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chinese language research paper

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A systematic review of pedagogical research on teaching Chinese as a foreign language in the United States – from 1960 to 2020

Shenglan Zhang is an associate professor in the Department of World Languages and Cultures at Iowa State University in the United States, where she is Coordinator for the Multi-Section Lower Division Courses in the Chinese Studies Program. She earned her PhD in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology at Michigan State University. Her research interests include computer-assisted language learning (CALL), designing for blended, flipped, and online learning, language teaching pedagogy, and self-regulated learning.

Since the 1960s, research on Chinese language teaching and learning has developed gradually, so it is worthwhile to synthesize the research results and examine trends and changes. A literature review shows that research has been done to synthesize research findings regarding Chinese language acquisition, but no review of the research studies have been done examining Chinese language pedagogy. This study investigates the research trends in Chinese language pedagogy in the U.S. by analyzing 122 empirical studies published in 25 peer-reviewed journals. These articles were identified through an exhaustive search using multiple databases and methods. The articles were cross analyzed in terms of research topics, language learning settings, methodological approaches, theoretical perspectives, and types of learners that were studied. The analysis found that the topics studied in pedagogical research have become increasingly diversified, and that many of the studies used SLA theories, cognitive theories, and multimedia theories as support for their research designs. Almost half of the studies used technology as part of their pedagogical method. The data also revealed that more research was done with beginning-level learners than advanced learners, and that most of the studies used qualitative data. Analysis of the data highlights the need for more research using Action Research and Design-Based Research methods and reveals a need for all future research to use theoretical support for the research designs. This article concludes by suggesting aspects of Chinese pedagogy that could benefit from further research.

自上世纪六十年代以来美国的中文教学研究在教与学两方面并行日益成熟,其结论值得总结。文献显示学者对习得方面的研究有过综述,但是对教学法方面的综述研究仍然缺乏。过去六十年中文教学方法的研究有什么趋势,这些研究集中在教学中的什么问题上,所采用的研究方法以及涉及的理论有哪些?这些问题迫切需要回答。这些问题的答案可以为学者、教师以及中文师资培训指出一个发展方向。通过对相关学术期刊进行穷尽式搜索与综述,本文试图回答这些问题。穷尽式搜索得到一百二十二篇实证性研究,从发表日期来看,研究数量成递增趋势,研究领域也呈现多样化。多数研究运用定性数据,并且针对初学者教学的研究数量多于中级和高级者。文章最后探讨了中文教学法研究的欠缺方面(比如行动研究与 ‘设计为本’ 研究法的缺乏;研究设计应该以扎实的理论为基础) ,以及将来的可能走向。

1 Introduction

While the popularity of learning Chinese has waxed and waned in the United States over the years, the overall trend shows increased demand for Chinese language instruction, particularly in recent years. Consequently, programs for educating Chinese language teachers, which are usually situated in an East Asian Languages and Cultures program, have expanded to offer M.A. programs in order to produce a greater number of qualified Chinese teachers. To train these teachers effectively, M.A. programs should base instruction on both anecdotal teaching experience and research conducted in the Chinese teaching classroom. To that end, this study examines the research already done in Chinese language teaching and notes the aspects of Chinese teaching that still need research. This knowledge can provide focus and direction for future research.

Although American educational institutions have offered Chinese instruction since 1877, it was not until in the 1960s that a significant number of people (over 1,000 students in the entire country) started to learn Chinese ( Yao and Yao 2010 ). While scholars have conducted research on specific aspects of the history of Chinese language teaching and learning in the U.S. ( Chi 1989 ; Meng 2017 ; Yao and Yao 2010 ; Zhang 2018 ), no studies examine the development of Chinese pedagogy research in America.

The field of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) bifurcated into basic SLA research (aka, pure research) and applied SLA (aka Instructed SLA) over time ( Han 2016 ). Pedagogy falls within the Instructed SLA area of research, as the academic discipline of pedagogy refers to the theory and practice of teaching. As noted by McLaren and Jaramillo (2007) , the discipline studies teaching methods to determine which are most effective at imparting knowledge and skills efficiently in an educational setting. Pedagogy involves setting educational goals, identifying methods to help reach those goals, creating learning environments that facilitate those methods, and observing interactions in which the goals may be achieved. The importance of Chinese pedagogy in improving learning outcomes was first recognized in print in 1979 ( Zhang 2018 ) when the editor of the flagship journal of Chinese Language Teachers Association (CLTA), Professor Light, debuted a column in the journal to address pedagogy. However, it was in 1989 that Chi pointed out that Teaching-Chinese-as-a-Foreign-Language (TCFL) was not involved in research on language pedagogy. He wrote,

In the literature and at conferences, there is extensive discussion on issues relating to linguistics analysis of the language or to the merits and weaknesses of certain texts used in the classroom. However, on the whole, there is not enough discussion on language pedagogy at either the theoretical or practical level. Most of us seem to be either unaware of or uninterested in the research activities, past and present, in the fields of language acquisition and second language teaching, and in the Shingling theoretical extensions and practical implications such research may have for teaching Chinese as a foreign language (p. 113).

As we strive for high-quality, research-based classroom instruction ( Wen 2019 ), it is important to learn what pedagogical research has been done and what still needs to be done. The purpose of this study is to investigate the development of the pedagogical research in the field of TCFL in the United States from 1960 to the present.

2 Literature review

In previous studies, researchers have devoted a great deal of attention to the acquisition of Chinese as a second or as a foreign language in the United States (e.g. Ke and Li 2011 ; Ke and Shen 2003 ) and in China (e.g. Shi and Wen 2009 ). Ke and Shen (2003) did a review of literature study on Chinese-as-a-Foreign-Language (CFL) acquisition in America starting from the early 1980s to 2003. They analyzed the research done on the acquisition of Chinese as a foreign language during those 20 years by examining a few aspects of language learning, including the acquisition of pronunciation, characters, grammar, and reading strategies that learners adopted; non-cognitive factors that affects learning; learners’ pragmatic knowledge; and assessment. Their study also analyzed the pedagogical research on teaching writing/composition. At the end of the article, the authors offered valuable suggestions on the gaps in the field of CFL acquisition research.

Ke and Li (2011) detailed the situation in teaching Chinese nine years ago, giving an overview of programmatic structures, opportunities, and challenges in the field. Their study also surveyed research on learning Chinese as a foreign language from the late 1980s to the first decade of the 21st century. Although their study focused on students’ learning rather than pedagogy, it offered a clear picture of the research situation in the field of CFL. In addition, Ke and Li (2011) gave insight on what issues required more attention to improve our understanding of CFL learning, such as calling for more CALL research and more CFL researchers.

Other researchers have approached Chinese language teaching from other perspectives. For example, Meng (2017) analyzed Chinese language teaching in the context of the changing language policy patterns that America showed from 1876 to 2016. Meng divided the 130-year history into four periods based on the policy patterns and Chinese teaching, such as the establishment of Chinese language programs and the enrollment numbers corresponding to the different policy patterns.

Taking a different perspective, Yao and Yao (2010) gave a detailed description of the start of Chinese language teaching in the United States. They analyzed the development of Chinese language teaching in the mainstream and nonmainstream society in the 19th century, the 20th century, and the current time, and pictured the future development of Chinese teaching in America.

Zhang (2018) gave an interesting report of the growth of the journal Chinese as a Second Language (CSL, formerly titled Journal of CLTA ) between the years of 1966 and 2018. The article covers many areas, ranging from the CLTA membership to the role of linguistics and literature in the research published in CSL . Because CSL is the flagship journal of CLTA in America, this narrative, to a large degree, mirrors the growth of CSL in America. It stressed the “unwavering commitment to pedagogy” of the journal; however, noted that there was no space provided in the journal to talk further and in depth about the pedagogy research.

In another research project, H. Zhang (2014) and Z-S. Zhang (2014) provided statistics on different analyses of articles published in Journal of CLTA (JCLTA), evaluating them in groupings such as language, type, and category and by theme in the title. The article offers a valuable overview of the publications, the trends, and the blind spots in JCLTA from 1966 to 2014. As H. Zhang (2014) and Z-S. Zhang (2014) mentioned, however, the methodology of this study might be too simplistic, JCLTA may not reflect the entire field of CFL, and more details and analyses are needed to provide a more comprehensive and in-depth account of the publications in JCLTA .

All these studies have made significant contributions to the fields of CSL and CFL. They provide a useful account of the beginning of CSL/CFL in the U.S. and its growth over the years as well as research on how students acquire Chinese as a foreign or a second language, which is the basis for designing instructional approaches for classroom use. After discovering how learners acquire or learn the language, it is crucial to then discover how to teach the language based on the findings about students’ methods of learning. Learning and teaching are two separate matters, even though they are closely connected. No studies in the literature have systematically examined the development of pedagogical research – that is, research on the instructional approaches used to teach Chinese as a foreign language or as a second language – in CFL from the infancy of field to the present. Few efforts have been made to investigate whether the development of pedagogical research in teaching the Chinese language has a solid theoretical basis. A review of the literature focusing on the development of CFL pedagogy in the U.S. using a careful search criterion and a rigorous research method is urgently needed.

3 Research questions

What are the trends in Chinese pedagogical research in the United States from 1960 to the present?

What pedagogical research topics have attracted the most attention from scholars and what topics have been neglected in the past six decades?

What research methods have been adopted in these pedagogical research studies and what theories underpin these studies?

4 Methodology

To answer the research questions, three search methods were used to conduct an exhaustive search identifying all the peer-reviewed publications related to Chinese pedagogy research studies in the United States published in the time period from 1960 through mid-2020 when this project was conducted.

The first search method was a database search. Four databases that include all the important journals in the field were used for the search: Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA), ERIC, PsychInfo, and Education Index Retrospective. The databases complement each other, as LLBA includes journals in the field of linguistics and languages, Eric includes journals in the field of education in general, PsychInfo includes journals in educational psychology, and Education Index Retrospective includes journals that address all levels of education and education specialties. When searching these databases, “Chinese” was used as the keyword to include all possible articles, and searches were made using a variety of different settings to be sure to gather all relevant results. A manual search was then done to screen the titles and gather relevant articles.

The second search method was a manual search of the references found in the articles gathered through the initial search. The purpose of the manual search was to find relevant articles that the initial search of the databases might have missed. The third search method, which was the most time-consuming but most productive method, was a manual search of the two most important journals in the field of CFL in America: Chinese as a Second Language (i.e. Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association), the flagship journal of Chinese Language Teachers Association , and Journal of Technology and Chinese Language Teaching (JTCLT). These two journals were indexed at a later date than the more inclusive journals such as Foreign Language Annals (FLA); therefore, some issues of the journals might not have been indexed in the databases at the time of the initial search. A manual search of these two journals ensured that the search included all published articles in the field of Chinese pedagogy. To ensure that the search was exhaustive, the author also visited the website of each journal included in the databases used for search method #1 and used the search archive function on each journal website to manually search all the relevant journals.

The search used the following criteria to gather the sample: 1) The study had to include empirical research methods. In other words, each study had to create knowledge from actual experience through observation and measured phenomena, and the study had to include a description of the methods used to examine a certain population or phenomena including the data selection criteria and the instrument(s) used. Concept papers, reports of teaching experiences, narratives about specific innovations in the classroom, and teachers’ reflections on or description of lessons, though valuable in many aspects in the field, were not included in this study. 2) The research topic had to be Chinese pedagogy; that is, the topic needed to be a method or methods of teaching modern Chinese as a foreign or a second language. Note, if a study addressed culture or film as part of the language teaching, it was included. If the study focused exclusively on culture or film, it was not included. An example of such a study that was excluded is Mu and Zhang (2005) , which studied the use of WebCT to teach Chinese films. It is true that research findings in many other areas found their way to helping with Chinese teaching over time, such as acquisition of Chinese as a second language, Chinese learning motivation, teacher education, assessment, learner behaviors such as the use of reading strategies, study abroad, teaching Chinese literature or film, the acquisition of a certain language phenomenon, and so on. However, because they are not directly related to methods of teaching Chinese, articles focused on these topics were not included. 3) The study had to be conducted in the United States. Because the focus of this study is pedagogical research in America, studies that were published in America but conducted in another country were not included. 4) The research had to be published in a peer-reviewed journal between January 1960 and June 2020. 5) The articles had to be written either in English or in Chinese.

The searches using these three search methods resulted in a set of 898 articles that were related to Chinese language learning and teaching. These 898 articles were further screened manually based on the above criteria, and 122 articles were identified as the pool of articles that satisfied all of the criteria. Information about each of the 122 articles was recorded, including the year of publication, the research setting (k-12 schools or college/university), the research topic, learner information (proficiency level, heritage or non-heritage), the research method, and the theoretical framework. This information was then categorized based on the aspects of language use that the research focused on, such as characters, vocabulary, reading, grammar, pragmatics, listening, speaking, essay writing, pronunciation, culture, or overall language proficiency. The data was then analyzed.

5 Findings and discussion

5.1 journals that published chinese pedagogical research.

The finding shows that 25 peer-reviewed journals published Chinese pedagogical research in the United States in the past 60 years. The three journals that published the most articles related to Chinese pedagogical research are Chinese as a Second Language (CSL), Journal of Technology and Chinese Language Teaching (JTCLT), and Foreign Language Annals (FLA) . Seven journals published five or more studies in the area of pedagogy, and 15 journals published one to four relevant studies in the past six decades. See Figure 1 . Note: the number of publications in each journal does not necessarily reflect the emphasis of the journal because the inauguration date of each journal is different. For information on the different inauguration dates of the few journals in America that focus on Chinese languages, please see H. Zhang (2014) and Z-S. Zhang (2014) .

Figure 1: 
Twenty-five journals published Chinese pedagogical research.

Twenty-five journals published Chinese pedagogical research.

5.2 Trend in time of publication and the use of technology

Out of the 122 studies, only three (2%) were published before the late 1980s and 98% of the 122 articles were published after revolutionary theoretical and teaching changes happened in the 1980s. The two biggest changes in Chinese pedagogy during that time were: 1) Communicative learning started to be widely accepted in the field, which revolutionized L2 classroom teaching; 2) Instruction started to change from form-focused (such as audio-lingual instruction and habit formation) to meaning focused. However, the findings show that not all studies published after this time concentrated exclusively on meaning-focused teaching. There was some renewed interest in formal instruction in the context of meaning-based communicative methods because formal instruction, especially in teaching complicated grammars, could improve accuracy and prevent fossilization ( Yuan and Dietrich 2004 ).

Another trend relates to the number of studies that addressed the use of technology in teaching Chinese. There were 60 studies that utilized computer and internet technology representing nearly 50% of the studies in total. This is a continuation of a trend in CALL research detected nine years ago ( Ke and Li 2011 ) and this theme was discussed in Da and Zheng (2018) . Most of these articles were also published after the 1980s. See Figure 2 .

Figure 2: 
Time distribution of the publications and studies regarding the use of technology in teaching.

Time distribution of the publications and studies regarding the use of technology in teaching.

5.3 Research settings and the level of learners in the research

Out of the 122 studies, 105 studies (86%) were conducted in a university setting, and the learners were largely college students. Twelve of the 122 studies (10%) focused on teaching Chinese to middle school and high school students. Five (4%) focused on teaching Chinese to kindergarten and elementary school students. Out of the five studies that were conducted in an elementary school, four of them were about teaching Chinese in an immersion program. See Figure 3 .

Figure 3: 
Research settings: college/university, middle/high school, or kindergarten/elementary school.

Research settings: college/university, middle/high school, or kindergarten/elementary school.

Out of the 105 studies investigating university students, six focused on teaching heritage learners and three focused on teaching in an intensive program. Some of the 105 studies examined students at the same language level and some examined students at all language proficiency levels (beginning, intermediate, and advanced). Two studies did not specify the language mastery levels of the students who participated in the studies.

Of the 105 studies, 61 (58%) targeted beginning-level CFL learners, 43 (41%) targeted intermediate-level CFL learners, and 24 (23%) targeted advanced-level learners (See Figure 4 ). While most did not sub-categorize within each level, some studies made the distinction between intermediate-low, intermediate-mid, and intermediate-high; for the purpose of maintaining simplicity in this study, the sub-level within intermediate level students was not recorded. When identifying advanced level students, all learners who had studied more than three years in a college setting were categorized as advanced level.

Figure 4: 
Learners’ language level in the pedagogical studies in the college/university setting.

Learners’ language level in the pedagogical studies in the college/university setting.

5.4 Research method adopted in the pedagogical studies

A majority of the studies (46%) used qualitative data gathered through various data collection methods such as surveys, case descriptions, discourse analyses, exploratory methods, comparative analyses and so on. About 36% of the studies were experimental studies, out of which only two were longitudinal studies. Eighteen percent of these studies adopted mixed methods, combining both qualitative and quantitative methods within the same study. See Figure 5 .

Figure 5: 
Research methods adopted in the 122 studies.

Research methods adopted in the 122 studies.

5.5 Aspects of language teaching addressed

The 122 pedagogical studies were sorted into two general categories. Category 1 includes studies that focused on evaluating the overall effect of a particular pedagogical approach at the syllabus or program level. Category 1 includes 31 articles, or 25% of the studies. The overall effect being examined in these studies included aspects of learning such as self-efficacy, communication skills, verbal skills, cognitive awareness of the language, collaboration, engagement, enjoyment, and classroom management. Category 2 includes studies that focused on one aspect of language teaching. There were 91 articles (75%) that fell into this category. Research topics addressed in these studies included 10 aspects of the Chinese language: characters (e.g. Jin 2006*; Wang 2014*; Xu, Perfetti, and Chang 2014*; Zhu, Fung, and Wang 2012*; Zhu and Hong 2005*), vocabulary (e.g. Chen 2016*; Li and Tong 2019*; Yang and Xie 2013*; Shen 2010*; Shen and Xu 2015*), reading (e.g. Huang 2018*; Huang 2019*; Wang 2014*; Zhang 2013*; Zhang 2016b*), grammar (e.g. Paul and Grüter 2016*; Yuan 2012*; Zhang 2018*; Zhang 2017*), pragmatic use of the language (e.g. Li and Taguchi 2014*), pronunciation (e.g. Chun 2015*) and tones (e.g. Godfroid, Lin, and Gyu 2017*), culture (e.g. Wang and Crooks 2015*; Zhang 2019a*), writing (Eubanks, Yeh, and Tseng 2018*; Liao 2018*; Yuan 2010*), listening (e.g. Wilberschield and Berman 2004*), and speaking (e.g. Stickler and Shi 2013*). (The citations marked with an asterisk (*) can be found in the overall references of the included studies on CASLAR website.) Note: Because a few studies addressed both reading comprehension and learning vocabulary and one study focused on both reading and writing, the total number of the studies in Figure 6 exceeds 91.

