Chinese as a Second Language. The journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association, USA - Volume 52, Issue 2, 2017

This study investigated the associations between student perceptions of their classroom psychosocial learning environment and their motivation to learn Mandarin Chinese in the United States. The students took two surveys that measured their perception of the Chinese classroom psychosocial learning environment and their motivation to learn Chinese. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. There were statistically significant associations between student perception and motivation for learning the Chinese language. The three scales of Task Orientation, Involvement, and Equity emerged as having the most influence on students’ motivation to learn Chinese. The Task Orientation scale had the strongest relationship with student motivation.

Studies have shown foreign language anxiety (FLA) can negatively impact learners’ performance in the classroom, but learners experience less FLA during computer-mediated communication (CMC) activities. Although it has been documented that communicating with native speakers (NSs) can make foreign language learners more anxious, very few empirical studies have compared learners’ anxiety levels toward different online chat partners. The current study investigated intermediate Chinese language learners’ FLA in online text CMC activities chatting with NSs and non-native speakers (NNSs). The quantitative data analyses showed that there was a significant difference in the anxiety level between chatting with NSs and NNSs in text-based CMC: chatting with NSs made Chinese learners more anxious than chatting with NNSs. Language confidence and partner familiarity were the two main factors mediating the anxiety. Practical pedagogical implications and future research directions were discussed.

This study investigates the relationship between language learning achievement and the use of language learning strategy among intermediate Chinese as a second language (L2) learners. A total of 62 students from an intermediate Chinese course participated in this study. Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) ( Oxford, 1989 ) was used to assess participants’ strategy use frequency. Correlation, one-way ANOVA, and ANOVA post hoc tests were performed for data analysis. Key findings suggest that: (1) initiative, communicative orientation, and risk taking are good behavioral predictors of Chinese L2 achievement; (2) medium-achieving learners are more active in using strategies, especially cognitive and memory strategies. These investigations of strategy use within and across achievement groups revealed both Chinese L2 learners’ characteristics in strategy use, and also the problems and challenges that learners with different achievement levels encounter. Multiple pedagogical implications are provided at the end of this article.

口头纠正性反馈包括直接更正、元语言反馈、重铸、要求澄清、重复错误和诱导这六种方式。大量研究表明口头纠正性反馈对学习者语言能力的提升具有积极作用。性格特征，作为一个人的心理认同，具有相对稳定的特性，尤其就成年人而言。众多研究表明性格特征能够影响一个人第二语言的习得。然而，口头纠正性反馈与性格特征之间的关系却未能引起广泛重视。本文通过问卷调查、课堂录音和个别访谈三种方式考察了师生性格特征与口头纠正性反馈之间的关系。研究结果表明：（1）性格特征在一定程度上会影响教师口头纠正性反馈的纠错力度，但并不影响教师对不同类型偏误所持的纠错态度及反馈方式的总体选择。（2）师生就口头纠正性反馈方式所持的态度不尽相同，尤其在“直接更正”、“重铸”和“重复错误”方式上。（3）不同性格特征的教师和学生在口头纠正性反馈的选择上所持态度存在一定差异，尤其在“直接更正”、“元语言反馈”、“重铸”和“诱导”方面。

本文首先简单介绍了汉语作为外语(CFL)课堂上引导讨论的几种方法，包括对台戏法、老皇历法、一言堂法；然后以一个具体的商务汉语课堂上的例子比较详细地探讨了另一种引导讨论的方法——回马枪法的操作过程；最后用实际的语料验证了这种方法的效果。