HICCS 2025

Education Symposium Keynote Session Agenda
9:00 AM - 9:02 AM: Welcome by Ni Zhang, Associate Director, Center for Chinese Studies, UHM
9:02 AM - 9:10 AM: Remarks by Nathan Murata, Dean of the College of Education, UHM
9:10 AM - 9:20 AM: Remarks by Henan Cheng, Executive Director, Center on Chinese Education, Teachers College Columbia University
9:20 AM - 10:00 AM: Keynote Speech by Xudong Zhu. Dean, Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University
10:00 AM - 10:15 AM: Audience Q&A

This panel explores various aspects of Chinese language learning.

Dexin Dai
Coastal Carolina University, Lecturer

Title:
Enhancing Novice Chinese Learners' Cultural Awareness and Language Proficiency through Collaborative Writing

Abstract:
The increasing integration of technology in language education has provided novel opportunities to enhance both linguistic proficiency and cultural awareness among language learners. This action research investigates the use of Google Docs in facilitating collaborative writing (CW) activities to improve not only writing skills but also the cultural understanding of novice Chinese language learners. While much research has focused on the linguistic benefits of CW, this study explores its potential to deepen students' cultural insights alongside language acquisition.
This study offers practical insights for educators on how to effectively integrate cultural content into CW activities using digital tools like Google Docs. It also highlights the potential of CW to serve as a bridge between language proficiency and cultural competence, suggesting that future research should continue to explore the intersection of these domains.
(Refer to the speaker's personal profile for full abstract)

Meixing Yi
University of Mississippi, Ph.D. Student

Title:
Cross-Linguistic Influence in Answering Tag Questions: The Influence of L1 on L2 among Chinese ESL Learners in the US

Abstract:
Tag questions commonly appear not only in daily conversations but also in educational contexts (Wei, Leung and Sun, 2023). The way of answering the tag question in Chinese and English is different. In Chinese, answers to tag questions target the semantic meaning of the sentence, while, in English, answers to tag questions are conformed to the fact itself. So, when verbally answering English tag questions, Chinese English-as-a-second-language (ESL) learners may often provide confusing responses due to the influence of their first language (L1). This type of L1 influence in answering English tag questions happens to most Chinese ESL learners, even to those who have studied or lived in an English-speaking country for some time. This study aims at investigating whether the duration of studying or living in the US helps Chinese ESL learners reduce L1 influence when answering English tag questions.
This study does not only contribute to the near absence of comparative research on how Chinese L1 speakers respond to English tag questions in ESL contexts, but also sets a foundation for future research on verbal responses to English tag questions. In addition, this study highlights the importance how instructors and university staff working with international students need to be mindful of the use of tag questions in their communication, hence improving the effectiveness of cross-cultural communication.
(Refer to the speaker's personal profile for full abstract)

Gloria Gabbianelli
University of Urbino, Assistant Professor

Title:
The effectiveness of CLIL approach in enhancing vocabulary acquisition and cultural awareness of CFL learners

Abstract:
For over a decade now, CLIL has proved to be one of the most innovative methodologies to raise awareness on the benefits of integrating a dual focus on non-linguistic disciplines and second language acquisition. Statistics show how its adoption positively affects students’ outcomes in terms of cognitive skills and language communication competence in a lifelong-learning perspective. Although a teaching design based on CLIL methodology has been proposed in the Teaching Chinese ad Second Language (TCSL) area (Orton & Cui, 2016), still little to no attention has been paid to the teaching of Chinese as second language (SL) through said approach.
With these premises in mind, we decided to embrace the CLIL methodology in the delivery of six 120-minute-lessons of Chinese culture to a group of 15 second-year Italian university students with an intermediate level Chinese proficiency.
The research was guided by two questions: (1) to what extent may CLIL based teaching enhance Chinese SL learners’ vocabulary and cultural awareness? (2) What are students’ perceptions of Chinese CLIL based teaching methodology?
Data, collected through pre- and post-test focusing on learners’ cultural and linguistic knowledge of Chinese dining manners and etiquette rules, as well as a perception survey administrated at the end of the course, seem to back up our initial hypothesis of CLIL providing students with the necessary skills to study and work in a globalized environment thanks to their constant exposure to more authentic materials and the instructor’s focus on the scaffolding of cultural awareness and understanding.

Sun Hee Lee
Cyber Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Professor

Title:
The Auditory response to acoustic information of different Focus positions in Chinese sentence-experimental result of Korean learner of Chinese language

Abstract:
When understanding the context in an entire conversation, it's not just about accurately hearing individual sounds of vowels, consonants, or tones, it's more important to understand the overall sound, such as the focus or rhythm of an entire sentence. In particular, "focus perception" is very important for the listener to grasp the meaning of the speaker in the context. Even within the same sentence, physical sound information, such as the intensity or length of speech, may vary according to the psychologically expressed semantic importance, yet how learners distinguish such phonetic information inside Chinese sentences has not been researched a lot. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the native language of the listeners influences their judgment when identifying the focal position in the sentence. To conduct the auditory discrimination experiment, we first recorded the sentence '猫咪吃西瓜' with Chinese native speakers. And then we adjusted the acoustic cues such as duration, pitch (F0), and intensity of each word position in three ways. ST1 is the sentence that the acoustic cues of the Subject position were adjusted, ST2 is the cues of the Verb position were adjusted, ST3 is the cues of Object position were adjusted and ST4 is an original sound. 12 Chinese natives and 12 Korean Chinese learners listened to those stimuli and chose the focus position of the sentence which they just heard. They heard the sentence using PsychoPi experiment program. Figure 1 shows the screen of the PsychoPi experiment.The results are below: 1) Both listener groups failed to correctly judge the focus position when the acoustic information was manipulated to bring focus to the subject. 2) Both groups judged the focus position more accurately when all three acoustic information were manipulated. 3) In the case of ST1, the acoustic information had to be increased by three steps to be able to judge it more accurately. The result of ST1 identification is a lot different from the result of our previous study which was using natural speech sound. (In the previous study, we gave the speake contexts to let him have different focuses on specific positions such as subject, verb, and object, and the syllables with focus are longer in length and higher in pitch.) To know why the listeners are not good at distinguishing the focus position when the acoustic cue of the subject position was manipulated, we need to compare the acoustic information of ST1's focus and the other three sentences' focus.

This Trans-East Asia panel is organized by BK21 FOUR Chinese & Japanese Education Research Group at Korea University, examining the cultural, linguistic, and strategic dynamics of East Asia from a trans-regional perspective. Please see the paper abstracts on each speaker's personal profile page.

Sumin Seo