scholarly journals Uniqueness and overlap: Characteristics and longitudinal correlates of native Chinese children's writing in English as a foreign language

2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 347-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
JUAN ZHANG ◽  
CATHERINE McBRIDE-CHANG ◽  
RICHARD K. WAGNER ◽  
SHINGFONG CHAN
Keyword(s):  
Word Reading ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
English Writing ◽  
Early Predictors ◽  
Children's Writing ◽  
Writing Composition ◽  
American Children ◽  
Chinese Writing ◽  
Production Errors ◽  
Chinese And English

Longitudinal predictors of writing composition in Chinese and English written by the same 153 Hong Kong nine-year-old children were tested, and their production errors within the English essays across ten categories, focusing on punctuation, spelling, and grammar, were compared to errors made by ninety American nine-year-olds writing on the same topic. The correlation between quality of the compositions in Chinese and English was .53. In stepwise regression analyses examining early predictors at ages between five and nine years, tasks of speed or fluency were consistently uniquely associated with Chinese writing composition; measures of English vocabulary knowledge, word reading, or both were consistently uniquely associated with English writing quality. Compared to the American children, Chinese children's writing reflected significantly higher proportions of errors in all grammatical categories but did not differ in punctuation or spelling. Findings underscore both similarities and differences in writing at different levels across languages.

scholarly journals Mental Lexicon, Working Memory and L2 (English) Vocabulary in Polish Students with and without Dyslexia

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-89
Author(s):  
Marta Łockiewicz ◽  
Martyna Jaskulska
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Mental Lexicon ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Educational Programme ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Word Knowledge ◽  
L2 Vocabulary

The aim of our study was to examine the relationship between access to the mental lexicon, working memory and knowledge of English (L2) vocabulary. Analyses were undertaken amongst monolingual speakers of Polish (26 with dyslexia, 24 without) who studied English as a second language as part of their compulsory educational programme at school.We assumed that students with dyslexia would manifest deficits in access to the mental lexicon and verbal working memory, and would have a limited L2 vocabulary. We also assumed that better access to the mental lexicon facilitates knowledge of English (L2) vocabulary, and that this relationship is present in both the criterion and the control group. All of the students participated in both parts of the assessment, the group part (i.e., questionnaire, IQ test, two vocabulary tasks) and the individual part (i.e., psychological measures: verbal working memory, RAN, verbal fluency, and single word reading in L1 task). We found that students with dyslexia exhibited deficits in the speed of access to data from the mental lexicon. The predictive function of memory for vocabulary was more conspicuous in the control group; in the criterion group, the result might constitute a risk factor for L2 vocabulary acquisition in dyslexia, which may manifest with increased proficiency in word knowledge. Poor vocabulary knowledge renders the L2 learning experience difficult, as it impairs students’ reading comprehension, writing and conversational skills.

scholarly journals Individual differences in narrative production in late childhood: Associations with age and fiction reading experience

2020 ◽  
pp. 014272372094655 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorna G. Hamilton ◽  
Isabelle O’Halloran ◽  
Nicola Cutting
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Picture Book ◽  
Production Quality ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Late Childhood ◽  
Reading Experience ◽  
Children's Narratives ◽  
Narrative Production ◽  
Age Range

Narrative production draws upon linguistic, cognitive and pragmatic skills, and is subject to substantial individual differences. This study aimed to characterise the development of narrative production in late childhood and to assess whether children’s cumulative experience of reading fiction is associated with individual differences in narrative language skills. One-hundred-and-twenty-five 9- to 12-year-old children told a story from a wordless picture book, and their narratives were coded for syntactic, semantic and discourse-pragmatic features. The grammatical complexity and propositional content of children’s narratives increased with age between 9 and 12 years, while narrative cohesion, coherence and use of mental state terms were stable across the age range. Measures of fiction reading experience were positively correlated with several indices of narrative production quality and predicted unique variance in narrative macrostructure after controlling for individual differences in vocabulary knowledge, word reading accuracy and theory of mind. These findings are discussed in terms of the continued importance of ‘book language’ as part of the language input beyond early childhood.

Dialectics versus polemics in Chinese rhetoric: A study of indirection in Chinese and Chinese ESL argumentative writing as compared with English argumentative writing

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-55
Author(s):  
Lorrita Yeung
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
Instructional Materials ◽  
Argumentative Writing ◽  
Language Writing ◽  
Chinese Rhetoric ◽  
Argumentative Essays ◽  
Cultural Explanation ◽  
Chinese Writing ◽  
Chinese And English

AbstractThis study investigates Chinese indirection in argumentative writing. It examines whether there is a fundamental difference between Chinese and English rhetoric in their preferred method of argument, as suggested by instructional materials on how to argue effectively (Liu, Lu. 2005. Rhetorical education through writing instruction across cultures: A comparative analysis of select online instructional materials on argumentative writing. Journal of Second Language Writing 14. 1–18). A comparative analysis of 90 argumentative essays respectively written by expert Chinese and English writers, and advanced Chinese ESL learners reveals that while the English essays tend to adopt a polemical style that persuades by defeating opposing arguments, a significant proportion of the Chinese essays show a dialectical style which examines opposing positions without taking sides and yet rising above them to resolve conflicting issues. A significant number of Chinese ESL writing follow a similar dialectical pattern although not as frequently as their expert writers. A cultural explanation is attempted to account for the phenomenon. It is also argued that the dialectical model, while subsuming earlier rhetorical models adopted for analyzing Chinese writing, may hold the key to studying Chinese differences from the English in written arguments.

