Introduction to Foreign Language Learning

INTRODUCTIONSelf-Access Language Learning (SALL) has played a prominent part in language education in universities. Its role is to foster autonomous learning among students. With the wide-spread imple

The main objective of Chinese-English Contrastive Grammar: An Introduction is to familiarize the reader with a subset of the learning difficulties and common errors in ESL/EFL pronunciation and lexico

Learning Chinese Language and Culture is an intermediate-level textbook intended to be used throughout the entire school year and designed mainly for students who have completed introductory courses o

Independent learning is not a new concept for language educators but while teachers, curriculum designers and policy makers have embraced it as underpinning modern notions of education, it remains a d

Questions regarding whether a first or a second/foreign language should be used as a medium of instruction (MOI) in schools, and if yes, for whom, and when, have been enthusiastically debated in recen

While the teaching of Modern Chinese as a foreign language has made progress by leaps and bounds, the same cannot be said about the teaching of Classical Chinese. This is regrettable as the influence

Evolution of language has evolved at multiple levels - from changes in the cognitive processes by which language is acquired in the individual, to language change by diffusion of acquired linguistic f

Language matters greatly in almost every aspect of human behaviour and experience. Neurally and culturally humans are powerfully equipped to acquire language and use it for a variety of cognitive and

Prof. William S-Y. Wang, an eminent linguist, has made significant contributions to the field regarding lexical diffusion, experimental phonetic studies, language simulation and modeling, and aging and language. To celebrate his 90th birthday, colleagues and friends worldwide have contributed over 30 articles to a two-volume Festschrift. The English volume includes topics such as Chinese language evolution, the relationship between language and music, and the brain processes involved in language production. This Festschrift is written by and for experienced language researchers and is also suitable for students of Chinese linguistics and those interested in Chinese culture, history, and neurology.

China—Art—Modernity provides a critical introduction to modern and contemporary Chinese art as a whole. It illuminates what is distinctive and significant about the rich range of art created during th

China―Art―Modernity provides a critical introduction to modern and contemporary Chinese art as a whole. It illuminates what is distinctive and significant about the rich range of art created during th

News under Fire: China’s Propaganda against Japan in the English-Language Press, 1928–1941 is the first comprehensive study of China’s efforts to establish an effective international propaganda system

Learning to Emulate the Wise is the first book of a three-volume series that constructs a historically informed, multidisciplinary framework to examine how traditional Chinese knowledge systems and gr

A number of research groups around the world have begun to study how the brain acquires and processes language, but we still know comparatively little about it. Many such groups work on very specific,

Lens on China: Intermediate and Advanced Readings on Film for Learning Chinese is an innovative textbook that uses film to teach Mandarin Chinese. It not only provides students with a non-traditional

This book provides an essential introduction to commercial arbitration law and practices, focusing on Hong Kong as an example of a model law jurisdiction with a pro-arbitration stance. It is written i

…. to imagine a language means to imagine a form of life.––Ludwig Wittgenstein(Philosophical Investigation, 1953)Whatever specific goal motivated people who study Chinese at first eventually

The Chinese language has no tense but has aspects. It relies on aspectual particles to express how an action or state relates to the flow of time. Among all Chinese aspectual particles, le (了) is the

Almost right from the introduction of baseball to Japan the sport was regarded as qualitatively different from the original American model. This vision of Japanese baseball associates the sport with s

Ulaanbaatar beyond Water and Grass is the first book in the English language that takes the visitors to an in-depth exploration of the capital of Mongolia. In the first section of the book, M. A. Aldr

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to school guidance and counselling services in Hong Kong. It draws extensively on current research in the field, with a special emphasis on how guidance

Considered the central literary figure of the post-“Misty” poetry movement of the 1980s, Bai Hua was born in Chongqing in 1956. After graduating from the Guangzhou Foreign Languages Institute, he taug

Understanding how the Chinese writing system illustrates universal design features of writing and literacy learning, as well as how it differs from alphabetic literacy, has become one of the cutting e

Within this text, the contributors provide a historical perspective on the development of anthropology and sociology since their introduction to Chinese thought and education in the early twentieth ce

More than ever, schools are regarded as a learning community in which its leaders, and therefore the school's primary agents of change, are expected to stay abreast of the latest developments in educa

