This unit, designed for use with high school and community college students, features a collection of literature about youths and young adults in contemporary China. Consisting of eight lessons, lessons 1 to 3 are introductory activities relating to Chinese youths and values. Lesson 4 presents excerpts from a Chinese collection of 100 life…

This unit encourages students to explore the history and current situation of Chinese Americans. Organized around five lesson plans, the unit's first lesson begins with the students' own perceptions of Chinese Americans, followed by a quiz that provides relevant background information. The second lesson examines the general history of Chinese…

For Asian Americans, learning only the skills of verbal communication is not sufficient--they need to develop a sense of appreciation for eloquence, to understand the urgency of freedom of expression in a democratic society, and to internalize the value of speech as an instrument for self-enhancement. The remarkable differences between the East…

A "dynamic priority" theory of Chinese second language instruction is outlined and discussed. The theory focuses on five aspects of language instruction: spoken vs. written language; universality vs. particularity; cultural vs. linguistic tasks; performance vs. competence; and proficiency vs. achievement. A dynamic relationship is seen between the…

One of a series of quarterly reports, this publication contains 11 articles which report the status and progress of studies on the nature of speech, instruments for its investigation, and practical applications. Articles in the publication are: "Evidence of Flexible Coding in Visual Word Recognition" (Kenneth R. Pugh and others);…

Based on the idea that there are universal beliefs that unite people from every part of the world, this collection illustrates common sayings, stories, proverbs, and quotations from students in English-as-a-Second-Language classrooms. During the classes, students talk about their families, countries, and customs, including traditional foods and…

The journal IDEAL is intended as a forum for research into the acquisiton and teaching of English as a Second Language. Volume 4 contains the following articles: "Pragmatics and Reading in a Second Language" (Patricia L. Carrell); "English Across Cultures: Native English Speaker in the Third World" (P.B. Nayar); "Pragmatic…

A study investigated cultural variations in the ways groups of speakers reach consensus in the face of disagreement or suggestion. Subjects were six graduate students in each of five groups: one composed of native speakers of American English, two of Taiwanese Chinese, and two of mainland Chinese. Each group performed a desert survival exercise,…

A test to be used for placement of students at the University of Texas (UT), Austin, in lower-level courses in Chinese and to award credit-by-examination in some courses was developed, and its validity was tested. Faculty members from the Department of Oriental and African Studies and the Measurement and Evaluation Center of the UT constructed a…

In June 2001, Asia Society's National Commission on Asia in the Schools released its report which concluded that "young Americans are dangerously uninformed about international matters" (National Commission on Asia in the Schools, 2001 p. 6). Since then, Asia Society has been leading a major national initiative to stimulate teaching and…

A study of the relationships between Chinese dialects based on a quantitative measure of dialect affinity is summarized. First, tone values in all the dialect localities available in the early 1970s were used to calculate the dialectal differences in terms of tone height with respect to the "yin and yang" split. In the late 1970s, calculations of…

In its second year of operation, Project PROBE (Professions Oriented Bilingual Education) experienced difficulty in meeting some of its instructional objectives. The project had sought to provide instructional and supportive services to 200 Spanish-speaking students from Latin America at Louis D. Brandeis High School (Manhattan, New York) and to…

The ways in which the Chinese have used the homophonic nature of their language to express abstractions in concrete terms, especially to express daily wishes, are described. In Chinese, a value is assigned to an object because the pronunciation of the word for the object brings that implied value to the mind of the listener; for instance, vase in…

Project CAREERS is a Title VII bilingual program operating at three Queens, New York high schools (William C. Bryant, John Bourne, and Hillcrest). The program provides intensive instruction in English as a second language (ESL), native language arts, and bilingual instruction in mathematics, science, and social studies to Hispanic, Chinese, and…

Suggestions for students preparing for foreign study in Asia and Africa are presented. It is noted that cooperation and peace may be linked to developing successful programs in the non-Western world. The brief time that students spend in the host country enables the student to describe what the foreign values seem to be, but probably without…