This book focuses on the effects of L1 cognitive resources on L2 reading e.g. the effects of L1 reading ability, the ability in L1 mental-structure building, L1 cognitive use in L2 reading, and other related cognitive mechanisms and capacities of EFL learners in China. It integrated test-based and product-oriented as well as VPA-based (verbal protocol analysis) and process-oriented experiments to address the problems of reading in a second language. This book provides several theoretical, methodological and pedagogical insights, including the multidimensional nature of L2 reading and Vygotskyan sociocultural theory as a suitable L2 reading framework, combined approaches on L2 studies, and the rewarding active use of L1 cognitive resources in L2 learning.

This book reports in detail the newly developed Communicative Listening Comprehension Test (CLCT) for the National College English Test (CET) of China. Following the principles of communicative testing in general and test construction approach proposed by Bachman and Palmer (1996) in particular, the project develops CLCT for CET-4 and CET-6. The research begins with the construction of frameworks of listening task characteristics and communicative listening ability. Subsequently, based on a survey of Chinese college students' English listening needs and an analysis of listening tasks in influential English listening course books and public tests, CLCT-4 and CLCT-6 test specifications are developed. Finally, sample papers are produced and a series of posteriori studies are conducted to examine the difficulty and usefulness of the newly developed notes-completion task type in two CLCT tests. As an example of successful integration of communicative testing theories and test construction practice, this research provides valuable insights into listening test development for other large-scale tests.

This singular new textbook is both an introduction to the major theories of second language acquisition and a practical proposal for their application to language learning courses. It explains and evaluates these theories, and focuses on recent research that has enriched thinking about the best ways to facilitate communicative effectiveness in an L2. It then suggests practical applications regarding language planning, curriculum development, pedagogy, materials development, teacher development, and assessment, establishing a tangible connection between theory and practice. Unlike many SLA books which are narrowly focused on the acquisition of language, it explores the roles of factors such as pragmatics, para-linguistic signals, gesture, semiotics, multi-modality, embodied language, and brain activity in L2 communication. SLA Applied connects research-based theories to the authors' and students' real-life experiences in the classroom, and stimulates reflection and creativity through the inclusion of Readers' Tasks in every chapter. This engaging and relevant text is suitable for students in Applied Linguistics or TESOL courses, trainee teachers, researchers, and practitioners.

Based on two corpora: LOCNESS (Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays) and MLC (Non-English major Mainland Chinese Learner Corpus), this book explores the grammatical and lexical collocations of Chinese learner English. As one of the first systematic studies to investigate collocations in Chinese learner English based on learner corpora, this book provides significant implications for foreign language teaching and learning.

Intensification plays a major role in spoken and written interaction, enabling the writer or speaker to express different levels of commitment. This book explores the patterns and meanings of intensifiers in Chinese learner English by ways of comparison with native English. The study is conducted within the theoretical framework of Firthian contextual theory of meaning, Sinclairian model of Extended Units of Meaning (EUM) and Hunston's pattern grammar. The method of contrastive inter-language analysis (CIA) is adopted and the intensifier collocations in learner English and native English are explored by means of quantitative and qualitative analyses of corpora data. This book is the first attempt to investigate the patterning and meaning features of intensifiers systematically with the corpora data in Chinese learner English. Readers will obtain a relatively complete picture of how Chinese learners use intensifiers to realize their attitudinal meanings.

Public discourse constitutes the language environment of a town or a city, which forms part of the social environment of a country or a region. Based on extensive first-hand data collected from public places, mass media and the Internet, this monograph attempts critical pragmatic studies of public discourse in the contemporary Chinese context. By applying pragmatic theories and analytical instruments to the analysis of the data, including business names, advertisements, public signs and notices, and news, the book showcases such discursive practices as personalization and subjectivization and reveals such social problems as unhealthy social mentalities, “pragmatic traps”, suspect discrimination, and vulgarity. It exemplifies a way of combining the Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) approach and the pragmatic approach with a clear focus on the pragmatic issues. This book will not only be a necessary addition to the academic discipline of pragmatics in general, and critical pragmatics in particular, but also lay bare the problems existing in the use of public discourse and suggest several ways to improve such use. While it addresses the Chinese data only, the proposed analyses may contribute to international readers’ understanding of public discourse in contemporary China and serve as a reference for similar researches worldwide.

This book investigates the lexico-grammatical complementarity in language in its construal of person as a semantic system. Given the vast and wide spectrum of resources for expressing distinctions in the assignment of person roles in language, this book presents person-related system networks covering a rich range of semantic features. It also studies the system of person in relation to other major semantic systems instead of regarding it as one isolated component of language parallel to gender, number, case, etc. Systemic features of person are in turn realized by lexicogrammar, whose components, lexis and grammar form a relationship of complementarity in the process of transforming human experience into meaning. Person-related meaning can be either realized by lexical means, i.e. entity, process, quality, or grammatical means, i.e. pronouns, clitics, affixes, zero forms. Besides, such meaning is also found to be realized at some indeterminate areas along the lexis-grammar continuum. A special feature of this book is that it observes the lexicalization and grammaticalization of person based on evidence from a variety of languages. Readers will be presented a comprehensive look into the meaning of person and will be encouraged to reflect on its realization in their own languages.

Appendix 2 Non-standard language in Lu Xun's works: Zi and Ci -- Appendix 3 Old words gaining new meanings in cyber space -- Appendix 4 Old words restructuring semantic relations -- References -- Index

This book focuses on the cross-cultural advertising communication and aesthetic issues of brands and brand slogans. Based on the pragmatic translating theories and case studies of a few classic brand translations, the book puts forward the Three Aesthetic Principles of translating brands. The book special features the cultural in addition to the business aspect of introducing China Time-honored Brands to foreign markets. Readers will learn about the great importance of the aesthetic issues and cultural communications in translating brands and brand slogans through this book.