Research in the field of Chinese second/foreign language (L2) acquisition, at present, does not match the increasing demand to learn Chinese as an L2, given that Chinese is the fastest growing foreign language (FL) in countries such as Japan, South Korea, the United States, Canada and Australia. There is a significant gap between Chinese L2 acquisition research and the large body of literature in second language acquisition (SLA), which mainly focuses on English L2. The need for more research in Chinese SLA is compelling. Particularly, research in Chinese L2 word order acquisition requires more attention because word order plays a more complex role in Chinese than in English. Chinese relies heavily on word order for information structuring of a sentence because this language lacks other means, such as verb endings indicating tense and aspect, to accomplish this function. Due to the different roles word order plays in Chinese and English, adult English-speaking learners find Chinese word order acquisition very challenging. Chinese L2 word order errors frequently occur in learners’ L2 production. However, Chinese L2 researchers and teachers are left with no means to adequately describe and explain these errors for instruction purposes. This dissertation develops such a means — a comprehensive taxonomy of Chinese L2 word order errors. This taxonomy organizes these errors into a logical system of classification. Through the classification, explicit description of various Chinese L2 word order errors is achieved, and specific sources of these errors are traced. Data was collected from 116 native-English-speaking learners of Chinese at a large university in Australia. The Chinese L2 learners were divided into three proficiency levels based on their institutional status. Four hundred and eight word order errors were extracted by qualitatively analyzing the learners’ written samples. Among the 408 word order errors, 404 (99%) are successfully classified into different categories according to a new criterion proposed in this dissertation. The new taxonomy provides a principle-based description and explanation of various Chinese L2 word order errors. A word order error is deemed to constitute an error when it violates a relevant word order principle (or sub-principle). These principles not only explain why an error is an error but also provide a means for correcting the error. In a pedagogical sense, the directness and explicitness in explaining word order errors achieved by employing this taxonomy cannot be achieved by relying on any other sources of errors available in the literature. The new taxonomy overcomes the limitations of existing taxonomies in the literature that are either superficial, or unsystematic, or not empirically testable. For example, it draws on the Cognitive Functionalist Approach of L2 acquisition. Both its description and explanation of Chinese L2 word errors go beyond superficiality. The approach maintains that adult L2 learners’ conceptualization of the world is initially based on their L1. Their conceptualization of the world imposes constraints on the linguistic structures of their L2. Therefore, errors may occur when English learners of Chinese impose their conceptualization based on the English language onto the Chinese structures. The new taxonomy is systematic because it categorizes word order errors using one criterion. New categories emerging from the data and the existing categories from the literature are incorporated into one system. Finally, the new taxonomy is empirically testable because many new categories emerged from the data. It is an open-ended rather than a closed system. New categories can be added as necessary. The dissertation finds that violation of relevant word order principles has a high explanatory value for the various word order errors encountered in the data. This has clear pedagogical implications. Chinese L2 learners generally lack awareness of the word order principles (and sub-principles) on which the new taxonomy is based. These principles and sub-principles are seen to be of considerable importance to the acquisition of Chinese L2 word order. In order to improve learners’ word order performance, the results of this study indicate that it is imperative for the basic Chinese word order principles be included in a CFL curriculum.

This study examines the development of pragmatic competence in requests in two groups of Chinese EFL learners (advanced and intermediate) in a tertiary institute in Macau, China. The learners answer a written discourse completion test that contains ten scenarios where they request common services or ask for favours. The request behaviours are examined in terms of utterance length, strategy types, formulaic expressions, and modifications (internal and external). It is found that, compared with a group of native speakers of English, the learners have not developed native-like pragmatic behaviours. Although the advanced and the intermediate learner groups reach native-like distribution in STRATEGY TYPE for the scenarios taken together, statistically significant differences from the native group are observed in several individual scenarios (particularly with the intermediate learners). In addition, the two groups of learners employ formulaic expressions sharply differently from the native group in types and according to scenario. The learners do not use internal modifiers as frequently or situation-differentially as the native group: they do not show a strong preference for bi-clausal structures and conditionals in the scenarios of substantial favour asking. The learners employ elaborated external modifications and are verbose in requests. According to Bialystok’s (1993, 1994) two-dimensional model of pragmatic competence, the learners are missing analytical knowledge of the scenario-specific behaviours, and their control ability is not fully developed. This study examines adult Chinese learners of English in a foreign language environment, and extends our knowledge of the development of request behaviours in children in second language environments (Achiba, 2003; Ellis, 1992). It also relates to the research on formulae in SLA (Wray, 2000, 2002; Kecskes, 2002) by providing empirical data on formulaic expressions in learners’ requests. It is further argued that further examination of interlanguage pragmatics should be (a) scenario-based, and (b) formulae-based.

