Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Vietnamese learners'

Thesis (M.A.)--Southern Illinois University Carbondale, 2007.
"Department of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 97-102). Also available online.

Despite the fact that a considerable body of empirical research has been done to examine the role of metacognitive strategic awareness both in L1 and L2 reading, controversial findings have been reported. In addition, although a substantial number of studies have been conducted to investigate reading strategy use by English learners of various first languages, there is a lack of research involving Vietnamese ESL learners. The present study was designed in order to add to the existing literature new evidence about the second language reading strategies used by Vietnamese ESL learners. Particularly, three main aspects of reading strategy use were investigated: 1) the reading strategies that are most frequently used by Vietnamese ESL learners; 2) the reading strategies that distinguish high achieving readers and low achieving readers; and 3) the reading strategies that are significantly associated with performance on lower order and higher order reading questions. The participants of the study were 32 Vietnamese ESL college students in Vietnam. The research instrument employed two tasks: a fourteen-item reading comprehension test and a five-point Likert scale survey of reading strategies (SORS). The reading test was used to divide the sample into a higher performing group and a lower performing group. The SORS was taken from Mokhtari and Sheorey (2002) and consists of 30 items which measure learners' frequency of use of global, problem solving and support strategies when reading academic materials in English. The data was analyzed through descriptive statistics, multiple independent samples t-tests, and multiple regressions. The frequency analysis revealed a fairly regular use of reading strategies by Vietnamese ESL learners. Of the three types of strategies, support strategies were the most frequently employed, followed by global and problem solving strategies. Regarding strategies used by the higher and lower performing readers, the results revealed significant differences in the use of 5 global and 1 problem solving strategies. In addition, the study found that participants' performance on higher order and lower order reading questions was significantly associated with a set of reading strategies. Specifically, 14 reading strategies were significantly correlated with performance on lower order reading questions and 22 reading strategies with performance on higher order reading questions. These findings have provided new evidence and insight about the use of reading strategies in second language reading, particularly focusing on the relationships between strategy use and reading performance and strategy use and type of reading questions. Especially, the findings about the relationship between reading strategies and performance on lower order and higher order reading questions are novel, which fact, undeniably, requires further research in order for these findings to be validated and expanded. Finally, the present study's findings carry valuable pedagogical implications concerning the design of ESL reading curricula and the practice of teaching ESL reading strategies. Namely, curriculum designers and teachers should take into account the following issues: 1) the universality and uniqueness of ESL learners' preferences for reading strategies; 2) the connection between strategy use and reading performance, and 3) the fact that effective performance on higher and lower order questions is correlated with the use of specific reading strategies.

A cross-sectional study of the performance of groups of Vietnamese learners is reported with focus on how they deal with the expression of number in English (singular/plural; definite/indefinite) through a cloze exercise and a translation excercise. This research investigates the hypothesis that some NP environments facilitate the distinction between singular and plural, count and mass, and that the context in which a noun is used can provide positive clues to the choice of number in nouns. It has been found that transfer of Vietnamese NP structures into English occurred where the NP environment was not obviously countable or uncountable, i.e., it has no conspicuous structural signals for number determination. Transfer was also found where an NP was taken from its context. The analysis of learners' errors gives some insight into ways in which the teaching of the number expression can be made more effective and beneficial for Vietnamese learners. A number of activities were suggested, which enable the teacher to exploit the advantages of NP environments to convey the syntactic-semantic properties of number to learners. Communicative practice of NP structures (e.g., in a conversation or a role play activity) can make learners aware of different aspects of the number expression in English. It is argued that the pragmatic aspect of the number expression is most important as in use, the syntactic and semantic properties of the category of number are unified to achieve communicative purposes.