This study aimed to explore the effects of working memory updating training on primary school students' writing ability and performance.
A total of 46 fourth-grade Chinese primary school students ...were recruited; their performance in the Chinese character N-back training task, the Writing Ability Questionnaire, and a time-limited writing task was assessed.
The paired-sample
-test revealed that working memory updating training significantly improved the experimental group's working memory level. After training, a repeated measures ANOVA revealed that the experimental group's performance on the Writing Ability Questionnaire improved and was higher than that of the control group. In the time-limited writing task, independent-sample
-tests revealed that the experimental group's writing fluency increased and was higher than that of the control group, while the latter's grammatical accuracy and complexity decreased and were lower than those of the former.
Working memory updating training can be used as auxiliary cognitive training to improve primary school students' working memory level, thereby promoting their writing development.
Due to the lack of life experience and situational experience, it is difficult to arouse pupils’ inner motivation and interest in writing. Therefore, the early stage of Chinese writing may be a ...challenge for Chinese pupils. In order to solve this problem, a spherical video‐based virtual reality (SVVR) experience learning system was developed to help pupils improve their writing performance and interest. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, an experiment was carried out in a primary school in Zhejiang province, China. First, a writing pretest was administered in two grade 4 classes. The researchers then randomly selected 40 pupils of about 10 years old with similar writing abilities, and assigned them to an experimental group, which used the SVVR learning method, and a control group, which used the traditional learning method. The researchers observed and recorded the pupils’ writing process and then, interviewed them. The results showed that there was a significant difference in the comprehensive writing performance of the two groups (F = 6.272; p = .017 < .05). The mean of the experimental group (Mean = 73.85) was higher than that of the control group (Mean = 70.00). Moreover, there were significant differences between the two groups in terms of the thematic coherence, structural integrity and linguistic expressiveness of their writing performance. However, there was no significant difference in the achievement of creative thinking. In the experimental group, different levels of learning behavior engagement could affect the structural integrity and language expression of writing achievements, and the degree of writing learning behavior engagement was highly correlated with reading time. Through the interviews, it was found that the pupils in the experimental group were more satisfied with the SVVR learning method than the control group pupils were with the traditional learning method.
Practitioner Notes
What is already known about this topic?
Spherical video‐based virtual reality (SVVR) set a simulated environment enabling students to have in‐depth experience in learning contexts.
Most SVVR studies focused on speaking and writing in middle schools and colleges, while its impacts on young children’s writing performance is generally ignored.
What this paper adds?
An SVVR system based on experiencing learning theory was developed to promote young students’ in‐depth experience and perception in descriptive paper writing.
The proposed approach promoted students’ writing performances, writing experience and learning behavior engagement.
Implications for practice and/or policy
SVVR is a potential technology for implementing experiential learning activities, especially in improving thematic coherence, structural integrity and linguistic expressiveness.
It is worth promoting such a low‐tech and low‐cost experiential learning approach to other courses.
RESUMO: Este artigo versa sobre as relações entre o sistema de escrita chinês e a instância da letra no inconsciente. Para isso, revisamos teoricamente uma rede de conceitos imbricados que suportam ...essa questão na Linguística, com Saussure e Peirce, e na Psicanálise lacaniana: escrita, letra, signo e significante, lidos a partir da experiência de aprendizado do Mandarim e de recortes clínicos de situação de análise. Tal percurso nos apontou que, ao escutar um sujeito em análise, além da escuta de seus significantes, devemos nos atentar à dimensão do que é letra, inclusive na sua dimensão visual, para então, quiçá, transpor algo disso para o simbólico.
Abstract: This article discusses the relation between the Chinese writing system and the instance of the letter in the unconscious. We review theoretically a network of interwoven concepts that support this issue in Saussure and Lacan: writing, signifier and letter rethought from the learning experience of Mandarin and from clinical clippings of analysis situation. This way showed us that while listening to a subject in analysis, in addition to listening to its significant, we must be aware of the dimension of what the letter is, including its visual dimension, so then, perhaps, transpose something from it to the symbolic.
