Haomin Zhang

Dynamic assessment of elicited imitation: A case analysis of an advanced L2 English speaker:

The focus of this paper is on the design, administration, and scoring of a dynamically administered elicited imitation test of L2 English morphology. Drawing on Vygotskian sociocultural psychology, particularly the concepts of zone of proximal development and dynamic assessment, we argue that support provided during the elicited imitation test both reveals and promotes the continued growth of emerging L2 capacities. Following a discussion of the theoretical and methodological background to the study, we present a single case analysis of one advanced L2 English speaker (L1 Korean). First, we present overall scores, which include three types: an “actual” score, based on first responses only; a “mediated” score, which is weighted to account for those abilities that become possible only with support; and a learning potential score, which may be used as a predictor of readiness to benefit from further instruction. Second, we illustrate how an item analysis can be useful in developing a detailed diagnostic profile of the learner that accounts for changes in the learner’s need for, and responsiveness to, support over the course of the task. In concluding, we consider the implications of our approach to dynamically assessing elicited imitation tasks and directions for further research.

Morphological Awareness in Literacy Acquisition of Chinese Second Graders: A Path Analysis.

The present study tested a path diagram regarding the contribution of morphological awareness (MA) to early literacy acquisition among Chinese-speaking second graders (

Concurrent and Longitudinal Effects of Morphological Awareness on Reading Comprehension Among Chinese-Speaking Children

N=123

The effect of third language learning on language aptitude among English-major students in China

N=123). Three facets of MA were addressed, namely derivational awareness, compound awareness and compound structure awareness. The model aimed to test a theory of causal order among measures of MA and literacy outcomes. Drawing upon multivariate path analysis, direct and indirect effects of MA were analyzed to identify their role in literacy performance among young children. Results revealed that all three facets of MA made significant contributions to lexical inference ability. In addition, compound awareness showed a unique and significant contribution to vocabulary knowledge. It was also observed that lexical inference ability had a mediating effect predictive of both vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension. Moreover, vocabulary knowledge mediated the effect of MA on reading comprehension. However, no significant contribution of MA to reading comprehension was found after controlling for lexical inference ability and vocabulary knowledge.

Development of Morphological Awareness in Young Chinese Readers: Comparing Poor Comprehenders and Good Comprehenders

This exploratory study aimed to examine whether early exposure to Chinese as a heritage language (CHL) provides facilitation in word-knowledge development in collegiate CHL learners by comparing word-level subskills, including oral vocabulary knowledge, print vocabulary knowledge, morphological awareness, and lexical inferencing ability, between CHL learners and non-CHL learners. Sixty-two collegiate intermediate-level Chinese learners including 37 CHL learners and 25 non-CHL learners participated in this study. Drawing on multivariate analyses, the study found that CHL learners outperformed non-CHL learners on oral vocabulary knowledge, morphological awareness, and lexical inferencing ability, but not on print vocabulary knowledge. In both groups of learners, print vocabulary knowledge was the strongest predictor of lexical inferencing ability. While oral vocabulary knowledge and print vocabulary knowledge were highly correlated in non-CHL learners, they were more distinct constructs in CHL learners. These findings seem to suggest that early exposure to spoken Chinese enhances the development of oral vocabulary knowledge and morphological awareness in CHL learners. Importantly, the latter appears to enhance the formation of the connection between oral vocabulary knowledge and print knowledge.

Word-Level and Sentence-Level Automaticity in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Learners: A Comparative Study

This study explored the concurrent and longitudinal effects of morphological awareness on the development of reading comprehension among Chinese-speaking children (N = 123, meanage = 8.1 at Time 2). Drawing upon multivariate analyses, the study found that morphological awareness and lexical inferencing ability were intertwined together to predict Chinese childrens development of reading comprehension. More importantly, the result revealed that Chinese morphological awareness contributed to reading comprehension across time via the mediation of lexical inferencing ability. The study suggests that Chinese childrens morphological sensitivity has a significant impact on lexical inferencing ability, which, in turn, contributes to reading comprehension concomitantly and longitudinally.

Word knowledge in academic literacy skills among collegiate ESL learners

The current study aimed to explore the effect of first language (L1) orthography on second language (L2) Chinese morphological awareness. One hundred and twenty-nine students (61 L1 English readers and 68 L1 Thai readers) who studied Chinese as a second language participated in this study. They completed four tasks of morphological awareness (morpheme segmentation, morpheme discrimination, compound structure discrimination, compound structure analysis) and two control measures (reading vocabulary tasks). Drawing upon MANCOVA analysis, the study revealed that Thai readers outperformed English readers on compound awareness after the effect of L2 reading vocabulary was accounted for. The study suggests that L1 orthographic differences and similarities (e.g. interword boundary) may affect word identification, thus contributing to morphological processing of Chinese compound words. The study provided empirical evidence to support cross-language influence in morphological processing of a non-alphabetic language.

Vocabulary knowledge and morphological awareness in Chinese as a heritage language (CHL) reading comprehension ability

ABSTRACT Based on the dynamic and emerging nature of language aptitude, the paper reports an empirical study investigating the relationship between multilingual learning experiences and language aptitude through comparative analyses of language aptitude between second language (L2) and third language (L3) learners. Eighty-seven Chinese students who majored in English participated in this study. Among them, 41 participants were L2 English learners without additional foreign language learning experiences and 46 participants were L2 English learners with additional French or Japanese learning experiences. The findings showed that L3 learners outperformed L2 learners on the language aptitude measure and significant differences were found on explicit language analytical abilities. Furthermore, within-group analyses of the L3 learners found that L3 Japanese learners performed better on the vocabulary learning task and cross-linguistic similarities may help to interpret the finding. Further investigations of students’ perceived language interaction indicated that students’ perceptions of cross-linguistic interaction were consistent with the hypothesised interaction. Future research directions are also discussed in accordance with the current research findings.