Vocabulary knowledge was tested in a native (Cantonese-Chinese) and foreign (English) language in 150 twins and 150 singletons aged 6-11 years, matched on age, gender, grade level, nonverbal intelligence, parents' education, family income, and number of siblings and household members. The singletons clearly outperformed the twins on the native…

Learning disabilities are a heterogeneous group of disorders characterized by failure to acquire, retrieve, or use information competently. They are the most severe and chronic form of learning difficulty in children. They can be present at birth or acquired as a result of illness, exposure to toxins, poor nutrition, medical treatment,…

The goals of this study were to examine: (a) bidirectional associations between maternal parenting (physical punishment and guilt induction) and Chinese American preschool children's psychosocial adjustment and (b) the role of maternal cultural orientation and child temperament in moderating parenting effects. Participants were Chinese American…

The accuracy of self-assessment has long been examined empirically in higher education research, producing a substantial body of literature that casts light on numerous potential moderators. However, despite the growing popularity of self-assessment in interpreter training and education, very limited evidence-based research has been initiated to…

This article contends that the profile of a foreign language learner can contain valuable information about possible problems they will face during the learning process, and could be used to help personalize feedback. A particularly important attribute of a foreign language learner is their native language background as it defines their known…

As a linguistically heterogeneous nation, China has 290 languages and nearly 2000 distinct "fangyans" (dialects or subdialects) with "Putonghua" as the national language. These languages and language varieties are hierarchically ranked, based on their wider communicative and socioeconomic values. This paper reports on how…

This study investigated the comparative effects of strategic and unpressured within-task planning on second language (L2) Chinese oral production and the role of working memory in mediating the effects of the two types of planning. Twenty-nine L2 Chinese learners at a large New Zealand university performed a narrative task after watching a…

Tandem Language Exchanges (TLE) have been recognised for their pedagogical value in language learning, especially when developing learner autonomy through providing language learning support to each other in a friendly and social learning environment. Unlike many projects which incorporate cross-site practices in a collaborative teaching paradigm,…

The purpose of this study was to validate a Chinese version of the Gratitude Resentment and Appreciation Test (GRAT) with Taiwanese students. In Study 1, a total of 2511 Taiwanese students participated and completed the translated GRAT. Exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and reliability analysis were undertaken to assess the…

This study serves to validate a Chinese translation of the Digital Native Assessment Scale (C-DNAS) and assess if significant differences exist between a sample of students and teachers from a culture different than the one used in the development of the DNAS. Participants were 402 university students from one province in Mainland China. Results…

The paper highlights the role of translation in qualitative research that involves multiple languages. Its particular focus is on untranslatables, that is, those words or phrases in a source language that pose challenges to translators because no direct equivalent is available in the target language. "Untranslatables" create moments of…

Tone languages such as Mandarin use voice pitch to signal lexical contrasts, presenting a challenge for second/foreign language (L2) learners whose native languages do not use pitch in this manner. The present study examined components of an aptitude for mastering L2 lexical tone. Native English speakers with no previous tone language experience…

Using a Chinese Word Associates Test (WAT-C), this study examined the vocabulary depth of second language learners of Chinese and its contribution to the learners' reading comprehension. Results showed no significant effects of word frequency, word class (i.e., adjectives vs. verbs), and type of association relationships (i.e., paradigmatic vs.…

This article reviews the current research on stroke order of "hanzi" (as used to write the Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages) in teaching Chinese as a second language (CSL). Based on an extensive review of current research on stroke order, it first discusses the importance and difficulty of stroke order in "hanzi"…

Either in the field of theoretical research of translation, or in the translation practice, there is a long dispute over the problem of translatability and untranslatability with a great number of scholars on both sides. An analysis will be made in this paper to focus on the problem of untranslatability between English and Chinese from…