Pragmatic competence of heritage learners of Chinese and its relationship to social contact
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Naoko Taguchi
Naoko Taguchi is an associate professor in the Modern Languages Department at Carnegie Mellon University where she teaches classes in second language acquisition and Japanese. Her research interests include second language pragmatics, intercultural competence, and English-medium education.
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Haomin Zhang
Haomin Zhang holds a Ph.D. in Second Language Acquisition from Carnegie Mellon University, currently teaching at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon. His research centers on bilingualism and biliteracy, second language reading and heritage language acquisition. His research has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Language Testing, Reading Research Quarterly, Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, Foreign Language Annals.
Qiong Li is a third-year Ph.D. student in Second Language Acquisition at Carnegie Mellon University, USA. Her research centers on second language pragmatics, with a particular focus on Chinese as a second/foreign language. Her recent article Variations in developmental patterns across pragmatic features has been published in Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching. She is currently working on usage-based approaches to computer-mediated communication and data-driven instruction for pragmatic development.
Abstract
This study aimed to investigate: (1) Chinese heritage learners’ (CHLs) pragmatic competence in comparison to foreign language learners of Chinese (CFLs) and (2) the relationship between CHLs’ pragmatic competence and their language contact in a range of social settings. Focal linguistic forms included sentence final particles (SFPs) and formulaic expressions (FORs). Sixty Chinese language learners in the intermediate- and advanced-level classes (31 CHLs and 29 CFLs) participated in the study. Participants completed a computerized listening comprehension task, a written production task, and a language contact questionnaire. Findings showed that CHLs outperformed CFLs in both comprehension and production of Chinese sentence final particles and formulaic expressions. The analysis of language contact questionnaire revealed that learners who reported a greater amount of interactive language contact achieved higher scores on the pragmatic tasks, regardless of the constructs and skill domains assessed.
About the authors
Naoko Taguchi is an associate professor in the Modern Languages Department at Carnegie Mellon University where she teaches classes in second language acquisition and Japanese. Her research interests include second language pragmatics, intercultural competence, and English-medium education.
Haomin Zhang holds a Ph.D. in Second Language Acquisition from Carnegie Mellon University, currently teaching at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon. His research centers on bilingualism and biliteracy, second language reading and heritage language acquisition. His research has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Language Testing, Reading Research Quarterly, Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, Foreign Language Annals.
Qiong Li is a third-year Ph.D. student in Second Language Acquisition at Carnegie Mellon University, USA. Her research centers on second language pragmatics, with a particular focus on Chinese as a second/foreign language. Her recent article Variations in developmental patterns across pragmatic features has been published in Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching. She is currently working on usage-based approaches to computer-mediated communication and data-driven instruction for pragmatic development.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Sihui Ke for her help with test items. Our thanks also go to Marc Siskin for his technical support.
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© 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Papers in English
- Introduction to a thematic review: Pragmatics research in Chinese as a second language
- Pragmatic competence of heritage learners of Chinese and its relationship to social contact
- Development in the use of Chinese mitigation in interaction
- Epistemic stance in Chinese heritage language writing – A developmental view
- An exploratory study on the role of foreign language aptitudes in instructed pragmatics learning in L2 Chinese
- Papers in Chinese
- 词义联想与汉语二语量词习得
- 英语母语学生的汉语情态动词习得
- 留学生汉语写作策略训练模式实验研究
- 人类空间、时间感知对人类语言结构的普遍影响：语义距离象似性跟可别度领先象似性及其引申
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Papers in English
- Introduction to a thematic review: Pragmatics research in Chinese as a second language
- Pragmatic competence of heritage learners of Chinese and its relationship to social contact
- Development in the use of Chinese mitigation in interaction
- Epistemic stance in Chinese heritage language writing – A developmental view
- An exploratory study on the role of foreign language aptitudes in instructed pragmatics learning in L2 Chinese
- Papers in Chinese
- 词义联想与汉语二语量词习得
- 英语母语学生的汉语情态动词习得
- 留学生汉语写作策略训练模式实验研究
- 人类空间、时间感知对人类语言结构的普遍影响：语义距离象似性跟可别度领先象似性及其引申
