In spite of long-standing political tensions between Japan and the People's Republic of China, Japanese remains a highly popular language to learn in Hong Kong. This is evidenced by the growth in number of Japanese-related courses and programmes offered at schools and universities in the Special Administrative Region. Although Japan is a dominant…

Lexical tone languages make up the majority of all known languages of the world, but the role of tone in lexical processing remains unclear. In the present study, four form priming experiments examined the role of Mandarin tones in constraining lexical activation and the time course of the activation. When a prime and a target were related…

We investigate a possible universal constraint on spatial meaning. It has been proposed that people attend preferentially to the endpoints of spatial motion events, and that languages may therefore make finer semantic distinctions at event endpoints than at event beginnings. We test this proposal. In Experiment 1, we show that people discriminate…

Purpose: To develop a brief family support function scale for Chinese high school students (FSFS-CHSS). Methods: Standard procedures for scale development (identification of conceptual model, literature review, item selection and modification using consumer and expert panels and item reduction techniques) were used to develop a 17-item scale.…

This study investigated how listener experience (extent of previous exposure to non-native speech) and semantic context (degree and type of semantic information available) influence measures of intelligibility, comprehensibility, and accentedness of non-native (L2) speech. Participants were 24 native English-speaking listeners, half experienced…

After 18 months of research and many practice sessions, Sponge opened in the fall of 2005. This year, Sponge will provide language classes for over 350 children from newborn to seven years in the Seattle area. This language program offers Spanish, Mandarin, French and Japanese--all taught by native speakers. While the staff sets out to create a…

Self-reported ethnic labels were examined among 242 young American adults with Chinese ancestry (age range = 18-32 years, M = 23.97; 73% female, 27% male). Ethnic labels fell under broad categories whereby 22% reported heritage national labels (e.g., Chinese), 35% added American to their heritage national label (e.g., Chinese American), and 42%…

The state of Ohio made globalizing its education a priority. The Ohio Department of Education benchmarked its practices against world-class standards, expanded visiting teacher programs, and promoted Chinese Mandarin language instruction and curriculum development in Ohio classrooms. Numerous partnerships extended and supported those practices.…

Working collaboratively with culturally and linguistically diverse families of children with disabilities can sometimes be a challenge for educators and service providers. As the number of Asian students with disabilities continues to increase, very little research has focused on how collaborative partnerships can be developed between schools and…

This study examined spillover between daily family stressors and school problems among 589 ninth-grade students (mean age = 14.9 years) from Mexican, Chinese, and European backgrounds. Spillover was examined using a daily diary methodology in which adolescents reported on their school and family experiences each day for 2 weeks. Analyses using…

This is a small scale, inductive, ethnographic study whose objective is to explore the language learning strategies used by the students of different languages at a language program at the university level. Students of English, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Italian, and German participate in the study. Three instruments are used…

With the widespread availability of Internet and computer technology, on-line web-based learning has become prevalent in the field of teaching Chinese as a second/foreign language (CSL/CFL). This study examined the concepts of usability and types of design elements that help construct an effective web-based learning environment, as well as their…

To investigate the actual and possible roles of parents in the development of preschoolers' bilingual ability, this study examined the home environments and bilingual ability of Singapore preschoolers. A total of 378 children, aged 5 and 6 years, were divided into 2 groups and individually interviewed. Children in one group began the interview in…

Papers in this issue include the following: "Code-Mixing in Hongkong Cantonese-English Bilinguals: Constraints and Processes" (Brian Chan Hok-shing); "Information on Quantifiers and Argument Structure in English Learner's Dictionaries" (Thomas Hun-tak Lee); "Systematic Variability: In Search of a Linguistic…

This unit is designed to introduce secondary or post-secondary students to the ancient art of Chinese calligraphy through step-by-step instructions on writing Chinese characters. Because each character is made up of a series of single brush strokes, it is believed that if students learn to recognize these as components of completed characters, the…