In this research, a conceptual model of a wiki-based collaborative process writing pedagogy (WCPWP) is developed using a design-based research (DBR) methodology. The intention is to help the teaching ...and learning of Chinese writing among mainland Chinese upper primary school students. The wiki-based learning environment Joyous Writing Club (JWC) (www.joyouswriting.com) was designed and developed. The study was conducted in a primary school in Shenzhen, China, and divided into three iterative research phases spanning one and a half years (three semesters). Over this time the WCPWP was developed and refined. In this study, both quantitative and qualitative methods, including online wiki documents, a course feedback questionnaire, observations, interviews, and a teacher's questionnaire, were used to collect data. The results indicated that the Chinese language teachers and most of the students had positive attitudes and perceptions toward WCPWP. They perceived that the WCPWP had positive effects on students' writing ability, writing attitudes, collaboration, reading, and oral expression. This study illustrates in detail the process of improving the WCPWP, and is a good example of how DBR can be used to design and develop pedagogy. The resulting development of a conceptual model of a high-grade WCPWP may help primary school teachers enrich the pedagogical knowledge related to wikis and Chinese writing.
•The study used a Design-based Research methodology to develop pedagogy.•A conceptual model of the pedagogy was design and developed.•The characteristics of WCPWP in Chinese context among children were discussed.•Teacher and most students had positive perception and attitudes towards WCPWP.•This study summarized students' writing process on wiki.
Previous syntactic complexity (SC) research on L2 Chinese has overlooked a range of Chinese-specific structures and fine-grained indices. This study, utilizing a syntactically annotated Chinese L2 ...writing corpus, simultaneously employs both large-grained and fine-grained syntactic complexity indices to investigate the relationship between syntactic complexity and writing quality produced by English-speaking Chinese second language (ECSL) learners from macro and micro perspectives. Our findings reveal the following: (a) at a large-grained level of analysis using syntactic complexity indices, the generic syntactic complexity indice (GSC indice) number of T-units per sentence and the Chinese-specific syntactic complexity indice (CSC indice) number of Clauses per topic chain unit account for 14.5% of the total variance in writing scores among ECSL learners; (b) the syntactic diversity model alone accounts for 24.7% of the variance in Chinese writing scores among ECSL learners; (c) the stepwise regression analysis model, which integrates fine-grained SC indices extracted from the syntactically annotated corpus, explains 43.7% of the variance in Chinese writing quality. This model incorporates CSC indices such as average ratio of dependency types per 30 dependency segments, the ratio of adjuncts to sentence end, the ratio of predicate complements, the ratio of numeral adjuncts, the mean length of Topic-Comment-Unit dependency distance, as well as GSC indices like the ratio of main governors, the ratio of attributers, the ratio of coordinating adjuncts, and the ratio of sentential objects. These findings highlight the valuable insights that syntactically annotated fine-grained SC indices offer regarding the writing characteristics of ECSL learners.
●Large-grained syntactic indices limited for predicting Chinese L2 writing quality.●Fine-grained syntactic indices are the most influential in predicting scores.●Syntactic diversity indice enables the prediction of 24.7% of the variance.●Accessing Chinese L2 writing syntactic complexity from a typological perspective.
•Oral conversation and online text-chat facilitated different L2 output, meaning negotiation, and contribution patterns.•The compositions learners wrote following the two mediums showed differences ...in fluency, linguistic features, and content.•A direct transfer process was observed in the online text-chat to individual writing condition.•A selective transfer process was found in the face-to-face oral conversation to individual writing condition.
Framed within relevant interactionist and sociocultural principles, this study investigates the effects of two forms of pre-task pair planning on individual L2 Chinese composition writing: face-to-face oral discussion and online text-chat. Six intermediate L2 Chinese college learners engaged in ten pair-discussion tasks: five face-to-face oral discussion tasks and five online text-chat tasks. Upon completing each interactive task, learners wrote a composition independently on the topic that was discussed in the preceding interactive session. The results indicate that both mediums showed benefits in preparing learners for an individual composing process. However, the two mediums facilitated their respective interactive/collaborative sessions in different ways; consequently, they prepared learners for distinct individual composing processes and written outcomes.
