Matching Items (7)
Description
With an increasing global interest in Chinese economics and society, more and more native English speakers have started to learn Chinese as a second language (L2). While English and Chinese share a similar word order at the syntactic level, they differ significantly in ways to keep track of reference at the discourse level. There are generally three ways to keep track of reference: repeating the full noun phrase (NP), replacing the full NP with a lexical pronoun, or omitting the NP using zero anaphora. Chinese, a topic-prominent language, allows a wide use of zero anaphora to maintain reference; whereas English, a subject-prominent language, allows only a limited use of zero anaphora. Due to this difference, Chinese as a second language learners whose native language is English (CSL learners), must learn to implement the use of zero anaphora more frequently in their Chinese discourse. The purpose of this study is to investigate how CSL learners keep track of reference using zero anaphora. It is hypothesized that CSL learners at intermediate proficiency level would display a transfer effect from English to Chinese in their Chinese discourse. Specifically, they would produce fewer zero anaphora than native Chinese speakers, and they would also tend to consider discourse with many uses of zero anaphora for reference tracking as less appropriate. To test the hypothesis, a story-retelling task and multiple-choice questions task were adopted. The results of both tasks supported the hypothesis. Meanwhile, it is also evident that the CSL learners have acquired some usage of zero anaphora in their Chinese discourse as the usage of zero anaphora was more frequent when speaking Chinese than English.
ContributorsTang, Tianyu (Co-author) / Abdulla, Farzana (Co-author) / Chien, Jasmine (Co-author) / Zhang, Xia (Thesis director) / Bahtchevanova, Mariana (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
Dual Language Immersion programs have been growing exponentially as a result of an urgent need for globally competent, bilingual or multilingual citizens. The US is currently facing a language deficit, which negatively affects national security, international relations and even the economy. If America wants to stay in contention as one of the strongest world powers, the US needs to foster more interest in learning foreign languages earlier and invest in the development of foreign language education. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the history and implementation of different Dual Language Immersion program models. The geographical scope of the paper will cover historical background in Canada and the current implementation of Dual Language Immersion models in three Southwestern states: California, Utah and Arizona. The paper also outlines challenges related to the implementation of these dual language immersion programs.
ContributorsKwong, Jocelyn (Author) / Bahtchevanova, Mariana (Thesis director) / Zhang, Xia (Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
Research in foreign language (FL) acquisition has shown that connectives, a key linguistic element contributing to cohesion and sentence complexity, pose a great challenge for FL learners at all proficiency levels. In spite of the importance of connectives in foreign language acquisition, little research has been conducted to explore how connectives are taught and presented in foreign language classrooms and textbooks.
The primary purpose of this study is to examine the presentation and introduction of connectives as well as the pedagogical activities provided for learning connectives in Chinese textbooks for novice to intermediate FL learners. To achieve the purpose of the study, three different sets of widely-used Chinese textbooks were selected and compared. The results show that while the amount of coverage varies greatly among the three sets of textbook, the sequence of presenting connectives in each series of textbooks closely follows the ranks suggested in the HSK Grading Standards and Grammar Outline (HSK is the shortened form for Chinese Proficiency Test). As for the activities, although all three textbooks claim to adopt a communicative approach to FL teaching, they differ considerably in the type of activities provided. In addition, it is evident that more traditional form-focused exercises are included in those textbooks than meaning-focused communicative tasks.
The primary purpose of this study is to examine the presentation and introduction of connectives as well as the pedagogical activities provided for learning connectives in Chinese textbooks for novice to intermediate FL learners. To achieve the purpose of the study, three different sets of widely-used Chinese textbooks were selected and compared. The results show that while the amount of coverage varies greatly among the three sets of textbook, the sequence of presenting connectives in each series of textbooks closely follows the ranks suggested in the HSK Grading Standards and Grammar Outline (HSK is the shortened form for Chinese Proficiency Test). As for the activities, although all three textbooks claim to adopt a communicative approach to FL teaching, they differ considerably in the type of activities provided. In addition, it is evident that more traditional form-focused exercises are included in those textbooks than meaning-focused communicative tasks.
