English Literacy Instruction For Chinese Speakers

Written with an emphasis on instruction, policy, practice, and assessment, this book focuses on English literacy at the pre-primary/primary, secondary, and university level, and discusses literacy policies in the region. An easy-to-read, solidly grounded book, it offers practical, thought provoking resources for classroom teachers and educators. It notably features explanations of key literacy skills, up-to-date research findings, and classroom applications that are contextualized for mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. This book provides pre-service and in-service teachers, English classroom practitioners, language teacher educators, literacy researchers, and students in research/teacher training programs a core set of instructional techniques on how to incorporate literacy-related ideas into English language classrooms. A valuable pedagogical resource for teaching and learning L2/EFL literacy, this book also highlights discussions on language and literacy policies and new examples of actual classroom teachers that have put English literacy instruction into practice.

This is one of two volumes by the same editors that explore historical, philosophical, and cultural perspectives on literacy in China. This volume focuses on English literacy in China, while the other volume is on Chinese literacy. In modern day China, English has enjoyed an increasingly important status in education, but not without challenges. The essays in this volume provide a comprehensive, cross-disciplinary look at changes in English literacy practices and literacy instruction in China from the first English school in the 19th century to recent curriculum reform efforts to modernize English instruction from basic education through higher education. Together, the essays address a wide array of topics, including early childhood English education, uses of information technology to teach English, and teaching English to Chinese minority students. This work is essential reading for those who want to expand their understanding of English literacy education in China.

This is one of two volumes by the same editors that explore historical, philosophical, and cultural perspectives on literacy in China. This volume focuses on English literacy in China, while the other volume is on Chinese literacy. In modern day China, English has enjoyed an increasingly important status in education, but not without challenges. The essays in this volume provide a comprehensive, cross-disciplinary look at changes in English literacy practices and literacy instruction in China from the first English school in the 19th century to recent curriculum reform efforts to modernize English instruction from basic education through higher education. Together, the essays address a wide array of topics, including early childhood English education, uses of information technology to teach English, and teaching English to Chinese minority students. This work is essential reading for those who want to expand their understanding of English literacy education in China.

English writing is acknowledged as an essential skill for critical thinking, learning, and expression, and most EFL learners find themselves struggling when writing in English due to a lack of writing skills, content knowledge, writing strategies, intrinsic motivation, and fluency development practice. This edited volume, covering innovative approaches such as e-learning, strategy-based instruction, metacognitive training, a minimal grammar approach, writing assessment, and a genre-based approach, aims to innovate writing instruction in Chinese speaking regions, which has traditionally been characterized by rigid, teacher-centered, test-oriented approaches. We aim for this edited volume to provide theoretical underpinnings as well as contemporary practical advice related to EFL writing instruction for Chinese speakers.

Informed by theory, research, and classroom practice, the volume provides a systematic overview of critical L2 writing issues. Additionally, with the aim to support instruction across all levels of education for Chinese speakers, this book introduces pre-service and in-service teachers to new teaching ideas, techniques, and practice.

This book investigates inherent, structural differences in the Chinese and English writing systems which predispose learners from childhood to develop specific literacy-learning strategies, which can impair later efforts at learning foreign language literacy if the foreign language script varies significantly from the native language script. It compares educational practices and philosophies in Chinese and English-speaking classrooms, and examines the psychological underpinnings of these literacy learning strategies. This book presents psychometric testing of adult reading strategy defaults and examines case study data, revealing that Chinese students are susceptible to misapplying Chinese character-level processing strategies to English word identification tasks, which decreases reading efficiency, and ultimately can lead to learning failure. Finally, a new educational framework is proposed for teaching beginning language-specific word identification and literacy-learning skills to learners whose first language script varies significantly from that of the target language.

This book is a collection of essays written by young Chinese graduates who teach English in Chinese colleges and universities.

Reading in Chinese as an Additional Language focuses on Chinese literacy acquisition, which has been considered most difficult by both learners and teachers of Chinese as an additional language (CAL). Three major areas are covered: (1) acquisition of Chinese characters; (2) reading comprehension subskills and reader’s identity; (3) reading instruction and assessment. The first part delves into the foundation of Chinese literacy development—how to learn and teach Chinese characters. The second part examines various learners’ reading comprehension subskills, as well as the evolution of learners’ literacy identity. The third part explores effective instructional methods and assessment practices for CAL reading development. Theoretically, this book provides frameworks and evidence from both cognitive and sociocultural perspectives on the nature of CAL reading development. Pedagogically, the book showcases how to teach and assess CAL reading skills. Methodologically, this book includes empirical studies using both qualitative and quantitative methods. In terms of scope, the book covers a much broader spectrum of issues about CAL reading research and classroom teaching than has previously been available. Writing is also discussed in several chapters. In terms of technology, the book includes discussion on how the use of computers, the Internet, and social media impacts students’ Chinese literacy acquisition. This book will help CAL researchers and educators better understand the nature of CAL reading development and become well informed about CAL classroom teaching and assessment, including the application of interactive approaches to teaching and assessing diverse reading skills.