This study examines the development of pragmatic competence in requests in two groups of Chinese EFL learners (advanced and intermediate) in a tertiary institute in Macau, China. The learners answer a written discourse completion test that contains ten scenarios where they request common services or ask for favours. The request behaviours are examined in terms of utterance length, strategy types, formulaic expressions, and modifications (internal and external). It is found that, compared with a group of native speakers of English, the learners have not developed native-like pragmatic behaviours. Although the advanced and the intermediate learner groups reach native-like distribution in STRATEGY TYPE for the scenarios taken together, statistically significant differences from the native group are observed in several individual scenarios (particularly with the intermediate learners). In addition, the two groups of learners employ formulaic expressions sharply differently from the native group in types and according to scenario. The learners do not use internal modifiers as frequently or situation-differentially as the native group: they do not show a strong preference for bi-clausal structures and conditionals in the scenarios of substantial favour asking. The learners employ elaborated external modifications and are verbose in requests. According to Bialystok’s (1993, 1994) two-dimensional model of pragmatic competence, the learners are missing analytical knowledge of the scenario-specific behaviours, and their control ability is not fully developed. This study examines adult Chinese learners of English in a foreign language environment, and extends our knowledge of the development of request behaviours in children in second language environments (Achiba, 2003; Ellis, 1992). It also relates to the research on formulae in SLA (Wray, 2000, 2002; Kecskes, 2002) by providing empirical data on formulaic expressions in learners’ requests. It is further argued that further examination of interlanguage pragmatics should be (a) scenario-based, and (b) formulae-based.

Research in the field of Chinese second/foreign language (L2) acquisition, at present, does not match the increasing demand to learn Chinese as an L2, given that Chinese is the fastest growing foreign language (FL) in countries such as Japan, South Korea, the United States, Canada and Australia. There is a significant gap between Chinese L2 acquisition research and the large body of literature in second language acquisition (SLA), which mainly focuses on English L2. The need for more research in Chinese SLA is compelling. Particularly, research in Chinese L2 word order acquisition requires more attention because word order plays a more complex role in Chinese than in English. Chinese relies heavily on word order for information structuring of a sentence because this language lacks other means, such as verb endings indicating tense and aspect, to accomplish this function. Due to the different roles word order plays in Chinese and English, adult English-speaking learners find Chinese word order acquisition very challenging. Chinese L2 word order errors frequently occur in learners’ L2 production. However, Chinese L2 researchers and teachers are left with no means to adequately describe and explain these errors for instruction purposes. This dissertation develops such a means — a comprehensive taxonomy of Chinese L2 word order errors. This taxonomy organizes these errors into a logical system of classification. Through the classification, explicit description of various Chinese L2 word order errors is achieved, and specific sources of these errors are traced. Data was collected from 116 native-English-speaking learners of Chinese at a large university in Australia. The Chinese L2 learners were divided into three proficiency levels based on their institutional status. Four hundred and eight word order errors were extracted by qualitatively analyzing the learners’ written samples. Among the 408 word order errors, 404 (99%) are successfully classified into different categories according to a new criterion proposed in this dissertation. The new taxonomy provides a principle-based description and explanation of various Chinese L2 word order errors. A word order error is deemed to constitute an error when it violates a relevant word order principle (or sub-principle). These principles not only explain why an error is an error but also provide a means for correcting the error. In a pedagogical sense, the directness and explicitness in explaining word order errors achieved by employing this taxonomy cannot be achieved by relying on any other sources of errors available in the literature. The new taxonomy overcomes the limitations of existing taxonomies in the literature that are either superficial, or unsystematic, or not empirically testable. For example, it draws on the Cognitive Functionalist Approach of L2 acquisition. Both its description and explanation of Chinese L2 word errors go beyond superficiality. The approach maintains that adult L2 learners’ conceptualization of the world is initially based on their L1. Their conceptualization of the world imposes constraints on the linguistic structures of their L2. Therefore, errors may occur when English learners of Chinese impose their conceptualization based on the English language onto the Chinese structures. The new taxonomy is systematic because it categorizes word order errors using one criterion. New categories emerging from the data and the existing categories from the literature are incorporated into one system. Finally, the new taxonomy is empirically testable because many new categories emerged from the data. It is an open-ended rather than a closed system. New categories can be added as necessary. The dissertation finds that violation of relevant word order principles has a high explanatory value for the various word order errors encountered in the data. This has clear pedagogical implications. Chinese L2 learners generally lack awareness of the word order principles (and sub-principles) on which the new taxonomy is based. These principles and sub-principles are seen to be of considerable importance to the acquisition of Chinese L2 word order. In order to improve learners’ word order performance, the results of this study indicate that it is imperative for the basic Chinese word order principles be included in a CFL curriculum.

