2024 Vol.22, No.1 (issue 43) - Singapore Centre for Chinese Language

4. An Empirical Study of Using an Integrative and Effective Literacy Approach to Enhance the Literacy Skills of Chinese as a Second Language Secondary School Students

chewming.loi@sccl.sg (Loi Chew Ming) — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 10:50:12 +0800

Abstract: Combining literacy theory and second language acquisition theory, this study uses the Integrative and Effective Approach to construct an Integrative and Effective Literacy Approach for Chinese as a second language (CSL) students in secondary schools. Through teaching experiments conducted at three classes in a secondary school in Singapore, the study found that the Integrative and Effective Literacy Approach effectively improved the literacy skills of CSL secondary school students at all levels as compared to the traditional Focused Literacy Approach. In addition, this study also summarised the CSL students’ literacy characteristics through classroom observation, interviews and artifact analysis. We could, thereafter, verify that the Integrative and Effective Literacy Approach can increase the students’ interest in learning Chinese characters and Chinese language.

Keywords: Integrative and Effective Literacy Approach, mental lexicon, Singapore secondary school, Chinese as a second language (CSL)

3. Construction of an Online Oral Chinese Teaching Mode for International Students in the Post-Epidemic Era

chewming.loi@sccl.sg (Loi Chew Ming) — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 10:48:49 +0800

Abstract: In recent years, online teaching has emerged as a new favourite of the global education community. International Chinese language education has also begun a new era of “online and offline” education. In this paper, to solve the problems encountered during online oral teaching in practice and provide an effective solution, we draw on the research results of cognitive psychology, the teaching concept of production-oriented approach (POA) and the advantages of offline flipped classroom, give full play to the informatisation and dynamisation of online teaching and construct the online teaching model of “pre-class recording, in-class live broadcast, learning assessment and classroom management”.

Keywords: post-epidemic era, international Chinese language education, online education, flipped classroom, oral instruction

2. Child Agency in Family Language Planning: A Case Study of Three Mainland Immigrant Families in Hong Kong

chewming.loi@sccl.sg (Loi Chew Ming) — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 10:45:34 +0800

Abstract: This study investigates the family language planning (FLP) of three immigrant families from the Mainland in Hong Kong, especially on parents’ code-switching and interaction strategies as well as child agency. Using the newly developed theoretical frameworks of FLP based on concepts and theories from sociolinguistics, language acquisition, and children language development, this study investigates three immigrant families (12 family members in total) in Hong Kong for about six months. By interviewing family members and observing their participation in different family events and activities recorded by video and field notes, ethnographic data were collected. The data collected were sorted and analysed qualitatively and statistically to identify different family language practices, including various language strategies used at home and parents’ language intervention of children’s language. Special attention was paid to the analysis of child agency embodied at home in language practices. It was found that: (1) children use code-switching to attract their parents’ attention or to achieve other communicative purposes; (2) children use different code-switching strategies, non-verbal behaviors, and “no” responses to interfere directly or indirectly with their parents’ linguistic awareness and language management, thus affecting their parents’ implementation of language planning. Taken together, child agency can directly or indirectly change parents’ language intervention, and further change parental language ideology and family language planning.

Keywords: family language planning, child agency, code-switching, language practices, language ideology, language intervention

1. Readability of the Integrated Texts of Singapore Secondary Illustrated by Readability Analysis

chewming.loi@sccl.sg (Loi Chew Ming) — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 09:56:23 +0800

Abstract: The 2021 Singapore Chinese language syllabus uses an integrated design, in a way that the five courses are differentiated yet unified under the same system. The readability of texts is a measure of the difficulty of texts. This paper compares the readability of the 2021 and 2011 textbooks, exploring the differences in the difficulty of various levels of curricula. It was found that the differences between levels of Chinese curricula changed in the 2021 syllabus in that the difficulty of Higher and Express Chinese was increased, the gap between Express and Normal Academic Chinese widened, and Basic Chinese and Chinese B put at the same difficulty level. It was also found that the Chinese as a Second Language Readability Formula can easily and objectively determine the difficulty of Chinese texts and is a practical method that can be easily applied by textbook writers and teachers in selecting texts, which is of important value in optimising Chinese language teaching.

Keywords: Chinese language syllabus, curriculum integration, readability, readability formula, difficulty level