2) learners at an advanced level of proficiency. Three research questions are addressed: (1) to what extent does context affect the comprehension and interpretation of three types of Chinese colloquial idioms, (2) to what extent does the degree of L1–L2 similarity influence the comprehension and interpretation of the Chinese colloquial idioms, and (3) what strategies are employed by the learners in comprehending the Chinese colloquial idioms in isolation and in context, and which strategies contribute to better comprehension of the Chinese colloquial idioms in context.
To address these research questions, 30 advanced Chinese L2 learners at a Midwest University participated in the study. They were asked to comprehend 15 unknown colloquial idioms in and out of context. All of the participants were native speakers of English. The 15 target idiomatic phrases differed in terms of the degree of L1–L2 similarity, including 5 matching idioms, 5 partially matching idioms, and 5 non-matching idioms. In the decontextualized condition, the participants were given a list of the target colloquial idioms without contextual information, whereas in the contextualized condition, the target colloquial idioms were embedded in short paragraph context. For both tasks, the individual participants were required to verbalize their thought processes as they arrived at the meanings of the target colloquial idioms. Think-aloud protocols were employed to collect qualitative data.
It was discovered that context substantially facilitated the comprehension processes of the target colloquial idioms, especially with respect to the partially matching category. The degree of L1–L2 similarity significantly affected the ease with which the participants understood the Chinese colloquial idioms in the decontextualized and contextualized tasks. In the decontextualized condition, the participants generally adopted a “part-to-whole and literal-to-figurative” approach to interpret the target items, whereas in the contextualized condition, the participants adopted a heuristic method and employed a wide range of strategies (e.g., sentence translation, component words, and background knowledge) to access meaning of the target idioms. Among the strategies identified, semantic processing and pre-existing knowledge were strong predictors of accurate idiom interpretation. Instead of using existing L1 idiom comprehension models to explain the comprehension of idioms in an L2, a tentative model of idiom comprehension was proposed. L2 learners appeared to undergo two stages in comprehending unknown Chinese colloquial idioms: an initial prediction stage and a verification stage.
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Yuan, Boping. "Directionality of difficulty in second language acquisition of Chinese and English." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1993. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/17576.
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This thesis is concerned with the investigation of directionality of difficulty in second language acquisition (SLA) by Chinese-speaking learners learning English as a foreign language (EFL) and by English-speaking learners learning Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) . Chinese allows both subject PRO in finite clauses and object pro. However, subject PRO in finite clauses and object pro give rise to ungrammaticality in English. Unlike Chinese, in which topics can be base-generated, English does not allow a base-generated topic. Chinese and English are also different in that while English reflexives can only take a local subject in finite clauses as their antecedent (thus a short-distance reflexive), the Chinese reflexive ziji can take the matrix subject as well as the embedded subject as its antecedent (thus a long-distance reflexive) . With respect to these differences between the two languages, our focus is on whether it is more difficult for CFL learners to acquire subject PRO, object pro, base-generated topics and the long-distance reflexive in the acquisition of Chinese than for EFL learners to unlearn subject PRO, object pro, base-generated topics and the long-distance reflexive in the acquisition of English. The results of our study suggest that there is no single direction of difficulty in the SLA of Chinese and English. In terms of object pro, the direction of difficulty is from Chinese to English. However, in acquiring and unlearning the subject PRO, neither CFL learners nor EFL learners seem to have much difficulty. As for base-generated topics, it is found that the acquisition of this feature by CFL learners is more difficult than the unlearning of this feature by EFL learners. The results concerning the acquisition of the Chinese long-distance reflexive ziji by CFL learners suggest that a lack of long-distance binding for ziji is fossilized in these learners' interlanguage (IL) grammars of Chinese. Based on the findings in this study, we argue that the directionality of difficulty in SLA can only be studied with respect to individual language features and that the mere existence of relevant positive evidence in the input is not a guarantee that there will be a change in the learner's IL grammar. There are many factors involved in deciding the direction of difficulty in SLA. These factors include the availability of informative evidence to the learner, the possibility that the learner makes use of the evidence available for the restructuring of his IL grammar of the target language, the learners' ability to process the relevant data in the input, and the interaction between the structure in the learners' L1 and the inherent developmental stage of the target language.
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Lyu, Ting. "Second language vocabulary acquisition through storybook reading for Chinese children." Scholarly Commons, 2016. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/4.
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This six-week quasi-experimental study compared the effectiveness of two English storybook reading styles (preview-review reading versus concurrent translation) on the vocabulary development of kindergarteners ( n =50) in China, whose primary language is Chinese, who learn English as a second language. The children (aged 5 to 6) were pretested to evaluate their knowledge of general and targeted words using a researcher-designed instrument tailored to the content of three selected English stories. Validity evidence based on contrasted groups and test-retest reliability had been previously gathered for the 24-word instrument (based on 8 words per story) in a pilot study. The children in the concurrent translation group listened to the English storybook with the reader using both English and Chinese interchangeably to assist children in understanding the story. With the children in the preview-review group, the reader built background knowledge and discussed difficult vocabulary in Chinese before reading the storybook only in English then reinforcing key points in Chinese after reading the storybook. Each of three English stories was read three times by the researcher/reader separately to both groups. Two days after the third reading of each story, children were post-tested on the 8 words associated with that specific story. Total posttest scores, based on combining the three 8-word posttest scores, were compared to the 24-word pretest scores to examine vocabulary gains. Results suggest that both methods of reading English storybooks to Chinese preschoolers were effective. Results also indicate that children in the concurrent translation group performed significantly better than children in the preview-review group, even after initial levels of vocabulary, based on the pretest, were controlled (Cohen’s ƒ 2 = .42, which is considered to be a large effect). Additionally, an Aptitude x Treatment Interaction model was tested, but insufficient evidence was found to suggest that the differential effectiveness of the two methods depended on the child’s initial vocabulary level. Implications for teachers, parents, and early childhood education policymakers are discussed and suggestions for further research are offered.
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Charters, Areta Helen. "The second language acquisition of Mandarin nominal syntax." Thesis, University of Auckland, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/2292/2405.
