This dissertation, "An Investigation of the Sentence Interpretation Strategies Among Chinese-English Bilinguals in Hong Kong" by Pui-sze, Yeung, 揚佩詩, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. DOI: 10.5353/th_b3122544 Subjects: English Language - Sentences - Study and teaching Psycholinguistics Bilingualism - China - Hong Kong Language acquisition Students - China - Hong Kong - Language
Cutting-edge in its approach and international in its authorship, this fourth monograph in a series sponsored by the Chinese Language Teachers Association features eight research studies that explore a variety of themes, topics, and perspectives important to a variety of stakeholders in the Chinese language learning community. Employing a wide range of research methodologies, the volume provides data from actual Chinese language learners and will be of value to both theoreticians and practitioners alike. [in English & Chinese]
This dissertation, "Bilingual Reading Strategy Development in L.1 Chinese and L.2 English" by So-ngor, Yau, 邱素娥, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. DOI: 10.5353/th_b3123637 Subjects: Reading comprehension - China - Hong Kong - Case studies School children - China - Hong Kong - Case studies High school students - China - Hong Kong - Case studies
Chinese Legal Translation analyses and investigates the Chinese translation of conditional clauses introduced by various introductory words in Hong Kong bilingual ordinances within the framework of descriptive translation studies and translation typology. This book explores the text typology of Hong Kong bilingual ordinances and highlights differences and similarities between different translations of conditional clauses in the Hong Kong context. Based on both quantitative and qualitative analysis of conditional clauses of the Companies Ordinance, the book summarises the frequency of introductory words of conditional clauses and generalises guiding patterns for writing conditional clauses and translating conditional clauses. The book is significant in providing both theoretical foundations for legal translation and practical guidance for translating legal conditional clauses. This book is primarily targeted for scholars and professionals who are interested in legal writing and legal translation, as well as for students and practitioners in legal translation.
This dissertation, "Development of Syntactic Skills in Relation to Reading Acquisition Among Chinese-English Bilingual Students" by Tik-sze, Carrey, Siu, 蕭狄詩, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: The ever-growing bilingual population worldwide has fuelled research on how a first (L1) and a second (L2) language interact to affect bilinguals' language and reading acquisition. The present thesis centred on bilinguals' syntactic skills in L1 Chinese and in typologically distant L2 English, and their cross-language interactions with reading development. Study 1 was a two-year longitudinal study in which 198 grade 1 and 203 grade 3 Hong Kong Chinese-English bilinguals participated. The children were assessed on syntactic skills and reading comprehension in Chinese and in English, nonverbal intelligence, working memory, language-related skills, and were re-tested after one year. Study 1A primarily examined the contrasting roles of morphosyntactic and word order skills in Chinese and English reading across grades. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that reading comprehension was differentially dependent on the two syntactic skills across ages and languages. Word order, relative to morphosyntactic skill, was critical to text comprehension at an earlier time. Word order was also more important to reading in Chinese, whereas reading in English gradually relied more on morphosyntactic skill. Study 1B used structural equation modelling to study the cross-language relationships. Mediation analyses showed that L1 Chinese syntactic skills cross-linguistically predicted L2 English reading comprehension over time; this prospective association was largely mediated by L2 English syntactic skills among the fourth graders. Further analyses suggested that word order skill was more transfer-ready than morphosyntactic skill, indicating an effect of linguistic distance upon language transfer. Beyond a mere cross-language syntactic transfer, Study 2 was designed to examine if bilinguals' dual-language experience fostered further syntactic advancement via enhancing sensitivity to underlying syntactic structures. Participants in Study 2 comprised three age cohorts, including 69 primary school children, 56 secondary school adolescents, and 73 undergraduate adults. They were tested on morphosyntactic skill, word order skill, artificial syntax learning, and general cognitive abilities. Across the three cohorts, the Chinese-English bilinguals performed better than their English monolingual peers in acquiring a novel syntax and processing morphosyntax specific to English. The bilingual adults also performed better than their monolingual peers in manipulating language-specific word order. Moreover, the adolescent and adult bilinguals were also assessed on analogical reasoning; the bilinguals who were more skilled at abstracting similarities and differences between structures were generally superior in learning the new syntactic patterns and processing language-specific word order. Study 2 thus supports the structural sensitivity hypothesis that bilinguals' advantage is not confined to knowledge and strategies specific to the additional language, but constitutes a more abstract representation of underlying linguistic structures in general. The findings collectively suggest how syntactic and reading skills can be developed in a bilingual learning context. Teachers may evoke L1 syntactic knowledge and map it onto L2 corresponding features to facilitate L2 reading. Drawing analogy between parallel L1 and L2 constructions works through making biling
This volume brings a mixed group of researchers together to discuss issues in bilingual or trilingual education for the majority and minority nationality groups in China and to explore the relationship between the two.