Figure 6: 
The different focuses among the category 2 studies.

The different focuses among the category 2 studies.

5.5.1 Studies in category 1

The 30 studies in category 1 have the same distribution trend as the group of 122 studies; that is, there were few publications of this type before the 1980s, and it was not until after the year 2000 that the majority of the studies were published. The trends in learners’ heritage or non-heritage status, in research settings, and in the type of research methods used in the studies mirrored those of the entire group. That is, a majority of the 30 studies in category 1 researched non-heritage learners in a college or university setting. There were more studies that used qualitative data than used quantitative data, and the fewest number of studies used mixed methods. However, the learner skill level studied did not follow the overall trend. More studies in this category worked with advanced level learners compared to the number of studies that worked with learners at the intermediate level. See Figures 7 and 8 . Another difference is that there was a higher proportion of qualitative to quantitative studies in this group than in the overall group. See Figure 9 .

Figure 7: 
The publication time distribution of the category 1 studies.

The publication time distribution of the category 1 studies.

Figure 8: 
Learner information in the category 1 studies.

Learner information in the category 1 studies.

Figure 9: 
Research methods adopted in category 1 studies as compared to the 122 studies.

Research methods adopted in category 1 studies as compared to the 122 studies.

The studies in category 1 covered a variety of instructional approaches, including the manner of teaching, e.g. co-teaching (e.g. Wang, Zhang, Liu, and Yonke 2019*); high pressure versus low pressure (e.g. Packard 1989*); the use of Chinese or English as the instructional language (e.g. Yang 2010*); the way to provide corrective feedback (e.g. Li 2014*); the creation of different learning environments like blended learning (e.g. Zhang 2016a*), flipped classrooms (e.g. Tseng, Broadstock, and Chen 2016*; Yang, Yin, and Wang 2018*), wiki-enhanced Course Management Systems (e.g. Zhang 2019*), WebCT (e.g. Cheng 2010*), Virtual Reality (e.g. Chen 2011*; Grant and Huang 2010*), or One-on-One video conferencing (e.g. Sun and Chen 2017*); the application of digital tools such as Google maps, WordPress, Adobe Spark (e.g. Valdebenito and Chen 2019*), or speech recognition in class (e.g. Da 2015*); gamification (e.g. Tang and Taguchi 2019*; Wang, Liu, and Zhang 2019*); the use of different instructional approaches such as project-based and theme-based learning (e.g. Padilla, Fan, Xu, and Silva 2013*; Zhang and Beckett 2014*); the use of researcher-designed software or apps such as CyberChinese (e.g. Yu and Michael 1998*); the use of authentic multimedia materials (e.g. Chang 2007*); and Computer-Mediated learning (Zhang 2016c*). (The citations marked with an * can be found in the references page of the included studies on the CASLAR website.)

A majority of these studies (67%) did not have a theoretical framework, while 23% of the studies relied on various theories to underpin their studies. Constructivism and meaningful learning were the most commonly used theories, and 50% of the studies that had a theoretical framework were based on the Vygotsky’s sociocultural and constructivist theories. These educational theories emphasize the importance of social participation, relationships between novices and experts, the setting of an activity, and how knowledge is constructed when learners interact with others in the real world. The Zone of Proximal Development and scaffolding were often referred to in the studies that used these theories. Theories used in the other half of the studies included Interaction Hypothesis ( Long 1996 ), Noticing Hypothesis ( Schmidt 1990 ), Output Hypothesis ( Schmidt 1995 , 2001 ), and the notion of intersubjectivity ( Heritage 1984 ). See Figure 10 .

Figure 10: 
Theories based on which the studies were conducted.

Theories based on which the studies were conducted.

5.5.2 Studies in category 2

Similar to the studies in category 1, the studies in category 2 (focusing on a specific aspect of Chinese language learning) also reflected a sharp increase in studies after the 1980s, in particular during the 21st century. Still, pedagogical research in Chinese character learning and grammar has a long history, beginning in the 1970s. Pronunciation/tones and reading studies also have a relatively long span of research history compared to other aspects of teaching and learning Chinese. Chinese writing and the pragmatic use of the language was not studied often in earlier decades, but research in those areas has increased over the past 10 years. In fact, in the past decade, researchers increased the number of investigations into all aspects of Chinese language teaching. See Figure 11 .

Figure 11: 
Distribution of pedagogical research in category 2 over time.

Distribution of pedagogical research in category 2 over time.

In the most researched areas of Chinese teaching and learning – such as characters, vocabulary, reading and grammar – a majority of the studies adopted an experimental design. In other research areas, most studies used qualitative data. Some of the studies in the most often researched areas also used mixed methods, although the studies using mixed methods represent a small percentage of the total studies. See Figure 12 .

Figure 12: 
Research methods adopted in category 2 studies.

Research methods adopted in category 2 studies.

In areas of Chinese learning that tend to be challenging for beginners – such as learning characters, pronunciation and tones, listening, reading, and grammar – a majority of the studies were conducted with learners at the beginning level, whereas in other areas – such teaching learners to use the language pragmatically – studies focused on advanced-level learners. Out of the 22 studies focused on teaching characters, four examined students who did not have any Chinese learning background. These four studies were included in the pool of studies examining beginning-level learners. In the studies that focused on teaching vocabulary, most focused on teaching intermediate-level learners. See Figure 13 .

Figure 13: 
Proficiency level of learners in category 2 studies.

Proficiency level of learners in category 2 studies.

It is not surprising to find that heritage learners were studied in each of the three primary areas of teaching Chinese – reading, vocabulary, and writing. Most heritage learners do not have a problem speaking and listening, and most of them learned some writing as they grew up. Additionally, they are familiar with Chinese culture. The areas that heritage learners need to improve the most are essay writing, reading, and vocabulary. See Figure 14 .

Figure 14: 
Heritage or non-heritage: learner info in the category 2 studies.

Heritage or non-heritage: learner info in the category 2 studies.

While most studies were conducted in a college/university setting, a few studies were completed in K-12 schools. For example, two studies on teaching characters were completed in a kindergarten or an elementary school, and a few of the studies on reading, vocabulary, writing, and listening were done in a middle school or a high school. See Figure 15 .

Figure 15: 
Learning settings in the category 2 studies.

Learning settings in the category 2 studies.

5.5.3 Studies on teaching characters

Out of the 22 studies on teaching characters, 17 studies (77%) used a theory to support their research, while five studies (23%) did not. Among the theories underpinning these studies, Dual Coding Theory (DCT) ( Paivio 1971 , 1986 ) was the mostly widely used. According to Paivio’s (1971 , 1986 DCT theory, both visual and verbal information are used to represent information, but they are processed differently in distinct channels in the human mind. Therefore, information can be retained more successfully when the stored information is represented both verbally and visually than when represented with one or the other alone. Using DCT, many studies on teaching characters used experimental design to test the effectiveness of a variety of presentation methods. Other theories used in the studies are related to DCT including Cognitive Load Theory ( Sweller 1988 ), Split-Attention Effect ( Chandler and Sweller 1992 ), Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning ( Mayer 2005 , 2009 ), and Generative Theory of Multimedia Learning – a combination of Wittrock (1974) ’s Generative Theory of Learning and Paivio’s DCT. In addition, the Interactionist Approach ( Chapelle 1998 , 2009 ; Gass and Madden 1985 ) was also adopted in one of the studies. Another theory that was used to support the design of one study was the Order Analysis method, a multi-dimensional scaling technique that generates hierarchical sets of data points based on the relationships between the elements studied ( Krus 1977 ), depending on which characters were ordered hierarchically rather than randomly in the study.

The primary focus in studies on teaching characters was on using different ways to present characters such as digital flashcards, characters in hierarchical order, different groupings of characters, static versus dynamic presentation, chunking mnemonics, embodied animation, translation, self-generated mnemonics, and a variety of multimedia presentation methods (digitally voiced pronunciation, stroke sequence animation, radical presentation, stroke order presentation, pinyin presentation, hyper-character, and so on). In addition, there was research on how to bypass teaching character writing by using a penless approach and research on when is the best time to introduce character writing to learners.

5.5.4 Studies on teaching vocabulary

Nine of the 13 studies on teaching vocabulary had a theoretical framework, while four (31%) did not. The nine theory-based studies were grounded in the following theories: the Dual Coding Theory ( Paivia 1971 , 1986 ), the Cognitive Load Theory ( Sweller 1988 ), the Generative Theory of Learning ( Wittrock 1974 ), and the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning ( Mayer 2005 , 2009 ). Additional concepts and frameworks were used in the studies to help develop methods and understand results. For example, the Active Learning Concept ( Meyers and Jones 1993 ) derived from the Constructivist Learning Theory, Cooperative Learning ( Johnson and Johnson 1975 ) derived from the Sociocultural theory, Motivational Dynamics ( Waninge et al. 2014 ), and Memory-Based Strategic Framework ( Ma 2014 ).

Studies defined Active Learning as learners being given the opportunity to participate in problem solving activities. Cooperative Learning in a classroom setting was defined in studies as organizing activities into academic and social learning experiences so that learners could capitalize on one another’s resources and skills to complete tasks collectively as they worked toward academic goals. In the Motivational Dynamics framework, motivation was seen as dynamic and changeable in the process of language learning, and the framework asserted that teachers should direct the motivational current to help learners to benefit more from learning. Lastly, the Memory-Based Strategic Framework proposed that there are four stages of processing vocabulary learning, which go from perceiving the form to accessing the meaning to mentally building a new word and then to retrieving the new word from a mental lexicon for production.

There were diverse themes that were presented in studies about teaching vocabulary, and these themes were all associated with providing needed support for the learners to retain the new words better. These supports include, e-flashcards, e-dictionary, external supply of text-vocalization, and gamification, and different visual-verbal presentations. There were also studies on how to provide an internet retrieval tool to help students to learn collocation, how to use an iPad to assist learners in learning idioms, and how to use mobile technology to help learners learn colloquialism.

5.5.5 Studies on teaching reading

Eight out of the 12 studies on teaching reading did not have a theoretical framework. Four of the studies used theories and concepts as such LaBerge and Samuels’s (1974) theory of automatic information processing in reading, Paivia’s (1971) Dual Coding Theory, the concept of reading for deriving meaning and the social nature of reading ( Farnham 1887 ), and the concept of linguistic input modification ( Yano et al. 1994 ). Automatic information processing refers to a mental cognitive process that goes through a series of stages involving visual, phonological, and episodic memory systems to achieve comprehension. Automaticity happens as the result of repetitive training in this process. The concept of linguistic input modification says that both the simplification and elaboration of the input have value in helping learners with their reading.

The themes of these studies included providing different supports for helping readers’ understanding, such as pop-up dictionaries or e-dictionaries, externally supplied text vocalization, visual aids, and multimedia aids. In addition, these studies used other methods such as repeated reading, the spiral model for performance, using authentic materials, using student-created picture books as reading materials, and using theme-based and content-based instruction.

5.5.6 Studies on teaching grammar

Seven out of the 11 studies on teaching grammar did not use a theory for support. Four studies adopted one of a handful of different theories, and some studies adopted more than one theory for their theoretical framework. This group of studies had the widest variety of theories adopted compared to studies addressing other aspects of the Chinese language. The theories that were adopted include the Teachability Hypothesis ( Pienemann 1989 ), the assumption of language acquisition order and sequence ( Hyltenstam 1977 ; Krashen 1985) , the consciousness-raising theory ( R. Ellis 2002 ; Ellis 2007 ), the level of processing framework from psychology ( Craik and Lockhart 1972 ), the assumption of blocking ( Ellis 2006 ; Kruschke and Blair 2000 ), the Full Transfer/Full Access hypothesis (FT/FA) ( Schwartz and Sprouse 1996 ), the frequency effect hypothesis ( N. C. Ellis 2002 ), the noticing hypothesis ( Schmidt 1990 ), and the Cognitive theory of Multimedia Learning ( Mayer 2005 , 2009 ).

The Teachability Hypothesis is based on the idea that instruction is more effective when it is compatible with the development of the learner’s interlanguage. It predicts that some grammatical structures can be best learned only when the learners are at the developmental stage to learn it. The acquisition order refers to the idea that one particular grammar feature must be acquired before others. The acquisition sequence refers to the process through which learners generally go when they learn a linguistic form; for example, the acquisition of a grammatical feature sometimes occurs in a U-shaped course rather than a lineal upward motion.

Consciousness raising involves increasing learners’ awareness of certain linguistic features. It theorizes that learners have a long-lasting awareness of form and an improved accuracy when linguistic features are explicitly introduced. It is important to design consciousness-raising tasks when teaching challenging grammar. The level of depth of processing refers to conceptual or semantic processing versus perceptual processing. The former is deep processing, and the latter is shallow processing. For learners to have deep processing, the learners need to process information semantically in association with similar information and actively construct relationships between the information being processed and the information associated with it.

The blocking phenomenon is the effect of learner attention. There are many situations where the blocking phenomenon shows up in language learning; for example, when the cues are redundant. The FT/FA, on the other hand, hypothesizes “that the initial state of L2 acquisition is the final state of L1 acquisition (Full Transfer) and that failure to assign a representation to input data will force subsequent restructurings, drawing from options of Universal Grammar (Full Access)” ( Schwartz and Sprouse 1996 : 40). The frequency effect hypothesis postulates that the frequencies of linguistic items to which learners are exposed have important facilitative effects in language acquisition, and the noticing hypothesis argues that input has no practical value and cannot become available for learners to effectively process unless it is noticed by the learners.

The topics in this group of studies focused on how to teach challenging linguistic features in Chinese, such as the bǎ-construction, jìu, bèi, le, classifiers, and the modal verbs. The researchers in this group explored different ways of teaching grammar (high-pressure vs. low-pressure), using formal instruction, using explicit negative evidence, using a Task-Based Language Learning approach, and using multimedia design to engage and inform students’ grammar learning.

5.5.7 Studies on teaching using the language pragmatically

Six out of the 11 studies on pragmatic instruction did not use a theory to support their study. The five remaining studies adopted four different theories, including the Principles of Training for raising learners’ communicative strategies ( Oxford 1994 ; Rabab’ah 2002 ), the Input Processing model ( VanPatten 2004 ), the Skill Acquisition theory ( Anderson 1993 ; DeKeyser 2001 ), and the Noticing Hypothesis ( Schmidt 1990 ). The Skill Acquisition theory states that the different types of knowledge (mainly, declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge) are acquired first and then the automatization process happens. It explains language learning as a gradual transition from effortful use to more automatic use of the language and the ultimate goal is to achieve speed and accuracy in processing. The Input Processing theory explains how learners process input, how they make form-meaning connections, and how they map syntactic structures when speaking.

These studies addressed different approaches to teaching learners to make requests, to expressing gratitude, to refusals and complaints, to accepting invitations, to using formulaic expressions, to learning circumlocution, and to using modal verbs appropriately in contexts. Some of the studies used Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) or gamification to help learners to improve their pragmatic competence.

5.5.8 Studies on teaching pronunciation and tones

Out of the nine studies on teaching pronunciation and tones, a majority did not adopt any theories. One theory that was adopted among these studies was the Cognitive Load Theory ( Sweller 1988 ). One of the studies focused on pinyin, applying speech recognition technology to find out if it helps with learners’ pinyin accuracy. Eight studies focused on how to teach tones and three of them researched Tone3 production and/or perception. Five out of the eight studies investigated the effectiveness of different approaches to teaching learners tone production, and three studies addressed tone perception. The different approaches tested in these studies included displaying pitch contour to the learners, learners creating and comparing pitches to native speakers, comparing pitch height-focused and pitch direction-focused instructions, using the multimodal method, comparing low teaching and full teaching approaches, the “Full T3 First” approach, and comparing online and traditional approaches to teaching tones.

5.5.9 Studies on teaching culture

Most of the studies ( N  = 6) (83%) on teaching culture had a theoretical support. The theories used by the authors included the concept of Performing Culture ( Walker 2000 ), the lens of internationalization ( Lantolf 2000 ; Lantolf and Thorne 2007 ), Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, and the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning ( Mayer 2005 , 2009 ). The concept of performing culture regards culture as what we do but not what we know. To understand another culture and another language, one must use the language and participate in the real life of the target culture. Using the lens of internalization, an individual’s language learning process is seen as a reorganizing process that happens through collaborative work in a social environment and includes the steps of voluntary attention, logical memory, and formation of concepts. Internalization happens when the learner’s reliance on external help decreases.

The themes used in this group of studies included the performed culture approach to teaching behavioral culture, allowing medical students to explore authentic doctor-patient conversations in order to improve their intercultural competence, using authentic videos to learn about social realities, combining researcher-edited multimedia and ethnographic interviews to teach students Chinese culture online, using an online cooperative learning project to increase learners’ cultural awareness, and using decorative graphics in personalized instruction to teach culture.

5.5.10 Studies on teaching writing

Four of the five studies on teaching writing were supported by a theoretical framework. The theories used included the concept of classroom community ( Potts 2005 ; Rovai 2001 ), Vygotsky’s sociocultural and social constructivist theory, the assumption of benefits that computer-mediated writing instruction could bring such as de-centering authority ( Phinney 1996 ), the theory of humans’ limited attentional capacity ( Anderson 1983 , 1995 ), the concept of multiliteracies ( The New London Group 2000 ), and the interactionist theory ( Gass 1997 ; Long 1996 ; Swain 1995 ).

The concept of classroom community is crucially important, especially for virtual classrooms, because it offers learner interaction and shared knowledge construction while also providing for learner perception of the value of social bonds in the learning process. The concept of multiliteracies acknowledges the multiplicity of communication channels and linguistic diversity in the world today and has brought us a broader view of literacy than traditional views. The concept also provides an appropriate pedagogical framework for teaching literacy. The interactionist theory demonstrates that writing skills can be better acquired when writing activities are embedded in social dialogs. When learners are engaged in bi-directional output, they can test their output with each other, are able to notice the gaps in their learning, and are likely to attend to the problematic aspects of their interlanguage.