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2015.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Over the last 25 years socially-based SLA research has increasingly focused on contextual factors that constitute the local learning environments of learners of English as a second language in attempting to better comprehend the socially embedded nature of learning outcomes. These scholars have largely postulated language learning not only as the acquisition of linguistic knowledge in the abstract but rather as fundamentally constituted by participation in social praxis as situated within local sociocultural and institutional contexts. The emergence of „the social‟ in SLA research is especially significant to academic contexts in which learners belonging to diverse cultural and literacy traditions typically struggle to identify with target literacy practices of their academic communities. Drawing on a sociocultural approach and the community of practice construct, this thesis takes a qualitative approach. Through the analysis of teacher and student focus group data, this thesis sets out to illustrate learner and teacher articulations surrounding what constitutes learner engagement in an academic English program at an international university in Vietnam. The data collected in this study suggests that the focal learners perceived higher levels of learner engagement in learning contexts in which collaborative, dialogic activity was extensively integrated in the acquisition of target academic literacy practices. While the focal teacher articulations surrounding student engagement also took into account the importance of such collaborative class activity, the teachers did not attribute the same level of importance to it that the focal students did. This study concludes that teachers should extensively use activity frameworks within class that encourage group work in the learning of target academic literacy practices, especially academic reading and writing practices. Even where target practices will ultimately be elaborated and assessed on an individual basis, this study illustrates that collaborative dialogic frameworks seemed to provide students with opportunities to pool linguistic, content, and skills-related resources, thus allowing students to overcome learning difficulties associated with academic literacy practices. Ultimately, such activity frameworks appeared to mediate higher levels of student engagement within class activities, which students linked to more effective and enjoyable learning of academic English.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Geen opsomming beskikbaar

Interlanguage pragmatics research has contributed a great deal to our understanding of L2 pragmatic use but less to our understanding of L2 pragmatic development, although developmental issues are also its primary research goal. Additionally, previous studies have been confined to a rather small set of speech acts, under-researching such face-damaging acts as criticizing and responding to criticism even though these may be more challenging for L2 learners. The present study examines pragmatic development in the use of criticizing and responding to criticism by a group of Vietnamese EFL learners with a view to shedding light on the pragmatic properties of these speech acts. IL data were collected from 12 high beginners, 12 intermediate learners, and 12 advanced learners, via a written questionnaire and role play, and analyzed with reference to L1 and L2 baseline data collected from 12 Vietnamese and 12 Australian NSs via the same methods. Metapragmatic data were collected via retrospective interview. Four main findings are discussed. Firstly, the learners criticized and responded to criticism very differently from the NSs. This difference might have adversely affected how the learners negotiated their intentions expressed via speech act realizations. Secondly, there was little evidence of any proficiency effect on the learners' use of these two speech acts. This was probably because pragmatic development was limited by the EFL context, as the learners had had insufficient exposure to the target norms. Thirdly, there was evidence of pragmatic transfer in the learners' production. This transfer was affected by the learners' perception of L1-L2 proximity and assumption of L2 reasonableness. Finally, the retrospective interviews with learners suggested four main sources of influence on their pragmatic decision-making: insufficient L2 pragmatic knowledge, transfer of communication and learning, processing difficulty, and learning experience. The present study lends support to a number of SLA theories, including Bialystoks' processing model and Meisel et al.'s complexification hypothesis. It found that the major challenge for learners in L2 pragmatic acquisition is to gain control over processing. It also found an acquisitional order of modality markers which was dependent upon their structural complexity and the processing demands involved in producing them.
