Extensive reading (ER) has been found to have an assortment of positive effects on various aspects of second/foreign language learning. However, few studies have investigated its impacts on learners of Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL), especially early beginning learners. To address this gap, this study reports an intervention of extensive reading using teacher-developed short stories within a regular first-semester CFL curriculum at an American university. Students' perceptions regarding its effects were examined, and qualitative data were collected after two months of implementation. The findings revealed positive effects on students' reading attitudes, consolidation of previously learned vocabulary, incidental vocabulary acquisition, reading speed, and comprehension. The reading strategies employed by the beginning CFL learners were also described. The research findings suggest that extensive reading should be regularly incorporated into CFL classrooms.

Using the analytical tool Rbrul, this study explores the object expression variations in the speech of twenty CSL (Chinese as a Second Language) learners whose first languages (L1) were English, Russian, Korean, and Japanese, and compares them to native speaker (NS) patterns. Multivariate analysis revealed that the learner patterns closely resembled NSs’ in most dimensions explored, except the learners tended to overuse overt pronouns and underuse null forms. For both CSL learners and NSs, the general patterns in object use were as follows: (1) animate objects tended to favor overt objects, while inanimate objects favored null forms, (2) switch in referents favored overt forms, while no referent change favored null, (3) specific referents favored null forms, whereas nonspecific referents favored overt expressions, and (4) conversational contexts favored null forms, but elicited narratives favored explicit forms. As for the patterns specific to learners, the findings were as follows: (1) among the four L1s included in the analysis, Japanese and Russian speakers tended to use null objects more than Korean and English speakers, (2) a stay in China of one, two, or four years tended to favor null forms, but a three-year stay favored explicit forms, and (3) high-intermediate learners tended to use null forms more frequently than advanced learners. These results indicated that learners successfully acquired null object use patterns in spoken Chinese, but they still required further development in understanding the nuances between overt object forms and null object use to enhance their sociolinguistic competence.

This paper compares the acquisition of subject pronoun expression in written Spanish by first-language (L1) speakers of English learning Spanish as a second language and L1 speakers of Chinese learning Spanish as a third language. A mixed-effects regression indicated that learners' choices between null and overt forms are constrained by many of the factors that affect native (i.e., expert) Spanish speakers: switch reference, reflexivity, person/number, and verb type. Although both groups of speakers decreased their rates of overt pronouns over time, Chinese L1 speakers began to use significantly fewer pronouns after two quarters of Spanish study, but English L1 participants did not demonstrate significant drops until quarter 5. We also noted more individual variability in Chinese-speaking participants.

Subject pronoun expression (SPE) has been widely studied as a sociolinguistic variable across a range of languages. However, previous research has primarily focused on production, leaving the perception of subject pronouns largely unexplored. The perception of sociolinguistic variants not only reflects unconscious judgments towards linguistic features but also unveils the social meanings associated with these features. This study explores the perception of SPE in Mandarin by native and non-native listeners. 262 participants (185 native and 77 non-native) were recruited for Mandarin SPE perception tasks in which participants needed to rate the appropriate use of SPE in given contexts. Mixed-effects regression models reveal that native and non-native Mandarin listeners shared similar perception patterns of SPE. SPE rate serves as a significant structural constraint for both native and non-native perception. However, these two groups differ in that person of the subject and L2 experience play a key role in native perception, whereas non-native listeners demonstrated greater sensitivity to gender as a social factor. To what extent production and perception may interact is further discussed. This study contributes to the current understanding of sociolinguistics and second language acquisition by providing empirical evidence of SPE perception, adopting innovative approaches to examine variation perception, addressing the differences between native and non-native patterns of perceptual variation, and exploring the connection between variation production and perception.

This paper provides an overview of 18 studies from over five decades that have investigated L2 Mandarin Chinese tone perception and the factors influencing it. We examine (1) varying patterns of difficulty of L2 Chinese tone perception and (2) the experiment designs that researchers have used to assess their reported patterns of difficulty. This review delineates the complexity of the current picture of difficulty in L2 Chinese tone perception. By analyzing a set of key issues that this investigation has unveiled, we propose new directions for future research that can enhance experiment designs and pedagogical approaches to tone teaching, while illuminating their intimate connections.

