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Key Issues in Chinese as a Second
Language Research

Key Issues in Chinese as a Second Language Research presents and discusses

research projects that serve as theoretical grounding for improving the
teaching and learning of Chinese as a second language (CSL) in order to help
researchers and practitioners better understand the acquisition,
development, and use of CSL. With the exception of the first chapter, which
is state-of-the-art, each chapter makes an attempt to bring together theory
and practice by focusing on theory building and theory application in
practice. The book is organized around areas where most future research is
needed in CSL: phonology, semantics, grammar, and pragmatics. Consisting
of contributions from an international group of scholars working on cutting-
edge research, this is the ideal text for researchers, graduate students, and
practitioners in the area of Chinese as a second or foreign language.

Istvan Kecskes is Distinguished Professor of the State University of New

York, USA. He is the President of the American Pragmatics Association and
the Chinese as a Second Language Research (CASLAR) Association.

Chaofen Sun is Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures and, by

courtesy, Linguistics, and directs the Chinese language program at Stanford
University, USA. He previously served as Chair of the Department of East
Asian Languages and Cultures, and as Director of Stanford Center for East
Asian Studies.
Key Issues in Chinese as a Second
Language Research
Edited by Istvan Kecskes and Chaofen Sun
First published 2017
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 2017 Taylor & Francis

The right of Istvan Kecskes and Chaofen Sun to be identified as the authors of the editorial
material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance
with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,

and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Every effort has been made to contact copyright-holders. Please advise the publisher of any
errors or omissions, and these will be corrected in subsequent editions.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Kecskes, Istvan, editor. | Sun, Chaofen, 1952- editor.

Title: Key issues in Chinese as a second language research / edited by
Istvan Kecskes, Chaofen Sun.
Description: New York, NY : Routledge, [2017] | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017000668 | ISBN 9781138960527 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781138960534 (Paperback) | ISBN 9781317336556 (e-Pub) |
ISBN 9781317336549 (Moipocket/Kindle)
Subjects: LCSH: Chinese language—Study and teaching—Foreign speakers. |
 Chinese language—Spoken Chinese—Foreign speakers. | China—
Languages—Research.
Classification: LCC PL1056 .K53 2017 | DDC 495.180071—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017000668

ISBN: 978-1-138-96052-7 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-138-96053-4 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-66026-4 (ebk)

Typeset in Bembo
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents

List of Illustrations
List of Contributors
Introduction

PART I SLA Theories as Related to Chinese

1 The Theoretical Landscape of Second Language Acquisition

ZhaoHong Han

PART II Chinese Phonology

2 De-stress in Mandarin: Clitics, Cliticoids, and Phonetic Chunks

Hana Třísková

3 The Effects of Tonal Markedness in Second Language Chinese Tones

Hang Zhang

4 From Phonological Studies to Teaching Mandarin Tone: Some Perspectives

on the Revision of the Tonal Inventory
Carlotta Sparvoli

PART III Semantic Aspects and Vocabulary

5 Adjectival Category
Giorgio Francesco Arcodia and Bianca Basciano
6 Chinese Vocabulary Acquisition and Teaching: Basic Concepts and
Research Results
Chiara Romagnoli

PART IV Chinese Grammar

7 The Grammar of Chinese Nouns

Chaofen Sun

8 Acquisition of Word Order in Chinese as a Foreign Language: Replication

and Extension
Wenying Jiang

9 The Instantiation of Binding Through Pragmatic and Syntactic Processes

Darcy Sperlich

10 Second Language Acquisition of Aspect in Mandarin Chinese

Feng-hsi Liu

PART V Pragmatic Aspects

11 Development of Pragmatic Competence: Compliment Responses by L2

Learners of Chinese
Xiaoping Gao

12 Intercultural Communicative Competence and Emotion Among Second

Language Learners of Chinese
Wei-Lin Melody Chang and Michael Haugh

13 Foundations for Content Learning in Chinese: Beyond the European Base

Jane Orton, Yin Zhang, and Xia Cui

Index
Illustrations

Figures
2.1 Top eight words (rank 1–8) from the FI in Xiao et al.
3.1 General error rates for TMS test
3.2 The occurrences of tone pairs in L2 productions
3.3 Carry-over assimilation and anticipatory dissimilation
3.4 Anticipatory effects and possible influence on the accuracy rates of T2
and T4 in L2 Chinese
3.5 Accuracy rates of T2 in various tone sequences
3.6 Accuracy rates of T4 in disyllabic words
4.1 Prepausal tones: Functional oppositions
4.2 Prepausal tones: Starting and ending nodes

