Project Emperor-I has issued two interactive videodiscs on China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang Di. The videodiscs contain film footage from the archaeological excavation in China, images of artifacts, interviews with Qin specialists, and the full text of articles about the ancient burial site. Development of the videodiscs for scholars involved…

The prediction that young Chinese- and English-speaking children should exhibit parallel performance in their use of null arguments was investigated using an elicited production task. The hypothesis that early English allows null subjects was upheld; the argument that early English is a discourse-oriented language like Chinese was not upheld. (26…

Questions Bloom's (1984) assertion that, because the Chinese do not employ counterfactual conditionals, the Chinese have not developed a labeled cognitive schema that allows them to process counterfactuals "naturally" (as opposed to the English). It is demonstrated that Arabic contains a specific counterfactual marker, yet Arabic…

"Xiangsheng," a Chinese oral art form, are written and performed using idiomatic, colloquial Beijing speech and thus provide excellent material for studying spoken Chinese. Suggestions for preparing xiangsheng as teaching materials and teaching xiangsheng in the classroom are offered. Chinese character transcription, pinyin transcription,…

Explores ways in which first-language literacy learning strategies can be understood as either enhancing or complicating acquisition of second-language literacy skills, focusing on the social context of schooling, cognitive considerations of the written code, and pedagogical practices most often used in reading and writing. (41 references)…

Differing approaches toward discourse result in difficulty and confusion when Asians and Westerners communicate in English. In Chinese, Korean, or Japanese discourse, topics are usually introduced inductively; topic introduction is delayed and indirect. Conversely, English-speaking Westerners introduce topics early in a conversation. This…

Discusses Tone sandhi, the tone changes undergone by tone-bearing syllables in juxtaposition, in several Chinese dialects. The tone group is examined as a syntatico-semantic unit in Fuzhou and Mandarin and as a syntactic boundary-marker in Shanghai and Xiamen. The theoretical and pedagogical implications are discussed. (20 references) (JL)

Compared American English and Mandarin Chinese speakers' oral descriptions of a film that had sound but no dialogue. Results revealed that Chinese speakers provided at least as much chronological detail as and more social and moral interpretations than English speakers, although the English speakers offered more personal comments. (21 references)…

Provides an analysis, based on theory-independent structural information, of the structure of postadverbials associated with the Mandarin morpheme "de," arguing that "de" does not stand for a unique morpheme, but for three homophonous ones. (24 references) (CB)

An analysis of two textbook series commonly used to teach university-level Chinese identifies obsolete conventions, expressions, and classifiers and other problems in the series, published over 20 years ago, and suggests some updated supplementary materials that could be used with the series. (CB)

Describes five games for learning Chinese at the elementary and intermediate levels, focusing on the development of such skills as listening, reading, and speaking. The brief descriptions specify group size and necessary equipment. (CB)

Two articles on English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) literacy are reviewed regarding the role of the teacher. One emphasizes a North American context with well-trained and experienced teachers; the other, a context whereby learners delineate their literacy use and teachers may be less experienced. An account of Chinese literacy training is reported.…

Effects of varying the complexity of written Chinese characters in a lexical decision task were studied for 40 adult Chinese students. Results suggest that complexity affects reaction time when subjects identify characters they often read. Theoretical implications are discussed in terms of the interaction of basic perceptual processes and…

Examines the discrepancy between spoken and written vocabularies in modern standard Chinese (MSC) textbooks that contributes to slow vocabulary development, and outlines a teaching technique to extend students' vocabulary using the ideographic nature of MSC characters rather than phonetic learning to increase efficient use of vocabulary…

Assesses attitudes toward facilitated reminiscence (life review therapy) of ethnically diverse elders through the use of a questionnaire. Finds that participant ethnicity is not related to willingness to discuss achievements, willingness to discuss difficulties, or importance attached to ethnic/cultural variables in facilitated reminiscence.…