Focuses on biliteracy in Singapore. Two writing tasks designed to investigate the written proficiency of secondary school pupils were supplemented by a survey of the linguistic background of the pupils. Results reflect that pupils' writing ability was significantly better in English. (Author/VWL)

Discusses factors that influence learners' listening comprehension in relation to a group of Chinese English-as-Second-Language learners in Singapore. Reports on how one type of knowledge, within a broader framework of metacognitive knowledge, affects listening comprehension in learners of different ability levels. (Author/VWL)

Explores six Chinese terms that are among a handful of identifiable cultural keywords that have played an important role in Confucian heritage cultures. by examining common translations and explanations of the keywords in English, shows that their meanings are interrelated and overlapping.A questionnaires was used to investigate how native Chinese…

The Stroop paradigm was used to examine the role of phonological activation in semantic access and its development in reading Chinese characters. Subjects (age 7-23 years) of different reading ability were asked to name the display color of Chinese characters. The characters were displayed in four different colors: red, yellow, blue and green.…

This study surveyed 86 parents who enrolled their children in a Chinese-English bilingual preschool in San Francisco. The participants were asked their opinions on bilingual education, the reasons for sending their children to a Chinese-English bilingual school, their attitudes toward bilingual education, their use of Chinese and English, and…

This paper looks at the Chinese heritage language schools in metropolitan Phoenix area and examines what role parents of the students play in the schools. Based on semi-structured interviews, class observations and publication from the local Chinese schools, this study shows that although Chinese schools have benefited from the support of parents…

This study explores China's educational policies for ethnic minorities in one particular academic setting, the Central University for Nationalities (CUN) in Beijing, and how these policies are experienced by the students who are supposed to benefit from them. The study takes an emic perspective by looking at the perceptions of minority students at…

Two hundred first- and second-grade Chinese children's knowledge of basic relational concepts in following directions was assessed on the "Applications Booklet" of the "Boehm Test of Basic Concepts-Revised" (BTBC-R, 1986). Chinese children's performance was then compared with that of the standardization sample of the BTBC-R.…

This study was undertaken to test the hypothesis that reading comprehension items, which elicit specific bottom-up and top-down strategies, favor certain linguistic/cultural groups. Verbal report data were collected from Arabic- and Mandarin-speaking English as a second language (ESL) learners to identify the reading strategies involved in…

In a week marked by a high-profile meeting between President Bush and China's President Hu Jintao, the College Board signed an agreement with the government of China intended to boost the numbers of Chinese-language teachers in American public schools through teaching exchanges, professional-development programs, and new instructional materials.…

Seeing language as a complex, dynamic system and language use/acquisition as dynamic adaptedness ("a make-do" solution) to a specific context proves a useful way of understanding change in progress, such as that which occurs with a developing L2 system. This emergentist shift of perspective provides another way of understanding previously observed…

This study investigated the interaction between different cultural groups and item type, and the ensuing effect on construct validity for a psychological inventory, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI, Form G). The authors analyzed 94 items from 2 Chinese-translated versions of the MBTI (Form G) for factorial differences among groups of…

This article introduces the reader to two online sources of materials for working on improving listening and reading skills. The materials are intended for learners already at Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) Level 3 (Superior) proficiency in Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Russian, and Spanish, who desire to reach Level 4 (Distinguished, or…

This article presents evidence of syntactic transfer from Chinese to English based on data obtained from 710 Hong Kong Chinese ESL learners at different proficiency levels. Three methodologies were used: self-reporting in individual interviews, translation (with and without prompts), and grammaticality judgment. The focus of the study was on 5…

The role of information processing deficits in poor readers of nonalphabetic scripts such as Chinese is not well documented. Here, we examined perceptual processing in good and poor readers of Chinese. Specifically, two groups of third grade children comprising 20 "good readers" and 19 "poor readers," drawn from a larger pool of 254 students, were…