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The ability to write in a second language is one of the major skills required in academic settings. However, research about the effectiveness of academic programs on second language writing in long term perspective is rather scarce and the findings are mixed (e.g. Archibald, 2001; Elder & O’Loughlin, 2003; Hu, 2007; Knoch et al., 2014, 2015; Storch 2007). The present study aimed to contribute further empirical evidence about the effectiveness of academic training on the development of the writing skills of Vietnamese second language learners enrolled in an undergraduate English program. The investigation was designed in view of the L2 writing standards set by the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) and in reference to the specificities of the Vietnamese English language educational system. The sample involved a total of 90 participants, 30 from each of the following CEFR English language proficiency levels: B1, B2, and C1. The instrument was modeled after the IELTS Academic Module Writing Task 2 which requires test-takers to write a minimum of 250-word essay on a given prompt. The participants’ essays were scored by two independent raters following the IELTS Writing Task 2 Band Descriptors. The data was analyzed through 5 one-way ANOVAs, which aimed to compare the three levels of proficiency, B1, B2, and C1, on their overall writing scores, and on each of the two macro (Task Response and Cohesion and Coherence) and micro sills (Lexical Resources and Grammatical Range and Accuracy) The results revealed two main trends. First, it was found that the writing skills of Vietnamese L2 learners of English have shown a significant improvement in the course of their study, across proficiency levels. Second, the development was of a bigger magnitude between levels B1 and B2 and on a smaller scale between levels B2 and C1. The latter trend appears more meaningful when juxtaposed with the expected IELTS writing band score ranges for each of the three CEFR levels investigated in the present study. Specifically, the obtained scores matched the CEFR standards at level B2, but were above the expected minimum score for level B1 and below the minimum expected score for level C1. These findings carry valuable implications for the specific Vietnamese educational context, highlighting both the strengths and lacks of the English language writing curriculum. They pinpoint issues related to the placement of students in CEFR levels without specific empirical data as well as raise questions about the time, effort, and teaching practices necessary to secure learners’ progress from lower to higher proficiency, particularly after level B1. Another contribution of the study is that it examined developments in L2 academic writing both on the macro and micro level, and has, thus, offered a more comprehensive picture of the different components of the writing skill and their development through a course of study. In contrast, existing research has either looked at the writing skill in a holistic way or focused on one or some of its elements, but has rarely approached writing as a balanced composite of macro and micro skills.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2012.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Research into the variables which affect second language (L2) learning has shown varying results. The relationship between one of these factors, language learning strategies (LLSs), and language proficiency has been studied extensively in the English as a second language (ESL) setting, often with inconclusive results. Other variables which have been shown to influence the type and frequency of LLS use include gender and length of exposure to the L2. There has however been a dearth of studies focusing on the relationship between LLSs and these variables, including language proficiency, in the English as a foreign language (EFL) context, and especially in East-Asian and South-East Asian tertiary settings. Against this backdrop, this study sets out to investigate the relationship between the LLSs and language proficiency of Vietnamese-speaking EFL learners in Vietnam in an attempt to add to the body of literature in this field. This study begins by discussing various prominent classification systems of LLSs and provides a definition which will be used in this investigation. This is followed by a discussion of the existing LLS literature, focusing on the variables to be tested, and LLS research in the Asian setting. To test whether there is a significant relationship between the participants’ LLS use and their language proficiency, and also whether gender and length and type of exposure to the L2 influenced their LLS use, data was collected quantitatively. Firstly, data was gathered on the students’ type and frequency of LLS use by means of a commonly implemented self-report questionnaire, the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) and on their language proficiency by