The themes in this group of studies included different approaches to improving writing (such as using WebCT discussion board), using different task performance conditions (form-focused vs. meaning-focused), conducting a technology integrated writing workshop (using an iPad recording app, iPad camera, and the Book Creator App), and using different forms of pre-task pair planning activities (face-to-face oral discussion vs. online text-chat).

5.5.11 Studies on teaching listening and speaking

One of the two studies on teaching listening did not have any theoretical support. The other study on listening did have a theoretical framework, as did both studies on teaching speaking. The theories used in the studies were Paivia’s Dual Coding Theory, the socio-cultural perspective on language learning ( Lantolf 2000 ; Vygotsky 1978 ), and the Educational Engineering Research Theory ( Colpaert 2010 ; Colpaert 2016 ). The Educational Engineering Research Theory argues that neither technology nor pedagogy nor content should be the starting point for the design of a learning environment. To design a beneficial learning environment, real-world situations should be analyzed in a systematic and verifiable way and the design should take into account the specificity of the context.

One study on listening used WebCT-based, teacher-created listening materials to improving listening. The other study used video clips from authentic Chinese TV broadcasts with two different organizer conditions: one using words and sentences with pictures taken from the video and the other using words and sentences but without pictures. One of the studies on improving speaking focused on using synchronous online Chinese tutorials while the other used wiki-enhanced TBLT to improve learners’ speaking.

5.6 A summary of the major findings

This study set out to answer three research questions: 1) What are the trends in Chinese pedagogical research in the United States from 1960 to the present? 2) What pedagogical research topics have attracted the most attention from scholars and what topics have been neglected in the past six decades? 3) What research methods have been adopted in these pedagogical research studies and what theories underpin these studies?

The study found that trends in research include a sharp rise in the number of pedagogical studies conducted starting after the late 1980s. Technology is an important component of pedagogy studies, with about half of the studies using some type of technology. A little more than 4/5 of the studies were conducted in a university setting focusing on non-heritage learners, with far fewer studies focused on middle schools and elementary school. Out of the studies conducted at the university level, a little more than half targeted beginning-level CFL learners, and a little less than half targeted intermediate level learners, and only about ¼ targeted advanced-level learners.

When looking at topics, one quarter of the studies focused on evaluating the effect of certain pedagogical approach at the syllabus or program level addressing different aspects of learning such as self-efficacy, communication skills, cognitive awareness of the language, collaboration, engagement and so on. Three quarters of the studies addressed different aspects of language teaching. Ten aspects of the Chinese language were addressed including teaching characters, vocabulary, reading, grammar, pragmatic use of the language, pronunciation and tones, culture, writing, listening, and speaking, out of which, teaching characters, vocabulary, and reading were the top three most-researched areas.

Methods in the studies vary, with a little less than half of the studies using qualitative data only, less than 2/5 using experimental studies, and less than 1/10 of the studies using mixed method. As many as 2/3 of the studies lack a theoretical framework to underpin their studies. With the 1/3 of the studies using theoretical support, the theory that was adopted most frequently was Constructivism, and a majority of the studies used Vygotsky’s socio-cultural and constructivist theories. Other theories were also adopted, such as, the Long (1996) ’s Interaction Hypothesis, Schmidt (1990) ’s Noticing Hypothesis and Output Hypothesis, and the notion of Heritage (1984) ’s intersubjectivity.

6 Looking to the future

As early as 2003, in Ke and Shen (2003) ’s review of literature research on CSL acquisition, researchers noticed a limitation with the research in CSL; that is, the majority of studies focused on pronunciation, tones, and grammar. Ke and Shen called for diversifying research by including research on the other aspects of Chinese language teaching and learning, such as speaking, listening, reading, and writing. In the most recent two decades, pedagogical research in America is no longer focused solely on grammar, characters, pronunciation, and tones as it was in the first few decades of pedagogical research. The research in the past 20 years has addressed a variety of important pedagogical problems, including teaching speaking, listening, writing, the pragmatic use of the language, and understanding the Chinese culture. Research in all these areas should be continued. However, there are a few additional areas that should see more growth.

First, more pedagogical research on teaching in online and in flipped or blended environments is needed. While there has been a significant amount of research in the past two decades addressing the use of computer technology in teaching Chinese and there have been a few research studies on teaching Chinese in online, blended, and/or flipped situations, more research is needed, especially in the area of teaching in different environments. The ubiquity of the internet and the increase in online teaching in a variety of formats provides the opportunity for learners to learn on their own schedules and at their own paces. As a group, CSL educators should take advantage of this opportunity to find better approaches to making learning as flexible and as effective as possible. Furthermore, the pandemic has given most instructors the opportunity to teach fully or partially online. A majority of instructors now have first-hand online teaching experience. This has laid a foundation on which innovative and creative online instructional approaches can be built and tested.

These online teaching experiences will also affect how we utilize the affordances of technology when the time comes for returning to face-to-face instruction. It is crucial that instructors examine all aspects of online learning and study how to help learners receive the maximum benefits from these online learning environments. For example, there is a vast amount of free, engaging, multimedia material on the internet that can help learners understand culture and language, if it is used effectively. There is a great potential for using these resources to teach different levels of learners. The questions then arise: How should teachers integrate the available multimedia resources in teaching? If a teacher would like to design online components for learners, how should such a design be constructed? At a syllabus level, how should a blended course or a flipped classroom be built to enhance students’ learning?

Second, more studies using the action research method are needed. The pedagogical research in the past six decades used a balanced variety of different research methods including experimental, exploratory, and some mixed methods. However, out of the 122 studies, there were only three studies using the action research method. This finding concurs with the findings in many studies, such as in Ke and Li’s (2011) research, and supports other scholars’ calls for more action research ( McDonough 2006 ; Yuan 2018 ). Action research, a problem-focused research method, combines theory and practice via an iterative process (such as problem diagnosis, action intervention, and reflective learning) that involves both researchers and practitioners (or the practitioner as researcher) and provides teachers with structured reflection so they have a better understanding of themselves as teachers ( Wallace 1998 ). It is a valuable research method that could contribute to professional growth as well as to the field of Chinese pedagogical research. Han (2016) agreed, calling for teachers to be aware that “the published studies were done in contexts different from the situations teachers find themselves in” and proposed that “teachers themselves should not be content with being consumers of research … [but] be empirically minded, practicing so-called “empirical pedagogy” ( Han and Selinker 1999: 247 ). Yang and Luo (2017) found that there was not a straightforward application of SLA to pedagogy, and they suggested that more language instructors should be engaged in pedagogical research. Furthermore, it has been suggested that even though there are effective strategies for teaching certain aspects of the language, it is still worthwhile for teachers to explore more effective strategies ( H. Zhang 2014 ; Z-S. Zhang 2014 ; S. Zhang 2017 ). That said, further research is needed to reveal the reason(s) for the extremely small amount of action research published. If the problem is that Chinese language teachers lack training in this area, graduate-level Chinese language teacher education programs should start to emphasize this type of research.

Third, research needs to be based on theories and have an underpinning theoretical framework. This finding also concurs with Ke and Shen (2003) and their call for rigorous, theory-based research design. The findings of the current study show that about half of the studies utilized a variety of theories from SLA, especially from cognitive linguistics (based on cognitive science, ref. Jing-Schmidt and Peng 2018 ) and the sociocultural perspective, from theories in multimedia design. However, about half of the studies lack a theoretical framework to support the research design, the instructional tools, and the strategies. Theory is essential in any scholarly or scientific discipline. By framing the study with a theoretical foundation, the research results can be explained within an already established body of knowledge and the observed connections, giving credibility to the results and inspiring further research in areas in need of investigation ( McMillan and Schumacher 2000 ). As stated in Klette (2011) , “theories provide predictions and explanations as well as guidelines for actions and behavior” (p. 4). Without theories, studies lack a set of structured lenses through which the study can be designed, observed, investigated, and analyzed. In addition, theories provide protection against unscientific approaches to a problem, an issue, or a theme ( Suppes 1974 ). By situating one’s research within a theoretical framework, the research can be easily understood and protected against criticism. Not only should the research design be based on theories, but instructional tools, strategies, and approaches must also be based on an accepted theory of learning, cognition, or design ( Bednar et al. 1995 ).

Fourth, more Design-Based Research (DBR) is needed. In some of the exploratory studies, there were detailed descriptions of how certain instruction or a particular instructional approach was designed. However, the designs did not employ specific theoretical claims about teaching and learning, nor did the studies draw conclusions about how the design could be improved and what principles could be drawn from the results to influence the next cycle of design. The value of DBR relies on developing solutions or innovations (i.e., interventions) to problems and then putting the interventions to use to find out how well they work and why. By so doing, DBR helps us understand the relationships among educational theories, designed solutions/approaches/innovations, and actual practice. In pedagogical research, most researchers are testing to discover the most effective instructional approach to help learners with a certain aspect of the language. It is important to know which approach has the most positive impact on learning. It is even more important to know why this approach has a positive impact. Only after we know the “why”—the principles of design and the theories on which the design is based – can practitioners and researchers design more successful approaches based on the principles and theories ( Hampel 2006 ). The principles could include, for example, how to utilize the immediate learning environments and how to take into consideration the features of the learner group.

Fifth, even though the studies did touch on a large number of different topics and themes, there are still neglected but important areas where more research is needed. For example, there is only one study on classroom management in the 122 studies. Classroom management requires a wide variety of skills and techniques that instructors apply in either Face-to-Face meeting or online synchronous meetings in order to keep students organized, attentive, engaged, and academically productive. Strategies and approaches for teaching different aspects of the language are useful. However, without good classroom management strategies, it is hard to apply those teaching strategies and instructional approaches effectively. This research task is even more challenging now, because researchers not only need to discover the best classroom management practices for Face-to-Face meetings but also need to examine the management of online synchronous meetings and discover ways to better use online meeting time.

Another neglected area is that of teaching Chinese for specific purposes. Only two studies on teaching Chinese for a specific purpose were identified, one on teaching Chinese for business, one on teaching for medical purposes. Teaching Chinese for a specific purpose generally uses similar approaches as teaching the language in an academic setting; however, there may be specific strategies that best help the learners grasp skills in the specific contexts, whether it is in the area of business, medicine, engineering, agriculture, or other professions.

Sixth, research is needed to examine how to teach certain aspects of the Chinese language to the groups of learners that have not been thoroughly studied. In some research areas, such as teaching the pragmatic usage of the Chinese language, the published studies primarily focused on working with advanced-level learners. In other areas, such as teaching characters and pronunciation/tones, the studies published so far concentrated on beginning-level learners. It would be worthwhile to find different instructional approaches to teach tones and pronunciation in a remedial way to advanced-level learners and find ways to get learners to perceive their fossilized pronunciation and tones and produce them in the correct way. It is also possible and could be valuable to find ways to raise the pragmatic awareness of learners from early on in their Chinese language learning journey and teach beginning-level learners to use simple expressions pragmatically.

7 Conclusion

An exhaustive search of peer-reviewed journals resulted in 122 empirical studies on Chinese pedagogy in America published between 1960 through mid-2020. A look at the publication time and the theme of the studies found that there was an increased amount of pedagogical research on teaching Chinese as a foreign language over those decades. As many as 25 journals published pedagogical research in the past six decades. Over these years, the pedagogical research has become more diversified in terms of the issues in teaching being addressed.

This review study did not include narratives such as concept work and anecdotal accounts of teaching experiences (especially the large numbers of this type of work that were published in the 1960s, the 1970s, and in the early 1980s). For example, Nathan (1966) published an article “A classroom innovation: Contracts and Self-Paced Instruction in Chinese,” which is a description of an innovation in classroom. However, the article did not investigate the effectiveness of the approach. Articles that utilized that kind of report format were not included in this review. However, those studies are the forerunners of the current research. Those researchers and practitioners did a great deal of exploration in teaching, especially in how to balance speaking, reading, listening, and writing. Examining those studies is a project worthy of another article or even a book to explore their impact. Additionally, another full article is warranted to describe the inception of the research in different areas of teaching Chinese as a Foreign language in the United States. Such an article would examine the issues in teaching and learning what concerned our forerunners, what they did to address those issues, and what we do to solve those problems now. Without the exploration and persistent efforts of those early researchers, current researchers could not have reached the level they have today. Their research is broader and considers many different factors, but is full of sincerity and devotion, which makes it valuable in many ways.

Another limitation of this study is that there is not space to fully elaborate on the pedagogical studies in each aspect of language teaching. For example, there are 12 studies on teaching reading. A full article is needed in order to delve into each of the theories used, the trends shown across time, the themes addressed, and the future directions indicated. This holds true for most of the other studies that examine teaching the other aspects of language, for example, the use of technology, teaching characters, teaching cultures, and so on.

About the author

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Strategy use among chinese as second language learners in mainland china from the mediation theory perspective.

\nChili Li

  • 1 School of Foreign Languages, Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan, China
  • 2 International College, Jiangxi University of Engineering, Xinyu, China
  • 3 Department of Education, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, New Era University College, Kajang, Malaysia
  • 4 Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, New Era University College, Kajang, Malaysia
  • 5 School of Humanities, Wuhan University of Engineering Science, Wuhan, China

This paper reports a mixed-methods study that explored the strategy use of a cohort of Chinese as second language learners in mainland China from the perspective of mediation theory. Data sources include a questionnaire survey ( N = 189) and a semi-structured interview ( N = 12). The findings revealed that the participants orchestrated a repertoire of language learning strategies and frequently used social and meta-cognitive strategies. Analysis of the qualitative data suggested that the participants' strategy use was shaped by the learners' self agentic power (their beliefs and Ideal L2 self), and the socio-cultural environment. Specifically, their strategy use was mediated by a host of socio-cultural factors, including learner beliefs, social agents, cultural artifacts, and learning environment. Considered together, the findings illuminate the socially situated nature of the use of language learning strategy. That is, strategy use of the participants stems from the interplay of learner agency and socio-cultural factors. The findings also imply the necessity of strategy-based instruction and highlight the importance of a Chinese-speaking environment for Chinese learning.

Introduction

The past two decades have witnessed a surging number of people learning Chinese as a second/foreign language (CSL/CFL) in and outside China ( Gong et al., 2018 , 2020a ). It has been reported that more than 20 million people from more than 180 countries/regions were learning Chinese as an additional language by the end of 2020 ( Sun, 2021 ). Around one quarter million international students were learning Chinese in mainland China in 2019 according to a report released by the Ministry of Education (MOE) of China ( MOE, 2019 ). For all the dramatically increasing volume of CSL learners around the world, the learning process of those learners is found to be under-researched ( Luo and Sun, 2018 ). A number of relevant issues warrant further exploration that includes profiling repertoire of strategy use ( Bao and Jiang, 2020 ), and assessing and improving strategic competence in learning Chinese ( Bruen, 2020 ; Yang et al., 2021 ).

Existing research has explored the orchestration of using learning strategies among learners in various Chinese-as-foreign-language (CFL) settings (i.e., Bruen, 2020 ; Chen et al., 2021 ; Yang et al., 2021 ). These studies mainly documented the use of learning strategies among CFL learners in their home countries. However, relatively few studies have paid attention to the endorsement of learning strategies when an increasing number of Chinese-as-second-language (CSL) learners are being recently relocated into Chinese-speaking contexts like mainland China ( Chu et al., 2015 ; Luo and Sun, 2018 ).

Previous studies on learning strategies have been mainly cognitively-oriented ( Macaro, 2006 ; Gao, 2010 ). The cognitive perspective takes learning strategies as a static construct and fails to unveil the influence of the socio-cultural factors upon learners' strategic efforts ( Macaro, 2006 ). Besides, there is an increasing voice that learning strategies should be regarded as a socially situated construct ( Gao, 2006 ) and a shifting educational context would reshape the situatedness of strategy use ( Gong et al., 2021a ). Echoing this call, the socio-cultural perspective has been proposed as an alternative in learning strategy research ( Donato and Mccormick, 1994 ). This socio-cultural lens to strategy use could present a holistic picture of how the learners develop their linguistic knowledge as well as how they adapt to the target language context ( Cohen and Griffiths, 2015 ; Gong et al., 2020b ). However, although the socio-cultural orientation has been drawing attention in the research of learning strategies of English as second/foreign language learners (ESL/EFL) ( Donato and Mccormick, 1994 ), little effort has been made to unveil the underpinning factors that might have formulated the mechanism of using learning strategies among the CSL/CFL learners.

To address the issues aforementioned, the present study aims to investigate the use of learning strategies among a group of international students in mainland China. More specifically, it proposes to explore the mediational process of the use of Chinese language learning strategies. This study promises to illuminate the nature of strategy use of CSL learners, which in return contributes to the existing literature of learning strategies, in particular, Chinese language learning strategies.

Literature Review

Strategy use in second/foreign language learning.

Learning strategy has been regarded as an essential factor in second language learning and acquisition ( Griffiths, 2020 ). Early effort to learning strategy has been dominated by the cognitive perspective. This approach conceptualizes learning strategies into multiple categories, namely, learning, communication, and social strategies ( Rubin, 1975 ), meta-cognitive, cognitive, and social-affective strategies ( O'Malley and Chamot, 1990 ), and the six-category taxonomy of learning strategies ( Oxford, 1990 ). Among these cognition-oriented theoretical proposals, Oxford's (1990) taxonomy is the far-reaching classic for later learning strategy research.

Following the cognitive approach and Oxford's (1990) taxonomy, researchers have extensively examined the use of learning strategies among English as second/foreign language (ESL/EFL) learners of diversified socio-cultural backgrounds ( Rao, 2016 ; Griffiths, 2020 ). For example, Chinese learners of English are reported to have moderately used learning strategies ( Li, 2014 ). In addition, students of non-English disciplines in EFL context tend to frequently use memory and cognitive strategies, but least deploy affective and social strategies ( Rao, 2016 ). By contrast, this finding is incompatible with the observation that learners in ESL context use meta-cognitive and social strategies the most ( Zhong, 2015 ). Last but not the least, the use of learning strategies is associated with other learner variables such as beliefs ( Zhong, 2015 ) and motivation ( Hajar, 2018 ). For instance, a belief about the primacy of using language for communication seems to shape the learners' more frequent use of social strategies rather than rote learning strategies ( Zhong, 2015 ). Learners' deployment of social strategies is also reported to be influenced by their ideal L2 self ( Hajar, 2018 ).