Revelations of China’s global influence and intentions, from one of its most respected foreign policy analysts.For Washington, China is a strategic competitor: the only country with both the will to reshape the world order and, increasingly, the means to do so. For Europe, the People’s Republic is a ‘partner for cooperation, an economic competitor and a systemic rival’. For NATO, it is a ‘decisive enabler’ of Russia’s war against Ukraine. Yet Beijing’s image is far more positive in the Global South, of which the PRC considers itself a part.Zhou Bo’s essays unpack China’s own view of its role today. The PRC is operating not only in a world becoming less Western, but—more importantly—a West becoming less Western; and the key to its outlook lies in Africa, the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific as much as in Europe and the White House.Are Moscow and Beijing really so closely aligned? Where are Sino-Indian relations headed? Is China a new Cold War foe for the West? Or will economic ties inev

In Lu Xun and World Literature, Xiaolu Ma, Carlos Rojas, and other contributors examine various aspects of Lu Xun, who is known as the father of modern Chinese literature. Essays in this book focus on Lu Xun’s works in relation to the notions of world literature and processes of literary worlding. The contributors offer detailed analyses of Lu Xun’s own literary oeuvre and of foreign works that engage with his writings. This volume also focuses on many facets of the publication and dissemination of Lu Xun’s works’, from printing and binding to the discussions and debates that followed their release in China and abroad. This book not only makes an important contribution to the field of Lu Xun studies, but also proposes a reexamination of the category of world literature.

During the nineteenth century, the transpacific world underwent profound transformation, due to the transition from sail to steam navigation that was accompanied by a concomitant reconfiguration of power. This book explores the ways in which diverse Mexican, British, Chinese, and Japanese interests participated, particularly during Porfirio Díaz’s presidency at the peak of Mexico’s participation in the steam network: from its 1860s outset through a time of many revolutionary changes ending with the World War, the Mexican Revolution, the opening of the Panama Canal, and the introduction of a new maritime technology based on vessels run by oil. These transoceanic exchanges, generated within these new geographies of power, contributed not only to the formation of a transpacific region but also to refashioning the Mexican national imaginary. With transnationalism, global and migration studies as its main framework, this study draws upon a dazzling array of primary sources to center Mexico’

Wisdom means learning to live with ambivalence and to embrace uncertaintyHelga Nowotny’s memoir provides a detailed account of her life, highlighting the challenges and triumphs of a woman who defied convention in the male-dominated field of science. From her early days in science and technology studies, where she faced bureaucratic hurdles, to her influential role in shaping the European Research Council, Nowotny offers a candid look at her career. She shares personal stories of navigating the complexities of academia and policy, revealing the uncertainties and contingencies that shaped her life and work. This memoir resonates with anyone who has pursued a path less traveled, and offers a glimpse into the resilience and ambition required to succeed in challenging environments.Future Needs Wisdom is not really a memoir, nor is it an intellectual history, nor is it entirely a personalreflection or a summative philosophy. It is, in fact, all of these things fused together: her life, her

In ancient times, scholars such as Confucius and Aristotle expounded on the virtue of the “middle way” or “intermediate,” an ideal point of moderation or balance between the extremes of human behavior. Adam Smith, widely considered the father of modern economics as we know it, also encouraged propriety in his first work, The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Since then, different schools of economics have continued to incorporate the idea of propriety into their theories, for example in such concepts as equilibrium and bounded rationality, though few economists have defined it explicitly. In light of growing uncertainty and polarization around the world, propriety economics offers alternative solutions for markets, governments, and everyday citizens.This book embarks on a thorough review of Eastern and Western philosophies of propriety over the past 2,500 years, followed by an investigation of the ideas of propriety found in five key schools of economics: classical, neoclassical, institution

ONE OF THE MOST SPOKEN DIALECTS in China, Southeast Asia, and globally, Cantonese was nevertheless deemed a local dialect enjoying little prestige among the intellectuals. Not much was recorded in official documents or gazetteers about the early history of Hong Kong. The Cantonese language and its origin remained much of a mystery until the mid-20th century when scholars started to accord it with increasing attention. Thanks to dedicated efforts of early missionaries, pedagogues, and linguists, we can now trace back the evolution of modern Cantonese since the 19th century— how differences in sounds, words, and grammar distinguish the old from contemporary speech today. In this book, Hung-nin Samuel Cheung, an acclaimed scholar on the study of Cantonese, offers profound insights to various firsthand century-old materials including language manuals, Bible translations, and maps of Hong Kong, with findings that will be useful for ongoing efforts to study the development of