ContributorsGuo, Yifan (Author) / Zhang, Xia (Thesis advisor) / Oh, Young K. (Committee member) / Tanno, Koji (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
In the past few years the pedagogical model of the "Flipped Classroom" has gained popularity among educators, initially at the secondary level and now at the university level. In the 2015-2016 school year, Arizona State University listed its first intensive language courses, which implemented the flipped model. During this time the author of this project was given the opportunity to work as the facilitator for the flipped French courses FRE 110 and 210. While helping to implement the flipped model, he reflected on his experiences, discussed its advantages and limitations with other second language instructors teaching in a flipped environment, and researched a large array of academic and educational resources. This creative project was completed to practically apply the techniques developed in the intensive French course and those developed by other educators in order to give advice and strategies to future instructors. It represents a web Guide to the Flipped Classroom in Second Language Teaching, which includes research on educational practices such as course design, syllabus creation, and lesson planning; infographics and other visual representations of the flipped model, sample home-made and professional course materials, embedded informational videos, and advice on implementing the flipped model. While other websites exist, there are few that reflect specifically on the use of the flipped classroom in second language teaching, and even fewer that discuss in great detail the challenges and limitations associated with the model. Furthermore, the guide contains an extensive list of online tools for the creation of multimedia materials, such as screen capturing and YouTube-clipping programs as well as a variety of different resource sites where educators can find and share materials. Overall, this web guide acts as a useful tool for second language instructors in secondary education, higher education, or any other educational setting who wish to implement this up-and-coming teaching model.
ContributorsHale, Dakota Keith (Author) / Bahtchevanova, Mariana (Thesis director) / Zhang, Xia (Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Recent advances in fossil fuel CO2 (FFCO2) emission inventories enable sensitivity tests of simulated atmospheric CO2 concentrations to sub-annual variations in FFCO2 emissions and what this implies for the interpretation of observed CO2. Six experiments are conducted to investigate the potential impact of three cycles of FFCO2 emission variability (diurnal, weekly and monthly) using a global tracer transport model. Results show an annual FFCO2 rectification varying from −1.35 to +0.13 ppm from the combination of all three cycles. This rectification is driven by a large negative diurnal FFCO2 rectification due to the covariation of diurnal FFCO2 emissions and diurnal vertical mixing, as well as a smaller positive seasonal FFCO2 rectification driven by the covariation of monthly FFCO2 emissions and monthly atmospheric transport. The diurnal FFCO2 emissions are responsible for a diurnal FFCO2 concentration amplitude of up to 9.12 ppm at the grid cell scale. Similarly, the monthly FFCO2 emissions are responsible for a simulated seasonal CO2 amplitude of up to 6.11 ppm at the grid cell scale. The impact of the diurnal FFCO2 emissions, when only sampled in the local afternoon, is also important, causing an increase of +1.13 ppmv at the grid cell scale. The simulated CO2 concentration impacts from the diurnally and seasonally varying FFCO2 emissions are centered over large source regions in the Northern Hemisphere, extending to downwind regions. This study demonstrates the influence of sub-annual variations in FFCO2 emissions on simulated CO2 concentration and suggests that inversion studies must take account of these variations in the affected regions.
ContributorsZhang, Xia (Author) / Gurney, Kevin (Author) / Rayner, Peter (Author) / Baker, David (Author) / Liu, Yu-ping (Author) / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Contributor)
Created2016-02-19
DescriptionThis project took thesis written in Mandarin researching heavy metal pollution in the Jiangsu region of province and translated it to English. Then the reflection process was discussed, considering the translation challenges between Mandarin and English and how the scientific nature of the piece played into that process.
ContributorsPavey, Molly (Author) / Zhang, Xia (Thesis director) / Zapata, Claudia (Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Chemical Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-12
Description
When singing in tonal languages, there seems to exist a natural conflict between the pitch of a song’s prescribed melody and the tonal pitch demands of its lyrical content. How does a tonal language adapt to one of the defining characteristics of the adopted western musical tradition: a strong melody developed without regard for linguistic tonal features of its lyrical content? This paper reviews the existing literature on the topic and proposes a research design to further explore this question for Standard Mandarin Chinese. Overall, existing literature demonstrates that the tonal features of some languages such as Cantonese are not only negotiated by songwriters during the composition of a musical piece but also negotiated by singers while performing these songs. One notable and one-of-a-kind study by Murray Schellenberg and Brian Gick, specifically, finds evidence that Cantonese singers use microtonal pitch contour variation to reflect the rising contours of Cantonese linguistic tones. This paper discusses and evaluates the strengths of Schellenberg and Gick’s research model and proposes that future research into microtonal variation within songs of other tonal languages like Mandarin Chinese follow their example.
ContributorsByrd, Noah (Author) / Liao, Jianling (Thesis director) / Zhang, Xia (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor)
Created2022-05