This study examines the development of pragmatic competence in requests in two groups of Chinese EFL learners (advanced and intermediate) in a tertiary institute in Macau, China. The learners answer a written discourse completion test that contains ten scenarios where they request common services or ask for favours. The request behaviours are examined in terms of utterance length, strategy types, formulaic expressions, and modifications (internal and external). It is found that, compared with a group of native speakers of English, the learners have not developed native-like pragmatic behaviours. Although the advanced and the intermediate learner groups reach native-like distribution in STRATEGY TYPE for the scenarios taken together, statistically significant differences from the native group are observed in several individual scenarios (particularly with the intermediate learners). In addition, the two groups of learners employ formulaic expressions sharply differently from the native group in types and according to scenario. The learners do not use internal modifiers as frequently or situation-differentially as the native group: they do not show a strong preference for bi-clausal structures and conditionals in the scenarios of substantial favour asking. The learners employ elaborated external modifications and are verbose in requests. According to Bialystok’s (1993, 1994) two-dimensional model of pragmatic competence, the learners are missing analytical knowledge of the scenario-specific behaviours, and their control ability is not fully developed. This study examines adult Chinese learners of English in a foreign language environment, and extends our knowledge of the development of request behaviours in children in second language environments (Achiba, 2003; Ellis, 1992). It also relates to the research on formulae in SLA (Wray, 2000, 2002; Kecskes, 2002) by providing empirical data on formulaic expressions in learners’ requests. It is further argued that further examination of interlanguage pragmatics should be (a) scenario-based, and (b) formulae-based.

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<div>Having historically received less attention than other linguistic structures(Derwing & Munro,2005),second language (L2) pronunciation instruction represents an emergent area of research in the field(Thomson & Derwing, 2015). While several methods have been shown to be effective for improving L2 segmental production, including explicit instruction(Aliaga-García & Mora, 2009; Lord, 2010; Saito & Lyster, 2012)and inductive visual feedback instruction (Offerman & Olson, 2016; Olson, 2014b; Olson, 2019), there is a notable lack of empirically-based research comparing approaches(Derwing & Munro, 2015; Leeet al., 2015). Moreover, research has largely ignored the effects of instruction on L2 perception, due in part to the tacit assumption thatL2 perception precedes L2 production (Levy & Law, 2010). Responding to these gaps, this study provides a large-scale comparative analysis of three types of pronunciation instruction (explicit instruction[EI], visual feedback[VF], and a combination instruction [CI] approach) on L2 segmental production and perceptionin Spanish. Production-oriented analyses focus on the change in voice onset time (VOT), and perceptual analyses focus on anL2 discrimination task (AXB task) and a nativeness judgment task (Liker-scale ratingtask).Differences in VOT for the stops /p,t,k/ in word-initial position exist for English (long-lag VOT) and Spanish (short-lag VOT) (Lisker & Abramson, 1964), causing notable accentedness for English-speaking L2 learners of Spanish (Lord, 2005), thus serving as the basis for L2 learner performance. Considering results for the production portion of the study, all three experimental groups were found to outperform the control (CO) group, along with each experimental group significantly improving individually from pretest to posttest. For the perception portion, participants did not display difficultly in discriminating between long-lag and short-lag productions at the pretest, and as such, showed no improvement following instruction. In contrast,results from the nativeness judgment task showed thatparticipants were not able to categorize sounds as native-like (Spanish) or non-native-like (English), and significant improvement following training was found only for the CI group. Additionally, previous L2 perception theories largely focus on category formation and discrimination of sounds, such as the SLM (Flege, 1987), the PAM (Best, 1994), and the PAM-L2 (Best & Tyler, 2007), while this study considers perception as it applies to both discrimination and the social categorization of sounds in the L1 and L2. For the production and perception portions, the CI group largely outperformed all groups. It is proposed that the combination of two different modalities, auditory and visual (Baran-Łucarz, 2012), provides learners more resources for noticing (Schmidt, 1990) differences between their L1 and L2 forproduction and perception purposes.Moreover, the CI treatment is proposed to be most beneficial for teaching L2 pronunciation, although more research is to be done with comparative analyses for different segments in the L2, as it has been previously noted that not all pronunciation treatments are equally beneficial to L2 learners for different segmental features (Ruellot, 2011). This study adds to theoretical understanding of L2 phonetic acquisition, in both production and perception,while empirically testing pedagogical approaches in a classroom setting.<br></div>