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This thesis establishes a natural acquisition order for 18 nominal structures in Mandarin SLA, and assesses the extent to which that order can be explained as a consequence of cognitive processing demands. The natural acquisition order is based on a longitudinal study of three adults learning Mandarin in a classroom environment in Auckland, New Zealand. Two representatives of an average emergence order are derived from the three individual orders: a ranking of mean emergence times (RMT) and a ranking of mean emergence ranks (RMR). Processing demands are calculated in three different ways: once on the basis of six developmental stages identified in Pienemann’s Processability Theory (Pienemann, 1998c), once on the basis of a detailed analysis of each nominal structure according to the generative grammar of LFG (Bresnan, 1982, 2001); and finally on the basis of the Minimalist Programme (Chomsky 1995; 1999; 2000). All rest upon a prior analysis of lexical feature structures and constituent structures evident in the learner’s output over the course of a year. The standard six-stage model of Processability Theory proves unable to differentiate between most nominal structures, because they fall within the single developmental category of so-called ‘phrasal’ structures. However, processing demands calculated on the basis either of LFG or of the MP prove to be highly correlated with both individual and average emergence orders. On the basis of these results, various generalisations are made about the relevance of different kinds of syntactic processes to the determination of emergence order. In particular, c-structural complexity and thematic structure are found to be factors most significantly associated with later emergence times. LFG and MP each provide interesting insights into different aspects of syntactic processing that impact on the acquisition of a second language; LFG throws light on the significance of the grammaticalisation of thematic structure; the MP throws light on the processes of lexical construction, and the interactions between this and constituent structure. Both indicate the significance of delays in feature valuation or unification as c-structural complexity increases.
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Pan, Xiaofei. "Investigating the development of syntactic complexity in L2 Chinese writing." Diss., University of Iowa, 2018. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/6242.
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This present study investigates the development of second language (L2) Chinese learners’ writing by 1) subjective ratings of essay quality, 2) a battery of objective measures representing the general syntactic complexity as well as specific syntactic features, and 3) the sources of verb phrase complexity used by learners of different institutional levels. This study first compares the subjective ratings of the essays written by learners across four institutional levels and then uses Cumulative Linked Model to examine the contribution of the objective measures of linguistic features to the essay ratings. This study further identifies a number of sources used by learners to construct complex verb phrases, which is an important contributor of the essay rating, and compares the amount of usages by learners at different institutional levels. The purpose of the study is to better understand L2 Chinese learners’ syntactic development in writing from multi-dimensional perspectives, and to identify the most crucial elements that determine the quality of writing.
This study recruits 105 L2 Chinese college learners to write a narrative essay and an argumentative essay according to the prompts. Each of the writing sample is rated by two independent raters according to the holistic ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines, as well as the analytic rubric which was adapted from the ESL Composition Profile for this study. The derivation of syntactic complexity measures was based on the rank scales of lexicogrammar in Systemic Functional Linguistics (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014), involving 12 features at the levels of clause complex, clause, and verb phrase, some of which represent constructions unique to Chinese.
A series of statistical tests, including Kruskal-Wallis tests, Dunn’ tests, Spearman’ correlation tests, and CLM are performed to answer that research questions. The findings show that 1) learners’ overall writing quality measured by holistic and analytic ratings do not show significant differences across the first several academic years; 2) higher-level learners are more heterogeneous in writing ability than lower-level learners; 3) phrasal complexity contributes more to the essay quality than clausal complexity; 4) syntactic complexity features that learners develop fastest hardly overlap with those that contribute most to the essay rating; 5) complex verbal phrases come from 10 different sources and the composition of complex verbal phrases remain stable across the groups; and 6) essay types makes significant differences in terms of holistic and analytic ratings, use of syntactic complexity features, as well as their contribution to the essay ratings.
From the pedagogical view, this study points out that instruction should focus more on complexity at the phrasal level, especially nominalization and complex verb phrases, that play a more important role to determine the writing quality. Some of the current focus in instruction may not necessarily lead to better quality or higher proficiency in Chinese writing.
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Yang, Jun. "The acquisition of temporality by adult second language learners of Chinese." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/280075.
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This dissertation is about the acquisition of temporality in the Chinese language by adult native English speakers. The major objective is to chart the course of development of temporality by adult English-speaking learners of Chinese and explore the universals in the acquisition of temporality. The dataset used for this dissertation study consists of the Pear Story narratives produced by twenty native speakers of Chinese and the Pear Story narratives produced by twenty-one English-speaking adult second language learners of Chinese, grouped into three different proficiency levels--the low, the intermediate and the high level. It is found that both native speakers of Chinese and adult learners have available at their disposal a repertoire of explicit and implicit encoding devices in which grammatical means is among the least often used. However, in comparison with native speakers, learners' repertoire is smaller and contains less varied items. Regarding the use of a particular aspectual particle, perfective le, it is found that both native speakers and learners are constrained by multiple factors. However, some factors affecting native speakers have not been acquired by learners yet and even the same type of factors affecting both native speakers and learners have different constraining strengths for the two groups. Clear developmental patterns are found in learners' acquisition of temporality in narrative discourse. As learners gain proficiency in the target language, they grow from preferring implicit encoding to preferring explicit encoding, their use of grammatical means increases against lexical means, and their reliance on the discourse context decreases. These universal developmental patterns are observed in both the foreground and the background clauses. What is found in this analysis highlights the role of input, as most of the development tendencies reflect the grammar and language use by the native speakers. However, there is evidence that L1 transfer could additionally play a role in learners' acquisition of some temporal properties of the target language. The implications of the findings of this study for the teaching of Chinese as a second language and for the acquisition study of aspectual particles in Chinese will also be discussed.
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Chiang, Min-hsun. "A study of the Chinese language school and the maintenance of ethnic language in the second-generation, American-born Chinese /." Full text (PDF) from UMI/Dissertation Abstracts International, 2000. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/utexas/fullcit?p3004232.
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Du, Hang. "The acquisition of the Chinese ba-constructionby adult second language learners." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/290065.