In summary, the studies reviewed above have deepened our understanding of the features of learning strategies in various socio-cultural contexts, and the relationship between strategy use and other learner variables. However, these previous studies have been primarily confined to ESL/EFL learners. It remains unknown whether these features identified in early studies can be generalized to learners of languages other than English such as Chinese.

Strategy Use in Chinese Language Learning

Chinese as foreign language (CFL) learners' strategy use has been drawing attention in recent years ( Chu et al., 2015 ). Existing research mainly follows Oxford's (1990) Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) and her criteria to measure and evaluate the profiles of strategy use among CFL learners. Social strategies were found to be frequently used by CFL learners in various contexts such as Australia ( Jiang and Wu, 2016 ), Spain ( Wang and Cáceres-Lorenzo, 2019 ) and Brazil ( Yang et al., 2021 ). Brazilian beginning CFL learners displayed a high level of employing meta-cognitive strategies, only secondary to social strategies ( Yang et al., 2021 ). Irish CFL learners frequently exercised cognitive strategies ( Bruen, 2020 ), while Spanish CFL learners did not deploy these strategies that much ( Wang and Cáceres-Lorenzo, 2019 ). In addition, it has been reported that affective strategies were favored by the British CFL learners ( Qian et al., 2018 ), but least frequently deployed by their Australian counterparts ( Jiang and Wu, 2016 ).

Previous research, though scant in number, has started to explore the use of learning strategies among CSL learners. The CSL learners tend to use cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies most frequently in learning Chinese characters ( Luo and Sun, 2018 ; Sheu, 2018 ). These two categories of learning strategies are also favored by Chinese heritage speakers in their learning of Chinese characters ( Bao and Jiang, 2020 ). To recap, the previous research subjects have mainly included the CFL learners, while inadequate attention has been paid to CSL learners. In light of the increasing number of CSL learners in mainland China, it is essential to explore how these learners adapt themselves to this new context which is linguistically, pedagogically and socially different from the one in their home environments ( Ma et al., 2017 ).

Previous studies have shown that the use of learning strategies seems to be divergent in the CFL and CSL contexts, which sheds light on the contextually situated nature of learning strategy ( Li, 2014 ). However, these studies have mainly followed the cognitive orientation which is increasingly criticized for its overreliance on normative techniques to measure learners' strategy use and for its failure in unveiling the socio-cultural complexity of learning strategies ( Lei, 2012 ). Against this background, it has been advocated to capture the socio-cultural disposition of learning strategies ( Gao, 2006 ).

In a nutshell, the review of the existing research reveals that whilst the early studies have mainly focused on strategy use of CFL learners, they paid inadequate attention to CSL learners. Besides, these previous studies primarily relied on quantitative techniques to examine the features of strategy use among the learners of Chinese, but failed to take into account the interaction of strategy use and social cultural contexts. There is also paucity in profiling strategy use of CSL learners and in understanding the socio-cultural dispositions of their strategy use.

Strategy Use From a Socio-Cultural Perspective

The socio-cultural perspective conceptualizes human beings' cognitive development as a mediational process in which a host of personal, social, cultural and physical tools are applied by the individual to actualize the meaningfulness of an activity ( Vygotsky, 1978 ; Lantolf, 2000 ). The mediational perspective is introduced to understand strategy use of second/foreign language learning ( Donato and Mccormick, 1994 ; Gao, 2006 ).

Following the mediational approach, previous research has mainly focused on strategy use among EFL/ESL learners. For instance, when shifting from mainland China to the UK, Chinese ESL learners come to apply more social strategies due to the new medium language for instruction and communication, academic learning tasks, social agents, learning environment, and learner self ( Gao, 2006 ; Liu, 2013 ). Learners tend to apply private speech–memorize words ( de Guerrero, 2018 ), control affect state ( Jiménez-Jiménez, 2015 ), and interact with others ( Smith, 2007 ). Assessment practice such as formative methods and portfolio has mediating effect on learners' strategy use ( Donato and Mccormick, 1994 ). Social agents like teachers are also found to be a critical mediator in learners' strategy use ( Oxford, 2014 ).

Taken together, these findings suggest that factors such as agents, assessment methods and learning environment tend to mediate strategy use in learning the target language ( Li, 2014 ; Perea, 2019 ). These mediational tools encompass learner self associated with beliefs and attitudes toward language learning ( Gao, 2006 ; Lantolf, 2006 ), social agents such as parents, teachers, and peers ( Lantolf, 2000 ), cultural artifacts pertaining to resources like assessment, textbooks and other learning materials ( Lantolf and Poehner, 2008 ; Gao, 2010 ), and learning environment at macro and situational levels ( Gao, 2010 ; Lei, 2012 ). These tools will be used as the guiding analytical framework for the present study. Since previous studies following the mediational lens have mainly centered on ESL/EFL learners, more effort to examine CSL learners' strategy use from this perspective is necessary.

To sum up, the above literature review has shown that the use of learning strategies of CSL learners has not received due attention and that existing research on strategy use fails to take socio-cultural context into account. The inadequacy in focusing on the CSL learners' strategy use and in crystallizing the interaction between strategy use and socio-cultural conditions thus necessitates further exploration. Therefore, to address these gaps this study proposes to explore the strategy use among CSL learners from the perspective of mediation theory.

RESEARCH DESIGN

Research questions.

(1) What are the features of learning strategies among the CSL learners?

(2) What mediational factors might have contributed to the use of learning strategies among those CSL learners?

Research Context and Participants

This study was conducted at a provincial key university in Central China. The university started to recruit international students as early as 1998. Since then, it has a steady annual population of 1,000 international students. It was among the list of the first cohort of institutions of higher education who passed the quality evaluation of international education programmes accredited by the Ministry of Education of China in 2019. It was therefore chosen as the research setting of this study. The university offers the CSL learners a series of Chinese language modules regarding Chinese characters, pronunciation, listening, speaking, reading, culture, and preparatory courses for the Chinese language proficiency test (Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi: HSK). The preparatory courses are mainly directed at HSK Level 3 for most of the CSL learners at the university. Only a small proportion of them would aspire to sit the HSK Level 4. The CSL learners are required to take these courses for a certain length of time before they are qualified to upgrade onto the degree programs. These courses are delivered by native Chinese-speaking teachers who have obtained postgraduate degrees in the fields of teaching Chinese to speakers of other languages. Formative assessment methods are practiced with such elements as presentations, projects, mid-term, and final exams. Asides from these courses, it provides the learners with some extra-curricular activities including Chinese Calligraphy and costumes, Chinese corner, Taiji, Chinese talent shows and Chinese language proficiency competitions at university, provincial, and national levels.

One hundred eighty-nine CSL learners were involved in the questionnaire survey of this study. These participants included 55 males and 134 females, who were from 26 countries including Morocco, Kazakhstan, Congo, Zimbabwe, Thailand, Russia and others. They ranged in age from 16 to 26, with an average age of 21.37. Among these participants, 90 of them had an experience of learning Chinese <6 months, 80 of them from 6 to 12 months, and 19 of them over 12 months. It is noteworthy that a great majority of these participants had limited experience of learning Chinese before the survey. They may be roughly regarded as beginning learners of CSL.

Twelve students were invited for the semi-structured interviews of this study ( Table 1 ). There were 5 females and 7 males, with four of them from Kazakhstan, two from Russia, and the other six from Algeria, Ghana, Morocco, Laos, Thailand, and Bangladesh, respectively. These interviewees were aged from 18 to 26 years old. Each four of them fell into the three groups of length of time spent learning Chinese, including the <6-month group, the 6- to 12-month group, and the over-12-month group. All the interviewees were pseudonymously named as Ahao, Anan, Benliyi, Chenan, Doha, Hadi, Molly, Qiaozhen, Wangyu, Xiaoye, Xiaoyi, and Yiwan respectively.

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Table 1 . Demographic Information of the Interviewees.

Instruments

Questionnaire.

A self-designed questionnaire was adapted from Oxford (1990) seminal SILL. Modifications were made in order to situate the questionnaire into the Chinese language learning contexts for this study. For example, the word “ English ” was replaced with “ Chinese .” For another example, the statement “ I use rhymes to remember new English words ” was changed into “ I use Pinyin to remember newly learned Chinese characters .” Before the questionnaire was finalized, six CSL learners were invited to participate in a pilot study for the purpose of checking the validity of the instrument. Based on the feedback from the pilot study, further revisions were made accordingly.

The finalized questionnaire consisted of two sections. Section 1 was designed to inquire the demographic information of the participants such as gender, age, nationality, and length of time spent learning Chinese. Section 2 included 53 items, which fell into six categories including Memory Strategies (Item 1–10), Cognitive Strategies (Item 11–26), Compensation Strategies (Item 27–32), Meta-cognitive Strategies (Item 33–41), Affective Strategies (Item 42–47), and Social Strategies (Item 48–53). These items followed a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from Completely Inapplicable to my Situation (1) to Completely Applicable to my Situation (5). The questionnaire was originally designed with an English-Chinese version, and the Chinese parts were translated into English by a doctoral researcher in applied linguistics. The reliability of the questionnaire was measured with Cronbach Alpha. The Cronbach Alpha for the whole questionnaire is 0.93, with the ones for the six dimensions ranging from 0.715 to 0.853. The results reveal that the questionnaire has good internal consistency and high reliability.

Interview Protocol

An interview protocol ( Appendix 1 ) was designed for the semi-structured interview by drawing on sources from previous studies (e.g., Gao, 2010 ). In so doing, it aimed to obtain in-depth information about the mediational factors that might have shaped the application of learning strategies among the CSL learners. Similar to the designing process of the questionnaire, a pilot study was conducted with 2 of the participants of the present study. Alterations were made according to the feedback from the 2 participants. The finalized protocol embraced two parts. The first part elicited the interviewees' background information such as their name, gender, age, nationality, and length of time of learning Chinese. The second part included aspects such as the strategies they adopted to learn Chinese, the challenges they encountered in their Chinese learning and the ways they used to help themselves out, the impressive Chinese class they ever had, their strategic response to role of examinations, the most influential person in their Chinese learning, and their ways to learn Chinese after class. Each of the aspects was well-attended by asking the interviewees to provide specific examples and reasons.

Data Collection

Before administering the questionnaire survey, the authors contacted the Chinese language teachers of the CSL learners for their consent of participation. Upon consent obtained, the participants were informed of the objectives of this questionnaire survey. The participants were also told that their responses to the survey would not influence the scores of their final examination and that the collected information would be kept confidentially. Two hundred ten copies of the questionnaire were distributed to the participants, with 206 copies returned. Among the returned ones, 17 copies were taken as invalid because of incompletion or wrongly answered problems. In total, 189 valid copies were included into the final data analysis.

Twelve out of the 189 quantitative respondents were invited for the follow-up semi-structured interviews by following a purposive sampling method ( Dörnyei, 2007 ). The interviews were guided by the interview protocol. All the interviews were conducted in English. Even though Chinese was the target language to the interviewees, in light of their limited Chinese language proficiency as indicated in the length of time they spent on learning Chinese prior to the survey of this study. English was therefore used in the interviews to elicit information on the reasons for their strategy use as much as possible, because it was the common language for communication between the interviewees and the authors of this study. Immediately after each interview, the interviewee's responses were checked by the interviewer to see whether the interviewee had some points to be clarified due to his/her poor English language proficiency. Each interview lasted 30–50 min and was recorded for subsequent coding and data analysis.

Data Analysis

The data collected from the questionnaire were analyzed by the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS 22.0). Descriptive techniques such as means and standard deviation were applied to gain a basic picture of using learning strategies among the CSL learners (Research Question 1).

The interview data were processed with the qualitative data analysis programme ATLAS.ti. In particular, the data were analyzed by means of the qualitative content analysis approach ( Dörnyei, 2007 ) so as to find out the mediational factors that might have influenced the participants' use of learning strategies (Research Question 2). More specifically, the analytical approach followed an iterative process including initial coding, secondary coding, and theorizing the emergent themes. During the initial coding, if there was any account associated with the learners' use of learning strategies, it would be coded. For example, the following account “ My Chinese language teacher often encourages me to communicate with him and other Chinese students so that I come to understand the importance of talking to native Chinese-speakers ” was coded as teacher mediation on learners' use of social strategies. Based on the analysis, a coding scheme was developed by following the above steps (Please refer to Table 3 in section Factors influencing strategy use among the participants for the details of the coding scheme). In the secondary coding, the data were recoded and re-classified to seek emergent thematic patterns from the initial coding. The newly obtained categories emerging from the secondary coding were repeatedly compared and checked by referring to the mediational framework ( Gao, 2010 ; Lei, 2012 ). This iterative process finally yielded the reasons for the learners' adoption of learning strategies.

To ensure the coding reliability, one third of the transcribed data were re-classified 3 months after the initial coding. The newly coded results were then compared with those completed earlier. The intra-coder coefficient was 148/167 = 0.886, which suggested that the coding of the data was consistently reliable over time ( Miles and Huberman, 1994 ). Those inconsistent results were further compared and revised until the categorization was finalized.

Features of Using Learning Strategies Among the Participants

When analyzing the collected quantitative data to answer Research Question 1 regarding the features of using learning strategies among the participants, this study adopted the judging criteria proposed by Oxford (1990) . According to her, the mean of the five-point Likert scale represents a level of using learning strategies, with the value above 3.5 as a high level, the value between 3.0 and 3.5 as an intermediate-upper level, and the value between 2.5 and 3.0 as an intermediate-lower level. However, the value below 2.5 symbolizes a low level. Table 2 reports the level of strategy use in learning Chinese among the participants.

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Table 2 . Level of strategy use in learning Chinese among the participants.

As depicted in Table 2 , the overall mean of the strategy use scale was 3.606, which was above 3.5. This suggested that the participants displayed a high level of deploying learning strategies in general. In addition, the means for social, meta-cognitive and memory strategies were 3.888, 3.836, and 3.562, respectively, all above 3.5. These results revealed that the participants exhibited a high level of using these three dimensional strategies. By contrast, the means for cognitive, affective and compensation strategies were 3.467, 3.444, and 3.437, respectively, all these values falling between 3.0 and 3.5. These results implied that the participants were at an intermediate-upper level in endorsing these three subcategories of learning strategies.

Factors Influencing Strategy Use Among the Participants

The interview data were analyzed within the mediational framework ( Gao, 2010 ; Lei, 2012 ), using a qualitative content analysis approach ( Dörnyei, 2007 ). This analysis was made to explore the reasons for the participants' use of learning strategies (Research Question 2). The analysis of the qualitative data yielded four major mediational themes, which encompassed social agents, self mediation, cultural artifacts, and learning environment ( Table 3 ).

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Table 3 . Mediational factors identified from the qualitative data.

Social Agents

Social agents refer to important others including teachers, peers and friends, parents and other family members, who might mediate learners' strategy use in their second/foreign language learning ( Gao, 2006 ; Li, 2014 ). The interview data revealed that the CSL learners' application of learning strategies was mediated by a number of important others including teachers and peers. A good rapport between teachers and students seems to have mediated the interviewees' deployment of affective strategies. For instance, Interviewee Hadi acknowledged the mediating effect of his teacher on his endorsement of social-affective strategies: “ Well I found most of the Chinese teachers here are quite helpful and very friendly, and they always motivate us to learn in an easier way and give us the tips to learn it ” (Hadi, Extract 1). It was revealed from Hadi's responses that a harmonious teacher-student relationship would promote the learners' recognition of the teacher and his teaching, which in return could stimulate the learners to take initiative in learning the target language. Similar opinion is also concurred by other interviewees like Doha who said that “… I become more confident to learn Chinese when I feel his (Teacher Alex) approval of my performance ” (Doha, Extract 2). The appreciation of teachers upon the students' performance seems to signal a positive psychological indication to the learner, which in return considerably enhanced their confidence in learning the language.

The interview data also revealed that peers played a critical role in mediating the utilization of social strategies among the interviewees. Remarks like “… my Chinese friends often help correct my Chinese pronunciations and grammatical mistakes ” (Benliyi, Extract 3) showed that the interviewees would exercise social strategies to seek help from their Chinese peers and friends when encountering difficulties in their Chinese learning. Another peer influence relates to the endorsement of meta-cognitive strategies among the participants. For example, Chenan mentioned: “ Mostly I learned Chinese by myself by writing 5–6 Chinese characters, which were subsequently used in my talk with my Chinese friends ” (Chenan, Extract 4). This shows that the participant bewared how to learn Chinese by exercising his meta-cognition. He initially learned the target language on his/her own and then strengthened the learnt knowledge through interacting with peers.

Learner Self

Private speech is often approbated by learners to regulate their language learning ( Xu and Fu, 2019 ). It refers to the behavior of whistling or murmuring to oneself during language learning ( Xi, 2020 ), which contributes to the cognitive development of the learners ( de Guerrero and Commander, 2013 ).

The analysis of the interview data revealed that private speech was applied by the interviewees to mediate their exercise of meta-cognitive strategies. For example, Ahao, a competent learner, said as follows: “ I keep telling myself that I need to fill out all by myself. …I do make plans for what am I going to study Chinese every day ” (Ahao, Extract 5). Such kind of private speech indicated that self reminding is the ground for a learner to take initiative in planning his/her Chinese learning, which reflects the deployment of meta-cognitive strategies. Private speech was also found to have influenced the deployment of affective strategies among the interviewees. As mentioned by Hadi, “… That is why I always tell myself that for the sake of my mom's devotion to me, I will have to work harder on Chinese ” (Hadi, Extract 6). It was evident that reminding himself of his mother's commitment to him was taken as an encouragement by Hadi in his Chinese learning.

Cultural Artifacts

Cultural artifacts are a kind of mediational resources associated with semiotic signs and physical tools ( Vygotsky, 1978 ). Cultural artifacts include linguistic and non-linguistic resources which could promote cognitive development. Mediational resources like mother tongue, the target language, textbooks and online materials have been found to influence learners' strategy use ( Lei, 2012 ; Li, 2014 ).

The interviews suggested that the medium language of communication was claimed to have a mediating effect upon the learners' employment of compensation strategies. Learners would turn to the commonly accepted medium language in case of a breakdown in their communication. For example, Doha said that “ When people don't understand my Chinese, I would use English (to explain again) ” (Doha, Extract 7). The example indicates that participants like Doha were able to endorse compensation strategies in circumstances in which they encountered breakdowns in an attempt to communicate by utilizing the target language such as Chinese.