Tables
1.1 Ten contemporary theories and ten established empirical
2.1 Pronunciation of Chinese function words 和, 是, 很, 他, 在, 个, 比, 想
2.2 Personal pronouns 我, 你, 他
2.3 Classifiers 个, 件, 些
2.4 Conjunctions 和, 同
2.5 Prepositions 在, 给, 到, 跟
2.6 Postpositions 上, 里, 下
2.7 ‘General verbs’ 是, 在, 有
2.8 Modal verbs 要, 会, 想
2.9 Grammaticalized adverbs 就, 很, 都
2.10 Pronunciation of the English function words shall, we, for, the, of, can,
to, and, are
2.11 Personal pronouns
2.12 Classifiers
2.13 Conjunctions
2.14 Prepositions
2.15 Postpositions
2.16 Modal verbs
2.17 ‘General verbs’ shì 是, zài 在, yǒu 有
2.18 Grammaticalized adverbs jiù 就, hěn 很, dōu 都
3.1 Rao-Scott Chi-Square Test results for the TMS hypothesis (values of Pr >
Chisq)
3.2 Accuracy rates of target tone pairs
3.3 Error patterns with positional information
3.4 The top three disyllabic response tones for target T2 in sequences of T2-
T1 and T2-T4
3.5 The top three disyllabic response tones for target T4 in sequences of T4-
T1 and T4-T4
4.1 Conventional description in L2
4.2 CS tones denomination
4.3 Model of CS tonal inventory
4.4 Allotones of T3
4.5 Production and perception by NTLSs versus native speakers
4.6 Register and contour mistakes in production by American learners
4.7 The tonal inventory revised according to tonal phonology account
5.1 The conceptual space for the parts of speech
6.1 Word knowledge
8.1 A principle-based taxonomy of L2 Chinese word order errors
8.2 Summary of data corpus from L2 Chinese learners
8.3 L2 Chinese word order error distribution according to principle
categories
8.4 L2 Chinese word order error distribution according to sub-principle
categories
9.1 Biclausal % proportion Y results for all groups
9.2 Triclausal % proportion Y/N results for all groups
9.3 Predictions of native speakers’ binding
11.1 The Chinese CR strategies found by the previous studies
11.2 The use of the CR strategies by the CFL, NCS, NES groups
13.1 The planets in six languages
13.2 Examples of the cost of Chinese vocabulary
13.3 A simple account summarizing the three states of matter
13.4 Sample full text and simple account of the water cycle
13.5 蒸 馏 水 translated from Lofts and Evergreen (2011), Science Quest, 8,
308. Milton, Queensland: John Wiley & Sons
13.6 Discourse markers of sequence, consequence, comparison,
exemplification
Contributors

Giorgio Francesco Arcodia is Associate Professor of Linguistics at the

University of Milan-Bicocca, Italy. He received his Ph.D. from the University
of Pavia, Italy, and studied both in Beijing and Taipei. His research interests
include Chinese and Japanese linguistics, language typology, theoretical
morphology, and grammaticalization theory; his articles appeared in
journals such as Morphology, Linguistics, and Studies in Language. He
recently published the monograph Lexical Derivation in Mandarin Chinese
(Crane, Taipei, 2012).

Bianca Basciano is Assistant Professor of Chinese at Ca’ Foscari University

of Venice, Italy. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Verona, Italy,
and studied both in Dalian and Taipei. Her research interests include
Chinese linguistics, theoretical morphology, and the syntax-semantics
interface; her articles appeared in journals such as Morphology and Studies
in Language. She is the author of two monographs on Chinese word
formation (2009) and Chinese linguistics (2016).

