Developing a Word Associates Test to Assess L2 Chinese Learners’ Vocabulary Depth

2017 ◽  
pp. 115-140
Author(s):  
Dongbo Zhang ◽  
Xuexue Yang ◽  
Chin-Hsi Lin ◽  
Zheng Gu
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Learners ◽  
L2 Chinese ◽  
Vocabulary Depth

Effects of Group Dynamic Assessment on L2 Chinese learners’ literacy development: Learners’ responsiveness to interactive mediation

2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-Ting Kao
Keyword(s):  
Literacy Development ◽  
Dynamic Assessment ◽  
Learning Performance ◽  
Nonverbal Behaviors ◽  
Group Dynamic ◽  
Chinese Learners ◽  
L2 Chinese ◽  
Assessment Approach ◽  
Individual Participant ◽  
Rhetorical Structures

AbstractDynamic Assessment (DA), an innovative assessment approach, has begun to attract attention as a conceptualization of assessment that emphasizes the social interactive role of learning. Although DA receives attention in the field of language testing/assessment, its feasibility in engaging larger cohorts of individuals is concerned. This shortcoming of DA leads to the application of Group Dynamic Assessment (G-DA). This study examined the extent to which mediation provided through G-DA frameworks – concurrent and cumulative – supported a group of language learners’ literacy development. It investigates five intermediate L2 Chinese learners’ rhetorical awareness via their performance on Chinese reading and writing tasks. One Chinese rhetorical structures, the ‘Qi-cheng-zhuan-he’ approach, was selected because it is considered the most difficult learning point for Chinese learners. Findings were reported: 1) the mediation provided to the participants through both concurrent and cumulative G-DA approaches promoted their understanding of the ‘Qi-cheng-zhuan-he’ approach, 2) the more times a participant engaged as the primary interactant, the better learning outcome he/she would present, 3) individual participant had different developmental level and thus showed various extent of responsiveness to the teacher’s mediation; yet, their active participation, either verbal or nonverbal behaviors, would foster their learning performance. Pedagogical applications are discussed.

scholarly journals Effects of L1 Transfer Are Profound, Yet Native-Like Processing Strategy Is Attainable: Evidence From Advanced Learners’ Production of Complex L2 Chinese Structures

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fuyun Wu ◽  
Jun Lyu ◽  
Yanan Sheng
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
L2 Acquisition ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
L1 Transfer ◽  
Processing Strategies ◽  
Asymmetric Pattern ◽  
Chinese Learners ◽  
L2 Chinese ◽  
Ultimate Attainment ◽  
English Group

English as a verb-medial language has a short-before-long preference, whereas Korean and Japanese as verb-final languages show a long-before-short preference. In second language (L2) research, little is known regarding how L1 processing strategies affect the ultimate attainment of target structures. Existing work has shown that native speakers of Chinese strongly prefer to utter demonstrative-classifier (DCL) phrases first in subject-extracted relatives (DCL-SR-N) and DCLs second in object-extracted relatives (OR-DCL-N). But it remains unknown whether L2 learners with typologically different language backgrounds are able to acquire native-like strategies, and how they deviate from native speakers or even among themselves. Using a phrase-assembly task, we investigated advanced L2-Chinese learners whose L1s were English, Korean, and Japanese, because English lacks individual classifiers and has postnominal relative clause (RC), whereas Korean and Japanese have individual classifiers and prenominal RCs. Results showed that the English and Korean groups deviated from the native controls’ asymmetric pattern, but the Japanese group approximated native-like performance. Furthermore, compared to the English group, the Korean and Japanese groups favored the DCL-second configuration in SRs and ORs. No differences were found between the Korean and Japanese groups. Overall, our findings suggest that L1 processing strategies play an overarching role in L2 acquisition of asymmetric positioning of DCLs in Chinese RCs.

L2 Chinese learners’ pragmatic developmental patterns in data-driven instruction and computer-mediated communication (CMC)

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 154-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiong Li
Keyword(s):  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Pragmatic Competence ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Final Particle ◽  
Developmental Patterns ◽  
Data Driven Instruction ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
Chinese Learners ◽  
L2 Chinese

Abstract This study examined second language (L2) Chinese learners’ developmental patterns of pragmatic competence in two computer-mediated communication (CMC) conditions: (1) CMC with data-driven instruction embedded in the course of CMC and (2) CMC without data-driven instruction. Learners’ pragmatic competence was operationalized as their ability to use a Chinese sentence final particle (SFP) ne during CMC with a native speaker partner. The study investigated: (1) whether learners (as a group) developed their use of ne over time in the two CMC conditions, and (2) how individual learners changed their use of ne (if any) in the two conditions. The quantitative analysis (token and type frequency of ne) revealed that CMC itself did not promote learners’ use of ne. However, it promoted learners’ production of ne when data-driven instruction was incorporated into CMC. Supporting the quantitative findings, the qualitative analysis showed that one learner in the CMC with data-driven instruction outperformed his counterpart in the CMC without data-driven instruction group in the diverse use of ne.