This volume offers a view of the linguistic situation in Hong Kong in the final years of the twentieth century, as it enters the post-colonial era. In the chapters of this book, scholars from Hong Kong and around the world present a contemporary profile of Chinese, English, and other languages in dynamic interaction in this major international economic centre. Authors survey usage of different languages and attitudes towards them among students, teachers, and the general population based on census data, newpapers, language diaries, interviews, and questionnaires. They address issues of code-mixing, the shift from English-medium to Chinese-medium education, the place of Putonghua in the local language mix, and the language of minority groups such as Hong Kong Indians.This wide-ranging group of original studies provides a social and historical perspective from which to consider developments in language among the past, present, and future populations of Hong Kong.
This dissertation, "Access to Justice in a Bilingual Legal System: a Case Study of Unrepresented Litigants in Hong Kong" by Wai-lung, Yeung, 楊威龍, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: This research investigates unrepresented litigants' (lay people who represent themselves in litigations) access to justice in the common law in Hong Kong. In particular, it examines the potential sources of miscommunication in their contact with the law and legal professionals. Hong Kong is the only common law jurisdiction that operates in both Chinese and English with equal status. During most of the British colonial days, English was used as the only legal language in the common law. It was not until 1987 when Chinese was made co-official and all legislation was subsequently translated into Chinese just before the handover to China in 1997. The bilingual policy in law potentially extends access to the legal system for the majority of the population whose first language is Chinese. One less obvious impact of legal bilingualism is the growing trend of unrepresented litigants (lay people who represent themselves in litigations) in court. The judiciary in Hong Kong has noted a considerable increase in unrepresented litigants in civil proceedings in recent years (Judiciary Administration, 2003). Since unrepresented litigants are usually unfamiliar with law and legal procedures, they demand a significant amount of judicial time and resources, posing challenges to the courts (Judiciary Administration, 2003). Existing literature suggests that legal professionals generally regard these lay people as the root of communication problems in trials (Kelly and Cameron 2002; 2003). Yet this view has failed to address the end-users' perspective on the issue. Thus, this research takes a bottom-up approach to give voice to unrepresented litigants in response to questions that arise from the context: (1) to what extent is the Chinese legal language accessible to lay people, and (2) what are the communication problems lay people face in their litigations? By employing mixed methods, this research demonstrates that miscommunication may tie to unrepresented litigants' understanding of legal language, legal procedure and ideology of law. A linguistic and empirical study on official legal materials shows how some features of the Chinese legal language may be difficult for lay people to understand, such as the use of odd collocation, unusual words, and confusing parts of speech. Plain language with language-specific strategies may help improve the comprehensibility of the materials. Courtroom observations suggest that lay people may approach law differently from their legal counterparts. Indeed, an ethnographic study with an informant reveals how the lay strategies (i.e. lexical inferencing, literal interpretation and selective reading of texts) of decoding legal language may be misleading, and that lay people may have difficulties constructing their personal stories as legal problems. The ethnography supplemented by a survey with unrepresented litigants further highlights how legal professionals' use of language (e.g. jargon and complicated sentence structure) may limit lay people's understanding of legal discourse. Language accommodation by lawyers and judges may be useful for aiding communication. Based on the findings, this research presents implications for (1) communication by showing how legal-lay communication may be improved, and (2) law by outlining the reality of legal bilingualism in common law jurisdictions. Subjects: Pro se representati
This book systematically examines how learning to read occurs in diverse languages, and in so doing, explores how literacy is learned in a second language by learners who have achieved at least basic reading skills in their first language. As a consequence of rapid globalization, such learners are a large and growing segment of the school population worldwide, and an increasing number of schools are challenged by learners from a wide variety of languages, and with distinct prior literacy experiences. To succeed academically these learners must develop second-language literacy skills, yet little is known about the ways in which they learn to read in their first languages, and even less about how the specific nature and level of their first-language literacy affects second-language reading development. This volume provides detailed descriptions of five typologically diverse languages and their writing systems, and offers comparisons of learning-to-read experiences in these languages. Specifically, it addresses the requisite competencies in learning to read in each of the languages, how language and writing system properties affect the way children learn to read, and the extent and ways in which literacy learning experience in one language can play a role in subsequent reading development in another. Both common and distinct aspects of literacy learning experiences across languages are identified, thus establishing a basis for determining which skills are available for transfer in second-language reading development. Learning to Read Across Languages is intended for researchers and advanced students in the areas of second-language learning, psycholinguistics, literacy, bilingualism, and cross-linguistic issues in language processing.
This dissertation, "A Corpus-based Analysis of Tense Usage in Cantonese-English Bilingual Children" by Chin-ying, Alice, Chan, 陳展瑩, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. DOI: 10.5353/th_b4515093 Subjects: Corpora (Linguistics) English language - Tense - Study and teaching Preschool children - China - Hong Kong - Language Bilingualism - China - Hong Kong