Wei-Lin Melody Chang, Ph.D., is a Lecturer in the School of Languages and

Cultures at the University of Queensland. Her research interests include
pragmatics, intercultural communication, and teaching CSL. She is the
author of Face and Face Practices in Chinese Talk-in-Interactions: An
Empirical Analysis of Business Interactions in Taiwan (Equinox, 2016). She
has published articles in edited volumes and journals such as Journal of
Pragmatics, Pragmatics, Intercultural Pragmatics, Journal of Politeness
Research, and Multiligua.
Xia Cui, Ph.D., is a Chinese language education researcher and teacher
educator. Her areas of expertise are in teaching Chinese oral skills and
culture, and resources development for teaching content knowledge in
Chinese. Her recent publications include Principles and Innovation Design:
CLIL Units in Chinese (with J. Orton), in R. Moloney and H. Xu (Eds),
Exploring Innovative Pedagogy in the Teaching and Learning of Chinese as a
Foreign Language (pp. 39–60), Singapore: Springer Science & Business
Media, 2015; Toward a Corpus of Chinese Classroom Teacher Language in I.
Kecskes (Ed.), Explorations into Chinese as a Second Language, Springer (in
press).

Xiaoping Gao, Ph.D., is a Lecturer in Chinese at University of Wollongong.

She has 20 years of experience in teaching and coordinating Chinese as a
second/foreign language, Chinese culture, and translation programs at the
tertiary level in China, New Zealand, and Australia. Her expertise includes
SLA, CSL pedagogy and grammar, Chinese culture, and teacher education.
She has published widely in international peer-reviewed journals and books.

ZhaoHong Han, Ph.D., is Professor of Language and Education at Teachers

College, Columbia University, where she teaches graduate courses in
Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), applied
linguistics, and foreign language instruction and where she also directs the
new Center for International Foreign Language Teacher Education. Her
research interests straddle basic and applied SLA, and she has published
extensively and substantively in international journals and books. She is the
2013 recipient of the International TESOL Heinle & Heinle Distinguished
Research Award and a repeated recipient of the Teachers College Columbia
University Outstanding Teacher Award.

Michael Haugh, Ph.D., is Professor of Linguistics in the School of Languages

and Cultures at the University of Queensland. His research interests include
pragmatics, intercultural communication, and conversation analysis. He is
co-Editor in Chief of the Journal of Pragmatics (Elsevier), and his recent
books include Im/Politeness Implicatures (Mouton de Gruyter, 2015),
Pragmatics and the English Language (with Jonathan Culpeper, Palgrave
Macmillan, 2014), and Understanding Politeness (with Dániel Z. Kádar,
Cambridge University Press, 2013).

Wenying Jiang, Ph.D., is a Lecturer in Chinese in the Chinese program at

the School of Languages and Cultures at the University of Queensland (UQ).
She taught at the Department of East Asian Studies, University of Alberta in
Canada and the University of Western Australia in Perth before taking the
position at UQ in Australia. She is a specialist in applied linguistics. Her
research interests include SLA of Chinese, Chinese pedagogy, technology-
enhanced language learning, and intercultural communication.

Istvan Kecskes, Ph.D., is Distinguished Professor of the State University of

New York, USA. His research interest is in pragmatics, SLA, and
bilingualism. He is the President of the American Pragmatics Association
and the Chinese as a Second Language Research (CASLAR) Association. His
latest books are Intercultural Pragmatics (Oxford University Press, 2013),
Research in Chinese as a Second Language (De Gruyter, 2013), and Research
Trends in Intercultural Pragmatics (with Romero-Trillo, De Gruyter, 2013).

Feng-hsi Liu received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Los
Angeles in 1990. She is currently Professor of Chinese Linguistics at the
Department of East Asian Studies, University of Arizona and the director of
the Chinese language program. She has published widely on Chinese
syntax-semantics interface, word order variation, and SLA of Chinese.

Jane Orton, Ph.D. is an Honorary Fellow at the University of Melbourne,

Australia, where she was Director of the Chinese Teacher Training Research
Center (2009–2015) and coordinated Modern Languages Education for 20
years. Jane has published widely on the learning challenges of L2 Chinese
and Chinese teacher education, most recently Chinese Language Education:
Teacher Training in S. Chan and F. Li’s (Eds.) Encyclopedia of the Chinese
Language (Routledge, 2016). Jane is a Board Member of the CASLAR
Association.

