Teaching and learning L2 reading: The Chinese case

Yan Li, Purdue University

Abstract

Although English speakers encounter enormous difficulties in developing Chinese reading ability, little is known yet about their reading acquisition and strategies. Moreover, most research on L2 reading have focused on higher level students (intermediate and advanced), few classroom-based research have studied initial learners with a process-oriented perspective. In order to understand thoroughly how English speakers develop their reading skills in Chinese, and further to improve classroom teaching of Chinese as a second/foreign language, this classroom-based qualitative study examines and describes beginning Chinese language students' learning experience and reading processes over an extended time period. From a process-oriented perspective, the study answers two research questions: (1) how are reading skills taught in a beginning Chinese language course and, (2) which strategies do beginning CFL (Chinese as a foreign language) learners use when reading Chinese texts. Under constructivist and psycholinguistic paradigms, data were collected from classroom observation, questionnaire, individual interviews and key informants' reading/thinking aloud protocols. Three case studies were constructed within the study to illuminate the nature of reading acquisition of adult CFL learners. Data analyses were conducted using qualitative inquiry (Pattern, 1990) and miscue analysis (Goodman, 1968; Goodman, Watson & Burke, 1987). The study shows that Chinese teachers used various instructional strategies, and many were particularly designed for Chinese orthography to help learners develop reading skills. Further, the study also reveals that CFL learner, like readers of other languages, actively used graphic, syntactic and semantic cueing systems to help word recognition and sentence comprehension. Evidence from data analyses also demonstrates language-specific effects on CFL learners' reading processes, strategies and developmental trend. The study concluded that learners of Chinese need to build an orthographic sensibility in order to develop basic reading skills; fast and context-free word recognition skills influence learners' use of different reading strategies, and given the orthographic effects, CFL learners' reading development may differ from alphabetic language learners. Theoretical, pedagogical and methodological implications have been discussed with the findings of the study.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Garfinkel, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Language arts|Literacy|Reading instruction

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