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The ba-construction is probably the best-known syntactic construction in Modern Standard Chinese, but little has been done on the acquisition of it by second language learners. My study fills this gap. The theoretical framework is Liu's (1997) aspectual analysis of ba. The study is experimental. The constraint on the ba-NP and the constraint on the ba-VP were investigated. The constraint on the ba-NP is that it has to be specific. The constraint on the ba-VP is that it has to be complex. Two of the structures that can satisfy the complexity constraint on the ba-VP, the resultative verb complement (RVC) and the perfective aspect marker le were investigated. The subjects were 65 students learning Chinese in the intensive Chinese program at the Defense Language Institute (DLI) in Monterey, California. They were divided into three groups according to the number of weeks that they had studied Chinese at the DLI. A group of 20 native speakers of Chinese also participated as a control group. The study involved two experiments: production and grammaticality judgments. In the production experiment, I designed pairs of actions on video tape and asked the subjects to describe the actions with two Chinese sentences. In the grammaticality judgment experiment, I played some of the video clips from the production experiment and asked the subjects to tell whether some written Chinese sentences accurately described the actions that they saw in the video scenes. I also asked the subjects to indicate their confidence in their judgments. Results were that even though the learners generally produced fewer ba-constructions than the native speakers in the production experiment, their judgments of most of the sentences were not significantly different from those of native speakers, indicating that they had some good knowledge of the construction. Moreover, learners with similar production patterns showed different patterns in their grammaticality judgments, suggesting that the two kinds of data complement each other in our understanding of language acquisition. Results also show that the confidence dimension captured subtle differences that would not have been captured by the grammaticality dimension alone in the grammaticality judgment experiment. It has been found that using the canonical SVO word order and the drop of the object are the two most common patterns used by learners to substitute for the ba-construction. Error patterns have also been identified. Some "unexpected" patterns of grammaticality judgments from native speakers suggest that the learners had not yet been exposed to some interesting phenomena in the language that interfered with the ba -construction. One such example is the topicalization of the object to the position between the subject and the verb. Some native speakers accepted such sentences while most learners rejected them probably because they had not been exposed to such structures yet. Finally, the variation among native speakers in their judgments of the ba-construction calls for a more systematic study of exactly how native speakers of Standard Chinese use the ba-construction, especially those who have been exposed to other Chinese dialects.
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Fox, Diane Niblack. "Chinese voices : towards an ethnography of English as a second language." PDXScholar, 1989. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/3896.
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This study draws on ethnographic methods to provide background information for the English as a Second Language teacher who looks out at the classroom and asks, 6 Who are these Chinese students?" The goal is to let Chinese students describe for themselves their experiences learning English, both in China and in the United States.
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Zhang, Hang Smith Jennifer L. "A phonological study of second language acquisition of Mandarin Chinese tones." Chapel Hill, N.C. : University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2007. http://dc.lib.unc.edu/u?/etd,1339.
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Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2007.Title from electronic title page (viewed Apr. 25, 2008). "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of Linguistics." Discipline: Linguistics; Department/School: Linguistics.
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Xin, Yifei. "Exploring the Chinese Room: Parallel Sensory Input in Second Language Learning." University of Toledo / OhioLINK, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1333762798.
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Xu, Yi. "The Syntax, Processing and Second Language Acquisition of Chinese Relative Clauses." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/195226.
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The structural complexity and the typological universals associated with relative clauses (RCs) have made the structure particularly interesting to linguists and second language acquisition (SLA) researchers. Currently, much controversy is found in RCs in East Asian Languages. This dissertation tests the syntactic status of "relative clauses" in Chinese and explores second language (L2) learners' processing and production of different types of Chinese RCs.In the theoretical part of the dissertation, I test whether Comrie (2002)'s proposal of analyzing putative relative clauses in East Asian languages as "attributive clauses" can be applicable to Chinese. From a review of syntactic literature and movement test, I argue that there are crucial differences between Chinese RCs and attributive clauses. Further, reconstruction effect suggests that A-bar movement takes place within gapped Chinese RCs. More specifically, following Sauerland (2000)'s proposal, I suggest that the derivation of Chinese RCs involves the movement of an operator taking a complex NP as its complement to the Spec of CP, and that complex NP matches with an external head outside the RC.Further, I examine the possibility of analyzing AdjP+DE structure as relative clauses, and examine the flexibility and effect of demonstrative and numeral-classifier positions and their relation with relative clauses.In the experiment chapter, I discuss results from three experiments that tested the relative degrees of difficulty for L2 learners among different types of RCs including Subject, Direct Object, Indirect Object and Object of Preposition relative clauses, I seek plausible linguistic and psycholinguistic proposals in explaining the performance data. The experiments include a self-paced word order judgment task, a written sentence completion task, and a written sentence combination task. It was found that the L2 acquisition of Chinese RCs is generally consistent with the Noun Phrase Accessibility Hierarchy (Keenan & Comrie, 1977), a typological generalization based on natural languages and a hierarchy that was found to be predictive of learners' order of acquisition in SLA studies of many other languages.
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Zheng, Limei. "Measure words in learning and teaching Chinese as a second language." Thesis, University of Leeds, 2014. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/9195/.
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Chinese measure words (CMW) are obligatorily used between numerals/demonstratives and nouns/verbs to count the items and actions. Comparing with Chinese, strictly speaking, there are no measure words in English. This cross lingual difference causes difficulties in the English native speakers’ application of CMW when learning Chinese as a second language according to Lado‘s (1957) Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CAH), i.e. the language elements that are different from learners’ native language will be difficult for them. This study adopted an empirical study to find out how L2 learners’ application of CMW is and what the problems are. Before the empirical study, a new categorisation was generated based on the existing studies on CMW categories, and a comparative study was carried out to underpin the study. A questionnaire and a proficiency test were adopted to gather information about the participants of the empirical study. A CMW test was designed to collect data on the English native speakers’ application of different CMW categories and usages. The results of the empirical study suggested that CMW are difficult for the English native speakers who are learning Chinese as a second language. The results also indicated that even though English native speakers have difficulties in the application of most of the CMW categories, some are easier than others. The English native speakers are better at weights and measures, collective nominal measure words and container measure words than standard verbal measure words, borrowed verbal measure words, individual nominal measure words and temporary nominal measure words. Although the cross lingual difference between Chinese and English count for the difficulties, the complexity of some CMW is also the reason. After revealing the difficulties in the English native speakers’ difficulties, some suggestions on teaching CMW in second language learning and application were tentatively proposed.
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Fu, I.-Ping P. "Student Approaches to Learning Chinese Vocabulary." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/25955.
