Abstract:

Shared book reading is necessary for learning Chinese as a second language (L2), but its effectiveness requires further empirical exploration and support. Scholars emphasise considering parental and child characteristics alongside school-based interventions. Guided by the bioecological framework, this study included three groups: an experimental group of ethnic minority kindergarteners in Hong Kong and two control groups of L2 and first language (L1) Chinese children. A sixteen-week shared book intervention was implemented. ANOVA and MANCOVA analyses of data from 161 children and 35 parents showed significant gains in metalinguistic awareness and word and text reading among the experimental group. The structured intervention was particularly effective in enhancing metalinguistic awareness, enabling L2 children to perform similarly to L1 children in post-tests. Additionally, fathers’ oral proficiency in Chinese and children’s use of ethnic languages positively impacted word and text reading. This study enriches the bioecological framework and offers insights for promoting L2 Chinese reading.

This study offers new empirical evidence on the effectiveness of shared book reading interventions for L2 Chinese learners in Hong Kong, enriching the bioecological framework by illustrating the joint influence of home and school contexts on language development. It also highlights the role of individual and parental factors—such as fathers’ oral Chinese proficiency and children’s use of ethnic languages—in moderating reading outcomes and extends existing research by examining literacy gains across sub-lexical, lexical, and super-lexical levels.

A brief introduction of the journal:

Reading in a Foreign Language is a peer-reviewed international journal dedicated to the theory and practice of reading instruction and reading development in foreign or second language contexts. It is ranked as a Q1 journal in the Scopus database, according to the SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) indicator.

Journal link: https://nflrc.hawaii.edu/rfl/

Paper link: https://hdl.handle.net/10125/67503

Abstract

This study examined whether two integrated reading-to-write tasks could broaden the construct representation of the writing component of Duolingo English Test (DET). It also verified whether they could enhance DET’s predictive power of English academic writing in universities. The tasks were (1) writing a summary based on two source texts and (2) writing a reading-to-write essay based on five texts. Both were given to a sample (N = 204) of undergraduates from Hong Kong. Each participant also submitted an academic assignment written for the assessment of a disciplinary course. Three professional raters double-marked all writing samples against detailed analytical rubrics. Raw scores were first processed using Multi-Faceted Rasch Measurement to estimate inter- and intra-rater consistency and generate adjusted (fair) measures. Based on these measures, descriptive analyses, sequential multiple regression, and Structural Equation Modeling were conducted (in that order). The analyses verified the writing tasks’ underlying component constructs and assessed their relative contributions to the overall integrated writing scores. Both tasks were found to contribute to DET’s construct representation and add moderate predictive power to the domain performance. The findings, along with their practical implications, are discussed, especially regarding the complex relations between construct representation and predictive validity.

Abstract

This study experimented with four design elements and examined their impact on feedback quality—anonymizing feedback writers, providing teacher-made rubrics and a feedback template, and making feedback traceable. The study adopted a quasi-experimental design and involved 75 undergraduates who produced 362 feedback entries on peers’ presentations over eight weeks. The feedback comments were scored against detailed rubrics of feedback quality, focusing on nine features grouped under ideational, interpersonal, and textual dimensions according to the functional linguistics perspective. The scores were analyzed using a two-way repeated measures ANOVA to compare the experimental and the control groups’ overall performance and week-by week changes. The results were complex and mixed. Anonymity encouraged feedback writers to be more critical but negatively affected the interpersonal dimension of their writing. Providing templates and rubrics assisted them in the ideational dimension and enabled them to write from multiple aspects. Making feedback traceable helped them learn accumulatively from past efforts. Overall, the design elements substantially improved feedback quality in the first two weeks; however, their advantages diminished over time. In the eighth week, the two groups’ feedback became similar in quality. The study provides new insights for research and practice, highlighting the need to reassess and modify feedback design for longitudinal and routinized feedback activities.

一、書本內容簡介

    《鶡冠子》是一本怎樣的書？歷來學者看法不一。唐代柳宗元說它抄襲漢代賈誼《鵩鳥賦》，宋代王應麟也因《博選》篇、《王鈇》篇分別用《戰國策‧燕策》與《國語‧齊語》之言，說它是偽書。明代胡應麟則說它的部分篇章詞氣“瑰特渾奧”，說它的部分內容是真的。現代學者發現長沙馬土堆帛書有十幾句和《鶡冠子》相同或相近，斷言《鶡冠子》不是偽書。《鶡冠子》一書是真是假？是否先秦子書？是否成於一人之手？還是成於眾手？寫成於什麼時代？本書解開這一切的謎團。

本書採取文本分析法、二重考證法，客觀反映《鶡冠子》的真實、歷史地位，分上下兩編：

上編分章研究，從思想主體、學派歸屬、成篇年代三方面就《鶡冠子》的十一篇逐篇論證，結論是：《鶡冠子》的成書年代，上自戰國晚期，下迄漢武初年，前後歷逾百年，此非一人一時著作。又，依學派來分，《鶡冠子》不是學者所說的道家作品，而是由不同學派組成：有儒家著作，如《道端》篇；有兵家著作，如《武靈王》篇；有數量最多的黃老學著作，如《天則》篇；有反映鶡冠子兵家思想，如《近迭》篇。