Moreover, WhatsApp and other online resources were found to mediate the learners' use of cognitive strategies. For example, Xiaoye mentioned that “ I would go to Youtube to watch Chinese language learning programs when I am learning the tones of Chinese characters ” (Xiaoye, Extract 8). It seems that these learners were familiar with using WhatsApp to facilitate their Chinese language learning. There were various online resources like language learning videos and movies at the university where the interviewees were studying, which can accommodate Chinese learning. This process reflects the role of mediation of WhatsApp in the learners' application of cognitive strategies.

Textbooks and other teaching materials were also reported with a mediational effect upon the deployment of cognitive strategies among the interviewees. As Molly said, “ I love reading textbooks with pictures and pinyin because the pinyin and pictures helps my understanding very easily ” (Molly, Extract 9). Other interviewees like Qiaozhen also similarly expressed that they would resort to textbook exercises to consolidate her Chinese learning, which shows the mediation of textbooks on learners' use of cognitive strategies.

Assessment methods pertain to the ways applied to evaluate learners' performance, which usually encompass summative assessment like final exams and formative assessment such as presentations, essays, projects, and mid-term and final examinations ( Li, 2014 ). Assessment practices like formative assessment and high-stake examinations were found to mediate the learners' exercise of memory strategies. As Molly said, “ I realized I was more attentive to my study before an examination than on ordinary occasions. I would recite and write more characters in order to keep them in my mind ” (Molly, Extract 10). The remark suggested that the participant mainly resorted to memory strategies to prepare for her examinations. In addition, examinations seemed to drive the learners to approbate meta-cognitive strategies. For example, Anan said: “ For exams, I would plan and regularly review once in a while, in case I will repeat my mistakes again” (Anan, Extract 11). This shows that she has learnt to reflect on all the exercises for better performance in the examinations.

Learning Environment

Learning environment includes the contexts for learning at micro level like institutional learning conditions and macro levels such as social environment ( Lamb, 2013 ). Social environment was found to influence the harnessing of social strategies among the participants. For example, Ahao said: “ I learn Chinese because I want to stay here in future. To survive in China requires me to learn Chinese as well as Chinese people. Therefore, I learn it by conversing with the locals around us, which is beneficial for my Chinese learning ” (Ahao, Extract 12). His ideal L2 self seemed to shape his strategic belief that socializing with the locals is effective for learning Chinese.

Besides, social environment might have mediated the participants' employment of meta-cognitive strategies. For example, Yiwan mentioned that he came to know the effectiveness of learning Chinese through talking to local Chinese people. When he tried to greet the local Chinese by saying “ Hello! How are you?” he found that these people would respond to him with “ Have you had your dinner?” (Yiwan, Extract 13). Therefore, he came to learn that to utilize Chinese to talk with the locals is more effective than to learn only from the textbooks. His interaction with the local Chinese made him reflect on what he learned from textbook and what he observed in real-life language use, which influenced his choice of strategies to learn Chinese.

Another illustration of the influence of learning environment upon the use of learning strategies of the participants regards class environment. Classroom environment was found to have possibly influenced the learners' approbation of social strategies. As commented by Doha, “ In my class, we have some real good students who can speak very fluent Chinese. So sometimes if I have any problems, I will ask turn to them for help ” (Doha, Extract 14). This is echoed by Anan who voiced that “ I would turn to our Chinese student assistants when I have difficulties in learning Chinese ” (Anan, Extract 15). Availability of more capable learners in class illustrates the mediating effect of classroom environment upon learners' use of social strategy in their Chinese learning.

Lastly, learning associations were found to have probably exerted influence upon the learners' social-affective strategies. Xiaoye expressed that “ I encouraged myself to participate in the Chinese Calligraphy Association, where I could learn from my peers ” (Xiaoye, Extract 16). In short, learning associations provided opportunities for the learners to interact with their Chinese peers so that they could make better achievements in Chinese learning.

The present study yielded two major findings. Firstly, it has identified the commonalities and divergences in strategy use of the participants from learners in other CFL/CSL contexts. The surveyed CSL learners showed a frequent deployment of social, meta-cognitive and memory strategies. Their frequent use of social and meta-cognitive strategies corroborates with the previous findings in both the CFL and CSL contexts (e.g., Luo and Sun, 2018 ; Chen et al., 2021 ; Yang et al., 2021 ). Besides, the present study revealed a moderate level of using affective strategies among the participants, which contradicts the previous findings that the CFL learners frequently use affective strategies in the British context (e.g., Qian et al., 2018 ). Moreover, the present study distinguishes itself from previous studies in that memory strategies are found to be frequently applied by the CSL learners. This finding has not been previously reported with regard to the strategic profiles of CSL learners, thereby enriching the existing literature. The participants' frequent use of memory strategies might be expounded as follows: for one thing, since most of them were beginning learners, they might rely on direct strategies, memory strategies in particular. Learners of low level of language proficiency are often found to frequently use memory strategies ( Yu and Wang, 2009 ; Griffiths, 2013 ). For another, the participants surveyed in this study were supposed to pass the HSK test. This might be another reason that drove them to adopt memory strategies in their preparation for the test.

The second major finding is that the participants' strategy use manifested a contextually situated construct, which resulted from the interplay of learner agency and the social and cultural conditions. The present study explored the mediating factors upon the learners' strategy use at personal, situational, institutional, and contextual levels. It has found that learner self is a central mediator in shaping the interviewees' strategy use. Learners like Ahao, Hadi, and Qiaozhen exercised their private speech in learning Chinese. This result accords with what Perea (2019) has found. An adept command of private speech suggests a sound awareness of planning in language learning, and explicating the learners' frequent use of meta-cognitive learning strategies ( Hu and Gao, 2018 ).

Social agents including teachers and peers were found to have a mediational effect on the CSL learners' deployment of learning strategies, particularly social-affective strategies. This result lends support to a number of previous studies (e.g., Li, 2014 ; Gong et al., 2021b ). There are two possible reasons explicating the mediating role of teachers in shaping the learners' use of affective strategies. For one reason, teacher immediacy seems to shorten the distance between teachers and the CSL learners, as the Interviewees like Doha and Hadi expressed that they enjoyed the opportunities to interact with their Chinese language teachers in case they encountered problems in study and suffered from hardships in life. Thus, a rapport is created between the teacher and the CSL learners, which contributes to their use of affective strategies ( Santana-Quintana, 2018 ). For another, the mediating role might be associated with the teaching beliefs of these native Chinese-speaking teachers. All the CSL teachers hold a qualification in teaching Chinese to speakers of other languages, which means that they are well-prepared in pedagogical theories and beliefs ( Ma et al., 2017 ). One of such beliefs beholds the value of teaching students how to fish ( Wei, 2012 ). This belief praises the training and cultivation of the students' indirect strategic awareness such as meta-cognitive and social-affective strategies.

Another critical social agent relates to peers who were found to exert a mediating effect on the use of meta-cognitive and social strategies among the CSL learners. This result is assonated with previous studies (e.g., Hajar, 2017 ). The interviewees' frequent use of mate-cognitive and social strategies illustrates their awareness of using indirect strategy for learning Chinese. This strategic awareness, apart from being nurtured from the pedagogical practice of the university, might also result from the availability of native Chinese-speaking peers in the learners' CSL class. The surveyed university provided two teaching assistants and two interim TCSOL postgraduates for each class. These teaching assistants form social resources for the CSL learners. These rich social resources thus offered opportunities for the CSL learners to socialize with the native Chinese-speaking peers, nurturing their strategic awareness and competence for Chinese learning.

A third mediating factor pertains to cultural artifacts associated with the medium language of communication, textbooks and online learning resources, and assessment of high stake examinations. Medium language of communication is found to be used as a compensatory technique to accommodate the limited Chinese competence among the CSL learners like Doha and Ahao. This phenomenon reflects the emerging topic of translanguaging and English as lingua franca against the multilingual background ( Li, 2018 ). The CSL learners originated from diversified linguistic backgrounds. Once faced with difficulty in speaking Chinese, they would translanguage back to their mother tongue or English, an international language.

WhatsApp and other online resources were found of mediational effect upon the use of cognitive and compensation strategies in the cases of the CSL learners like Xiaoye and Benliyi. The online resources provided the CSL learners with a rich variety of Apps and databases for Chinese learning. For example, the CSL learners with access to online resources could learn how to enrich their ways of learning Chinese and compensate for the communication breakdowns caused by their poor language proficiency. Additionally, teaching materials like textbooks were found with a mediating effect on the learners' use of cognitive strategies. This verified the mediating effect of textbooks and notes in second and foreign language learning ( Perea, 2019 ). The textbooks and other teaching materials were compiled with multi-modal features like colorful graphs and videos to accommodate the needs of CSL learners. These multi-modal features could arouse the learners' interest and enrich their repertoire of cognitive strategies in Chinese learning.

Assessment methods were another artifact mediator identified in the participant's deployment of learning strategies. This result verifies some previous findings (e.g., Saks and Leijen, 2018 ). The surveyed university adopts formative assessment in the evaluation of the CSL learners, including classroom presentations, mid-term examinations, projects, and final examinations. The CSL learners have to sit for the HSK tests, should they expect to obtain degree or scholarship in Chinese universities. These formative elements consequently lead the participants to pay much attention to the learning process and seek effective ways to improve their performance through memorizing more characters, adopting more diversified methods, reflecting, and scheduling their study ( Li, 2014 ). Therefore, their strategic competence is strengthened, which is mainly displayed in their use of memory, cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies among the CSL learners such as Molly, Xiaoyi, and Anan.

Learning environment was found to be the fourth mediator in the learners' use of learning strategies, which accorded with a number of previous findings (e.g., Cruz and Pariña, 2018 ). The CSL learners' deployment of social (Ahao and Xiaoyi) and meta-cognitive (Yiwan) strategies was mediated by the social environment, as they expressed that they learned Chinese by interacting with local people. It seemed that the participants have realized the value of native target language contexts for learning Chinese. This strategic belief echoes the perception of the primacy of learning a foreign language in the native target language context, which prevails among second/foreign language learners ( Li, 2021 ). This is because in the target language environment like China, there are abundant social resources such as native Chinese speakers for Chinese learning. These rich social resources thus provide adequate opportunities for the CSL learners to interact with the locals using Chinese ( Gong et al., 2021a ).

Situational learning environment like classroom environment and extracurricular associations is another mediator of learning environment, which has been found to mediate the use of social-affective strategies among learners like Doha, and Xiaoye. This finding corroborates with some previous studies (e.g., Li, 2014 ; Huang, 2018 ). This might attribute to the opportunities created by the surveyed university for the CSL learners to interact with local Chinese students. For each class, the university offered Chinese students as teaching assistants to help the CSL learners. Besides, there were campus clubs and societies such as Chinese Calligraphy Association, and Chinese Bridge Series of Chinese Proficiency Competition. All these extra-curricular activities create numerous channels for the learners to immense themselves into the Chinese learning environment. Therefore, the CSL learners could easily reach out to the local Chinese students for interaction. This involvement would thus affect the learners' emotional state and increase their use of social-affective strategies ( Li, 2014 ).

The present findings also indicate that the adoption of Chinese language learning strategies is the result of the interplay between learner self and the situational, institutional, and contextual factors. This finding aligns with the studies by Li (2014) and Gao (2010) , which demonstrated that L2 learners displayed a wide repertoire of learning strategies when relocated into the target language settings. The strategic use of the learners was simultaneously influenced by personal and contextual factors. To be concrete, the learners internalized the value of learning a second/foreign language in the target language environment through immersion into the Chinese-speaking context, interaction with the local Chinese people, and their learning experiences in class and extra-curricular activities. The internalization of these situational and contextual realities seems to shape their strategic beliefs, which indicates their exercise of agency in CSL learning. Their agentic power is also reflected in their use of private speech and their ideal L2 self (such as the reflection in Ahao's motivation), which tends to influence their approbation of learning strategies.

The present study explored the strategy use and its mediating factors among a group of CSL learners in mainland China from the mediation theory perspective. It is found that the surveyed participants displayed a wide orchestration of strategies in their Chinese learning. The present study verifies previous findings that social and meta-cognitive strategies are most frequently deployed by the learners in both the CFL and CSL contexts. It also gains new insights into strategy use in that memory strategies are the most frequently used, and that affective strategies are moderately used among the CSL learners, which contradicts previous finding. Their approbation of learning strategies is mediated by an array of personal, situational, institutional, and contextual factors. Specifically, the learners' deployment of learning strategies was influenced by a series of factors, including learner self such as private speech and ideal L2 self, social agents like teachers and peers, artifacts including medium language of communication, assessment methods, and online resources, societal environment and extra-curricular activities. The present study contributes to existing literature in the following aspects. It firstly enriches the literature on strategy use of CSL learners. Besides, this study validates the feasibility of integrating the mediation theory into the exploration of L2 learning strategy, which consequently provides a new theoretical approach for L2 strategy research. Furthermore, it illuminates the contextually situated nature of strategy use, which sheds light on the interplay between learner agency and socio-cultural conditions that mutually shapes the learners' strategy use in their Chinese learning.

The present findings are implicative for teaching Chinese to speakers of other languages in China and other similar contexts. This study found that teachers are the most critical agents in mediating the learners' strategic use. This finding informs the development of teachers of non-Chinese learners against the background of the rapidly increasing number of Chinese language learners and educators ( Ma et al., 2017 ). Teachers need to sensitize themselves of the strategy profiles of their students ( Zhang and Wan, 2019 ). In light of the mediating effect of artifacts, CSL/CFL teachers are suggested to integrate the updated Apps and other online resources for Chinese learning into their class. This study also indicates the necessity and importance of a collective effort from teachers, policy makers and administrators to create a Chinese-speaking context for the learners. In view of the contributing effect of agentic power, it is suggestive that strategy-based instruction be provided to train the learners so as to enlarge their strategic repertoire. In addition, considering the diversity in cultural backgrounds of the Chinese learners and the profound mediating effect of teachers upon the learners' practice of Chinese learning ( Gong et al., 2021b ), it is essential for teachers to strengthen their intercultural competence.

This study has some shortcomings. First of all, this study only followed a cross-sectional paradigm to investigate the features and influencing factors of strategy use among the participants. Besides, this study did not take into account other learner variables such as language proficiency and length of time spent learning Chinese. Therefore, it is cautioned when generalizing the findings of this study into other contexts. Future studies are called for to adopt a longitudinal paradigm with larger sample population from various institutions. It is also recommended to further explore the interrelationship between strategy use and other factors of CSL learners with diverse language proficiency levels and learning experiences.

Data Availability Statement

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author/s.

Ethics Statement

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by School of Foreign Languages, Hubei University of Technology, China. The participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

Author Contributions

CL designed the study and finalized the draft. LC collected, analyzed, and made the first draft of the manuscript. CM helped process the data. SZ analyzed and helped revise the manuscript. HH helped revise the manuscript. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

The authors are grateful for the support of this study from the following funds: The National University Foreign Language Teaching and Research Fund (No. 2018HB0088A), The Social Sciences Research Fund of Hubei Provincial Department of Education (No. 18Y067), The Humanities and Social Sciences Fund of Hubei University of Technology (No. 2018SW0303), and The Teaching and Research Fund of Hubei University of Technology (No. Xiao2018025).

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher's Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Interview protocol.

1. Do you like Chinese?

2. How do you usually learn Chinese? Could you give any example?

3. What do you usually do when you have a problem in learning Chinese? Could you give any example?

4. Could you describe a Chinese class that impresses you at this university?

5. What do you think of the role of examinations in your Chinese learning, like HSK? Why or why not?

6. How do you think of the role of other people like your teachers, peers, and family members in your Chinese learning? Why or why not?

7. How do you learn Chinese after class? Do you participate in any Chinese activities after class? Why or why not?

Keywords: learners of Chinese as second language, use of learning strategies, mediation theory, learner self, socio-cultural factors

Citation: Li C, Chen L, Ma C, Zhang S and Huang H (2021) Strategy Use Among Chinese as Second Language Learners in Mainland China From the Mediation Theory Perspective. Front. Psychol. 12:752084. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.752084

Received: 02 August 2021; Accepted: 13 September 2021; Published: 13 October 2021.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2021 Li, Chen, Ma, Zhang and Huang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Shuang Zhang, 470046501@qq.com ; Haiquan Huang, huanghaiquan824@163.com

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

  • Original article
  • Open access
  • Published: 19 January 2018

A qualitative study on learning trajectories of non-native Chinese instructors as successful Chinese language learners

  • Shijuan Liu   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3580-3554 1 &
  • Fu Wang 2  

Asian-Pacific Journal of Second and Foreign Language Education volume  3 , Article number:  2 ( 2018 ) Cite this article

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This paper reports a qualitative study on the Chinese language learning trajectories of non-native Chinese instructors as successful Chinese language learners . While some literature has been found on studying good learners of English and other languages, there is a lack of research on studying good learners of the Chinese language, especially on their life-long Chinese learning process. Six active instructors teaching Chinese at K-12 schools or universities in the United States, whose native language is English, were interviewed on a one-on-one basis with an auto/biographical approach. This approach, as one type of narrative inquiries under a qualitative paradigm, has been increasingly used in the study of English language learners. Findings of the study include that the six participants all had experiences studying in Greater China, and all held lifelong learning attitude as well as demonstrated various self-regulation strategies with strong self-motivation and dedication. While they all took Chinese classes at college, only two of them studied prior to college, which is encouraging for Chinese learners who were unable to learn Chinese from an early age. This study helps to fill the gap in literature on good language learners of Chinese, and provides educational implications for Chinese language learners, instructors, researchers, and other stakeholders.

Introduction

The past decade has seen a rapid expansion in the learning and teaching of Chinese worldwide. In the United States alone, according to Tsung and Cruickshank ( 2011 ), there are over 500 schools and universities offering Chinese language programs. In addition, the website of Hanban ( 2017 ) shows that 110 Confucius Institutes and 501 Confucius Classrooms have been established in the United States to respond to the increasing needs of local institutions.

As some scholars (e.g., Brecht & Walton, 1994 ; Everson & Shen, 2010a ) have pointed out, in addition to language programs, it is also critical for the growth of a language field to conduct research on problems and issues germane to the field. Compared to the research on teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL), studies on teaching Chinese to speakers of other languages, as noted by many researchers (e.g., Duff et al., 2013 ; Han, 2014 ), are still limited.

This article reports a qualitative study that the authors recently conducted on studying non-native Chinese instructors Footnote 1 as good learners of the Chinese language.