means of their course assessment results. A background questionnaire was used to collect information on the other variables to be tested. The participants were found to be medium to high frequency LLS users overall, with their reported use of certain LLS categories contradicting the general stereotype that Asian students are passive and rote learners. No significant correlations were found between frequency of LLS use and language proficiency. Furthermore, no significant difference was found between the reported frequency and type of LLS use of female and male participants, nor any correlation between additional exposure to English outside of high school and LLS use. These results are then discussed in the socio-cultural context of Vietnamese-speaking learners in a tertiary EFL setting, followed by conclusions drawn from these results, and suggestions for future research.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Navorsing rakende die faktore wat die verwerwing van ’n tweede taal (T2) beïnvloed, het verskillende resultate opgelewer oor die afgelope paar dekades. Die verhouding tussen een van hierdie faktore, naamlik taalleerstrategieë (TLSe), en taalvaardigheid is reeds uitvoerig ondersoek in die konteks van Engels as tweedetaal (ET2), dikwels met onbesliste resultate. Ander faktore wat volgens navorsing ook ’n invloed blyk te hê op die tipe en gereeldheid van TLS-gebruik, sluit in geslag, sowel as lengte van blootstelling aan die T2. Daar is egter ’n tekort aan studies wat fokus op die verhouding tussen TLSe en hierdie veranderlikes, insluitend taalvaardigheid, in die konteks van Engels as vreemdetaal (EVT), spesifiek in Oos-Asiese en Suid-Oos-Asiese tersiêre instansies. Teen hierdie agtergrond het hierdie studie ten doel om die verhouding tussen die TLS-gebruik en taalvaardigheid van Viëtnameessprekende EVT-leerders in Viëtnam te ondersoek, ten einde by te dra tot die literatuur in hierdie veld. Hierdie studie begin met ‘n bespreking van verskeie prominente TLS-klassifikasiesisteme en die uiteensetting van die definisie van “TLS” wat in hierdie ondersoek gebruik sal word. Daarna volg ’n bespreking van die bestaande TLS-literatuur. Ten einde te toets of daar ’n beduidende verhouding is tussen die deelnemers se TLS-gebruik en hulle taalvaardigheid, en ook of geslag en die lengte en tipe blootstelling aan die T2 die deelnemers se TLS-gebruik beïnvloed, is kwantitatiewe data ingesamel. Data rakende die tipe en gereeldheid van die deelnemers se TLS-gebruik is deur middel van ’n wyd geïmplementeerde self-rapporteringsvraelys, naamlik die sogenaamde “Strategy Inventory for Language Learning” (SILL), ingesamel. Die deelnemers se kursusassesseringsresultate is geïnterpreteer as ‘n aanduiding van hulle taalvaardigheid. Die gerapporteerde gebruik van sekere TLS-kategorieë weerspreek die algemene stereotipe dat Asiese studente passiewe leerders is wat staatmaak op blote memorisering. Geen beduidende korrelasies is gevind tussen taalvaardigheid en die gereeldheid waarmee TLSe gebruik word nie. Verder is geen beduidende verskille gevind tussen die gerapporteerde gereeldheid of tipe TLS-gebruik van manlike teenoor vroulike deelnemers nie. Daar is ook geen beduidende korrelasie gevind tussen TLS-gebruik en addisionele blootstelling aan Engels wat deelnemers gedurende hulle hoërskooljare buite skoolverband ontvang het nie. Hierdie resultate word geïnterpreteer en bespreek met inagname van die sosiokulturele konteks van Viëtnamees-sprekende leerders in ’n tersiêre EVT-omgewing. Daarna word gevolgtrekkings gemaak op grond van die resultate, en voorstelle vir verdere navorsing gebied.

Reading in a second language is an interesting area of research because the factors affecting reading have brought about much controversy in related theory and research. Particularly, schema theory has raised long-term debate about whether background knowledge facilitates or impedes reading comprehension. In recognition of such issue, the current research was conducted to examine the impact of background knowledge on second language reading comprehension. Additionally, the impact of time constraint on reading comprehension was also investigated. Thirty-one students of intermediate level of English in Le Quy Don high school, Vietnam took part in the study. Four cloze texts, two of familiar topics and two of unfamiliar topics, were administered under the conditions of limited time and unlimited time. The results revealed significantly positive effects of background knowledge and no time constraint on second language reading comprehension. Further, a significant interaction between background knowledge and time constraint was found. These findings have important implications for second language pedagogy in view of standardized and classroom assessment of reading performance. However, the most important finding of this research relates to the significant interaction between background knowledge and time constraint which has not been given due attention in previous research.

