The complex and multilingual system of Mainland China includes several existing language variations commonly used in authentic situations. Outside the teaching context, learners come in contact with many variations of Chinese, di erent from the standard taught in an educational context and this might be a source of listening comprehension di3culties. This study aims to investigate whether, besides teaching standard Chinese, informing students of the Chinese varieties system can help learners to improve foreign language learning in terms of input understanding and perception of language variation. The study included 50 Italian university students. Participants were divided in two groups; only one group took part to a seminar on the sociolinguistic situation of China. All students were then exposed to video and audio input, which included dialectal variations. Data were collected using a comprehension test and a personal opinion survey on perception about awareness of language variation. Findings reveal that integrating dialect awareness programs in Chinese foreign language teaching could be productive for the student’s learning process.

Awareness of dialectal variations in Chinese foreign language teaching

GLORIA GABBIANELLI
2019

Abstract

The complex and multilingual system of Mainland China includes several existing language variations commonly used in authentic situations. Outside the teaching context, learners come in contact with many variations of Chinese, di erent from the standard taught in an educational context and this might be a source of listening comprehension di3culties. This study aims to investigate whether, besides teaching standard Chinese, informing students of the Chinese varieties system can help learners to improve foreign language learning in terms of input understanding and perception of language variation. The study included 50 Italian university students. Participants were divided in two groups; only one group took part to a seminar on the sociolinguistic situation of China. All students were then exposed to video and audio input, which included dialectal variations. Data were collected using a comprehension test and a personal opinion survey on perception about awareness of language variation. Findings reveal that integrating dialect awareness programs in Chinese foreign language teaching could be productive for the student’s learning process.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11576/2708453
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