Chiara Romagnoli received her Ph.D. from Sapienza University in 2007 and
has been Associate Professor of Chinese at Roma Tre University since 2014.
She has spent research periods both in Taiwan and in the People’s Republic
of China as a scholarship holder. Her current research interests include
Chinese lexicology, lexicography, teaching, and acquisition of Chinese as a
foreign language (CFL). She is the author of several journal articles, one
monograph on Chinese functional words (2012), and one pedagogical
grammar of Chinese (2016).

Carlotta Sparvoli, Ph.D., is Adjunct Professor of Modern Chinese at the

University of Parma, Italy, and is Lecturer in Asian Studies at University
College Cork, Ireland. In 2012, she received a research fellowship from the
Italian Ministry of University and Research and won a Taiwan Ministry of
Foreign Affairs fellowship. She is Board Member and Secretary of the
European Association of Chinese Linguistics and of the Chinese as a Second
Language Research (CASLAR) Association. She has published various
articles on Chinese linguistics and a monograph on the expression of
modality (2013).

Darcy Sperlich is Assistant Professor of Linguistics at the National

Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences, Taiwan. Through neo-Gricean
pragmatics, his primary research focuses on the pragmatics and syntax of
anaphora using theoretical and experimental approaches. He also
investigates various topics in the second language acquisition (SLA) of
syntax and pragmatics, primarily through CSL. Finally, he is interested in
the development of valid experimental methodology for SLA.

Chaofen Sun received his MA from the University of Oregon in 1984 and
his Ph.D. from Cornell in 1988. He has taught in Shanghai, Hong Kong,
Beijing, and the US. Since 1991, he has directed the Chinese language
program at Stanford University and served as Chair of the Department of
East Asian Languages and Cultures (six years) and Director of Stanford
Center for East Asian Studies (2006–2009). His specialization is Chinese
linguistics and language education, and he has published many articles in
Language, Journal of Chinese Linguistics, Journal of American Oriental
Society, Journal of Chinese Language Teachers’ Association, Language and
Linguistics, and others. Furthermore, he has published several books,
including Word Order Change and Grammaticalization in the History of
Chinese (Stanford University Press, 1997), Chinese: A Linguistic Introduction
(Cambridge University Press, 2006), and The Oxford Handbook on Chinese
Linguistics (Oxford University Press, 2015).

Hana Třísková, Ph.D., is a research fellow at the Oriental Institute of the

Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague. She graduated from Sinology at Charles
University in Prague. She was a postgraduate student at Beijing University
in 1982–1983. Her research interests include phonology and phonetics of
Standard Chinese (especially sentence prosody), as well as methodology of
teaching SC pronunciation. She aims at introducing results of research in
Chinese phonetics into L2 teaching. She taught Chinese phonetics at Charles
University (1997–2005 and 2017), at the Oriental Institute (2011–2013), and at
the Masaryk University in Brno (2014–2015).

Hang Zhang received her Ph.D. in Linguistics from University of North

Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2013. She is currently Assistant Professor of
Chinese Language and Linguistics at George Washington University,
Washington, DC. Her research focuses on L2 phonology, tone acquisition,
Chinese applied linguistics, and language pedagogy. She has published
articles widely in academic journals including Second Language Research,
International Journal of Applied Linguistics, Language Teaching and
Linguistic Studies, and Chinese as a Second Language, among others.

Yin Zhang has been teaching a Chinese course in secondary science and
language arts at a Melbourne high school since completing her master of
teaching research at the University of Melbourne, Australia, on Content and
Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) for secondary Chinese immersion
classes. She wrote the content and created the resources for both of her
courses. She has made several conference presentations on design and
development issues for Chinese CLIL, including at the 2016 fourth
international CASLAR conference in Shanghai.
Introduction