碩士
國立雲林科技大學
應用外語系碩士班
101
This study focused on the complaint strategies and the assessment questionnaire performed by 40 native speakers of Chinese, 15 native speakers of Vietnamese and 20 Vietnamese learners of Chinese. The instrument included a written questionnaire in the form of discourse completion test (DCT) and one metapragmatic rating questionnaire to elicit the participants’ response to the 20 situations. The result indicated that CSL learners tended to use establishing the background and requests while native Chinese speakers preferred to use alerter, justification or conveying a sense of urgency. Native Vietnamese speakers tended to use thanks or others to close the conversation. For the second research question, males tended to use proposing a question and requests, and thanks in the end while females tended to use alerter, and conveying a sense of urgency to respond. Lastly, for the interaction effect of group and gender results showed that male CSL learners tended to use establishing a background and requests. On the other hand male Vietnamese native speakers tended to use thanks, requests or others to end the complaints. However, male CSL learners tended not to use thanks, requests and others. For three groups’ metapragmatic complaint rating, significant differences were found in the question of the complainer’s right to make a complaint. In addition, for the effect of gender on three groups’ complaint assessment rating, no significant differences were observed on the rating. Moreover, for the interaction effect of group and gender on complaint metapragmatic rating, there were no significant differences on the rating as well. In order to make complaints appropriately and effectively in the target culture, it is essential for Chinese as second language (CSL) learners to develop their L2 pragmatic competence. The findings are hoped to shed more light on L2 pedagogy of the speech acts.

碩士
國立雲林科技大學
應用外語系
103
This study focused on the complaint strategies and the assessment questionnaire performed by 40 native speakers of Chinese, 15 native speakers of Vietnamese and 20 Vietnamese learners of Chinese. The instrument included a written questionnaire in the form of discourse completion test (DCT) and one metapragmatic rating questionnaire to elicit the participants’ response to the 20 situations. The result indicated that CSL learners tended to use establishing the background and requests while native Chinese speakers preferred to use alerter, justification or conveying a sense of urgency. Native Vietnamese speakers tended to use thanks or others to close the conversation. For the second research question, males tended to use proposing a question and requests, and thanks in the end while females tended to use alerter, and conveying a sense of urgency to respond. Lastly, for the interaction effect of group and gender results showed that male CSL learners tended to use establishing a background and requests. On the other hand male Vietnamese native speakers tended to use thanks, requests or others to end the complaints. However, male CSL learners tended not to use thanks, requests and others. For three groups’ metapragmatic complaint rating, significant differences were found in the question of the complainer’s right to make a complaint. In addition, for the effect of gender on three groups’ complaint assessment rating, no significant differences were observed on the rating. Moreover, for the interaction effect of group and gender on complaint metapragmatic rating, there were no significant differences on the rating as well. In order to make complaints appropriately and effectively in the target culture, it is essential for Chinese as second language (CSL) learners to develop their L2 pragmatic competence. The findings are hoped to shed more light on L2 pedagogy of the speech acts.

碩士
國立臺灣師範大學
華語文教學研究所
93
Mandarin tones are usually a difficult point for most Vietnamese learners. This is because their mother tongue is also a tonal language. Even though they don't need to build a tone concept, there is still a tonal foundation concept that does not represent Vietnamese learner's mistakes in using Mandarin tones. This study consists of a perceptual test and a pronunciation test administered among 18 Vietnamese learner's at the National Taiwan Normal University's Mandarin Teaching Center. The purpose is to identify their Mandarin tonal errors, and also to help reveal a more complete picture of the acquisition of Mandarin tones by Vietnamese learners. The results show that (1) the order of difficulty of the four Mandarin tones are: tone 1(y9np0ng), tone 4 (q*sh5ng), tone 2 (y2ngp0ng) and tone 3 (sh3ngsh5ng) (perceptual test), tone 4 (q*sh5ng), tone 1(y9np0ng), tone 2 (y2ngp0ng) and tone 3 (sh3ngsh5ng) (pronunciation test); (2) difficulty order among 16 kinds of one pair syllables is 1-2 1-3 1-4 4-3 2-4 4-4 (perceptual test) 4-1, 1-4, 1-2, 2-2, 2-3, 3-2 (pronunciation test); (3) Tone register: come closer to the mother tongue. Mandarin tonal errors nearly always seem happen for beginners. So the question of how can we lean towards effectively reducing Vietnamese learner's mistakes will be a focal point of our follow-up study.

