Teaching English to Chinese-Speaking Children

Siegel, Linda S.; Knell, Ellen; Pei, Miao; Qiang, Haiyan; Zhao, Wei; Zhao, Lin

doi:10.1007/978-90-481-3840-1_8

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…There are total and partial immersion programs which use different proportions of target and native languages. (Siegel et al, 2010) In a context as in Sri Lanka, where transfer from L2 is as influential as transfer from L1, total immersion would be less effective. Majority of TCFL textbooks used in Sri Lanka are designed using English as the instruction language which makes the involvement of English an inevitable factor.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimal Use of L1 and L2 in Teaching Chinese to Sri Lankan Students: Approaches and Challenges

Dassanayake

2021

Stud. Learn. Teach.

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Traditional perspectives on monolingual education and total immersion have been substituted by more novel approaches to multilingual education such as translanguaging and partial immersion where the learners’ language repertoire is paid adequate respect. The present study investigates the role of L1 and L2 in teaching Chinese in Sri Lanka using 42 adult Chinese language learners in Sri Lanka as informants and a structured questionnaire was used as the main data collection tool. The informants have a highly divided perspective towards the use of L1 and L2 in the classroom. Most students have favored English instruction considering its efficacy in career prospects and Sinhala for convenience of comprehension. Considering the existing situation of Chinese language textbooks, language policy, and recent trends in multilingualism in Sri Lanka, total immersion is less likely to bring optimal effectiveness in teaching Chinese. The present study suggests that partial immersion and translanguaging would be more constructive for Sri Lankan students if cautiously handled with less hindrance to the delivery of target language content and its accuracy. A multilingual approach would, on one hand, offer a safe space for students to communicate while penetrating cross-cultural barriers through cultivation of culture-sensitivity.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimal Use of L1 and L2 in Teaching Chinese to Sri Lankan Students: Approaches and Challenges

Dassanayake

2021

Stud. Learn. Teach.

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“…It was found that students perform significantly better in these aspects. They are more active and creative in learning English, more capable of expressing themselves in English (Chi & Zhao, 2004), and demonstrating much better oral communication skills (Zhao et al, 2007); they show better word-recognition ability (Zhang & Yan, 2007) and recognize Chinese characters just as well as their non-immersion peers (Siegel et al, 2009). Furthermore, students in the immersion class rank higher at the end-of-year test results in other subjects such as Chinese and mathematics than students in the non-immersion class (Chi & Zhao, 2004).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

English immersion in China as a case of educational transfer

Qiang

Kang

2011

Front. Educ. China

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The English immersion program in China is a case of educational mode transfer from foreign language immersion in North America. This article analyzes the process of the transfer from the perspective of comparative education, using the model of "four stages of educational borrowing." First, it revisits the recent research on educational transfer and briefly introduces the model. Then, it highlights the stages of English immersion program transfer in China. Finally, it concludes that the transfer initiated actively by innovative Chinese scholars, occurs at local and micro levels, with structural context factors and supra-national and sub-national actors playing significant roles in the process. It argues that the model may be applicable in analyzing other educational modes with some adaptations when necessary.

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“…Nevertheless, the claim that immersion learners typically have strong L2 comprehension is well supported as they reliably demonstrate L2 skills sufficient for completing appropriate grade-level content (Alanís, 2000;Cazabon, Nicoladis, & Lambert, 1998;Cheng, Li, Kirby, Qiang, & Wade-Woolley, 2010;Genesee, 1987;Harley, Hart, & Lapkin, 1986;Knell et al, 2007;Lindholm-Leary, 2011;Swain & Lapkin, 1982;Turnbull et al, 2001). Assessments that measure L2 proficiency by tracking immersion learners' holistic listening and reading comprehension (e.g., Genesee, 1981;Harley & Hart, 1997;Siegel et al, 2010;Swain & Lapkin, 1982;Turnbull et al, 1998) are certain to have more validity in predicting academic success than a psycholinguistic experiment, yet such assessments offer little evidence about the precise nature of immersion learners' comprehension of particular linguistic features. As a result, how these populations interpret specific components of L2 morphosyntactic structures is a relatively unresearched topic.…”

Section: Acquisition Of Morphosyntax In Language Immersionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comprehension of English plural-singular marking by Mandarin-L1, early L2-immersion learners

Rusk

Paradis

Järvikivi

2020

Applied Psycholinguistics

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Previous research has established that early second language (L2) learners in classroom immersion may not ultimately produce all L2 morphosyntactic features as first language (L1) speakers of the language do, whereas L2 comprehension outcomes are reported to be less divergent from those of L1 speakers. However, immersion learners’ L2 comprehension is typically assessed using tasks of holistic understanding, and therefore, little is known about fine-grained comprehension of specific morphosyntactic constructions. To address this, the present study examined online comprehension of English plural–singular marking by Mandarin-speaking, English-immersion learners in Taiwan. This semantically transparent feature differs from the L1 grammar and is a notable area of difficulty for Mandarin-speaking L2-English learners. The present study assesses middle school-aged immersion learners’ comprehension using a visual-world eye-tracking task combined with a picture decision task, comparing results to age-matched English-monolingual controls. After more than 8 years of L2 exposure, the immersion participants showed similarities and differences to monolinguals in plural–singular marking comprehension as measured by eye-tracking, and were less accurate in their interpretations on the picture decision task. This study shows that comprehension differences for a semantically transparent morphosyntactic construction can be apparent even after many years for learners who started immersion at an early age.

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Teaching English to Chinese-Speaking Children

Cited by 4 publications

References 14 publications

Optimal Use of L1 and L2 in Teaching Chinese to Sri Lankan Students: Approaches and Challenges

Optimal Use of L1 and L2 in Teaching Chinese to Sri Lankan Students: Approaches and Challenges

English immersion in China as a case of educational transfer

Comprehension of English plural-singular marking by Mandarin-L1, early L2-immersion learners

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