Background
There is a rapidly growing interest in the Chinese language all over the
world. However, the interest in Chinese language learning and teaching has
not yet resulted in the development of a strong research background for the
discipline. Without that, Chinese language learning remains only a unique
experience and/or a useful education challenge. Recently, however, several
attempts have been made to change this situation. The publication of three
books (Han, 2014; Kecskes, 2013; Jiang, 2014) that offer a snapshot of the
research trends in the field and the launch of the bilingual journal CASLAR
(Chinese as a Second Language Research) by De Gruyter Mouton have
represented serious endeavors in the development of the field. We briefly
review three selected volumes from the available ones just to show that
there is still room out there for new publications.
ZhaoHong Han (2014). Studies in Second Language Acquisition of
Chinese. Multilingual Matters. The book contains six studies on different
topics. There is no coherence as far as the addressed issues are concerned
(case of path expressions, study of request, peer-group interaction, task-
based teaching, effectiveness of recast and working memory, mixed-sensory
mode presentation). All authors are Chinese, four of them from the US and
two of them from Korea and New Zealand.
Istvan Kecskes (2013). Research Trends in Chinese as a Second
Language. De Gruyter Mouton. The volume consists of three chapters.
Chapter I: “Research Base for Practice” contains three papers, each of which
uses research findings as a basis for solving issues connected with practical
language teaching. Chapter II: “Integrating Culture and Language” is about
one of the most intriguing topics of current language-oriented research: how
to integrate culture into the process of language teaching. Chapter III:
“Acquisition of Language Structures” consists of studies that investigate the
acquisition of certain grammatical structures in Chinese. There are only a
few papers in the literature on this issue, so the articles in the chapter are
especially important for further research.
Nan Jiang (2014). Advances in Chinese as a Second Language.
Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This is a selection of papers from an
international conference on Chinese as a second language (CSL) held on
November 11–12, 2012, at the University of Maryland. As such, it represents
a variety of topics. It contains 14 papers organized into two chapters:
Acquisition of Chinese as a Second language, Processing of Chinese as a
Second Language.
These books and others are very much needed. However, there is one
thing that is still missing: a book that presents the basic nature of research in
CSL. The title of this volume is Key Issues in Chinese as a Second Language
Research. We selected this title because we wanted to produce a volume that
puts CASLAR in perspective. In this book, we attempt to demonstrate how
existing knowledge has been generated by research, bring together different
lines of research and point out tendencies in the field, demonstrate and
explain what tools and methods researchers can use to address major issues
in the field, and give direction to what future research should focus on. In
sum, we need a book that addresses key issues in CASLAR. This is what this
project aims to accomplish.

What Is the Focus of This Book?

The focus of this book is mainly on linguistics research supporting the
understanding of the acquisition, development, and use of CSL. It is not a
book about language teaching methodology; it is not a pedagogical guide of
how to teach CSL, and it is not even a handbook of CSL that summarizes
accomplishments in the field. This is a book that focuses on research that
will help both researchers and practitioners better understand the
acquisition, development, and use of CSL through presenting and discussing
research projects that may serve as theoretical grounding for improving the
teaching and learning of CSL.
Another unique feature of the volume is that each chapter (with the
exception of the first one, which is a survey chapter) makes an attempt to
bring together theory and practice by focusing on theory building based on
practice or theory application in practice. We selected four major categories
around which we organized the chapters: phonology (Chapters 2, 3, and 4),
semantics (Chapters 5 and 6), grammar (Chapters 7, 8, 9, and 10), and
pragmatics (Chapters 11, 12, and 13). They represent those areas where most
future research is needed. In the individual chapters, authors raise key issues
within the given category as they relate to some special features of Chinese
that are quite different from English and other European languages. Given
the relatively small contents of the book, our endeavor was to present,
highlight, and analyze problems rather than solve them.
How Was the Book Planned?
The chapters in the book are the result of careful planning. We did not draw
up a list of chapters beforehand and did not look for the right people to
contribute. We did two things. First, we surveyed the field, looking for
available books and innovative papers that addressed major issues in the
discipline. Second, we put out a call for abstracts for original empirical
studies through the CASLAR Association. Based on the results of our survey
and the call for papers, we identified the topics that the book should focus
on and invited those scholars whom we wanted to contribute to the book to
participate. Using our findings and taking into account our goals for the
book, we outlined the chapters with possible titles included.
Another goal that we had in mind was to make the book as international
as possible. We have authors from Australia, Czech Republic, China, and the
US, with seven authors whose native tongue is not Chinese.