下編綜合研究，從幾方面著手：

一是討論鶡冠子與《鶡冠子》的關係，鶡冠子的思想與楚、趙、秦、齊四國思想文化有一定的關係。二是分析《鶡冠子》的形上學與其在先秦漢初道家思想史的地位。三是分析《鶡冠子》的理想政治論，主要分析五正說和成鳩氏之治。這兩種理想政治都使天下一統，四夷賓服。這兩種理想政治論在先秦思想史上有鮮明獨特的地位。

二、本書的學術貢獻與創作點：

1. 《鶡冠子》不是偽書，否定傳統《鶡冠子》是偽書之說。
2. 《鶡冠子》不是鶡冠子一人所寫，修正傳統學者的看法。
3. 《鶡冠子》一書有儒家、道家、兵家、陰陽家等不同作品，修正傳統認為《鶡冠子》一書是道家作品的看法。
4. 《鶡冠子》不全是編寫於戰國時期。就成篇時代言，除大部分篇章寫成於戰國時期外，另有寫於秦代的，也有寫成於漢武帝時期。
5. 本書一些研究發前人所未發，如探討先秦漢代帝道、王道、霸道、五至論思想的發展，鶡冠子的理想政治論(五正說和成鳩氏之治)，“太一”、“氣”等觀念的演變。另，本書研究指出，道家作品《泰錄》篇提出禪讓說，這打破學界認為儒、墨兩家才提出禪讓的成說。

6.本書填補戰國、漢初思想史一些空白。

社會科學文獻出版社是直屬於中國社會科學院的人文社會科學專業學術出版社，是中國國家級、一類出版社。

This study addresses a gap in the existing literature by centering student perspectives—voices that have often been underrepresented in discussions on university internationalization. Drawing on qualitative data from Chinese students at a university in Greater China, the research examines students’ interpretations of internationalization shaped by their lived experiences. The findings reveal a diversity of student voices. While some perspectives align with the dominant East Asian discourse on internationalization, others highlight a disconnect between students’ understandings and the university’s policy-driven approach. These dissenting views offer critical insights into long-standing issues surrounding the internationalization of higher education in non-Western contexts. The study contributes to ongoing debates by urging scholars and policymakers to reconsider the core purposes and ultimate goals of internationalized higher education.

The Asia Pacific Education Review (APER) is a journal dedicated to advancing educational research within and beyond the Asia-Pacific region. It publishes articles that engage with significant educational issues through rigorous theoretical and empirical analysis. The articles contribution from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives that enrich the understanding of education in diverse contexts. APER currently holds a 5-year Journal Impact Factor of 3.0.

Abstract

Students today need to become good digital citizens in order to operate successfully when reading, writing, learning, and interacting socially online. Digital citizenship depends on online access, mastery of technical skills for using digital devices, guidance from parents and teachers, and applying established social norms for online behavior. To investigate each of these aspects of digital citizenship, we examined the survey responses of 2,005 Grades 4 to 9 students (56% were female) who were randomly selected from 3,286 schools in Chongqing China. Virtually all students (96%) reported having internet access at home, and spent an average of 28 min online at home (SD = 25.42) and 17 min at school (SD = 28.94). Ninety-five percent of students were positive about their digital capabilities; 89% of them indicated online responsibilities and rights were taught at school; and 58% noted parents guided their internet use. On average, students slightly agreed that being online was important, but averaged moderate agreement they liked to read and write online for academic and social purposes, with reading online occurring weekly and writing online monthly. On average, students moderately agreed that they followed norms of digital netiquette, practiced safe online privacy behaviors, managed their digital footprint appropriately, balanced digital media use in healthy ways, and approached digital media in a literate manner. Nevertheless, 24% of students agreed they had been cyberbullied, 73% shared passwords with friends, 68% befriended strangers, 39% reshared posts, 78% used false personal information to register online, and 24% copied text directly from online sources when doing homework. Measures of digital citizenship were statistically related to student characteristics, internet use, and beliefs about online engagement. Implications for practice and future research are presented.

Contributions of this paper

There is considerable variability in online access and use across the globe. At least in the U.S., students mostly reported they were not taught digital citizenship at school, and only about one-half of students or less indicated parental oversight of online behavior. While many U.S. students indicated they adhered to the social norms of digital citizenship, concerning behaviors were reported in terms of cyberbullying, password sharing, and resharing posts.

This study conducted in June 2022 in Chongqing, China after the Action Outline for Promoting Digital Citizenship was issued in September 2021. Compared with previous studies, our participating students’ perceptions about their digital citizenship practices was positive (and it was reported that less time was spent on online games). These findings are important because the ability to access, use the internet capably, and act online in responsible, safe, ethical, and healthy ways is essential to success in the informational societies of today. Collectively, the students in this study recognized the importance of online access, agreeing that access was important for social and academic purposes, including learning, reading, and writing. They were also positive about reading and writing online, and they further noted they read online weekly and wrote online monthly. Even though the internet was used sparingly at school for academic purposes, these youngsters had developed positive attitudes about the use of the internet for learning and literacy.