Literature review

Research on good language learners.

Research on good language learners is in alignment with the notion on best practice in other professional areas such as business and health care (Norton & Toohey, 2001 ). The beginning of the line of research on good language learners (GLL) is often credited to the work of Joan Rubin’s TESOL Quarterly article published in 1975 (Griffiths, 2008a ). Rubin’s ( 1975 ) rationale of studying good learners, was that “if we knew more about what the ‘successful learners’ did, we might be able to teach these strategies to poorer learners to enhance their success record” (p.42). Based on her experience learning several languages and teaching English as a second language, she co-authored the book entitled How to Be a More Successful Language Learner , in which Rubin and Thompson ( 1982 ) proposed 14 strategies for becoming a successful language learner, such as “find your own way,” “be creative,” “make your own opportunities,” “learn to live with uncertainty,” “use mnemonics,” “let context help you,” and “learn formalized routines.” According to Cohen ( 2008 ), Rubin’s idea was very original at that time, since “there was no focus on what the learners were doing” (p.8), and to some degree, was comparable to the Wright brothers telling people about their ideas for a “flying machine.”

In addition to Rubin, earlier advocators on GLL research in the 1970s include Stern ( 1975 ), Cohen ( 1977 ), and others. One rigorous GLL study was conducted by Naiman and associates from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of Canada in 1978. Their study included two parts. In the first part, the researchers interviewed 34 adults on their second language learning experiences. They found that despite the uniqueness of their individual language learning career, there were many common experiences and characteristics among the interviewees. For example, the good learners were actively involved in the language learning process, and found ways to overcome linguistic, affective, or environmental obstacles. They also monitored their own practices, performances, and involved themselves in communication. The second part of the large-scale study involved classroom observations of students in the 8th, 10th, and 12th grades learning French as a second language in Toronto. They found that attitude and motivation were the best overall indicators of success for language learning in most instances. Brumfit ( 1995 ) comments that the findings of Naiman and his coauthors stood up well for the subsequent research, and “the only really significant addition is the view that good language learners are flexible and vary their learning strategies” (p.ix).

Since then, a number of works (e.g., Ellis, 1994 ; Cohen & Macaro, 2007 ; Graham, 1997 ; Macaro, 2006 ; Oxford, 1990 ; Stevick, 1989 ) have been published on further study of good learners and their strategies. The edited book Lessons from Good Language Learners by Griffiths ( 2008b ) groups the 23 chapters from various contributors into two parts: (1) Learner variables and (2) Learning variables. The contributors in this edited book summarized research on 14 variables concerning language learners such as age, personality, gender, learning style, motivation, metacognition, and autonomy, as well as 12 variables related to language learning, such as vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, listening, speaking, reading and writing. They also provided implications for the teaching/learning situation and questions for ongoing research. In the concluding chapter, Oxford and Lee ( 2008 ) pointed out that language learning was “a difficult journey across a demanding landscape by extremely complex beings who behave in completed ways” (p.315), and many questions still need to be further investigated.

In light of sociocultural theory (e.g., Hall, 1995 ; Lantolf, 2000 ; Vygotsky, 1978 ) and research on communities of practice (e.g., Lave & Wenger, 1991 ), Norton and Toohey ( 2001 ) point out that “understanding good language learning requires attention to social practices in the contexts in which individual learn L2s” (p.318), and urge researchers to pay attention to how communities and their practices are structured. Their position is echoed in the book Social Turn in Second Language Acquisition by Block ( 2003 ). In his book, Block examines the “Input-Interaction-Output” model (see, for example, Gass, 1997 ) and suggests a broader, more socially informed and interdisciplinary approach to second language acquisition (SLA) research. Block’s “social turn”, as mentioned in his book, is based on discussion of many researchers on this topic since mid-1990s (e.g., Brumfit, 1997 ; Firth & Wagner, 1997 ; Hall, 1995 , 1997 ; Lantolf, 1996 ; Rampton, 1997a , 1997b ; van Lier, 1997 ), and some of the cited articles are available in the special issues of the Modern Language Journal (1997 Autumn issue) and International Journal of Applied Linguistics (1997 June issue).

In addition, most of the early work on language learners, according to Pavlenko and Lantolf ( 2000 ), were solely on linguistic proficiency. They suggest that a language learner is more a participant in language socializations, who crosses the border into the domain where selves and worlds are reconstructed. Hanauer ( 2011 ) further articulates that a language learner is “a socially and culturally contextualized individual with a rich, extended history of personal experience” and language learning, therefore, involves “an interaction with everything that makes up the experience and understanding of the learner, including issues of identity and self-perception” (p.109). Benson and Cooker ( 2013 ) continue to advocate the use of sociocultural approaches to study identity, agency and autonomy of language learners, the socially constituted individuals.

Related studies on Chinese language learners

As Tsung and Cruickshank ( 2011 ) state, while there is a strong tradition of linguistics research in Chinese, empirical research investigating the learning and teaching of Chinese as a second/foreign language is relatively new, compared to studies on teaching and learning of English or other commonly taught European languages. Some empirical studies have been found on Chinese language learners. For instance, Jin ( 1989 ) investigated whether or not a composite theory of universals and typological parameters could account for interlanguage process in terms of developmental patterns, learning difficulty, and possibility of transfer based on her data from 86 adult Chinese learners. Everson and Ke ( 1997 ) investigated reading strategies of intermediate and advanced learners of Chinese, and Winke ( 2007 ) studied the effects of L1 background on L2 Chinese learners’ tonal production. In addition, Wen ( 2010 ) studied acquisition of the displacement Ba-construction by English-speaking learners of Chinese, and Yang ( 2014 ) examined the effects of pragmatics instruction on L2 learners’ acquisition of Chinese expressions of gratitude.

The Chinese Language Teachers Association (CLTA)‘s monograph Research among Learners of Chinese as a Foreign Language edited by Everson and Shen ( 2010b ) includes eight empirical studies. Most of them focus on cognitive aspects of the second language acquisition of Chinese. In the preface of her edited book Studies in Second Language Acquisition of Chinese, Han ( 2014 ) points out that while research on second language acquisition of Chinese has existed, for a long time it has been “confined to a narrow range of topics and perspectives” (p.ix). The book includes six studies in second language acquisition. One of them was by Jin ( 2014 ), which investigates peer/group interaction in a Chinese study abroad context from a sociocultural perspective based on qualitative data (e.g., weekly interviews, informal observation and participants’ weekly reflective journals) collected from 11 study abroad students. One finding of her study was that peer/group interactions in both L1 and L2 “played a vital role in the study abroad program, particularly for lower level learners at the beginning of the program” (p.72).

It is worth noting that with increasing exchanges between China and other countries including the United States there is a growing body of literature addressing study abroad experience of the Chinese language learners. For instance, Tseng ( 2006 ) investigates language gain in grammar, listening, and reading by second year non-native students of Chinese in the study abroad and domestic programs. Liu ( 2010 ) describes a model that integrates an at-home preparation intensive summer program with a short-term, study abroad summer program to increase students’ Chinese-language proficiency, cultural awareness, and personal career development. Qin ( 2014 ) studies the impact of culture in five communicative elements (namely, roles, place, time, audience, and scripts) based on data she collected from real-life interaction through shadowing 20 American learners of Advanced Chinese when they were participating in a study abroad program in China.

Compared to the hundreds of studies on various aspects of TESOL, as many scholars (e.g., Cruickshank & Tsung, 2014 ; Han, 2014 ) have pointed out, more empirical research is needed on the study of teaching and learning Chinese to speakers of other languages. In addition, review of the literature also indicates that there is a lack of research on good language learners of Chinese. Stevick ( 1989 ) interviewed seven language learners whom he considered were successful with their foreign language learning. One was a Chinese learner, who was a diplomat under the given pseudonym Bert. The findings of his interview with Bert were grouped into two parts: (1) Audio-lingual-style activities, such as intensive mechanical drill, and memorization of texts; (2) Other activities, which included such activities as paraphrasing as a learning technique, and meaningful memorization of texts technique.

The report by Prescott and Orton ( 2012 ), entitled Good Learners of Chinese – Profiles of Students in Secondary Schools, is the only study that we found on studying good learners of Chinese. The two Australian researchers interviewed 14 students to understand the reasons for their success. The students, aged between 13 to 18 years old from six schools in Australia, were identified by their Chinese language teachers as good oral language learners. Each interview lasted approximately 30 min and was analyzed through such lenses as family influences, personal attitude to Chinese language and culture, as well as practices they engaged in. Some of their findings include that the students all “greatly enjoy the challenges it offers despite the work it takes”, and they all benefit from “support and a positive attitude to their study from their family” (p.4). No previous study has been found on studying the long-term language learning experience of good Chinese learners yet. Our study is intended to fill this gap.

One critical element of studies on GLL is how to define “good learners”. For instance, in the aforementioned Naiman et al. ( 1978 ) study, the good learners were recommended as proficient learners by the researchers’ acquaintance or through the researchers’ own connections. The researchers clearly reported that they did not give the participants any proficiency test to validate.

In the present study we decided to choose non-native Chinese language teachers as our good language learners based on the following two considerations. First, their success in Chinese language learning is validated by their profession, which is more convincing than informal evaluation (e.g., recommendation by acquaintance) or a single proficiency test. Second, while many English native speakers can be found in the profession of teaching Spanish, French, and other commonly taught languages, there are much fewer English native speakers found in the work force of teaching Chinese in the United States, as also noted by Everson and Xiao ( 2009 ). A significant advantage of having local teachers as language instructors, as Snow ( 2007 ) identified, Footnote 2 is that they can “inspire students to believe that success is possible” and provide students with a good role model (p.8). In addition, study of the journeys of the Chinese instructors who are Chinese language learners themselves can provide inspirations to other Chinese learners who have the potential and interest in becoming Chinese language instructors.

Two overarching questions guided this study: (1) what are the life-long Chinese language learning processes of these non-native Chinese instructors? and (2) what are the common experiences shared among them regarding their Chinese language learning?

Review of the literature on Chinese language learners also shows that fewer studies investigate learners as socially and culturally contextualized individuals with naturalistic and qualitative (including the narrative inquiry) approach. As Duff et al. ( 2013 ) point out, “most existing studies analyze acquisition from a (psycho) linguistic or cognitive perspective rather than from a socialcultural or social-practice perspective” (p. 12). Furthermore, similar to what some scholars (e.g., Hanauer, 2011 ; Pavelenko & Lantolf, 2000 ) commented on the early studies on language learners in TESOL, very limited research has been found on studying learners’ learning process holistically including their identity, autonomy and other involved aspects in addition to their language proficiency.

To holistically understand the various dimensions of the complex language learning process and describe the experiences of language learners with richness, researchers (e.g., Bell, 2002 ; Benson 2005 , 2011 ; Firth, A.& Wagner, J., 1997 ) suggest conducting qualitative research. Qualitative research, as Roberts ( 2002 ) explains, has “a number of features stemming from its philosophical and theoretical approach to the social world, including remaining close to the experiences and views of the researched” (p.2).

Auto/biographical research method

Benson ( 2005 ) coined the term “(auto) biography” to refer to both biography and autobiography. According to him, (auto) biography has often been used in different terms in TESOL and Applied Linguistics, such as narrative research, narrative inquiry, ethnographic approach, “narrative study of lives, autoethnography, life history, and autobiography.”

Pavlenko ( 2007 ) categorized autobiographic narrative data into three types: (1) Diaries and journals by L2 learners; (2) Linguistic biographies and autobiographies , collected through interviews in the North American tradition; and (3) Language memoirs , which were published linguistic autobiographies. According to Bell ( 2002 ), narratives allow researchers to understand experience and “present experience holistically in all its complexity and richness” (p.209). Benson ( 2011 ) concurs and argues that one of the strengths of narrative research is its potential to provide insight into long-term language learning experience that cannot be investigated in real time.

Wang ( 2014 ) used “autobiography narratives” to study four professors who were international faculty at an American university regarding their life-long English learning experiences. The narratives were collected by approximately one-hour long interviews of each interviewee. At the beginning of the interview, he prompted the interviewees to reflect on their English learning experience as if they were writing a language memoir before asking them to elaborate what they wrote down in the memoir.

Duff and her coauthors (2013) reviewed existing (auto) biographical accounts of learning Chinese. In addition to available case studies of American or Canadian non-heritage leaners of Chinese, Duff and her coauthors also reviewed books written in memoir genre such as Fallows ( 2010 ) and autobiographical accounts of sojourners in China such as McDonald ( 2011 ). As pointed out by Duff and her coauthors (2013), there is “almost no studies framed by socialcultural theory or narrative inquiry have been conducted on the acquisition of Chinese by English speakers” (p.17) and few studies have provided an in-depth and contextualized analysis of individual learners’ motivations and goals for choosing to study Chinese and “their longer-term trajectories as Chinese learners” (p.13).

This present study adopted a similar method as used by Wang ( 2014 ) to study the life-long Chinese learning experience of Chinese language instructors who are native English speakers. The term “narratives” in this study is used to refer to similar qualitative data that Wang ( 2014 ) in his study, which consisted of (1) the oral interview with the participants, and (2) the outline written down by participants about their language learning history as if writing a language memoir at the beginning of the interview.

However, in this paper, notably, we decided to use the term “auto/biographical” instead of “autobiographical” used in Wang ( 2014 ) based on the following two considerations: (1) to describe the nature of the narratives more accurately. The narratives were not completely produced by the persons being researched but were collected through interviews between the researcher and the participants. Using the term “auto/biographical” can help avoid confusion with those that are truly autobiographical, such as the autobiographical narratives used in Fang ( 2006 ), in which she examined her own experiences of learning languages and teaching English in China; (2) to reflect the role of researchers as “auto/biographer” in this type of research. As suggested by Roberts ( 2002 ), in the collection of their stories through interviewees, the interaction between the researcher and the interviewees not only “is helping the interviewees to reflect and give form and structure to their lives”, but also “helping researchers to begin to draw on their own experiences” (p.13).

Participants

We used two criteria in selection of participants: (1) the participant was an English native speaker with non-heritage background, and (2) the participant taught the Chinese language at a formal K-16 institution in the United States as part of his or her job responsibilities.

A number of potential participants who met the above two criteria were approached. Six of them agreed to participate in the study. Three of them taught Chinese at K-12 schools, while the other three taught at the post-secondary level. Three were male and three were female (see Table  1 for more information about the six participants).

Data collection and analysis

The six participants were interviewed on a one-on-one basis between July and November of 2014. The first interviewee was a college professor whom the first author had known personally through other circumstances. The interview was conducted by the second author alone via phone. Before the interview, the two authors discussed the interview protocol thoroughly. After the interview, the first author listened to the audio recording of the interview and analyzed the data separately from the second author. Then the two authors compared and contrasted their analysis for the purpose of ensuring the reliability of the qualitative data analysis.

The other five participants were also identified by the first author through professional network and/or at various professional occasions (e.g., conferences). Because the first author is a Chinese language instructor herself, it is easier for her to build trust and rapport between the researcher and the interviewees, which is important, as mentioned by Roberts ( 2002 ) for conducting the auto/biographical research. The five interviews were all conducted by the first author alone either onsite or at distance over the phone or via Skype.

The information of the participants and data collection means is summarized below. To protect their true identities, each participant is given a pseudonym, and the detailed information of their working places and related educational backgrounds is intentionally not specified.

At the beginning of each interview, participants were given some time to reflect on their Chinese language learning experiences as if they were writing a memoir. They were asked to write down the outline on a given paper with such prompts as how many chapters would you write? What would be the headings for each chapter? (See the Appendix for details) For remote interviews, the interviewees were asked to share what they wrote (or typed) via email before the interview started. During the interview, the researchers mainly went over with each participant the outline of the memoir that s/he wrote down (or typed) on paper. The researcher only gave necessary prompts such as what was your rationale to identify this period of time as a single chapter?

It is noteworthy that since the goal of this study is to gain an overall picture of the learning trajectory of each participant, there is usually little need for the researchers to ask additional prompts during the interview. In addition, supported by the rationale stated in the literature review (e.g., Benson, 2005 ; Hanauer, 2011 ), we view every single participant as a subject who tried to find meaning of his or her life and career, and therefore, we tried to keep our intervention to a minimum, and only asked for confirmation and requests for further details occasionally when we deemed it as important and necessary.

The six interviews were conducted in a mixture of Chinese and English based on the interviewees’ preference. Each interview lasted for about one hour, and was audio recorded. A detailed summary was written right after each interview, and the recorded interview was later transcribed verbatim. Similar to handling the first interview, the two researchers first analyzed the interviews separately and then compared and contrasted what they found through ongoing discussions. As suggested by Johnson ( 1997 ), descriptive validity and interpretive validity were emphasized in this quality study. The recordings and transcripts of the interviewed were reviewed multiple times for themes and patterns, and the data analysis results were shared with participants for feedback and accuracy check.

Results and discussions

Similar to what Naiman and his coauthors found from their interviews in 1978, our findings showed that while the six participants achieved their success in different ways, there were several shared experiences and factors across their narratives. Additionally, in light of our review of the literature, especially the theoretical relevance of “social turn”, we view the language learning as a process that involves not only cognitive and psychological factors but also emotion and identity construction under the social-cultural context. One great strength of the auto/biographical approach, as previously discussed, is to allow researchers to capture participants’ long-term language learning experiences in all its complexity and to understand their learning process holistically. While there are also some specific themes we found from the data analysis, such as textbooks used by participants and their recommendations, due to the limitation of length and scope of a paper, we decided to give more focus on reporting the participants’ life-long learning experiences in a macro perspective so that readers can get a holistic and overall picture of the learning trajectory of the participants.

(1) Culture, community, family -- the initiation

Participants in this study all shared how their Chinese language journey began. Dr. Peter, Mr. Dylan, and Dr. Sara mentioned that their motivation in learning Chinese started with their interest in Eastern philosophy. According to Dr. Peter, he always enjoyed reading books on Confuciusm and Buddhism, and he chose to study Chinese language for the purpose of learning Chinese philosophy and culture in greater depth. Mr. Dylan recalled that one of his high school teachers advised him to read the related thoughts of ancient Asian philosophers from China and India for his senior project. After reading Lun Yu (论语, The Analects ) of Confucius and a number of books on Buddhism, he realized that his view of the world was limited to Europe, and he then decided to learn more about Asia in college. Similarly, Dr. Sara mentioned that she did an independent study on philosophy in her high school in order to find different ways of thinking, through which she became interested in traditional Chinese philosophy. Notably, Mr. Dylan shared that he initially was interested in both Chinese and Japanese languages, and later chose Chinese over Japanese because he was more intrigued by communism and Chinese politics.