Full textAbstract:
This research focuses on the strategies that native English speakers use as they learn to speak and write Chinese vocabulary words in the first year of an elementary Chinese class. The main research question was: what strategies do native English-speaking beginning learners of Chinese use to learn Chinese vocabulary words in their speaking and writing? The study was conducted at a medium-sized comprehensive university in the Southeastern U.S. The study drew from concepts and theories in second language acquisition and psycholinguistic studies. A random sampling of four students was selected in their first year of Chinese study for qualitative analyses. Data were collected from demographic student surveys, reflection papers, interviews, observation and field notes, weekly diary of the students and Strategies Inventory for Language Learning (SILL).
The conclusions from this study provide insight as to how students of this demographic approach the challenge of learning Chinese. From this study, a clear picture emerges that students use different strategies to learn Chinese. Some students respond better to sound while others are more visually based learners. However, in this study, students used combinations of audio, visual, and kinesthetic learning techniques. The tonality of spoken Chinese was one of the most difficult skills to master and this aspect of the language frustrated many students. This is a widely recognized problem with Chinese education. Nevertheless, students enjoyed the artistic nature of Chinese characters and for the most part enjoyed writing them. This element can be emphasized in Chinese instruction to motivate students and appeal to visual learners. Similarly, integrating instruction on Chinese culture into language classes made the Elementary Chinese curriculum more appealing to students. Using native Chinese speakers from the local community in the language curriculum, reinforced classroom instruction, made the instruction more relevant, and increased student interest. Encouraging students to attend Chinese cultural events in the community had many of the same positive benefits for students. The motivations for learning revealed in this study are very interesting and support earlier studies of Chinese learners. Personal and profession interests as well as a combination of both these factors were the most commonly cited reasons for learning Chinese. Maintaining proper motivation is a pivotal factor that determines the success of many elementary learners including the students in this study. When students lost their motivation, interest in the curriculum and learning declined as well. Teachers need to be aware of motivations and attempt to foster them in individual students in order to maximize the learning experience.Ph. D.
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Randolph, Tamara Lee Dietrich. "Culture-mediated literature adult Chinese EFL student response to folktales /." access full-text online access from Digital dissertation consortium, 2000. http://libweb.cityu.edu.hk/cgi-bin/er/db/ddcdiss.pl?9988979.
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Ma, Zheng. "Conjunction and relativisation in the English of Chinese-speaking learners." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 1991. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.359630.
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Chan, Cecilia Yuet Hung. "The aquisition of restrictive relative clauses by Chinese L1 learners of L2 English." Thesis, University of Essex, 1995. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.282526.
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Huang, Yi-Tzu. "Interactive patterns in paired discussions between Chinese heritage and Chinese foreign language learners." Diss., University of Iowa, 2012. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/2524.
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Having acquired some degree of oral proficiency but low (or non-existent) literacy, the learning of Chinese heritage learners' (CHLs) learning needs are different from those of Chinese foreign language learners (CFLs), who have learned Chinese only in the classroom setting. Although researchers have advocated for a separate curriculum for CHLs, creating a heritage track may not be an option for many Chinese programs due to insufficient enrollment and limited resources. Huge proficiency variations among CHLs also make it difficult to provide a language curriculum that fits the needs of all learners. Therefore, CHLs are assigned to classes with CFLs in most Chinese language programs. From a pedagogical point of view, uneven proficiency levels are a great concern for instructors who teach a language class with students of different language backgrounds and with varying abilities, especially when assigning students to work in pairs or small groups. Although CHL-CFL paired interaction has become a common phenomenon in Chinese language classes, it has not been fully explored.
Grounded in sociocultural theory, this research explores the nature of dyadic interaction between Chinese heritage learners (CHLs) and Chinese foreign language learners (CFLs) in a classroom setting. It investigates the roles that Chinese heritage learners and their foreign language peers play in paired discussions, how learners' proficiency gaps influence the dynamics of paired interaction, and whether peer-peer collaboration affects learners' individual oral performance.
In this study, data were collected in three intermediate-level Chinese classes. Participants first filled out a language background survey to lead to a better understanding of the environments in which they use Chinese. Next, they took two proficiency tests to assess their comprehensive Chinese skills. Over the course of a semester, ten CHL-CFL pairs engaged in paired discussions on six different occasions. Before and after each pair work session, each participant was required to give an individual verbal report assessing the influence of paired interaction on his or her oral performance. After data from the six sessions were collected, participants took an end-of-study survey, which provides their perceptions about paired discussion and their roles in paired interaction over the research period.
According to the findings, three interaction patterns (passive collaboration pattern, active collaboration pattern, and peer-tutoring pattern) were identified. The results of this study show that CHLs' language background and the amount of Chinese language exposure determined the CHL-CFL proficiency gaps in each pair, and further influenced the pattern of paired interaction. Learners generated more LREs (Language-related episodes) and were more likely to acquire knowledge from pair work when the degree of interaction mutuality was high. Even when the proficiency gaps were large, the less proficient learners still could transfer new knowledge to their independent work.
To conclude, this study may be of importance in presenting the dynamics of CHL-CFL paired interaction in a mixed Chinese language class, as well as in providing instructors with a better understanding of how different factors such as interlocutors' proficiency gaps, individual participants' beliefs and attitudes relate to their interaction behaviors and subsequent independent performance.
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Ko, Shu-Ling. "Female CFL (Chinese as Foreign Language) Learners' Acquisition of Native-Like Features of Feminine Chinese Speech." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2009. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/2179.
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This study was designed to evaluate the correlation between participants' acquisition of feminine Chinese speech patterns and time lived in Chinese speaking areas. These patterns include final particles, key words, request words, sentence patterns, and intonation. Data collection was administered through an on-line survey. Participants in this study included twenty female native Mandarin Chinese speakers and 39 female CFL learners. The data collected revealed the correlation between the participants' acquisition of feminine Chinese speech patterns and time spent abroad in a Chinese language environment. Part one of the survey targeted the demographics of the participants. The second part of the survey contained five scenarios that allowed the participants to reveal their reactions to different situations. These groups were separated by the amount of time spent abroad and then analyzed according to these parameters.
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Stellard, Lisa. "Chinese Idioms (Cheng-yu) for Second-Language Learners: Toward a Pedogogical Approach." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/11512.