Effect of Twinning on Chinese and English Vocabulary Knowledge

2020 ◽  
Vol 91 (6) ◽  
pp. 1886-1897
Author(s):  
Simpson W.L. Wong ◽  
Him Cheung ◽  
Mo Zheng ◽  
Xiujie Yang ◽  
Catherine McBride ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Chinese And English

scholarly journals A Study on the Relationship between University Students’ Chinese Writing Proficiency and Their English Writing Proficiency

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoyu Huang ◽  
Xueying Liang ◽  
Effie Dracopoulos
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Pearson Correlation ◽  
Positive Transfer ◽  
First Year ◽  
Writing Proficiency ◽  
Significance Level ◽  
English Writing ◽  
Language Writing ◽  
Chinese Writing

Up to now, most researchers have been paying attention to the negative transfer of mother tongue to second language writing. Few studies, if any, have touched upon the positive transfer. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the positive transfer of Chinese to 26 first-year university students’ English writing holistically and segmentally in the use of words, grammar, coherence, and content and organization. The result of the Pearson correlation coefficient turned out to be 0.43 at the 5% significance level, indicating a positive relationship between the Chinese writing and the English writing. The questionnaires have also confirmed the result of the correlation analysis. In particular, the positive transfer of Chinese seems to be more apparent in the content and organization of the English writing, followed by coherence and use of words. Thus, it can be concluded that the positive transfer of mother tongue can facilitate English writing.

Incidental Learning of Sight Words During Articulation Training

1997 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 115-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharon R. Stewart ◽  
Lori S. Gonzalez ◽  
Judith L. Page
Keyword(s):  
Sound Production ◽  
Incidental Learning ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Sight Words ◽  
Probe Design ◽  
Reading Vocabulary ◽  
Imaginary Line ◽  
Performance Results ◽  
Multiple Probe ◽  
Production Errors

The present study examined the acquisition of sight reading vocabulary learned incidentally during articulation training. A multiple probe design across behaviors with reinforced probe conditions was used to evaluate the effectiveness of an articulation training program that included incidental information to teach basic sight word reading. Specifically, beginning readers with sound production errors received articulation therapy paired with a procedure in which (a) words were printed below the stimulus pictures and (b) the experimenter drew an imaginary line under the word while saying, "Yes, (word). Look, (word)." as part of feedback for articulatory performance. Results indicated that the subjects learned to read sight words incidentally during articulation training, and this learning generalized beyond printed words on cards to printed words on a list.

The Role of Literary Instruction in the Development of Reading and Writing Skills in Spanish as a Heritage Language during Childhood

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 100-123
Author(s):  
Alejandro Cuza ◽  
Lauren Miller ◽  
Adrian Pasquarella ◽  
Xi Chen
Keyword(s):  
Service Learning ◽  
Phonological Awareness ◽  
Reading Fluency ◽  
Heritage Language ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Language And Literacy ◽  
Learning Program

The present study examines the role of instruction in the development of reading and writing skills in Spanish as a heritage language during childhood. Sixty-six (n=66) Spanish heritage speakers in K-4th grade participated in an 18-week Spanish intervention. The curriculum included the development of phonological awareness, reading fluency and accuracy as well as vocabulary via cognate instruction. Undergraduate students majoring in Spanish conducted the intervention as part of a service-learning program. Standardized measures given to the students before and after the intervention included phonological awareness, receptive vocabulary knowledge, word reading accuracy, and word reading fluency. The treatment group was compared to a group of twenty-five children (n=25) who did not participate in the program. The two groups were matched by age and non-verbal reasoning. Results from pre and post-tests showed significant gains for the treatment group in vocabulary growth, word reading fluency and word reading accuracy. Phonological awareness developed significantly for both groups, but there was no advantage for the experimental group. Overall, the intervention was effective at promoting both Spanish language and literacy skills (Rhoades, 2009). Contextualized and explicit instruction on word reading and decoding, as well as oral language and vocabulary knowledge in Spanish, helped Spanish heritage learners develop academic language and literacy skills in their first/minority language. Furthermore, the results provide strong evidence supporting the efficacy of a service-learning program aimed at facilitating the development of literacy skills among child heritage language learners.

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