Summaries of Chapters
In Chapter 1, ZhaoHong Han analyzes the landscape of second language
acquisition (SLA) through a theoretical lens. She examines the major
contemporary theories, which include the Universal Grammar Theory, the
Concept-Oriented Approach, the Usage-Based Approach, Skill Acquisition
Theory, Input Processing Theory, the Declarative/Procedural Model,
Processability Theory, the Interactionist Approach, Sociocultural Theory, and
Complexity Theory. Issues are raised concerning theoretical proliferation
and interdisciplinary and intradisciplinary interfaces. Han also discusses
future directions, including the role of research on Chinese as a second or
foreign language.
In Chapter 2, Hana Třísková explores the pronunciation of high-
frequency Chinese monosyllabic tonal function words such as personal
pronouns (e.g., wǒ 我 “I”), classifiers (e.g., tiáo 条 ), prepositions (e.g., gěi 给
“to”), etc. These words constitute a rather coherent group in Chinese and a
new term is coined for them: ‘cliticoids’. Třísková argues that they display
similar features as “words with weak forms” that are found in English
(monosyllabic function words such as articles, personal pronouns,
prepositions, etc.). She proposes a concept of short (two to three syllabic)
phrases termed ‘phonetic chunks’ to exercise phonetically reduced
pronunciation of the cliticoids.
Hang Zhang, in Chapter 3, discusses the role of the typological
markedness of tones in explaining observable phenomena in second
language (L2) Chinese tonal phonology. Two issues in L2 tonal grammars
that incorporate tonal markedness are addressed: the acquisition order of
Chinese lexical tones and the role of the Tonal Markedness Scale in
positional effects of L2 tones. Zhang argues that the Tonal Markedness Scale
can account for error patterns that are unexplainable strictly on the basis of
first language (L1) transfer or target language input.
In Chapter 4, Carlotta Sparvoli proposes to introduce tones in disyllables,
adopting the distinction between prepausal and non-prepausal syllables,
therefore presenting Tone 3 in its quantitatively more significant occurrence
—i.e., as a level (low) tone. In this way, the tonal inventory should be revised
by organizing it as a set of discrete categories related to three functional
oppositions: level/contour, high/low, and falling/rising
(ascendant/descendant). Sparvoli further presents two hypotheses found in
the experimental studies on the Electromagnetic Midsagittal Articulography
(EMA) technique and in tonal phonology, and suggests that non-tonal
learners must be encouraged to develop motor-level automatisms for tone
production.
In Chapter 5, Giorgio Francesco Arcodia and Bianca Basciano first
propose evidence for the status of adjectives as an independent word class in
Mandarin Chinese, both as the instantiation of a universal prototype and as
a language-specific category. They also explore functionally based and
semantically based subclasses of adjectives. Finally, the implications for
language teaching are proposed.
Chiara Romagnoli, in Chapter 6, presents a brief illustration of the
features of Chinese words and then reports the debate on the Chinese lexical
unit. The literature concerning vocabulary acquisition is also discussed by
presenting different theoretical and experimental studies on several
acquisition models and learning strategies.
Chaofen Sun, in Chapter 7, demonstrates that a Chinese noun may vary
significantly in form and meaning as is understood in construction
grammar. There are Chinese nouns shaped in simplex words, affixed words,
word-like compounds, phrase-like compounds, and phrases. This chapter
focuses on how conceptual categories are lexicalized (conventionalized) into
simplex, and other complex, nouns and how they distinguish from a phrase,
though not in a binary fashion, in a coherent and principled way.
In Chapter 8, Wenying Jiang replicates Jiang’s (2009) categorization
method and extends the principle-based taxonomy of L2 Chinese word order
errors, which is guided by a cognitive functionalist theoretical framework.
She claims that the significance of having such a taxonomy available lies in
the fact that more explicit description and clearer explanation of L2 Chinese
word order errors for instruction purposes can be achieved.
Darcy Sperlich, in Chapter 9, explores the pragmatics behind reflexive
pronoun binding in Chinese, Korean, and English. It is argued that Chinese
ziji is captured pragmatically by the revised neo-Gricean theory of
anaphora. This theoretical paradigm shifts the viewpoint on ziji in the
experimental literature, as syntactic perspectives are dominant.
In Chapter 10, Feng-hsi Liu surveys the research on SLA of aspect in
Mandarin Chinese. The chapter reviews three approaches: the form-oriented
approach, the meaning-oriented approach, and the interpretation approach.
In the form-oriented approach, four areas are considered: acquisition
sequence, aspect hypothesis, L1 transfer, and role of pragmatics and
discourse. The meaning-oriented approach is concerned with the expression
of aspect by learners, from word order to lexical marking to grammatical
marking. The interpretation approach examines how L2 learners interpret
aspect markers and whether L2 learners use aspectual information to
determine event time in Chinese.
Xiaoping Gao, in Chapter 11, shows that Australian learners of CFL
largely employed similar explicit acceptance strategies to English
monolingual speakers, although they demonstrated awareness of using
Chinese-like deflection and rejection strategies depending on their
interlocutors with the increase in their Chinese proficiency. Gao also
discusses the variations among the groups in terms of social distance of
interlocutors, gender, proficiency, and changes in cultural values in Chinese
society.
Wei-Lin Melody Chang and Michael Haugh, in Chapter 12, aim to lend
further empirical weight to these important claims about the subjective and
symbolic dimensions of intercultural communicative competence through an
analysis of online discussion boards and semi-structured interviews where
CSL learners critically reflect on their experiences relating to and interacting
with L1 speakers of Chinese. Drawing from metapragmatic data in which
learners of Mandarin Chinese reflect on their experiences, it is found that
they tend to report dissonance and difficulties when reflecting on the
emotional import of talk in interaction. It is proposed that third place should
therefore not be conceptualized simply as a dynamic space of knowings, but
one that is also emotively and symbolically invested.
In Chapter 13, Jane Orton, Yin Zhang, and Xia Cui present research-
grounded methods of content and language preparation in secondary science
that meet normal assessment standards for the subject and lead to language
acquisition in Chinese. Exercises are discussed that develop learners’
command of the written language while metalinguistic analysis helps
students systematize the large volume of new vocabulary and characters,
thereby aiding retention.
Istvan Kecskes and Chaofen Sun
Part I
SLA Theories as Related to Chinese
1
The Theoretical Landscape of Second
Language Acquisition