Abstract The most widely studied aspect marker in Chinese is ‑le. In addition to functioning as a perfective aspect marker to indicate action completion, it can also serve as a sentence final particle to indicate a currently relevant state. It is obligatory in some situations but optional in others. And, because both types of ‑le can be sentence final, the picture is even more complicated. Most studies of ‑le in Chinese as a second language (L2) have been conducted in a generative framework; this study is the first from a sociolinguistic variationist perspective, with native speaker data as the baseline, to investigate how learners of L2 Chinese use ‑le in oral discourse and the factors that influence their use. The data were collected from informal conversations and elicited narratives spoken by 20 high-intermediate and advanced L2 Chinese speakers resulting in more than 4,000 tokens. Factors explored include verb complement type, position of ‑le, optionality, verb type, serial verb relationship, discourse context, sentence type, native language, gender, length of residence, and proficiency level. The results show that verb complement type, optionality, and position of ‑le are the main constraints and that learners use -le at a lower rate than native speakers.

Many people who learn Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) have encountered challenges when it comes to character writing. This was a followup study of our quantitative study in 2019 that showed that mobile app was a significantly more effective method than pen-and-paper method to learn Chinese character writing. Thirty beginning CFL learners participated in this study. Surveys and interviews were conducted to seek their perspectives on the role of stroke order knowledge, the use of the mobile app in Chinese writing, and suggested ways to teach Chinese character writing. As shown in the results, findings demonstrated that the participants recognized the value of the app in their character learning. They held the view that stroke order not only plays an important role in Chinese writing, but also should be emphasized at the beginning level. Although the use of the app was favored, compared with the conventional pen-paper method, a mixed method of both was suggested for pedagogical practices.

LE is the mostly widely studied aspect marker in Chinese. In addition to perfective aspect marker to indicate action completion, LE can also serve as a sentence-final particle to indicate a currently relevant state. This study investigates how Chinese native speakers use LE in oral discourse and the factors that influence their use. The data were collected from three discourses including informal conversations, elicited narratives, and teacher classroom speech. Multivariate analysis of 2,359 tokens revealed that verb complement type and verb type have the strongest effects, followed by LE position, serial verb relationship, sentence type, discourse context, and time word presence/absence.

le is the mostly widely studied aspect marker in Chinese. In addition to perfective aspect marker to indicate action completion, le can also serve as a sentence-final particle to indicate a currently relevant state. This study investigates how Chinese native speakers use le in oral discourse and the factors that influence their use. The data were collected from three discourses including informal conversations, elicited narratives, and teacher classroom speech. Multivariate analysis of 2,359 tokens revealed that verb complement type and verb type have the strongest effects, followed by le position, serial verb relationship, sentence type, discourse context, and time word presence/absence.

This paper delineates an overview of Mandarin Chinese tone production empirical studies over the past three decades that reported the varying patterns of difficulty for L2 Mandarin learners. In this review, we investigate 19 studies chosen based on our selection criteria by analyzing the key factors in relation to the four main perspectives; namely, learners, instructors, target forms and researchers. We also analyze the patterns and issues found in this investigation. This overview aims to illuminate the current picture of L2 Chinese tone production and its complexity. In light of the insights garnered from this review, we propose a set of suggestions for future research and discuss broad implications for pedagogical approaches to tone learning.

With the rise of exemplar theory, the role of lexical frequency in language variation has been the object of considerable study. Recently, Erker and Guy (2012) extended the analysis of frequency to morphosyntactic variation and examined the role of frequency in variation between null and overt subject personal pronouns (SPPs) in Spanish. Their results suggest that frequency either activates or amplifies the effects of other constraints, such as co-reference. This study extends the study of frequency effects on SPP variation to Mandarin Chinese. Results of multivariate analysis of 6,691 tokens collected from Mandarin speakers in Harbin, China indicate that the effect of frequency on Chinese SPP variation is less than that of other well-established constraints such as co-reference and person and number. The results suggest that the role of frequency in this area of the grammar has been considerably exaggerated. Rather, well-established linguistic constraints provide a better explanation for SPP variation than frequency.