This study examined differences in the overall noun phrase (NP) complexity and the use of specific types of NP modifiers among Korean learners of Chinese as a second language (CSL) at different ...proficiency levels and first language (L1) Chinese speakers. Our data consisted of a corpus of 134 narratives produced by 103 Korean CSL learners (33 beginner, 37 intermediate, and 33 advanced) and 31 L1 Chinese speakers on the same topic. Each narrative was manually analyzed using seven measures of overall NP complexity and 26 measures based on specific types of NP modifiers. Two measures of overall NP complexity (i.e., complex NP ratio and total length of all complex premodifiers) significantly discriminated all learner proficiency levels. The frequency of several types of NP modifiers consistently decreased or increased from lower to higher proficiency levels, while that of several others showed cross-proficiency fluctuations. Advanced learners demonstrated comparable levels of overall NP complexity as well as similar frequency of usage of specific types of NP modifiers as L1 Chinese speakers, with the exception that the latter used significantly more multiple modifiers. Our findings have useful implications for L2 Chinese writing syntactic complexity research and L2 Chinese writing pedagogy.
•A corpus of narratives written by L1 and L2 Chinese writers was compiled.•The corpus was analyzed using 33 noun phrase complexity (NP) measures.•Two overall NP complexity measures best discriminated learner proficiency levels.•Some fine-grained measures showed consistent cross-proficiency changes.•Other fine-grained measures fluctuated across learner proficiency levels.
•Co-constructed tutor-writer interaction during individualized writing tutorials at Chinese university writing centers.•Writing center tutors’ tutoring strategies and student writers’ interaction ...strategies with local characteristics in EFL contexts.•The value of instruction in addressing knowledge deficits.•Cognitive scaffolding’s benefits in creating a dialogic space for learning.•Students’ input as a vital resource for tutorial interaction and evidence for tutorial effectiveness.
Talk lies at the heart of writing center work, yet studies on tutorial interaction have predominantly focused on tutor talk while largely neglecting writer talk, especially at English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing centers. To investigate tutorial interaction in a holistic manner, this study examined tutor-writer interaction during individualized writing tutorials at two university English writing centers in China—an EFL context where writing centers have garnered increasing scholarly attention yet scant empirical research. Based on recorded tutorials and retrospective interviews with faculty tutors and student writers, this study: 1) highlighted the co-constructed nature of tutorial interaction by expanding Mackiewicz and Thompson's (2015) spectrum of tutoring strategies and by proposing a systematic coding scheme for student writers’ interaction strategies, and 2) investigated tutors’ and student writers’ perceptions and evaluation of their tutorial interaction to offer context-specific implications on individualized writing support provision and tutorial interaction research in EFL contexts.
Chinese higher education internationalization demands effective English for Academic Purposes (EAP) writing support to help Chinese college students engage in academic study and scholarly exchange. ...Writing centers, a globally prevailing form of U.S.-rooted writing support, have become a promising approach to innovating College English instruction in China. Recognizing the lack of empirical research on writing centers as part of EAP instruction, this study examines the missions and practices of glocal writing centers in China, i.e., indigenous writing centers with Chinese characteristics, by conducting photo elicitation-facilitated, in-depth interviews with writing center directors/founders from eleven Chinese universities. This study reveals two types of Chinese glocal writing centers, namely English for Research Publication Purposes (ERPP) writing centers and English for Academic Purposes-English for General Purposes (EAP-EGP) hybrid writing centers, which are guided by indigenous missions of serving as innovation sites for the EGP-EAP/ESP reform of College English and responding to Chinese higher education internationalization. Additionally, Chinese writing centers distinguish themselves through a range of key practices, for example, the overwhelming preference for faculty tutors, acceptance of proofreading, and expanded writing activities. Implications are offered for implementing and researching writing centers as a glocal practice of EAP writing support in China and beyond.
•Glocal writing centers: ERPP and EAP-EGP hybrid approaches.•Writing centers contribute to Chinese higher education internationalization and College English reform as innovation sites.•Acceptance of proofreading.•Cross-institutional study examining missions and practices of Chinese writing centers.•Cultivating talent with global competitiveness through writing center support.
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