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x, 56 p.This thesis considers the importance of cheng-yu (Chinese language-specific, idiomatic lexical-syntactic units) in second-language acquisition at the intermediate and advanced levels and examines current research in order to formulate an instructional approach. Informed by linguistic and pedagogical research on idioms generally, the study aims to apply research relevant to Chinese language idioms specifically. Main topics to be considered include: the importance of cheng-yu in higher-level discourse including the social significance of cheng-yu use; the patterned structure of cheng-yu; idiom teaching methods and a review of idiom content and presentation in commonly-used Chinese language textbooks; and the significance of corpus data in cheng-yu instruction. Results confirm the importance of cheng-yu in discourse and recommend practicable, research-based classroom strategies. Finally, a sample lesson is provided which encourages the use of corpus data and utilizes research findings on the structure of cheng-yu and on teaching practices thought to foster acquisition.
Committee in charge: Dr. Zhuo Jing-Schmidt, Chairperson; Dr. Yugen Wang, Member
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Matthews, Guy. "Second language acquisition of English reflexives by Taiwanese speakers of Mandarin Chinese." Thesis, University of Essex, 2008. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.446480.
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Jiang, Lin. "Second language acquisition of English 'pronominality' by advanced proficiency Chinese-speaking learners." Thesis, University of Essex, 2005. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.422240.
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Fu, Xiaoqian. "Chinese as a LOTE in the Asian Century - A study on students' attitudes to and practices in Chinese as a LOTE subject in Queensland primary schools." Thesis, Griffith University, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/370357.
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This study aims to explore Australian primary school students’ attitudes towards learning Chinese as a LOTE (Language Other Than English). It is a case study of students who are learning Chinese in two Queensland primary schools (one public and one private) where Chinese is a compulsory course. Using a mixed-method approach, this study focuses on students’ attitudes to learning Chinese. As the Chinese language is becoming increasingly popular in Australian schools, it is essential to understand how students feel about learning the language and what their learning needs are. Knowing students’ language attitudes may also help language teachers to design more appropriate curricula and pedagogical practices to assist students with improving their Chinese language proficiency. Because most primary school children are beginning learners in LOTE Chinese, this study aimed to investigate students’ attitudes towards exploring the new language and culture at a young age.
This study focuses on the following research questions: 1) What are students’ attitudes to learning Chinese in Australian primary schools where Chinese is a compulsory course? 2) What are the factors that affect students’ attitudes to learning Chinese? 3) How do different experiences of Chinese curriculum and pedagogy affect students’ attitudes towards Chinese language learning? From an investigation into these research questions, the study’s outcomes include a detailed understanding of students’ attitudes to learning Chinese as a second language.
After analysing and comparing the data of the two schools, the main finding is that there was a big difference between the public school and the private school regarding resources, teaching methods and support from within the schools. All these factors influence students’ interest and attitudes towards learning Chinese language, and the findings have practical implications for future Chinese teaching and learning.Thesis (Masters)
Master of Education and Professional Studies Research (MEdProfStRes)
School Education & Professional Studies
Arts, Education and Law
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Leather, Jonathan Haworth. "Speech pattern elements in second language acquisition : perception and production of Chinese tonal contrasts." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 1988. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.295152.
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Stoecker, Kurt. "Transfer of Topic-Prominence in Chinese-English Interlanguage." Thesis, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, 2013. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=1544485.
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Languages can be categorized in terms of topic prominence or subject prominence. English is characterized as subject prominent while languages such as Chinese are considered topic prominent in structure. In subject prominence, the subject must always have a direct relationship, in terms of meaning with the verb, and the subject performs the action or exists in the state named by the verb. This is not the case in a topic prominent system, where the subject may be missing altogether (Li and Thompson 1981). Crucial to this study will be a comparison of word order and pragmatics between English and Chinese with their respective systems. Chinese learners of English have been observed to unknowingly "map" their Chinese discourse structure onto English sentences to fit this pattern (L1 function to L2 form) resulting in what has been called a "pseudo passive" construction (Han 2000). An example of a pseudo-passive would be: New cars must keep inside. This study will attempt to demonstrate that these pseudo passives are indeed an indication of transfer of L1 function to L2 form and that they persist in interlanguage even at advanced stages of proficiency. Appropriate pedagogical considerations will then be discussed.
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Wong, Kuk-ying Esther. "Learner preferences of task types : a case study in a Chinese-medium secondary school in Hong Kong /." Hong Kong : University of Hong Kong, 2001. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk:8888/cgi-bin/hkuto%5Ftoc%5Fpdf?B23425209.
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Yu, Xiao Ping (Amy). "CHINESE CHARACTER CHALLENGER 汉 字 挑 战 者 Supplementary courseware for assisting students learning Chinese characters." Thesis, Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/2680.
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Thesis (MPhil (Modern Foreign Languages))--University of Stellenbosch, 2005.In this thesis, I pinpoint the challenge of character learning as my research problem, which is the subsequent motivation to explain the background and rationale of my research. I also discuss the theoretical concepts of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) in relation to cognitive psychology, the constructivist learning theory and Second Language Acquisition theories. This leads to the presentation of my considerations regarding design principles, strategic approach and other relevant decisions. The multimedia project I designed, named the “Chinese Character Challenger”, a “supplementary courseware for assisting students learning characters”, is an informational and educational-oriented website. It provides learners with the necessary knowledge, hints, tips and sources to cope with their specific learning problems and to achieve their learning potential. It also introduces external resources of learning if learners need further research. The purpose of the website is to assist, to motivate and to further guide students’ learning. To conclude, I have discussed some open issues with regards to adding value in the learning environment.
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Yap, Set-lee Shirley. "Out-of-class use of english by secondary school students in a Hong Kong Anglo-Chinese school." Thesis, Hong Kong : University of Hong Kong, 1998. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record.jsp?B19883468.
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Wen, I.-chun. "THE EFFECTIVENESS OF LEARNING THROUGH DRAMA IN TEACHING CHINESE AS A SECOND LANGUAGE." Miami University / OhioLINK, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=miami1435882138.
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Ma, Jingjing, and 马晶静. "Chinese EFL university students' decision-making in peer review of second language writing." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2012. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B48329861.
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Informed by a sociocognitive view of writing, this study investigated six Chinese EFL students’ focus of decision-making and extent of criteria use in evaluating student texts, their decision-making in response to peer feedback and factors affecting their decision-making and criteria use in computer-mediated criterion-referenced peer review in one Chinese university setting. A multiple-case design was adopted and data were collected from a variety of sources, including think-aloud protocols, stimulated recall, semi-structured interviews, document analysis and classroom observations.