Teachers are important social agents who affect students’ cognitive and social behaviors, including students’ self-directed use of technology for language learning outside the classroom. However, how teachers influence student behaviors may vary across cultures, and understanding how teacher influences vary across different cultures is critical to developing culturally adaptive approaches to enhance students’ self-directed use of technology for learning outside the classroom. This study surveyed 418 undergraduate foreign language learners (190 from Hong Kong and 228 from the U.S.) on their intention to use technology for language learning outside the classroom, teacher influence and other psychosocial factors that may affect their technology use intentions. Structural equation modeling analyses of the survey responses indicated that teacher capacity support was consistently the most influential teacher practice affecting students’ self-directed technology use across the two cultures, whereas teacher affective support and teacher behavior support were significant predictors for Hong Kong students but not for U.S. students.

Abstract This study examines stylistic variation patterns in L1 and L2 Chinese, focusing on two linguistic structures: morphosyntactic particle DE and subject pronoun. The data were from thirteen native speakers, four Chinese instructors, twenty-three L2 Chinese learners, and four Chinese textbooks. Results from variation analysis with frequency description show four general patterns. First, instructors used overt forms of stylistic variants in class significantly more frequently than native speakers did in conversations. Second, learners tended to overuse the overt forms compared with their native speaker peers. Third, learner patterns of stylistic variation aligned closely with those of their teachers. Finally, unlike teacher input, textbook input demonstrated mixed results compared with learner patterns. For DE use, learners’ patterns aligned significantly with those in textbooks, but did not for subject pronoun use. The implications for stylistic variation in conversational and written Chinese are discussed and suggestions are offered for Chinese and foreign language instruction.

Students' use of technology for learning beyond the classroom is critical to maximizing the educational potential of technology, and understanding factors that affect learners' adoption of technology is critical. This study examined the influence of individual espoused cultural values on learners' voluntary technology adoption in informal learning contexts. Structural equation modeling was used to test a model of the direct and moderating effects of espoused cultural values on learners' self-directed use of technology for learning beyond the classroom, based on the survey responses of 661 foreign language learners from three countries/regions. The study found strong direct effects but weak moderating effects of cultural values. It further found that long-term orientation and uncertainty avoidance were two individual-level cultural value orientations that played important roles in the voluntary adoption of technology for self-directed learning beyond the classroom.

This study investigates subject pronominal expression in second language Chinese and compares learner usage with patterns found in their first language. The results show that (a) overt pronouns are used more for singular, +animate subjects than plural, –animate ones; (b) switch in subject surface form favors overt pronouns; (c) English and Russian speakers use overt pronouns more than Korean and Japanese speakers; (d) statements favor overt pronouns most, followed by questions and then imperatives; (e) females use overt pronouns more than males; (f) conversations slightly favor overt pronouns, whereas narratives favor null pronouns; (g) higher proficiency learners across language groups use more null subject referents than do lower proficiency learners; and (h) nonspecific subject referents promote null subjects. Comparison results show that learner patterns are similar to those of their native speaker peers on most dimensions explored except that they tend to overuse overt pronouns. That is, the learners have acquired the subject pronoun use pattern in Chinese rather successfully but need to further develop their sociolinguistic competence regarding null pronoun usage.

This study investigated the variation of subject pronominal expression in Mandarin Chinese. The data were collected from 20 speakers in three discourse contexts including informal conversations, elicited narratives, and teacher classroom speech. A multivariate analysis of 8,507 tokens revealed that the linguistic constraints that affect Chinese subject pronoun use include switch in subject referents, person/number/animacy of the subject, specificity of subject referents, and sentence type. In regards to social factors, age, gender and occupation were significant. Older speakers/teachers/females are more likely to realize subject pronouns than younger speakers/students/males.

With Chinese native-speaker data as the baseline, this study investigates the use of the morphosyntactic particle DE by learners of Chinese as a second language. The general patterns are as follows: (a) DE tends to be deleted more in informal speech than in formal settings; (b) higher proficiency and longer residence in China-more interactions with native speakers-promote DE deletion; and (c) females tend to adopt more formal language style and use DE more than males. The study also found that teachers and textbooks use DE much more often than native speakers. Learners' patterns of DE use closely follow those of their teachers and textbooks, suggesting the necessity of explicit instruction in sociolinguistic variants in L2 classrooms.