Most of the participants commented that their interest in Chinese was also influenced by their families, friends, and communities. For example, Dr. Peter mentioned that he grew up in a college town, where he had opportunities to meet with international faculty, including some from Taiwan, through his family connections. Dr. Sara mentioned that her mother was a French language teacher, and she always had an interest in foreign languages. Mr. Andy recalled that his initial motivation in learning Chinese was rather accidental. In the summer before he went to college, a few business friends of his father from Taiwan visited his family. During his conversation with them, they encouraged him to “try Chinese language in college” since he had already studied other foreign languages in high school. Ms. Pam’s decision was largely shaped by her father who believed that Chinese and Spanish were the most useful languages to learn. She also remembered that in 7th grade she had a classmate and good friend whose family was from Taiwan, and she was fascinated by the Chinese culture that she experienced through her friend’s family, such as the delicious food her family made, and the beautiful decorations for celebration of Chinese New Year in her house. Ms. Katy’s case was different than other participants in that she was born in Taiwan when her family lived there because of her father’s work.

The motivation of learning a language has been an important topic in all language study research (Dörnyei & Ushiota, 2013 ; Gil, 2014 ; Noels et al., 2000 ; Rubin, 1975 ; Wen, 1997 ). Motivation is listed by Rubin ( 1975 ) as one of three essential variables for good language learning. The intrinsic interest in Chinese culture that initially motivated the participants to learn Chinese language is consistent with the literature. For instance, Wen ( 1997 ) found in her study of 77 learners that interest in learning Chinese culture and understanding one’s heritage was the first factor for students to start to learn Chinese, and this intrinsic motivation factor was in strong collation with student learning outcomes. Additionally, the family and community factors found in our study are also consistent with what Prescott and Orton ( 2012 ) found from the motivation of good learners in secondary schools.

Gil ( 2014 ) found that economic competitiveness, political competiveness, and population competiveness most strongly supported the “macroacquisition” of Chinese based on his survey of language learners enrolled in universities in Australia and China as well as his study of a range of secondary sources. The three types of competiveness, however, were not mentioned by participants in our study. This finding probably is related to the fact that most participants in our study began to learn Chinese between the 1970s and 1990s when the economy of China was still less developed. On the other hand, this difference might imply that intrinsic motivation is more important for good language learners at least in this study.

Considering students’ initial motivation to learn a new language is related to the enrollment of beginning language classes, findings related to this theme have implications not only for researchers and practitioners but also for administrators and other stakeholders. Given the importance of the intrinsic motivation and the roles that family and community play, Chinese instructors and program coordinators at K-16 levels are encouraged to continue to organize co-curricular and extracurricular activities to promote Chinese language and culture on campus and in the community. It is also advisable to collaborate with local Chinese communities and colleagues from related disciplines (e.g., history, philosophy, arts) as well as seek support from administrators and other stakeholders.

(2) Chinese learning in college (home institution) -- the foundation

Among the six participants, only two of them (Ms. Katy and Ms. Pam) studied Chinese before college. According to Ms. Katy, because her parents were living in Taiwan and “there was no American school or international school at the time nearby,” she attended regular schools for local Taiwanese children from four years old to eight years old (preschool to 3rd grade). Ms. Pam started to learn Chinese during her junior and senior years at high school along with studying Spanish for four years. Ms. Pam recalled that it was difficult to find a Chinese teacher in her hometown area back in the 1980s. Her Chinese teacher was an old gentleman who used to be a spy in World War II and studied Chinese in his own way. It was an age wherein there were “no cassette tapes nor internet,” not to mention “language partners” whatsoever.

Except Dr. Peter who was an English major in college, the other five participants all majored in Chinese or Asian Studies as undergraduate students. According to Dr. Peter, there was no professional Chinese instructor available at the university he attended in late 1970s. His first Chinese instructor was a person from the field of arts who studied Chinese for three years. The other five participants all began to learn Chinese from their college freshman year. Dr. Sara went to study Chinese in Taiwan right after her freshman year, while the other four participants (Mr. Dylan, Ms. Pam, Mr. Andy, and Ms. Katy) all studied Chinese in their home institutions for the first two years before studying abroad in their junior year. They all recalled that the sizes of their Chinese classes were small, especially the upper level Chinese classes.

According to Mr. Andy, the two years of studying Chinese at his college in the United States helped him build a solid foundation for his Chinese learning, and it did not take him long to adjust to the immersive Chinese environment when he arrived in Taiwan. This finding is consistent with what Liu ( 2010 ) points out, that is, the at-home preparation program, if well-designed can help build students’ confidence and allow them to benefit more from interacting with native speakers during their study in China.

Rubin ( 1975 ) listed age as one of the factors requiring further research. Gass et al. ( 2013 ) summarized literature on age differences in language acquisition, including the discussions on Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH), which was originally formulated by Lennenberg ( 1967 ). Marinova-Todd et al. ( 2000 ) cautioned researchers and others not to jump to conclusions about early learning, and proposed that age differences may reflect more the situation of learning than a capacity for learning. While it is apparent that there are many advantages identified in learning a language at an early age (Birdsong, 1999 ; Gass et al., 2013 ), our findings show that it is still possible for learners to achieve highly satisfactory level of Chinese proficiency in their academic career through hard work, as exemplified by the experiences of four participants in this study, who didn’t begin their Chinese learning journey until college due to various reasons.

(3) Study abroad experience -- the immersion

The six participants all had experience studying Chinese in Greater China. Dr. Peter went to Taiwan for one summer and stayed with a local family after graduating from college. He took some Chinese language and culture classes at a university in Taipei while teaching English part time. Ms. Pam studied at Tsinghua University in Beijing in the summer after her sophomore year and studied Chinese at another university in Beijing for one year on a Chinese government scholarship. After her graduation she also went to China multiple times. Mr. Dylan studied at Beijing through the Associated Colleges in China (ACC) program during the summer and fall semester of his junior year, then studied in Taiwan for a number of years after graduating from college. He also earned a master’s degree and nearly finished a doctorate degree in Chinese history while in Taiwan.

Both Mr. Andy and Ms. Katy studied at the Inter-University Program (IUP) for Chinese Language Studies in Taipei. Dr. Sara studied Chinese at Taiwan Normal University for her sophomore year and returned to Taiwan again to continue her Chinese learning while teaching English part time after her graduation. She later studied Chinese at Beijing University for another year while conducting research for her graduate study. Similarly, after graduation Ms. Katy studied Chinese intensively in Nanjing University as part of her graduate study for one year.

Zeng ( 2011 ) states that study abroad “is an important rite of passage during which language learners apply what they have previously acquired from classroom to more authentic social settings” (p. 32). The six participants in this study all spoke highly of their study abroad experiences. According to Mr. Dylan, studying in the ACC immersion program was very helpful, and was a breakthrough for his Chinese communication proficiency. As he explained, the structure of the Chinese classes offered at his college in the United States was good, which made him want to learn Chinese. He had Chinese every week day, three days for lecture, and two days for drills. He also went to lab to do required listening and recording. He recalled that he went to the language lab frequently and listened to those audiotapes a lot during his first two years of learning Chinese at his college, but he still felt that he was not making much progress and not proficient enough to communicate fully in Chinese. He stressed a couple of times during the interview that when he studied in the language lab he “had a strong feeling of going to China” and could not wait to take part in the immersion environment as soon as possible.

According to Dr. Sara, her study abroad experience in Taiwan during her sophomore year not only helped improve her Chinese proficiency but also helped in deciding to major in Chinese. Ms. Pam further stated that studying in China even helped her change her personality in addition to improving her Chinese. She said that she was very introverted and not confident before studying in China. During her study in China she would need to make many decisions herself. In addition, she had the time and freedom to explore her interests, such as studying Buddhism and Taiji. These experiences made her become more confident and extroverted, and had a large impact on her professional career.

Mr. Dylan, Ms. Katy, and Dr. Sara all commended the good structure of the study abroad program they attended. According to Mr. Dylan, the ACC program had “very good curriculum.” Students in the ACC program lived in dorms on campus and pledged to speak Chinese all the time with classmates and roommates. There were four-hour Chinese language courses taught in the morning, and cultural activities in the afternoon with excursions arranged over weekends. Similarly, Ms. Katy mentioned that the IUP Taipei program was “very rigorous.” The instructors were selected by the program director. The ratio of instructor to students in the combined session was one to three, and in the single session one to one. The curriculum was topic oriented, covering various topics, such as stories, novels, radio and broadcast programs.

While Dr. Peter did not study in Greater China before he graduated from college, he found that the immersion program he attended at Middlebury College was “really very helpful” for his Chinese learning. According to him, the summer Middlebury program was total immersion. Students were asked to speak Chinese all the time, “except, in a situation where, like medical emergency or something like that.” Professors were selected from different universities to teach courses, which were “highly structured and very demanding.”

Notably, in addition to the immersion program, Mr. Dylan shared that using authentic Chinese books to study history was also critical for his Chinese learning. According to him, when he studied Chinese in Taiwan after he graduated from college, he found the classes did not meet his personal needs and the class setting (i.e., studying with other students) did not fit him any longer. He then decided to have tutors help him study Chinese history through books for native speakers. He felt that there was huge improvement for his Chinese and wished that he could have done this type of study earlier. After he was admitted to the M.A. program in Chinese History at a Taiwanese university, he studied with native speakers and read books all in Chinese. He recalled that it was challenging for him in the beginning. According to him, he had to finish reading one book per week while in the past it could take him the whole semester. For writing, he would need to write a report in 10,000–40,000 words in Chinese while his Chinese language classes usually just required some paragraphs. Because the teacher and classmates were all native speakers, he would need to understand the lecturing and participate in the small group discussions in Chinese, which challenged his listening and speaking skills as well. He summarized that he used the Chinese language as a tool for him to study history, and in the past he had used it as a travel tool. His case is consistent with what Zeng ( 2011 ) found in that the level “‘advanced’ marks a transition from learning a language to learning in the language”, and studying abroad facilitates learners’ use of the language to accomplish their higher professional goals (p.ii). In addition, Mr. Dylan’s success in improving his Chinese proficiency through studying authentic history books adds to the related literature (e.g., Grabe & Stoller, 1997 ; Krashen, 1982 ; Stoller, 2002 , 2004 ) regarding the advantages of using content-based instruction for language learning.

(4) Life-long learning -- dedication, self-regulation

All participants indicated that language learning is a life-long learning process either explicitly or implicitly. A couple of them used the well-known Chinese idiom, Huo dao lao, xue dao lao (活到老学到老, Liv e till old, learn till old ),to describe it. For instance, while Ms. Katy has achieved native-level Chinese proficiency through her life-long learning process since her childhood, she mentioned that there were still many things for her to learn, such as the various ways of closing for writing Chinese letters with classical terms. She said her Chinese was not good when it came to writing business letters, and stressed that she could “do Chinese well but not at the very native level.” To continue to improve her Chinese, she communicated with her Chinese colleagues in Chinese. She saved all of the written communications with Chinese friends and colleagues to study the beginning and the ending as well as how native Chinese speakers communicated. She also mentioned that she had an officemate who was originally from Taiwan to help correct her Chinese while she helped her with English.

Likewise, Dr. Peter mentioned that as a non-native speaker, he needed to broaden his vocabulary throughout his whole life. In addition, while it was hard to eliminate accent, one could keep on improving to become close to the native level. He mentioned that there were electronic dictionaries and many Internet resources that one could use for learning a language nowadays. He also explained that learning Chinese had to be a life-long process because there were many different dialects and variations of Chinese from different geographical regions and historical periods.

Most of the participants mentioned that, to learn Chinese very well, one needs to be highly self-motivated, stay focused, and make special efforts especially when studying in a non-Chinese environment. As Mr. Andy explained, “ in the United States it is an English environment, many [Chinese] people speak English with you even though you know Chinese. There were so many Chinese who learned English for so long and they spoke English better than American speaking Chinese .” He stressed that one would need to make especial effort to keep up one’s Chinese in the United States.

Similar to what Naiman and his coauthors (1978) found from their interviews of good learners, participants in this study also showed that they were actively involved in their language learning process and found ways to overcome linguistic, affective and/or environmental obstacles in their learning. Based on related research on self-directed learning, autonomy, self-management, and self-efficacy, Oxford ( 2010 ) discussed the importance of self-regulation in detail and presented a strategic self-regulation model of language learning. Participants in this study showed strong self-regulation in their Chinese language learning careers. For instance, according to Dr. Peter, one would have to have sufficient determination to deny extraneous activities, such as foregoing some social activities when studying in a non-Chinese environment. He recalled that some students took trips to Montreal during breaks in the summer immersion program at Middlebury College, but he chose not to because he gave priority to his Chinese learning and could not find additional time. As he recalled:

Sometimes your social life suffers a little bit... And then, it takes so much of your time - fortunately, I’m not kind of person who had a whole lot of hobbies, like going fishing or whatever.... I think for some individuals who aren’t able to focus that much of their time and energy on one type of study or one course of study such as Chinese language, it would be difficult... You can also look at this, well, this is a phase in my life that, eventually when I get to establish a career, I’ll be able to have a more normal, social life, and have this intense study behind me.

Dr. Peter also mentioned that when he travelled to Taiwan in the summer, he tried to speak Chinese all the time, and avoid those who tried to speak English with him. Mr. Dylan concurred and shared that when people tried to practice English with him, he told them that he was from France, a trick taught by one of his teachers. Similarly, Ms. Pam said that when she studied Chinese at Beijing, she and her classmates tried to speak Chinese with each other all the time. She remembered that her roommate was from Switzerland. Although her roommate could speak English they both decided to speak Chinese with each other. She also had a classmate from Thailand who had studied in the United States before, but he did not speak with her in English at all. When she found out later that he could speak English well, he told her that his purpose for studying in China was to learn to speak Chinese.

(5) Other findings

In addition to their life-long Chinese learning process, participants in this study, who were Chinese instructors, also shared some of their perspectives on the teaching and learning of Chinese language based on their own experiences. For example, Dr. Peter believed that learning a language is similar to learning other skills such as playing tennis or a music instrument. One needs to retain daily practice and overlearn in order to make the skill become automatic. As he put it:

Language learning is kind of like learning a musical instrument or learning a sport very well in that you have to learn it to a point of overlearning, you practice it to the point where it becomes automatic. It’s a very different approach than content courses like sociology or history or something like that, where it’s not that important to overlearn the skills. Anytime there’s skill involved, you want to try to over learn it… same thing with athletics, you overlearn to the point where it just becomes natural; you don’t have to think about the stroke, the slam or whatever, because you’ve done it so many times. I think with foreign language learning, because it’s also a skill, you have to practice. With a coach in the sport, with a musical teacher learning an instrument,...having a conceptual understanding of something is not enough; you have to practice, practice, practice.

This view is well supported by the related literature (e.g., Snow, 2007 ; Stryker & Leaver, 1997 ). In addition, Mr. Andy mentioned that because people learn things differently, it was very important for learners to find study methods that work best for themselves. He recalled that when he studied Chinese at college, he started a study group with his classmates after class on how to study Chinese, such as grouping Chinese characters with radicals. He stated that teachers should provide a variety of methods for students to choose what worked well for themselves. His view concurs with what Rubin and Thompson ( 1982 ) mentioned in their book.

Furthermore, similar to Stevick ( 1989 ) found from his study of the Chinese learner, both Mr. Andy and Dr. Sara in this study mentioned that repetition and recitation were necessary for Chinese learning. Mr. Andy recalled that when he studied in Taiwan he had classes in which teachers asked students to read texts after them, and he found it was a good way to improve pronunciation. Dr. Sara mentioned that for learning a language, one would have to memorize some text based on her learning and teaching experience. As she said:

For [learning] other European languages, it [memorizing some text] maybe is not necessary. But for our language [Chinese], which is really, truly, totally, foreign, it is necessary... This is how you developed template in your head, Doing through dialogues is easier than memorizing a list of vocabulary because you have an actual conversation, you have a situation, and it’s more meaningful. At the same time, it gives you a framework for the sentence structures that you can refer back to even after class.

Mr. Andy and Dr. Sara also shared their insights on teaching grammar and communicative skills. They believed that the two aspects did not conflict. As Dr. Sara explained:

I do not think that classroom should be completely grammar based. You know, you want to be communicative. But I think having clear grammar explanation is very important for non-native beginners. They have to know, you know, it is really helpful for them to have grammar explanation but also to understand how this is related to what they do in English, explicit instruction about differences... As I tell my students at the beginning that you are adults, so you are not going to pick up accents as easily and nicely as little kids will, but you can think things abstractly and we are going to take advantage of that. We are going to analyze sentence structures abstractly, and this is something that you can do that little kids cannot, and you can benefit from it.
Mr. Andy concurred and used a good analogy to illustrate his view. As he said,
Grammar is the skeleton of a body, and if you are teaching only communicative, then they have the body part, but you may have a body that has no skeleton… But no one wants to do just the skeleton, because skeleton is scary, and not so much fun. You want to do the fun body-moving stuff, so you have to do a little bit of skeleton to be able to do more fun things with the body.

Conclusions

Using the auto/biographical approach, in this study we interviewed six non-native Chinese instructors in the United States regarding their Chinese learning experiences. While each participant reached his/her success in their own way, we found many similar experiences and common themes among the participants. First, we found that most of the participants began to learn Chinese because of their intrinsic interest in Eastern philosophy and Chinese culture. Their initial motivation was also influenced by their family and community. To attract more potential students Chinese teachers, related administrators and practitioners are encouraged to organize cultural activities to promote Chinese language and cultural awareness in local communities, especially in areas where the Chinese community is small and there is short of resources on Chinese culture.

The study also found that all of the six participants took Chinese classes in college and what they learned in their local institutions helped build a foundation for their Chinese learning. Only two of them took Chinese classes prior to college. While literature shows that there are many advantages of learning a new language at an early age, many American college students do not have experience learning Chinese in their K-12 education due to various reasons. The finding of this study is encouraging for those learners in that it shows that even though one begins to learn Chinese from college, s/he can still possibly achieve high-level proficiency in Chinese and can even go on to become a Chinese instructor like participants in this study.