Voice Therapy for Children is a bilingual instructional manual that aims to maximize speech therapy students’ and clinicians’ competence, knowledge, and effectiveness in managing pediatric voice caseloads. This is a unique text that goes beyond general descriptions of therapeutic technique and physiologic principles.Designed to serve Cantonese- and English-speaking children, this manual provides a clear and systematic overview of practical issues and clinical tips, laying out the steps and criteria for therapy programs. With detailed instructions for each voice therapy session, clinicians will find answers to questions such as How can children be kept engaged in voice therapy?How can clinicians facilitate learning and performance of voicing techniques?How can age-appropriate practice stimuli and games be selected?This manual contains detailed instructions for each voice therapy session and ready-to-use clinical materials, including picture cards for eliciting stimulus and record forms

The introduction of elections to district advisory bodies during the early 1980s was expected to improve the public delivery of services. However, as time passed, electoral politics led to party politics, elite fragmentation and political struggles. Politicization and hyper-politicization in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has brought about a fluctuating pattern between administrative recentralization, the Tsang administration’s attempts at decentralization, and the post-2019 administrative recentralization.The purpose of this book is to study the intertwining relationship between district administration and electoral politics. It also examines the political transformation of District Councils after the promulgation of the National Security Law in late June 2020. Written by experts in the field, this book is a good reference source for readers interested in district elections, politics, and administration in Hong Kong.

In The Chinese Idea of a University: Phoenix Reborn, Rui Yang conceptualizes the cultural foundations of modern university development in Chinese societies. Instead of focusing on the uniqueness of the societies, this book aims to prove that one educational purpose could be fulfilled via many paths, and that most of the characteristics the university could be found in other institutions of higher learning. Citing the practices of four selected Chinese societies, Yang opposes the existence of an impassable chasm between Chinese and Western ideas of a university and argues that it is possible to combine Chinese and Western ideas of a university. Also, this book is one of the first in English to theorize the Chinese idea of a university. It links the historical events to the present, in a context of an enormous impact of Western academic models and institutions, from the beginning of modern universities in Chinese societies to the contemporary period.

The essays in this volume grew from a series of talks delivered in late 2010 as the Liang Qichao Memorial Lectures at the Academy of National Learning (Guoxue yuan) of Tsinghua University, Beijing.Off

This volume features two of the most acclaimed stories by Mao Dun. Whereas "The Shop of the Lin Family" records the bankruptcy of traditional commercial system as a result of foreign economic invasion

This book provides a research-based account of how to teach and learn Chinese as a foreign language. In addition to the discussion of relevant second/foreign language research, this volume gives detai

This book provides a research-based account of how to teach and learn Chinese as a foreign language. In addition to the discussion of relevant second/foreign language research, this volume gives detai

This book offers a glimpse into the wide-ranging 50-year career of the internationally renowned Hong Kong photographer/designer through his work in collages and photomontages. From his early album covers when he was an art director/designer for the music industry in New York, Los Angeles and London in the 1970’s, through his diverse international assignments and personal works, to his most recent exhibition in Hong Kong. The story encompasses the long journey from cut-and-paste collages to the computer-composited photomontages of dreamscapes in this Carnival of Dreams.In his introduction titled ‘The Man from Everywhere’, Pico Iyer writes: “For decades now, Basil Pao has been the global eye through which I’ve taken in almost every country, as clearly as the world within… I never know where to place Basil; I can’t get my head around him. Album-designer, loving father, covert Chan master—21st century Renaissance man—Basil is always bringing the many worlds inside him together to create so

Yuan Haowen 元好問 (1190 1257) is one of the greatest Chinese poets of the past eight hundred years. He is especially famous for his poems lamenting the death and disorder that accompanied the decline, fall, and aftermath of the Jin dynasty, when the Mongols took over North China. Reading Yuan’s poems, one feels his intense pain at the demise of the dynasty and his deeply felt need to preserve the historical and cultural record of civilization as he knew it. The poems are distinguished by breadth of learning, linguistic creativity, and allusive depth. They also reveal an abiding sense of irony, and occasional self-directed wry humor.John Timothy Wixted’s treatment of 150 of Yuan Haowen’s poems distills available scholarship on the poet in Chinese, Japanese, and Western languages. The poems—lucidly introduced, interpreted, and explicated—are presented in romanization and translation as well as in the original.Some critics have justifiably acclaimed Yuan Haowen to be one of China’s greatest