<p>The theory underlying L2 oral fluency has focused on cognitive processes, particularly proceduralization (Anderson, 1983; Levelt, 1989, 1999) and linguistic constructs, especially vocabulary and grammar (Segalowitz, 2010). Towell, Hawkins, and Bazergui (1996) argued that development of formulaic language enables automatic speech production. However, no research has studied the longitudinal development of L2 oral fluency concurrently with any of the following lexical variables: lexical frequency profile, formulaic language use, and MTLD (a measure of lexical diversity). The purpose of the present study is to clarify the process by which L2 oral fluency, syntax, and vocabulary develop concurrently.</p> <p>Data analysis involved three sequential phases: oral fluency analysis, lexico-syntactic analysis, and discourse analysis. Oral fluency measures were calculated using the transcribed oral test responses of 100 L1-Chinese EAP learners at the beginning and end of a required two-course EAP language and culture sequence at Purdue University. The task completed was a computer-administered, two-minute argumentative speaking task. This study included eight oral fluency measures: speech rate, mean length of speech run, articulation rate, phonation time ratio, mean length of silent pause, mean length of filled pause, silent pause frequency, and filled pause frequency. For the ten participants who made the largest percentage-wise oral fluency gains (in terms of the oral fluency variable associated with the largest effect size of gains), oral transcripts were analyzed to compute descriptive statistics for the three lexical variables mentioned above and three syntactic variables: coordinate clause ratio, dependent clause ratio, and words per T-unit. </p> Results indicated significant change in all oral fluency measures, except mean length of silent pause and mean length of filled pause. The largest gains were made in mean length of speech run. Of the linguistic variables, the largest longitudinal change was associated with coordinate clause ratio. Discourse analysis of the transcripts of large fluency gainers' pre-post responses suggested that large fluency gainers used coordinate clauses to build more sophisticated discourse models in the post-test response than they did in the pre-test response. Implications for L2 oral fluency theory, EAP pedagogy, and L2 oral assessment are discussed.

<p> This study looked at (1) motivation, (2) anxiety, (3) perception of the learning community, and (4) oral proficiency of beginner learners of French in two online sections: one on-campus section with 15 students located on campus or in the same state who could participate in synchronous class zoom, and one distance section with 13 students located all over the world who could only participate in small-group zoom meetings. At the end of the semester, participants filled surveys evaluating their motivation, level of anxiety, and connection with other students in the section. Qualitative and quantitative data from the surveys were collected and analyzed in terms of motivation, anxiety, and perception of the learning community. Participants also completed oral production assignments (individual speech and group conversation on a given topic) throughout the semester, which were collected, and analyzed in terms of complexity, accuracy, and fluency. Results showed that both sections were successful in creating a learning community and allow a progression in oral proficiency. A qualitative and statistical comparison between the sections’ results showed that the distance section had a lower sense of self confidence, enjoyment, motivation, as well as a higher course-related anxiety, whereas the on-campus online section had a higher level of language anxiety. In terms of learning communities, the on-campus section had a higher sense of community, but the distance section had a stronger connection with their groupmates. Finally, the on-campus section had a lower accuracy rate than the distance section in both the individual and group productions, which was due to a higher pronunciation errors rate.   </p>