Chinese as a Second Language. The journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association, USA - Online First

This study adopts a historically informed approach to examine the evolution, current structure, and implications of foreign language requirements in U.S. higher education. It draws on a survey of 161 Chinese programs at four-year institutions to examine the structure and variation of these requirements. Quantitative results show that approximately 82.6% of surveyed institutions maintain some form of foreign language requirement and that such requirements are typically clustered around two- and four-semester models. No significant differences in requirement length were found across institution types (e.g., public vs. private; liberal arts colleges vs. universities); however, a significant association was observed between requirement length and departmental affiliation. Interviews with program representatives further suggest that the weakening, restructuring, or elimination of foreign language requirements is often followed by immediate and sometimes substantial enrollment declines. The study concludes by arguing that effective advocacy for foreign language requirements requires attention not only to the length of such requirements, but also to clearer policy articulation of the educational value of language study, including intercultural competence, intellectual development, and global engagement.

This article examines the historical development of Chinese pronunciation instruction with a focus on tone and sentence-level prosody, drawing on a review of early Chinese textbooks. Based on authorship, target learners, and instructional characteristics of the Chinese sound system, the development of Chinese textbooks is divided into three periods in this study: the Early Period (before 1948), the Transitional Period (1948–1979), and the Modern Period (1980 onward). Focusing primarily on early-period textbooks, the study examines three aspects: tone presentation, sentence-level prosody, and pedagogical guidance. Key issues, such as the third-tone problem, are highlighted for their influence on modern instruction. A longitudinal comparison identifies major trends across periods and considers potential implications for the design of contemporary and future Chinese pronunciation textbooks.

This study examines the interactional competence (IC) and intercultural communicative competence (ICC) of beginner Chinese L2 learners through interactional engagement. Through conversation analysis (CA) of oral assessment transcripts and video recordings of two high-scoring (HS) and two low-scoring (LS) students, the study identifies key differences. HS students collaborate more effectively with the interlocutor, completing conversational sequences and employing a variety of repair strategies. LS students, by contrast, display more delayed or misaligned next actions and rely more on other-initiated repairs. Both groups experience overlaps, but HS students use them for collaborative engagement, while LS students’ overlaps more often result from delayed turn-taking. Clarification sequences appear only among HS students. ICC-related behaviors emerge when participants orient to culturally relevant practices, such as address terms or role-appropriate responses. These findings demonstrate that communicative competence extends beyond grammar and pronunciation. Turn and sequence management reflect participants’ moment-by-moment orientations to both interactional and intercultural contingencies.