ZhaoHong Han

1 Introduction
The study of second language acquisition (SLA or L2A) as a scientific
discipline began in the late 1960s, with the first milestone publication being
Corder (1967) pre-casting a system view on learner language—a view
solidified subsequently in Selinker (1972). The impetus driving the formation
of the field was, initially, pedagogical—researchers were searching for ways
to remedy weaknesses in second language (L2) learning—but gradually
evolved into a quest for a deeper understanding of the system in its own
right, and over time, in all its manifestations—the process, product,
mechanism, and processing, among many.
There are myriad ways in which to characterize the evolution of the field
—chronological, topical, conceptual, multidisciplinary, bottom up, top down,
to name just a few. An example of a top-down approach is that of Hulstijn
(2013), which offers three lenses—shifts of interests, major theories, and
critical rationalism. First, the shift of interests is best seen in SLA general
textbooks (see, e.g., the three editions of Gass and Selinker, 1994, 2000, 2008,
and the fourth edition by Gass et al., 2013). Overall, it appears that the
primary concerns that dominated the first 25 years of SLA research were
learner language, environmental contributions, learner-internal factors, and
individual difference factors (see, e.g., Ellis, 1994). With the passage of time,
the field became increasingly less concerned with the L2 learner and more
concerned with the ambience of learning and its impact on the learner (see,
e.g., Mitchell and Myles, 1998; Ortega, 2009). Fast-forwarding, present-day
SLA research shows a broad scope, simultaneously pursuing multiple
perspectives—linguistic, psychological, sociocultural, cognitive-neural, and
many within and in between.
Second, the field has seen an exponential growth of theories over four
decades (see, e.g., VanPatten and Williams, 2007, 2015). Broadly, Lightbown
and Spada (1999) identify four successive theoretical paradigms:
behaviorism, innatism, interactionism, and connectionism. Together, these
shifting paradigms speak (a) to the ebb and flow of prevailing conceptions of
L2 learning and (b) to the “genetically” interdisciplinary nature of SLA
research, as all four paradigms have their origins in other fields, though
primarily two—psychology and linguistics, and the various schools of
thought therein.
Third, the field has grown increasingly preoccupied with strengthening its
empirical basis, both pre- and post-theory construction. The reciprocal
relationship between rationalism and empiricism has made all the sense:
empirical facts call for theoretical explanations, but theories can guide
further empirical investigations, which, in turn, feed into further
understanding. The rationalization cycle thus continues (cf. Jordan, 2004a, b).
This chapter purports to pick up on the second lens, the one on theories.
Major contemporary theories are summarized and major issues underscored.
The chapter also contemplates the theoretical outlook of the discipline of
SLA and concludes with a brief discussion of the status of research on SLA
of Chinese. But first, a brief sketch of the scope of contemporary SLA
research is in order.
2 The Scope of the Field
The study of SLA concerns itself with the process, the outcome, the
underlying mechanism, and the conditions pertinent to the learning of a
non-primary language, be it a second, third, and so on. Like any scientific
field of inquiry, the questions of relevance are both theoretical and
empirical, with some unique and others in common with other disciplines.
Fundamentally, the study of SLA is a part of the universal endeavor to
understand human capacity for language and cognition. As such, it
interfaces with a host of other disciplines, not the least, psychology,
linguistics, education, sociology, and neuroscience. It sits within the social
science realm.
A more tangible outline of the scope of the field is given in two sample
delineations of the field: one from Gass et al. (2013) and the other from
Doughty and Long (2003).

