Call for Chapter Proposals Emerging Trends in Teaching and Learning Chinese as a Second or Foreign Language in the Twenty-first Century
Call for Chapter Proposals
Emerging Trends in Teaching and Learning Chinese as a Second or Foreign Language in the Twenty-first Century
Proposal Deadline: January 15, 2018
Editor: Ko-Yin Sung (Utah State University)
Introduction and Scope
This edited volume will include three sections, each of which will consist of empirical studies that intend to address one of the three emerging themes in the field of Chinese language teaching and learning.
Section 1: Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
Section 1 of the proposed book will include studies that focus on the topic of ICT-supported Chinese language learning and teaching. Advanced technologies and information networks have altered the ways second languages can be taught, learned, and used. ICT increases the variety of opportunities for language learning and teaching with its feature of flexibility. It can take place in both formal and informal settings, and occur at any time in any sociocultural context. The impact of ICT on Chinese language learning has been noted by many scholars; however, the rapid advancement of technologies asks for a more interpretive and engaged pedagogy (Kramsch, 2014). Results of the existing research illustrates that there is a limited number of ICT studies in Chinese language teaching and learning, and that most of the current studies introduce the ICT tools and document their use in language learning, while research on the effect and applicability of specific tools for specific language skills is lacking. In other words, studies which emphasize the methodological base of ICT use are still missing from the current literature. In order to lessen the gap in the existing studies, Section 1 of this book will include empirical studies which focus on how certain emerging ICT tools are methodologically applied in Chinese as a second or foreign language teaching and learning. The ICT tools examined in the studies can be, but are not limited to, the categories identified in Graesser et al. (2008):
- Traditional computer-based training systems
- Hypermedia and hypertext systems
- Interactive simulation
- Intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs)
- Query-based information retrieval
- Animated pedagogical agents
- Virtual environments with agents
- Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL)
Section 2: Young Learners
Stepping into the new millennium, China has become the world's fastest-growing major economy and the largest trading nation in the world. Due to the economic and political influences, the number of students of all ages, especially young learners, studying Chinese as a second or foreign language has been increasing in many parts of the world. Based on the findings in pedagogical psychology research, learner age is a crucial factor contributing to learner differences and styles (Wang, 2008). Scholars have pointed out that many learning characteristics of children and adults differ greatly including their psychological characteristics, cognitive ability, attention span, memory, language processing, self-consciousness, and motivation for study. The different learning characteristics derived from the age difference require educators to apply age-appropriate teaching methods in the classrooms. Although the population of young learners of Chinese is increasing every year, studies on teaching Chinese as a second or foreign language to young learners, especially ones at the kindergarten or elementary age, are few and far between. Therefore, this section of the book calls for empirical studies which involve young learners, and which intend to search for effective methods in assisting young learners to master the Chinese language.
Section 3: Teaching and Learning Chinese Characters
The Chinese language, which has a conceptually distinctive orthographic system compared to alphabetical languages such as English, has many challenges for learners. One challenge of learning Chinese characters is the amount of time and effort needed to remember the particular strokes and components. In addition, the low correspondence between a character and its pronunciation adds another layer of difficulty in learning characters. Chinese as a second or foreign language researchers have been conducting studies to learn more about how learners of Chinese attempt to master character learning. However, a review of the current literature on Chinese character learning and teaching illustrates that there is a limited number of studies which help identify effective learning and teaching methods in character learning. In striving to look for effective ways for learners to bypass the tremendous difficulty in learning Chinese characters, the third section of this book calls for studies which intend to identify effective teaching and learning methods to master the unique phonetic and orthographic systems in the Chinese language.
Publisher
This book is under contract to be published by Lexington Books in their applied linguistics and bilingualism series. Lexington Books publishes both standalone titles and titles in a broad array of series that span the social sciences and humanities. To learn more about their series, please visit: https://rowman.com/page/lexseries
Minimum status requirement for book chapter authors: The publisher requires that each chapter should have at least one author with a PhD.
Submission instructions
Please submit a book chapter proposal by January 15, 2018. Proposals should contain the following information:
(1) Proposed chapter title
(2) Author names(s) and affiliation(s)
(3) 350-word abstract including the theoretical framework, the method, and the main
results and conclusions.
(4) 50-100-word biography for each author
Proposals should be saved as a single Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx), or .PDF file, and emailed as attachments to koyin.sung@usu.edu. Authors will receive acceptance notice by February 19, 2018.
Important Dates
January 15, 2018: Proposal submission deadline
February 19, 2018: Notification of proposal acceptance
June 1, 2018: Full chapter submission (6000-6500 words)