In addition, participants in this study all had experiences studying in mainland of China and/or in Taiwan. One of them also attended the summer immersion program at Middlebury College. They all held their immersion programs in high regard, and nearly all of them mentioned that study in such a program was critical in their Chinese learning career. Kubler ( 1997 ) suggests that study abroad experience should not be considered an optional plan for learning Chinese but an essential component of a Chinese learning curriculum. While it might be not realistic to require each Chinese major to study in Greater China at some universities, Chinese instructors, program coordinators and related advisors should at least encourage Chinese learners to study abroad as long as their financial condition permits.

It is worth pointing out that the immersion programs the participants in this study described were very rigorous and well designed. When organizing and/or recommending programs for students, instructors and related administrators need to pay attention to the design of the immersion programs, such as teacher qualification, pedagogy, as well as the interaction with peers. As Zeng ( 2011 ) notes in review of literature (e.g., Marriott, 1993 ; Rivers, 1998 ) on study abroad programs, sometimes “being there is not enough” (p. 32).

Furthermore, participants in this study were found to hold life-long learning attitudes toward their Chinese language learning, and use various strategies to self-regulate their learning throughout their learning careers. As Snow ( 2007 ) states, “learning a foreign language involves much skill components than learning many other school subjects” (p.27), the first task as a language instructor is to help students understand language learning. It is also imperative for a language educator to help students learn to build learner autonomy and self-regulate their learning in their language learning careers. The perspectives that the participants shared in this study on Chinese teaching and learning both as good language learners and as non-native Chinese instructors provide helpful implications for Chinese learners, instructors (native or non-native), researchers, as well as other practitioners and stakeholders.

Admittedly, this study has at least two limitations. First, as some researchers (e.g., Benson, 2011 ; Pavlenko, 2007 ) point out, one needs to “avoid treating narratives as factual accounts” (Benson, 2011 , pp. 545–546). This in no way means that the participants were not telling the truth. Because the life-long learning processes span many years, and some incidents took place a very long time ago, there is the possibility that some participants might not have been able to recall what they did accurately. Second, there were only six interviewees in this study, and like all qualitative studies, readers need to be careful in generalizing the findings.

Despite these limitations, as partly discussed previously, this study nevertheless makes contributions to the field in three ways. First, it adds to the body of literature on Chinese language learners, especially helps to fill the gap on the study of good learners of the Chinese language. While there are publications available on studying of good learners of English and other commonly taught languages (e.g., Cotterall, 2008 ; Naiman et al., 1978 ; Norton & Toohey, 2001 ), research on good learners of Chinese language, however, is still extremely limited. The experiences of good learners, as many scholars (e.g., Rubin, 1975 ; Griffiths, 2008a ) have pointed out, can provide helpful implications for other language learners, their teachers as well as other related stakeholders.

Second, the study chose non-native Chinese instructors as good language learners, whose experiences can provide implications to practitioners and researchers of language teacher programs. Compared to non-native instructors in TESOL and commonly taught foreign languages in the United States such as Spanish and French, non-native instructors of the Chinese language are disproportionately rare. As Snow ( 2007 ) points out, there are many advantages of having local teachers, who can provide inspiration to learners through their own learning experience. It is our hope that our study can help motivate more successful Chinese language learners to join the Chinese teaching profession.

Finally, this study uses auto/biographical research method to collect narratives through interviews. One advantage of this approach, as previously discussed, is to help the participants to reflect on their long-term experiences (life stories) comprehensively within a short time (such as 45–60 min). While the approach has been used in TESOL (e.g., Wang, 2014 ), no study has been found in studying Chinese language learners yet. We hope that our study can help expand repertoires of researchers in the study of learning/teaching Chinese as a foreign/s language, a promising field where more research is needed.

We use “Non-native Chinese instructor” in order to indicate that the native (first) language of these instructors is not Chinese, which does not reflect their Chinese proficiency level.

Snow ( 2007 ) discusses learning and teaching of English. Local teachers in his book, accordingly, refer to non-native teachers from local countries, e.g. teachers who grew up in China teach English in China. The concept is the same in case of learning and teaching of Chinese. The non-native Chinese instructors in this article are local teachers, who grew up in the United States teach Chinese in the United States.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the six participants in this study for their generosity of sharing their incredible Chinese learning experiences with us, and thank the Dean’s Office of College of Humanities and Social Sciences of Indiana University of Pennsylvania for partially funding the project.

The study was partially funded by the Dean’s Office of College of Humanities and Social Sciences of Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

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Shijuan Liu

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SL conceptualized the paper and initiated discussions with FW to conduct the study together by using similar method that FW used in his study on English language learners. SL and FW wrote the IRB together and reached out to recruit participants after receiving the IRB approval. SL successfully recruited six participants in the study and introduced one to FW. FW conducted the first interview by phone to establish the interview protocol and summarized the interview. SL interviewed the other five participants and wrote detailed summary with partial verbatim transcription for each of the six interviews. SL applied for a grant, and had the six interviews fully transcribed verbatim. SL and FW analyzed the data separately. FW wrote the first draft of the literature review section based on his previous study, and SL rewrote the literature review section by adding much more literature and restructuring the section. SL drafted the methodology and finding sections, and FW provided feedback for improvement. SL then wrote the first draft of the full paper, and FW offered suggestions on some wordings. SL also incorporated suggestions based on other colleagues and had two native speakers proofread the finalized paper. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Interview Protocols

Prompts given to the interviewees at the beginning of the interview.

Think of your Chinese learning as a long story. Suppose you are writing a memoir on your Chinese learning experiences. How many chapters would you write? What would be the headings for each chapter?

The rationale of this is to strike a balance between the need to obtain a complete and rich narrative from you on the one hand, and the practical limitations of time and data on the other. Please take your time to think about it. You can use the following table as reference or create one on your own.

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Liu, S., Wang, F. A qualitative study on learning trajectories of non-native Chinese instructors as successful Chinese language learners. Asian. J. Second. Foreign. Lang. Educ. 3 , 2 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40862-018-0043-5

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Published : 19 January 2018

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s40862-018-0043-5

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  • Language learners
  • Chinese language learning
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  • Learning process
  • Non-native instructors
  • Auto/biographical research
  • Qualitative study

chinese language research paper

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Internet Language Study in China

  • Minzhe Chen 2 ,
  • Shuqing Liu 3 &
  • Shuyu Zhang 4  
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Research on Chinese netspeak took off just before the turn of the century. After almost thirty years, it is now a robust field of study that engages the next generation of Chinese linguistic researchers and draws attention from multiple disciplines. With an objective to identify research trends and relevant research interests for future Chinese netspeak studies, this chapter revisits previous research published in Chinese academic periodicals and sourced for the Chinese Social Science Citation Index (CSSCI) from 1994 – the first year China had access to the global Internet – to 2019.

An analysis of 504 studies published in major journals under the keyword “netspeak” ( wǎngluò yǔyán , 网络语言) (wǎngluò yǔyán, 网络语言) reveals a clear trajectory in research development. The earliest research, published before the year 2000, is characterized by inquisitiveness about this new way of speaking and uncertainty over its implications on the Chinese language. In the first decade of the twenty-first century, the field shifted its focus to how netspeak as a social language interacts with netizens’ psychology as well as Chinese society and culture. Between 2011 and 2019, the scope of research further expanded as netspeak became increasingly prominent in both official and public spheres. In the last decade, it has become an interdisciplinary subject that spans different fields of knowledge, including linguistics, education, law, communication, and cultural studies. This chapter concludes by calling for Chinese netspeak research to focus on strengthening its theoretical foundation, broadening its research scope, and enhancing its research focus to promote the future development of the field.

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Yu, Ping (禹平) and Zhang, Xin (张鑫). Wenhuaxue shijiao xiade wangluo ciyu kaocha 文化学视角下的网络词语考察 [An Analysis of Netspeak from the Cultural Perspective]. Xuexi yu Tansuo 《学习与探索》 [ Study and Exploration ] 2019(6): 169–173.

Yuan, Zhoumin (袁周敏) and Han, Pugen (韩璞庚). 2018. Wangluo yuyan shiyu xiade wangluo wenhua anquan yanjiu 网络语言视域下的网络文化安全研究 [An Analysis of Cyber Cultural Security from the Perspective of Netspeak]. Waiyu Jiaoxue 《外语教学》 [ Foreign Language Education ] 2018(1): 39–43.

Zhai, Huifeng (翟会锋). 2017. De wangluo bianti jiqi renzhi dongyin kaocha “的”的网络变体及其认知动因考察 [An Exploration of Variants of De in Web Language and their Cognitive Motivations]. Yuyan Jiaoxue yu Yanjiu 语言教学与研究 [ Language Teaching and Linguistic Studies ] 2017(2): 104–112.

Zhang, Huijuan (张会娟). 2006. Wangluo yuyan de tedian jiqi dui wangmin xinli de tixian 网络语言的特点及其对网民心理的体现 [On the Characteristics of Netspeak and their Reflections in the psychology of netizens]. Lilun Xuekan 理论学刊 [ Theory Journal ] 2006(11): 125–126.

Zhang, Yunhui (张云辉). 2007. Wangluo yuyan de cihui yufa tezhen 网络语言的词汇语法特征 [On the Lexicogrammatical Characteristics]. Zhongguo Yuwen 中国语文 [ Studies of the Chinese Language ] 2007(6):531–535.

Zhang, Ting (张挺) and Wei, Hui (魏晖). 2011. Hulianwang huanjing xia yuyan wenzi yuqing jiance yu shizheng yanjiu互联网环境下语言文字舆情监测与实证研究 [The Empirical Study of the Monitoring of the Public Sentiment about Language on the Internet]. Yuyan Wenzi Yingyong 《语言文字应用》 [ Applied Linguistics ] 2011(2): 6–12.

Zhong, Jiya (钟吉娅). 2001. Wangluo yuyan de tedian he guifan tanxi网络语言的特点和规范探析 [An Analysis of the Characteristics and Regularization of Netspeak]. HeRegularizationue Xuebao(Zhexue Shehui Kexue Ban) 河南师范大学学报(哲学社会科学版) [ Journal of Henan Normal University (Philosophy and Social Sciences) ] 2001(06):126.

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Chen, M., Liu, S., Zhang, S. (2022). Internet Language Study in China. In: Ye, Z. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Chinese Language Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6844-8_17-1

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Chinese Journal Review

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Chinese Journal Review: How to Find Chinese-Language Academic Research

A very rough guide to navigating cnki.

First, a quick plug — last week, I published this essay in Foreign Policy with my colleague Macon Phillips . We argue that the West has a lot to learn from Taiwan on fighting disinformation. Take a look.

Twitter avatar for @WalterAKerr

Second, since I started this newsletter last year, many of you have asked how I source essays to translate and to summarize. Below is a (very) rough guide. Thank you to ChinaTalk’s Jordan Schneider for suggesting that I write this up.

Navigating Chinese Academia

Whether at school or in your career, I suspect that you have used a service like JSTOR , which is a digital library that of books, newspapers, academic publications, and more. China’s version of JSTOR is called CNKI , the China National Knowledge Infrastructure, hosted by Tsinghua University with support from the Chinese government. To access CNKI directly visit cnki.net .

There is a lot inside of CNKI. Like JSTOR, it serves as a repository for newspaper articles, patents, government documents, and other reference materials. For the purpose of this walkthrough, I’m only going to explain how to search through top academic journals, but many aspects of this walkthrough should be applicable to other parts of the CNKI portal.

Before you get started, a note about language. Most of CNKI is in Chinese. If you don’t read Chinese that well, I’d encourage you to install this Google Translate Chrome extension. There is an English version of CNKI, which you can access by clicking this link , but I have found that it times out a lot, so I usually use the Chinese version of CNKI and will also frequently use the Chrome extension on top of it, which does a pretty good job translating most of the time.

Step 1. Get registered (not required to search and view paper abstracts)

Many universities have subscriptions to CNKI and provide access to the service to current students and alumni. Columbia University affiliates can access CNKI via this link , for example.

If you don’t have access to CNKI via a higher education institution or your place of work, fret not. You do not need an account (or need to have money in your account) to search for articles or to view abstracts. 

You will need to have a funded account, however, if you would like to download full-length articles.

chinese language research paper

To create an account click here or click on the link at the top-right part of the CNKI webpage. Once you do that, you’ll need to fund your account. At the time of this writing, the only ways to pay are via AliPay, WeChat, and UnionPay. PayPal, which used to be an option, is no longer available. 

Step 2. Navigate to the search page

Once you’re ready to search through academic journals, you can access the academic journals part of the CNKI portal from the home page or by clicking here . 

chinese language research paper

Then, click on the “Advanced Search” button, which you can also access directly by clicking here .

chinese language research paper

Once you’re in the Advanced Search part of the site, you can build queries according to different parameters, including by subject area, keyword, and journal name. I usually go a step further and navigate to the “Professional Search” tab where you can build even more customized queries, including to search many journals at once.

chinese language research paper

Step 3. Start searching top journals

CNKI provides access to thousands of academic journals of varying degrees of quality and influence. To source content for the Chinese Journal Review newsletter, I typically only search through the top journals in politics, international affairs, law, and economics. 

To determine which journals count as “top” sources, I combed through this part of CNKI’s website, which contains information about the total number of times that articles from different journals have been cited and downloaded. CNKI has also assigned many top journals a “composite impact score.” The higher the impact score, the more influential the journal.

Taking into account these criteria (citations, downloads, and composite impact scores), I created this list of top journals in the politics, legal affairs, international affairs, and economics fields:

POL/LEGAL 中国法学 China Legal Science POL/LEGAL 中外法学 Peking University Law Journal POL/LEGAL 法商研究 Studies in Law and Business POL/LEGAL 法学家 The Jurist POL/LEGAL 政法论坛 Tribune of Political Science and Law POL/LEGAL 法律科学 Science of Law (Journal of Northwest University of Political Science and Law) POL/LEGAL 世界经济与政治 World Economics and Politics POL/LEGAL 法学论坛 Legal Forum POL/LEGAL 法学研究 Chinese Journal of Law POL/LEGAL 法学 Law Science POL/LEGAL 政治学研究 CASS Journal of Political Science POL/LEGAL 当代法学 Contemporary Law Review POL/LEGAL 清华法学 Tsinghua University Law Journal POL/LEGAL 外交评论 Foreign Affairs Review ECON 经济研究 Economic Research Journal ECON 中国工业经济 China Industrial Economics ECON 数量经济技术经济研究 The Journal of Quantitative & Technical Economics ECON 世界经济 The Journal of World Economy ECON 金融研究 Journal of Financial Research ECON 国际金融研究 Studies of International Finance ECON 中国农村经济 Chinese Rural Economy ECON 管理世界 Management World

And these journals in the information technology field:

IT 计算机学报 Chinese Journal of Computers IT 电力系统自动化 Automation of Electric Power Systems IT 自动化学报 Acta Automatica Sinica IT 软件学报 Journal of Software

As well as these additional regional and international affairs journals:

REGIONAL 东北亚论坛 Northeast Asia Forum REGIONAL 当代亚太 Journal of Contemporary Asia-Pacific Studies REGIONAL 国际安全研究 Journal of International Security Studies REGIONAL 南亚研究 South Asian Studies REGIONAL 西亚非洲 West Asia and Africa REGIONAL 太平洋学报 Pacific Journal REGIONAL 欧洲研究 Chinese Journal of European Studies REGIONAL 东南亚研究 Southeast Asian Studies REGIONAL 美国研究 The Chinese Journal of American Studies REGIONAL 亚太安全与海洋研究 Asia-Pacific Security and Maritime Affairs

If you want to search across all of these journals at once, as I often do, you can copy and paste the following code and enter this text into the professional search field. I use the query code JN=(“ “) to indicate that I want to search multiple journals, but you can use other codes such as SU=(“ “) for subject or AU=(“ “) for author.

JN=("中国法学"+"中外法学"+"法商研究"+"法学家"+"政法论坛"+"法律科学"+"世界经济与政治"+"当代亚太"+"法学论坛"+"法学研究"+"法学"+"政治学研究"+"当代法学"+"清华法学"+"外交评论"+"经济研究"+"中国工业经济"+"数量经济技术经济研究"+"世界经济"+"金融研究"+"国际金融研究"+"中国农村经济"+"管理世界"+"计算机学报"+"电力系统自动化"+"自动化学报"+"软件学报"+"东北亚论坛"+"当代亚太"+"国际安全研究"+"南亚研究"+"西亚非洲"+"太平洋学报"+"欧洲研究"+"欧洲研究"+"东南亚研究"+"美国研究"+"亚太安全与海洋研究")

In addition to entering custom search content, you may also want to filter based on date of publication.

chinese language research paper

Sometimes, especially if you don’t apply any filters, this query will time out. If that happens, you should either a) further restrict the time period that you are searching or b) limit the number of journals you are searching to just 10-15 or so at a time.

Step 4. Look at your results

Assuming that you don’t time out, once you click search, your results should surface (it can take up to 20-30 seconds for that to happen, so be patient).

Once I have my results, I typically sort and choose articles to summarize first according to the number of article citations, followed by downloads. If an article is published by a journal affiliated with the state-affiliated Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (e.g. Management World ), I’ll also look at that article before I navigate to others. (Note: At some point in the future, I’ll update the online version of this email newsletter to include information about which entity publishes each journal listed above. Check back in a few weeks.) 

chinese language research paper

Once you’ve surfaced your results, click on any article to learn more information about it, including to see the article abstract, details about the authors, and other information. Again, if you don’t read Chinese, you may want to download the Google Translate Chrome extension . 

chinese language research paper

If you want to download the article, you’ll need to have a funded account (or you’ll need to be logged in via an educational institution that has access to CNKI). See Step 1, above, for more information about this point. 

And that’s it! There is a lot more to CNKI, so I encourage you to click around and see what you can discover. This guide is designed just to get first-time searchers up and running.

If you encounter any hiccups, feel free to email and I’ll try to help out. In the meantime, I’ll try to keep this page updated, especially if the site goes through any major changes. Until then, happy searching!

Ready for more?

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Publish translations of the best Chinese papers

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Language is still a barrier to scientific development (see, for example, V. S. Lazarev and S. A. Nazarovets Nature 556 , 174; 2018 ). We suggest that the best research papers published in Chinese or other languages (for instance, highly cited articles) should be routinely translated and republished to render them more visible to the English-language-dominated research community.

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