Investigated how adult monolinguals and bilinguals incorporate the context cue in assigning the agent role vis-a-vis intrasentential cues (animacy and word order). Subjects were first and second language speakers of Chinese and English. Results show that both Chinese and English controls paid less attention to context than to intrasentential cues…

Takes a look at some of the specific applications of the Chinese system of writing in an attempt to resolve disagreements about the language's relative efficiency. Examines (1) the arrangement of characters in dictionaries and the look-up procedures; and (2) the process of composing and reproducing Chinese texts, including typesetting,…

Advocates the use of group work for a group of learners from a Chinese cultural background, where, to some extent, Confucian values still prevail. It is argued that group work is an appropriate methodological tool for such learners, given that it is sensitive to the three key Confucian values: cooperation, the concept of "face," and…

Discusses the teaching of Chinese characters in the second language context. To demystify the difficulty of learning characters, a few myths that surround them are examined. (Author/VWL)

Investigates the role of kanji in second language learners' reading comprehension of Japanese text. Explores how two subgroups of Japanese learners, with Chinese and non-Chinese backgrounds, approach text. (Author/VWL)

Reviews the differences between the English and Mandarin Chinese language, evaluates current research, discusses the possible consequences for processing mathematical text in both languages, and outlines future research possibilities. (Author/MM)

Reliability and validity of Chinese Self-Report Family Inventory (C-SFI) were examined in three studies. Study 1 showed C-SFI was temporally stable and internally consistent. Study 2 indicated C-SFI could discriminate between clinical and nonclinical groups. Study 3 gave support for internal consistency, concurrent validity and construct validity.…

Studies the syntax, semantics, and pragmatics of the referential "renjia" (people-home) in mandarin Chinese, especially the one that allows a specific reference reading. A step-by-step comparison between the usage of the specific referential people-home and that of the Mandarin Chinese bare reflexive "ziji" (self) is provided. Shows why…

This paper explores the collocational behaviour and semantic prosody of near synonyms from a cross-linguistic perspective. The importance of these concepts to language learning is well recognized. Yet while collocation and semantic prosody have recently attracted much interest from researchers studying the English language, there has been little…

Utterances expressing generic kinds (''birds fly'') highlight qualities of a category that are stable and enduring, and thus provide insight into conceptual organization. To explore the role that linguistic input plays in children's production of generic nouns, we observed American and Chinese deaf children whose hearing losses prevented them from…

Two experiments were carried out to examine how adult readers of English learn to acquire the orthographic structure and function of Chinese characters selected from reading material in their first-semester college course in Chinese. The first experiment, an online lexical decision task, demonstrated that the learners quickly acquired knowledge…

Chinese inflection differs from that of European languages in that it is fully parsable in the orthography, which raises the possibility that Chinese inflected forms may not show the surface frequency effects found in other languages. Five lexical decision experiments were conducted to examine this issue. They showed that surface frequency did…

The purpose of this study was to explore the ethnic differences in family dynamics and career interests of European Americans and Chinese Americans and how these dynamics--cohesion, expressiveness, and conflict--influence one's career interests. Significant ethnic differences in career interests were found. The Chinese Americans' highest career…

This paper reports a re-interpretation of the data from an inquiry exploring changes in 14 Chinese learners' uses of language learning strategies after they moved from mainland China to Britain. Using a socio-cultural theoretical framework, the analysis of the learners' experiential narratives lends tentative support to the postulation that the…

The purpose of the study was to explore students' alternative conceptions and their associative thinking regarding internal transport in plants through administration of a refined diagnostic test. Questions of associative thinking and explanation were added to form a third tier of the previous two-tier test. The study found three terms related to…