An examination of the think-aloud and stimulated recall data revealed that five out of the six students displayed language-oriented decision-making while evaluating peers’ texts. The students also tended to emphasize consistently specific elements of student writing within language, content and organization regardless of task type. They used part of the assessment criteria to the extent that particular elements evaluated by them coincided with specific components of the criteria. In response to peer feedback, the students decided to incorporate it selectively into revision, with one student being an exception.
Data analysis indicated that the students’ focus of decision-making and criteria use while evaluating peers’ texts were affected by the following factors: students’ own writing beliefs, conceptions and knowledge; teacher’s writing beliefs, conceptions and associated classroom practices; writing task types and features of student texts. The students’ decision-making in response to peer feedback was found to be subject to the influence of four categories of factors: student writer factors, especially their writing beliefs and knowledge; student reviewer factors; teacher factor and writing task factor.
The findings provide an in-depth look into both the cognitive and social dimensions of peer review. On the basis of the findings, the study proposes a tentative exploratory model of Chinese EFL university students’ decision-making in criterion-referenced peer review. It captures the interplay between cognitive and social dimensions of peer review and throws light on the interaction between cognition and context in the case of learning to write through peer review. Particularly regarding the social dimension of peer review, the variety of factors influencing the students’ decision-making and criteria use in this activity indicate that their evaluation of peers’ texts and response to peer feedback were not linear processes, but were mediated by multiple factors. Among the various factors identified, the strong influence of the writing beliefs and conceptions held by the students, their peers and the teacher suggest the crucial role played by learner and teacher beliefs in affecting L2 students’ learning to write through peer review. This study also highlights the interactional effect of views about writing and learning to write exhibited by the students, their peers, the teacher and the “methodology” of criterion-referenced peer review on the students’ decision-making and extent of criteria use.
Finally, the study makes pedagogical recommendations concerning how to enable students to make informed decisions in criterion-referenced peer review to bring its theoretical potential into full play. Recommendations for further research are also proposed.published_or_final_version
Education
Doctoral
Doctor of Philosophy
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CHANG, Ching Lan, and 張金蘭. "Chinese Character Acquisition in Teaching Chinese as a Second Language." Thesis, 2013. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/13117567512473189213.
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博士國立政治大學
華語文教學博士學位學程
101
In recent years, Chinese language learning rapidly increased in almost every place in the world. Nowadays, Chinese language learning takes place in different countries and cultural environments facing divergence of learners』 linguistic and educational background. The differences of language learners』 environment will be a key point in future TCSL research (Teaching Chinese as a Second Language). Chinese character acquisition plays a great role in acquiring crucial linguistic competences in Chinese. Character acquisition is a sine qua non condition for an effective acquisition process of various linguistic competences like reading and writing competence and it is crucial for understanding the morphological structure of the Chinese language. Some second language learners of Chinese (L2 learners) may already be familiar with Chinese characters through their educational background ‒ for example, students from Japan and Korea or some heritage students from oversea ‒, others not. Familiarity with the Chinese writing system splits Chinese language learners in two groups: Some L2 learners belong to a so-called 「Chinese character educational sphere」, these learners are mainly students from Japan and Korea; correspondingly, we may group the other learners according their educational background in a second group which may be called 「non Chinese character educational sphere」; these are learners from America, Europe and other countries of the world who are not familiar with the basic principles of composition of the Chinese characters and are not used to learn and use Chinese characters for encoding and decoding language. L2 learners in the Chinese language who belong to the 「Chinese character educational sphere」 acquired Chinese character recognition and writing skills through their first language (L1) educational background. In some way, these L2 learners of the Chinese language can be considered as L1 learners in regard to their Chinese character recognition and writing skills, but not in regard to the relationship between grapheme and sound in Chinese and only partly to the relationship between grapheme and morpheme and morpheme and meaning in Chinese. Up to now, the great part of studies in Chinese character acquisition focuses on composition rules of Chinese characters and on pedagogical strategies. Studies in acquisition processes are quite rare. Most studies do not differ between the educational background of language learners. The impact of linguistic background knowledge on Chinese character acquisition still has to be studied in more detail. Above all, the methodology of the great part of studies on Chinese character acquisition as well as pedagogical models are exclusively theoretically driven; they do not pursuit an experimental approach to found their results which, however, is quite essential to make acquisition processes observable. To sum up, research in Chinese character acquisition still stands at square one. The present study is divided in four parts. The first part discusses Chinese character acquisition in the 「Chinese character educational sphere」. The second part discusses Chinese character acquisition in second language teaching. The third part draws a comparison between the acquisition models in both realms. The fourth part discusses results from experimental research of Chinese character acquisition in second language learning. I Chinese character acquisition and teaching in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Japan and Korea If we take a look at their shape, Chinese characters seem to be almost the same ‒ but methods, aims, and requirements of Chinese character acquisition differ widely in countries where Chinese characters are used to express the native language. The present part analyses the different requirements on Chinese character acquisition in elementary schools, the predominant teaching methods and research in Character acquisition for L1 learners. In short, looking at the curricula of Chinese character teaching in different countries, we will find a divergence in requirements for reading and writing competences in Taiwan and China as well as in the pedagogical aims. Teaching culture, for example, lies in the focus of teaching Chinese characters in Korea. Detailed surveys of character acquisition in Japanese elementary schools allows inspection into L1 acquisition problems. II Chinese character acquisition in TCSL Standards for Chinese character acquisition differ in various countries. In China, demands are outlined in combination with HSK (Chinese Proficiency Test) requirements. Taiwan lacks clear standards. Teaching methods which focus on stroke order recognition, standard graphic component analysis, and radical recognition are recommended. In general, 「concurrent teaching approaches」 will be recommended, that means that requirements for L2 proficiency in reading and writing are identical and acquisition should be done simultaneously. France, on the other hand, has quite different standards and methods. Character recognition and writing proficiency vary. On the contrary, The ACTFL standards in the US stresses concurrent acquisition of reading and writing proficiency in Chinese. There are no explicit standards defined for L2 Chinese character acquisition in Japan but standards are assigned for other L2 linguistic proficiencies in Chinese like grammatical and lexical knowledge. III Comparisons in Chinese character acquisition A comparison of standards, teaching methods, etc provides insight in different forms of Chinese character acquisition. Some main results are listed below: Linguistic background between L1 and L2 learners vary: Learners of the 「Chinese character educational sphere」 have an indigenous knowledge in 「grapheme-sound recognition」. Language units like words and morphemes are recognized in characters by Chinese L1 learners, Japanese L1 learners do the same in a Kanji. In contrast, L2 learners of Chinese usually acquire language knowledge in combination with Character recognition. Scope of character acquisition greatly vary: A comparison between the standard requirements of Chinese character acquisition for L1 and L2 learners in various countries shows great differences in amount and time as well as in recommended teaching methods. Different auxiliary means: In L1 and L2 countries, the usage of auxiliary transcription systems (Pīnyīn, Bopomofo, Kana systems, Hangul) for Chinese character acquisition differ widely. IV Experiments in Chinese character acquisition Experiments are done to show the effects of adopting teaching methods for Taiwanese L1 learners for foreign L2 learners in Taiwan. A focus lies on adopting a teaching approach which favors 「sequential acquisition」 of Chinese character that means that the requirements for reading proficiency are higher than for writing proficiency. L2 learners are grouped in an experimental group and in an control group. In the control group, accustomed teaching methods are used and requirements in character acquisition does not differ for writing and reading proficiency. The experimental group are taught by adopting teaching approaches favoring 「sequential acquisition」. In general, results show that learners of the experimental group show better performance in writing and reading as in motivation as well.
