This curriculum guide is developed to accompany 7 Chinese Cultural Heritage kits for use in intermediate and middle school classrooms. The units in this guide may be used with or without the accompanying kits. When appropriate, units include: objectives, introductory information, suggested presentation sequence, activity instruction, evaluation…

The purpose of this research is to tailor the design of information and communications technology (ICT) training material to the needs of Chinese language arts teachers such that the training they receive will be conducive to effective integration of ICT into instruction. Eighteen experienced teachers participated in a Delphi-like survey that…

A study examined the verbal (Chinese and English) self-concepts of 274 university students in Hong Kong 3 months after the end of the colonial era. The students' self-concepts in Chinese, their native language (L1), and in English, a second language (L2), were measured by two domain-specific academic self-concept scales, and were found to be two…

The adoption of the method used in "La France en Direct," of introducing authentic (i.e., not fabricated) cultural materials, in French language instruction in a Chinese university is discussed. It is suggested that foreign language instruction, when it brings cultural realities into contact, is in essence a study of human behavior and…

In 1996, the National Library of Australia processed over 500,000 Chinese, Japanese, and Korean USMARC records through a program that identified data in the Wade-Giles romanization scheme and converted it to the more user-friendly Pinyin scheme. Describes the program development, its use in Australia, and the feasibility of an alternate…

Used interviews and questionnaires to examine parents' role in supporting bilingual competence of Singapore preschoolers. Found that well-educated mothers used English in everyday interactions and provided story reading, television, and video viewing in English and Mandarin. Parents were aware of the need for appropriate physical and material…

Describes research suggesting diverse trends in the behavior and attitudes of Chinese students, which often conflict with Chinese tradition and customs, and official Chinese government ideology. Addresses the decline of personal sacrifice for the social cause, and changes in courtship and sexual attitudes. Relates most of these changes to China's…

Examines how the parents of a 2-year-old child elicit and sustain the child's attention during mundane activities such as playing an educational game and telling a story. Notes that triadic interactions are fostered by the arrangement and blending of artifacts, the parents' complementary roles, the use of affective morphology and of nonvocal…

Assessed gender and age differences in self-esteem of Taiwanese children in grades four through six. Found that boys exceeded girls in confidence in physical abilities, but were less satisfied with their conduct; confidence in scholastic and athletic competence and global self-worth declined with age. Found that scholastic competence, physical…

Presents data on the comparative efficacy of tonal spelling and diacritics in the teaching of Mandarin Chinese pronunciation. Results indicate that the tonal spelling system did not lead to significantly greater accuracy in tonal production but reflected slightly lower rates of tonal production accuracy for native speakers of both American English…

Presents details of the language shifts among the various sections of the Chinese-speaking population in Hong Kong and analyzes patterns of allegiance. Notes that complex social, economic, and political pressures will affect future language in Hong Kong and that, within the domains of family, work, and others, the use of Modern Standard Chinese is…

Evaluated Hong Kong Chinese kindergarten children's literacy development through dialogic reading, typical reading, and control groups. Found that early literacy-related activities in the home have strong effects on literacy growth and language development in Chinese. Concluded that success of the dialogic reading technique contributes to the goal…

Studied the effects of Language 1-assisted (L1) reciprocal teaching (in this case, Mandarin) on the comprehension of English expository text by 12 year-7 and year-8 (grades 6 and 7) Taiwanese students. The use of reciprocal L1 and L2 (English) teaching appeared to increase comprehension when reading L1 and L2 texts. (SLD)

Analysis of Chinese undergraduates' oral production of English lexical items they had already been exposed to found that factors affecting both placement and phonetic stress errors involved native language patterns, syllable structure, and the lexical item's position in the rhythmic sequence. (45 references) (CB)

Examines applications of the diaspora concept to experiences of Jews, Africans, Chinese, and Asians living outside of their homeland or ancestral country. Discusses the following features of diaspora: (1) territorial and political; (2) economic, trade, and remittances; (3) immigrant and labor migrations; and (4) cultural and ethnic identification…