Nevertheless, the study revealed multiple concerns that policy makers, parents, and teachers should carefully consider. This included limited use of internet resources at school as well as a sizeable proportion of parents (42%) who did not monitor and influence youngster’s online behavior. Student responses to survey questions also revealed unacceptable rates of cyberbullying, sharing of passwords with friends, friending strangers, resharing of posts, using false personal information to register online, and copying text directly from online sources when doing homework. These concerns need to be better addressed by parents, teachers, and students if the norms of digital citizenship are to become habitual in China (and other countries as well).

Journal

Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal

Journal Impact Factor: 2.2 (2024)

5-year Journal Impact Factor: 3.1 (2024)

Reading and Writing publishes high-quality scientific articles pertaining to the processes, acquisition, and loss of reading and writing skills. The journal fully represents the necessarily interdisciplinary nature of research in the field, focusing on the interaction among various disciplines, such as linguistics, information processing, neuropsychology, cognitive psychology, speech and hearing science and education.

Coverage in Reading and Writing includes models of reading, writing and spelling at all age levels; orthography and its relation to reading and writing; computer literacy; cross-cultural studies; and developmental and acquired disorders of reading and writing. It publishes research articles, critical reviews, theoretical papers, and case studies.

Reading and Writing is one of the most highly cited journals in Education and Educational Research and Educational Psychology.

Link

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-024-10594-9

AERA i-Presentation Gallery: https://aera24-aera.ipostersessions.com/?s=4C-DF-80-07-22-08-B1-32-8B-08-B2-7F-F8-92-E6-39

Informed by the conceptual framework of teacher feedback literacy and drawing upon multiple sources of data, including teacher feedback samples, semi-structured interviews, and stimulated recalls, this case study examined how L2 writing teachers praise students in written feedback and their feedback literacy in giving praise in a Chinese English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) university context. The findings revealed that although praise was commonly used, suggestion and criticism still accounted for a larger percentage of all feedback given. The teachers favored independent praise and performance-oriented praise (i.e. text quality) over concomitant praise, effort-oriented, and ability-oriented praise, and praise was found to facilitate teacher-student dialogic feedback and encourage student autonomy and reciprocity in engaging with teacher feedback. The study identified two profiles of praise-giving practice: “active praise givers,” who communicated with student writers by providing feedback, and “sparse praise givers,” who focused more on working on student texts. Based on the findings, an L2 writing teacher feedback literacy framework in written praise was proposed to delineate the required knowledge, goals, values, and skills for giving written praise to improve student writing.

This study enriches the understanding of teacher feedback literacy by exploring how L2 writing teachers use praise in written feedback. It identifies two distinct profiles of teachers’ positive feedback literacy—“active” and “sparse” praise givers with different feedback goals. Based on this, it proposes an empirically grounded framework for teacher feedback literacy in written praise, offering valuable insights for both L2 writing teachers’ praise practices and future research.

Dongbo Zhang delivered a report titled ‘Why should assessment not be a “Cinderella” in Chinese as a second language (CSL) vocabulary studies?’ at Pacific Second Language Research Forum 2025 (in conjunction with Conference on Innovation in L2 Chinese Research) at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

The second language (L2) vocabulary literature, and SLA literature in general, traditionally gave limited attention to assessment issues. This was largely the case in the field of L2 Chinese vocabulary studies. The trends, however, have begun to shift over the past two decades, although assessment may still be considered a “Cinderella” in L2 Chinese vocabulary research. In his talk, Prof. Zhang argue that the shift has happened as a result of several “internal and external pressures” and discuss these “pressures” with particular references to vocabulary assessments in L2 Chinese. Evidence is cited from his scoping review of relevant literature to make a case for due research attention to L2 Chinese vocabulary assessments.

This study tested how different facets of lexical ability (i.e., morphological awareness, character knowledge, and vocabulary knowledge) contribute to L2 Chinese reading comprehension and how the contributions of these facets may vary depending on learners’ L2 proficiency. Separate sets of path analysis showed that higher- and lower-proficiency learners had distinct patterns of relationships. Whereas higher-proficiency learners relied more on morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge in L2 Chinese reading comprehension, lower-proficiency learners drew largely upon their character knowledge.

This study distinguished between two vocabulary depth (VD) aspects, that is, semantic network knowledge and polysemous knowledge; and tested how they, together with vocabulary size (VS), predicted reading comprehension in advanced English L2 readers. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that both VD aspects were a significant, unique predictor of reading comprehension; the two aspects collectively demonstrated a stronger effect on reading comprehension than did VS. Differential patterns, however, were revealed when VD and VS were regressed on different reading comprehension tasks. These findings underscored the importance of VD in L2 reading comprehension and also suggested that L2 readers may utilize their lexical repertoire differentially to cope with varied task demands and comprehension needs.