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Cai, Ying. "Second Language Acquisition of Chinese Verb-Noun Collocations." 2017. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/masters_theses_2/553.
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This study aims to investigate the acquisition of verb-noun collocations in Chinese by learners who study Chinese as a foreign language. By conducting a survey, this research attempt to discuss the following issues. 1) Does learners’ acquisition of verb-noun collocations increase with years of learning? 2) Is learners’ acquisition of verb-noun collocations related to the usage frequency of the verbs? 3) Are there any differences between patient objects and non-patient objects in verb-noun collocation acquisitions? 4) Does natural L2 exposure have an impact on collocational competence?
Seven verbs are selected in this study, 看 kan, 开 kai, 做 zuo, 走 zou, 放 fang, 打 da, 带 dai. In order to answer the research questions, a survey which consisted of four parts was conducted. This survey was done in a public university in Massachusetts, USA. In total, 82 Chinese learners have participated in this study, and they were grouped into three instructional levels: Second-Year Chinese learners, Third-Year Chinese learners, and Fourth-Year Chinese learners.
The data in this research show that the use of collocations is related to learners’ language proficiency, and this study has identified a hook-shaped learning curve in the acquisition of verb-noun collocations. In addition, the frequency is significant to the verb-noun acquisition, and the usage frequency of verbs plays a vital role compared to nouns. Furthermore, at all three proficiency levels, learners had a higher accuracy rate with regard to patient objects in verb-noun collocations.
Collocations are problematic for learners who study Chinese as their foreign language; thus, it is essential for instructors to discuss effective teaching methodology for collocations. In this paper, some implications for teaching Chinese verb-noun collocations are provided by the researcher.
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Kai-Gui, Yang, and 楊開貴. "Chinese Character Errors from Learners of Chinese as a Second Language." Thesis, 2008. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/99961588870720250850.
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碩士大葉大學
應用外語研究所
96
The purpose of the study was to investigate the cognitive development of Chinese orthography between learners of Chinese as a second language (CSL) and native Chinese (NC) learners in Taiwan by assessing their traditional Chinese (繁體中文) wrongly-written characters (CWWC). The patterns of CWWC were observed under the paradigm of the orthographic effects (Just & Carpenter, 1987; Liu, 1984; Zhu & Taft 1994) including the stroke effect, component effect, and structure effect (the position of the component). In this study, there were forty-eight participants, including twenty-four CSL learners in Taiwan and twenty-four third-grade students from an elementary school in central Taiwan. They undertook a paper-and-pencil test of seventy-six Chinese characters selected from the CSL and NC learners’ textbooks. By employing error analysis, the participants’ errors were collected, and the error frequency was calculated. The results firstly demonstrated that both CSL and NC learners experienced difficulties in the stroke and component of Chinese orthography. This implies their vital roles in Chinese character learning. Secondly, CSL learners’ stroke and component errors were statistically significant higher than NC learners’. This suggests that CSL learners did not relate a newly learned character to a meaning so that it can not be retained in the long-term memory. Besides, CSL learners may ignore the process of practice. CSL learners’ structure error was not statistically higher than NC learners’; however, it was statistically less than either the stroke or component error. This implies that the awareness of Chinese character formation rules is acquired more efficiently than that of grapheme. Thirdly, error patterns in terms of stroke, component, and structure between the two groups were not statistically different. However, when radicals, instead of components, were examined, error patterns differed statistically significantly between the two groups. One possible explanation is that radical awareness from CSL learners is not fully developed.
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Gao, Binnan Shen Helen. "L2 acquisition of Chinese wh-questions by English-speaking learners." 2009. http://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/236/.
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Lai, chiu-kuei, and 賴秋桂. "Teaching Chinese Characters as a Second/Foreign Language." Thesis, 2014. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/65864057116260962186.
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博士東海大學
中國文學系
102
Chinese characters are very difficult to teach and study, therefore many educators spend much time to research the teaching methods. Breaking Chinese characters into their components for the purposes of Chinese study is an important field. Between the first appearance of a character and the final fixing of its form, one can observe many shifts of script, transcription errors, elisions and embellishments that all contribute to its evolution. This complex process fills the study of characters with conjecture and error. If one aspires to be a teacher of the Chinese script, one must be both cautious and attentive to this mercurial language. Knowing components of Chinese characters will serve the purpose of raising awareness among educators engaged in Chinese language.
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Liang, Szu-Yen. "The acquisition of Chinese nominal classifiersystems by L2 adult learners." 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10106/1726.
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CHANG, YU-YING, and 張郁盈. "Chinese Language Teachers’ Application of Motivational Strategies in the Learning Chinese as a Second Language Classroom." Thesis, 2016. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/63895345118714132754.
