Understanding Learners’ Vocabulary Profiles in L2 Chinese Classrooms

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.

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Proficiency and pragmatic production in L2 Chinese study abroad

System ◽

10.1016/j.system.2021.102475 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 98 ◽

pp. 102475

Author(s):

Li Yang ◽

Chuanren Ke

Keyword(s):

Study Abroad ◽

Chinese Study ◽

L2 Chinese ◽

Pragmatic Production

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L2 Chinese Learners' Lexical and Grammatical Development of Result-state Resultative Verb Compounds: A Usage-based Corpus Study

International Journal of Chinese Language Teaching ◽

10.46451/ijclt.2021.01.01 ◽

2021 ◽

Keyword(s):

Result State ◽

Corpus Study ◽

Grammatical Development ◽

Chinese Learners ◽

L2 Chinese ◽

Verb Compounds

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

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2021.794500 ◽

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.

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Japanese speakers' second language Chinese wh-questions: a lexical morphological feature deficit account

Second language Research ◽

10.1177/0267658307077644 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 23 (3) ◽

pp. 329-357 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Boping Yuan

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Empirical Study ◽

Morphological Feature ◽

L2 Acquisition ◽

Japanese Speakers ◽

L2 Chinese ◽

Wh Questions

In this article, an empirical study of how Chinese wh-questions are mentally represented in Japanese speakers' grammars of Chinese as a second language (L2) is reported. Both Chinese and Japanese are generally considered wh-in-situ languages in which a wh-word is allowed to remain in its base-generated position, and both languages use question particles to mark questions. It is assumed that C0 in wh-questions is essentially ambiguous and unvalued and that unvalued C0 must be valued. In Chinese, the wh-particle ne values C0 with [+Q, +wh] features, which licenses the wh-word in situ. As a result, no wh-movement is necessary and Subjacency becomes irrelevant. Japanese also employs question particles, such as ka or no. However, they are `defective' in the sense that they can only value the ambiguous C0 as [+Q] and they are unable to specify the question as to whether it is [+yes/no] or [+wh]. To value C0 as a head with [+wh], a wh-operator in a wh -word inside the sentence has to raise overtly to C0. The results of an acceptability judgement task show that although the Japanese speakers respond in a broadly target-like way, the lexical morphological feature [+wh] of the particle ne in their L2 Chinese lexicons is permanently deficient, which leads to variability in their intuitions about Chinese wh-questions. A lexical morphological feature deficit account for the results is proposed, and it is suggested that the lexical morphology—syntax interface can be a source of variability in L2 acquisition.

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