The Effect of the Continuation Task on the Acquisition of the Chinese Spatial Phrase Structure by L2 Chinese Learners

2017 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zeng Liyun ◽  
Mao Zhicheng ◽  
Jiang Lin
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Phrase Structure ◽  
Comprehension Task ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Chinese Learners ◽  
L2 Chinese

AbstractThis study aims to investigate the effect of the continuation task (CT) on the acquisition of the Chinese spatial phrase structure (SPS) by learners of various L1 backgrounds learning Chinese as a second language (CSL). Two groups of participants were formed: a continuation group and a reading comprehension group. The former was required to continue in Chinese a text with its ending removed, while the latter needed to complete the Q&A questions after reading the same text. The effect of the tasks was measured by examining the CSL learners’ correct use of the Chinese SPS in three aspects — the circum-construction, the use of prepositions and the use of the locative. The study found that the continuation group made significant improvement from the pretest to the posttests while the reading comprehension group did not. Moreover, the continuation group outperformed the reading comprehension group significantly in the posttests, though there was no significant difference between them in the pretest. The results showed that CT can facilitate CSL learners’ acquisition of the Chinese SPS, with a better effect than the reading comprehension task.

scholarly journals Morphological Awareness in L2 Chinese Reading Comprehension: Testing of Mediating Routes

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haomin Zhang ◽  
Xing Zhang ◽  
Mengjie Li ◽  
Yiming Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Morphological Awareness ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Chinese Reading ◽  
Morphological Knowledge ◽  
Chinese Learners ◽  
L2 Chinese ◽  
Path Models ◽  
Inference Task

This study aims to examine the contribution of morphological awareness to second language (L2) Chinese reading comprehension through potential mediating factors. Adult L2 Chinese learners (n = 447) participated in the study and completed two morphological awareness tasks (segmentation and discrimination), two vocabulary knowledge tasks (character knowledge and word-meaning knowledge), one lexical inference task, and one reading comprehension task. By testing alternative path models, this study identified the preferred model assuming the covariates of morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge. Morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge jointly contributed to L2 Chinese reading comprehension through lexical inference. The written modality of morphological awareness induced the activation of both morphological and orthographic information in print. The result suggests that morphological awareness (in the form of grapho-morphological knowledge) and vocabulary knowledge seem to be two parallel components under the same construct predicting Chinese reading comprehension. More importantly, this study underscores the intermediary effect of lexical inference in associating morphological awareness and reading comprehension in L2 Chinese learners.

scholarly journals Online processing of the grammatical aspect marker by L2 Chinese learners

2021 ◽  
pp. 026765832199642
Author(s):  
Lijuan Liang ◽  
Vasiliki Chondrogianni ◽  
Baoguo Chen
Keyword(s):  
Learning Experience ◽  
Competition Model ◽  
Chinese Speakers ◽  
Semantic Constraints ◽  
European Languages ◽  
Chinese Learners ◽  
L2 Chinese ◽  
Aspect Marker ◽  
Native Chinese Speakers ◽  
Linguistic Transfer

The perfective aspect marker in Chinese is partly functionally similar to inflectional suffixes in Indo-European languages, but is non-inflectional and lexical in nature, lying thus at the semantics–syntax interface. This provides us with the opportunity to compare directly the syntactic and semantic constraints during second language (L2) sentence processing. The present study explored how L2 Chinese learners with Indo-European languages as their first languages (L1s) process the Chinese perfective marker. The Competition Model prioritizes syntactic processes entailed by cross-linguistic transfer from the participants’ L1s, but this prediction might be challenged by the concurrent functioning of semantic processes. In an event-related potentials (ERP) experiment, 22 European language-speaking L2 Chinese learners with low to intermediate proficiency level and 20 native Chinese speakers (i.e. the control group) participated. An aspectual agreement paradigm was used for materials. Results showed that in the aspect marker mismatch condition, L2 Chinese learners with a shorter learning experience were more likely to show a P600-like component, indicating a morpho-syntactic routine, supporting thus the predictions of cross-linguistic transfer based on the Competition Model. Those with a longer L2 learning experience were more likely to show a N400-like component similar to native Chinese speakers. This shift from P600 to N400 for more advanced learners suggest that L1–L2 syntactic similarity may exert much stronger influence than semantic constraints for learners with shorter L2 experience.

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