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碩士中國文化大學
華語文教學碩士學位學程
104
This study aims to investigate Chinese language teachers’ application of motivational strategies in the Teaching Chinese as a Second Language classroom (TCSL). Motivation is a key factor that leads to successful language learning. Motivational strategies refer to ways teachers use to help students achieve their language learning goals. In view of this, the researcher conducted a survey on Chinese language teachers’ knowledge of the importance of motivational strategies and the actual situation of their adoption in class teaching. The similarities and differences between teachers’ perceived motivational strategies and actual frequency of adoption were compared to further analyze reasons affecting teachers’ perception and strategy adoption. The quantitative and qualitative research methods were conjunctively adopted in this study. The quantitative research is a questionnaire survey distributed to 86 in-service Chinese language teachers teaching in university affiliated Chinese language centers and private institutions. 86 questionnaire copies were returned, of which 83 were valid copies. The qualitative research consists of classroom observations and interviews with teachers. Five Chinese language teachers volunteered for the interviews. Through compilation and analysis of data collected, results obtained show that, in general, teachers mostly agreed that most motivational strategies were highly important in elicit students’ active participation in class and interaction. The application of motivational strategies also has as direct impact on learners, which also considerably enhances learning effectiveness. An additional finding shows that most TCSL teachers tended to use more controlling type of strategies in managing classroom activities. They tended to promote motivation from the teaching prosepective. They tended not to agree in principle nor use in practive motivational strategies that promote students’ ability to control their own study. The researcher expects to enhance Chinese language teachers’ strategic application in class to elicit students’ learning motivation. It is also recommended that motivational strategy education be included Chinese language teacher training courses in order to enhance teachers’ teaching beliefs, teaching skills, and teaching effectiveness.
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YEN-CHENG, TSAI, and 蔡彥臻. "A multi-language scaffolding prototype designed for Chinese as second language learners." Thesis, 2016. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/40732639635804282337.
Full textAbstract:
碩士國立聯合大學
資訊管理學系碩士班
104
Faced with the advent of Chinese learning craze, Mandarin teaching is facing enormous challenges both in teacher training or and teaching materials. In teacher training, since learners are not from a single nationality, and teachers usually do not familiar with the language learners’ mother tongue which cause many obstacles in interaction between teachers and learners ; as for teaching materials that can assist those who use Chinese as their second language, which is an intuitive and effective method. However we face difficulties as establishing mother tongue aiding teaching material which demands large cost and human resource if the learners are not from single nationality. Through collaborative material development mechanism mode, Mandarin teachers can support each other in preparing teaching materials. Meanwhile we can improve the plight of material preparation by consolidating cloud media and online translation technology to help teachers develop a collaborative multilingual adaptive digital textbook. Using multilingual adaptive digital textbooks, a teacher can teach learners with different nationality but group into a class at the same time, thus reducing the demand for Mandarin teachers. With dynamic scaffolding removal mode, the teaching materials will be dynamically adjusted according to the learner's level. With the growth of the degree of learners the level of teaching materials will grow accordingly, the supporting mother language in the teaching material will also have a corresponding reduction, thereby reducing learners’ over dependence on mother language.
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Zhang, Huiwen, and 張惠雯. "The design of second language textbook for Chinese Medicine." Thesis, 2002. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/10506150855330231230.
Full textAbstract:
碩士國立臺灣師範大學
華語文教學研究所
90
The ultimate goal of this thesis is designing a second language textbook for Chinese Medicine. The research methods make use of the “Development Research Method” and “Quality Development Research Method.” After showing second language textbooks for Chinese medicine are needed, I will try to derive a reasonable conclusion based on theory and practical parts.
For the theory part, in chapter two, I will review literatures in three fields: culture teaching, the design of language courses, and the design of language textbooks. Their common characteristics will be considered as the principles while designing the textbook.
For the practical parts, chapter three, is divided in four parts: reviewing language textbooks and language course of teaching Chinese medicine, interviewing and observing the learners who are learning Chinese medicine. The learners’ needs and troubles in learning Chinese medicine will be used as the foundation of the teaching goals in the textbook.
After a comparative analysis of the theory and practical parts is made in chapter four, I will show the research results with detailed explanation on the design process of the textbook in chapter five.
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Yang, Yusheng, and 楊玉笙. "On Testing Grammar of Chinese as a Second Language." Thesis, 2007. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/10543000911551527546.
Full textAbstract:
碩士國立臺灣師範大學
華語文教學研究所
95
To enhance the quality of Teaching Chinese as a Second Language, the quality of tests must be improved since testing is related to teaching. This thesis aims to provide a new vision of how to test Chinese grammar. Four testing methods, contrastive testing, structural testing, functional testing, and logic-referring testing, are established in this thesis. Each is criticized with Bloom(1956)’s educational objectives of cognitive domain and Bachman&Palmer(1996)’s test usefulness. The application and restrictions of these testing methods are also analyzed and discussed. When testing grammar, we must pay attention to the connection of language forms and functions. Only if the context of a test item is provided can the appropriateness and accuracy be considered. Otherwise, grammar test/practice is easily considered as a meaningless, rigid, and mechanical processs. In addition to the development of various types of test items, the cognitive objectives should be enhanced to a higher level, such as application and analysis. Therefore both the challenge and interactiveness of test items are increased.
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Chen, Erh-Wei, and 陳爾薇. "Language Use in Chinese Marriage and Wedding in the Context of Teaching Chinese as a Second Language." Thesis, 2017. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/cn467m.
Full textAbstract:
碩士國立臺灣大學
華語教學碩士學位學程
105
This study traces the development of Chinese wedding cultures, discusses the economic and political meanings of important wedding customs in Chinese history, and presents the importance of weddings as an epitome of Chinese culture. It also compares the differences between the wedding cultures of China and Taiwan and the Western world (mainly the United States and the United Kindom) and demonstrates the impact of Chinese and Western wedding rituals on their respective languages. It compiles the Chinese idioms commonly used in today’s weddings, sums up the appropriate use in social contexts, and observes the way the wedding-related idioms reflect Chinese wedding culture. On this basis, several simple teaching materials of Chinese idioms with a curriculum lesson plan are designed so as to help foreign learners understand the difficult wedding-related idioms in a simple way. We believe that a Chinese idiom teaching that combines cultural customs and the Chinese language will help learners to understand Chinese people’s cultural traditions and thinking patterns. It can also enhance their mastery of marriage and customs and enable them to use the various wedding-related idioms and behave appropriately in occasions related to marriage rites.