The goal of this study was to examine the effect of the linguistic distance between a first language (L1) and a second language (L2) on neural activity during second language relative to first language processing. We compared different L1-L2 pairs in which different linguistic features characterize linguistic distance. Chinese and Korean native…

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…

We explore in this study how infants may derive phonetic categories from adult input that are highly variable. Neural networks in the form of self-organizing maps (SOMs; Kohonen, 1989, 1995) were used to simulate unsupervised learning of Mandarin tones. In Simulation 1, we trained the SOMs with syllable-sized continuous F[subscript 0] contours,…

EUROCALL 2013's theme was "20 Years of EUROCALL: Learning from the Past, Looking to the Future." The conference seeked to establish an overview of EUROCALL's twentieth anniversary. As a professional organization, EUROCALL has been aiming, along its 20 years of existence, to promote innovative research, development and practice in the…

Eight papers from a two-day workshop to help librarians answer patrons' questions about China are summarized. Topics include women and child care in China, trends in the arts, China as seen in United States government documents, book publishing in China, building a Chinese resource collection, and teaching about China. The attached kit of…

The present study is based on the theoretical assumptions that frequency of characters and their structural components, as well as the frequency types of structural components, are important to enable learners of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) to discover the underlying structure of Chinese characters. In the CFL context, since reliable…

Situated in the field of computer assisted language learning (CALL), this article reports an instrumental case study on the use of audioblogs for developing students' Chinese speaking skills. The intervention focused on scaffolding students in metacognitive reflection of their oral performances. The case focused on seven students who completed…

This qualitative case study explores one young adolescent's transitional schooling from an American context to a Chinese context. Although the student was bilingual and bicultural, she experiences multiple struggles, triumphs, and dilemmas across the two educational settings. These findings have implications for those adolescents and parents who…

The authors used the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K) data to examine the mathematics and science achievement of two immigrant groups in the United States--Chinese and Mexican students. The authors also assessed variation in parental practices and fifth-grade achievement according to ethnicity and the age…

The discrepancy between the theory and practice of equality of the sexes in China is documented. (AG)

Most studies of discrimination have been based on researchers' observations or on the perceptions of those who discriminate. Few attempts have been made to focus on the perceptions of the victims of discrimination. A comparison made between the direct perceptions of Hispanic Americans and those of Chinese Americans, both of whom are victims of…

A 1969 sample survey of 565 households in New York's Chinatown indicates that the pattern of recent Chinese immigration is characterized by young age, low sex ratio, high educational level, high rate of occupational downgrading, and a high proportion of nuclear families. (Author/SF)

The earliest recorded Chinese literature that has survived consists of folk songs mixed with verses and rhymes. Two factors determined the general pattern of subsequent development in Chinese literature: the nature of the written Chinese language and the establishment of the Confucian school as the orthodoxy in literary criticism. By 1800 there…

The purpose of this series is to supply the advanced student of spoken Chinese with reading material he can actually use in his speech. The author has tried to include as great as possible a variety of subject matter and style of language. Volume I consists of "Short Stories, Conversations, and Learned Articles,""Fragments of an Autobiography"…

China has had the same written language, "wen-yan," since the third century B.C. "Wen-yan is the classical, literary language. In this paper the author discusses the five problems which must be considered with regard to the teaching of classical Chinese to American college students. These are: (1) why this literary language should…