[SLA] is the study of how second languages are learned. It is the study of how learners
create a new language system with only limited exposure to a second language. It is the
study of what is learned of a second language, and importantly, what is not learned; it is
the study of why most second language learners do not achieve the same degree of
proficiency in a second language as they do in their native language; it is also the study
of why some individuals appear to achieve native-like proficiency in more than one
language. Additionally, SLA is concerned with the nature of the hypotheses (whether
conscious or unconscious) that learners come up with regarding the rule of the second
language. Are the rules like those of the native language? Are they like the rules of the
language being learned? Are there patterns that are common to all learners, regardless
of the native language and regardless of the language being learned? Do the rules
created by second language learners vary according to the context of use?
Gass et al., 2013, p. 1

Much current SLA research and theorizing shares a strongly cognitive orientation. The
focus is firmly on identifying the nature and sources of the underlying L2 knowledge
system, and on explaining developmental success and failure. Performance data are
inevitably the researchers’ mainstay, but understanding underlying competence, not the
external behavior that depends on that competence, is the ultimate goal. Researchers
 recognize that SLA takes place in a social context, of course, and accept that it can be
influenced by that context, both macro and micro. However, they also recognize that
language learning, like any other learning, is ultimately a matter of change in an
individual’s internal mental state. As such, research on SLA is increasingly viewed as a
branch of cognitive science.
Doughty and Long, 2003, p. 4

These two sample depictions are not without controversy, especially from
the perspective of those who champion the “social turn” of SLA research
(see, e.g., Atkinson, 2002; The Douglas Fir Group, 2016; Firth and Wagner,
1997; Johnson, 2004; Watson-Gegeo, 2004). Yet, coming from two bona fide
sources, one a standard textbook of SLA (Gass et al., 2013) and the other a
solid SLA handbook (Doughty and Long, 2003), they embody the
mainstream conception of the disciplinary scope. It is noteworthy that both
see as the central mission of SLA research the need to understand the
language system created by the learner, to understand its success as well as
failure, and, last but not least, to conduct theoretical and empirical work.
For the four decades since its inception in the late 1960s, the field of SLA
has grown by leaps and bounds, resulting in both a rich spectrum of
theoretical insights and numerous empirical findings. Like any young
discipline, it has followed an ontological trajectory featuring initially an
intense interest in describing the various observable aspects of the “highly
complex phenomenon called language learning” (Gass et al., 2013), then a
strong desire to explain them, and a subsequent shift to experimental
research or the so-called variables research, mostly confirmatory in nature
(Gass, 2009).
Filling the contemporary theoretical landscape, the focus of this chapter,
are myriads of theories, models, and hypotheses. By Long’s (1993) account,
something like 68 such entities had been in existence by the end of the first
20 years. The ensuing 20 years have only seen a greater proliferation. Given
this burgeoning scope, it has proven a daunting, if not impossible, task to
present these theoretical entities in some orderly fashion. Compounding the
challenge is that the term ‘theory’ tends to be used loosely in the field.
Consequently, a theory by one account may not even be considered as such
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