Grammatical Development of Chinese among Non-native Speakers: From a Processability Account

This book marks an exciting contribution to the development and application of Processability Theory. It offers the reader an extensive overview and a critical discussion of the existing research into processability procedural skills, from Germanic to Asian and Arabic languages. It also develops a new perspective on the study of Chinese as a second language (CSL) acquisition, moving from theory to practice. The strength of this book lies not only in its innovative approach to CSL learning, but also in the potential practical applications of the approach to the development of the Chinese teaching syllabus and elicitation tasks. This research presented will benefit both learners and teachers. As a second language learner acquiring Chinese, this book will tell you how to facilitate the learning process in an easy and scientific way. As a teacher of Chinese, this book will help you to know what to teach, and how to teach it, and, importantly, will teach you how to understand learners' language processing from a practical point of view.The book affords a unique insight into the Chinese processability hierarchy which delineates the universal processing trajectory of CSL learners. The research design and data analysis procedures, which are presented and explained clearly and thoroughly, constitute an original contribution to the growing research into Chinese language acquisition, and will pave the wave for future research in the field. The book will be of considerable interest to linguists working in the field of Processability Theory and will be enjoyed by both CSL learners and their teachers.

About the Author :
Xiaojing Wang is currently a Lecturer in Beijing Normal University, China. She received her PhD from Newcastle University, UK. She has published articles in both Chinese and English in the area of sociolinguistics, second language learning and teaching, and language development.

Review :
"This monograph, based on the author's PhD thesis, is an examination of eight learners at a UK university, acquiring Chinese as a Second Language (CSL). […] The book relates the empirical language evidence to the textbooks and exposure of the participants, to see how their language did or did not reflect the teaching materials they used. So this book has both a theoretical and empirical value to SLA researchers, for whom it is primarily intended, but also with additional value to CSL teachers keen to familiarise themselves with theory in order to inform their teaching. […] The timeliness of this research focus is clear, given the exponential increase in CSL learners, so the book in principle meets its objective of being valuable not just to SLA researchers but also CSL teachers. […] For anyone interested in how L2 Mandarin is acquired, this book is a helpful and informative addition to the field which is, as yet, rather narrow and radically under-researched."—Dr Clare Wright, University of Reading; LINGUIST List 25.5066'Existing studies on L2 Chinese … often focus on a single structure or a very limited set of them. Wang's study has a much wider scope and serves as a good base for future experimental designs aiming to carry out in-depth investigations of these structures. The semi-structured interviews and the subsequent transcription and coding were designed and carried out in a consistent and meticulous fashion.'—Dr Ziyin Mai, Chinese University of Hong Kong; Second Language Research, 32: 1 (2016)