碩士
國立屏東大學
華語文教學碩士學位學程
107
Many Vietnamese leave their own country and cross the ocean to live in Taiwan to become new residents. Some of them marry Taiwanese; others come for working. Mandarin becomes one of the essential ability which they can make money to support the family. Although Vietnamese and Mandarin are both tonal languages, for those Vietnamese who try to learn Mandarin, the intonation of Vietnamese could be both a boost and a resistance. In everyday life, the wrong tones often result in misunderstanding. Thus, good communication ability can help them with mandarin studying and integrate themselves in the family, the workplace and the interpersonal relationship. 　　This study focuses on analyzing and discussing the tone errors while Vietnamese immigrants learn Mandarin. This study was to use acoustic phonetic method. Firstly, design the language materials, then record the result to form the sound sonogram with acoustics analysis software Praat. Secondly, contrast the Vietnamese intonation with Mandarin intonation to analyze Vienamese leaners’ phonic fallacy and reason investigation.Finally, provide suggestion as furture teaching reference. 　　The findings discovered that: 1.In the monosyllable note character table oral account test, the phonic fallacy situattion is not obvious ,most of them can display the correct intonation fluctuation, and only the fourth tone is often pronounced as first tone. 2.In the disyllabic word group oral account test, the fourth tone is difficult to be pronounced well. No matter what the intonation of prefix is,the fourth tone of the suffix instead of being pronounced dropping sound,it is pronounced as first tone. 　　To sum up these two tests, the author discovered that the first and the fourth tone are mixed. That is because in the Vietnamese, there is no falling sound as in Mandarin,learners will take avoidance stratery while they come across the tones which they aren’t sure. Therefore, they will pronounce it to high flat sound which they are familiar with, and that will result in the confusion of first and forth tones. Through the results of this study, it is my hope that it can be a reference not only for mandarin teaching, but also for mandarin learners from Vienan, and help them to fit in with local life with ease.

碩士
國立中正大學
語言學研究所
107
This thesis is a phonetic study of fricatives and affricates in Mandarin Chinese by Vietnamese learners, including production experiment and a perception experiment. According to the previous studies, Vietnamese learners’ production errors of Mandarin consonants mainly appear in fricatives affricates, and aspiration. Therefore, this study analyzes three Mandarin fricatives（[s], [ʂ], [ɕ]）and six affricates（[ts], [tsʰ], [tʂ], [tʂʰ], [tɕ], [tɕʰ]). These consonants involve three places of articulation, i.e., dental-alveolar （[s], [ts], [tsʰ]）, retroflex（[ʂ], [tʂ], [tʂʰ]）and alveolar-palatal（[ɕ], [tɕ], [tɕʰ]）. The present study aims to answer the following questions:（1）What are the acoustic characteristics of Mandarin fricatives and affricates?（2）To understand better the consonant system of their mother tongue, we need to know whether the acoustic characteristics of consonants in Southern Vietnamese are the same as the descriptions in the literature?（3）Regarding the acoustic characteristics of Mandarin fricatives and affricates, how do Vietnamese learners differ from native Mandarin speakers in Taiwan?（4）Is there any correlation between the production and the perception of Mandarin fricatives and affricates by Vietnamese learners? Four acoustic features of fricatives and affricates were analyzed in this study: center of gravity（COG）, frication duration（FD）, amplitude rise time（RT）and amplitude rise slope（RS）. COG shows different places of articulation, while FD, RT, and RS contribute to the distinction of different manners of articulation. FD can also help identify aspiration in affricates. Moreover, a perception experiment was conducted to understand the correlation between the production and the perception of fricatives and affricates in Vietnamese learners. The results of the production experiment showed that, for both native Mandarin speakers in Taiwan and Vietnamese learners, the COG between dental-alveolar affricates and retroflex affricates were not significant different. This indicates that the Vietnamese learners did not make a clear distinction between these two places of articulation, similar to the neutralization phenomenon found in Mandarin speakers in Taiwan. Regarding FD and RT, native Mandarin speakers show the following order: fricatives > aspirated affricates > unaspirated affricates. However, the Vietnamese learners did not show the same order. This indicates that the Vietnamese learners failed to accurately grasp the characteristics of aspiration. The RS values of Vietnamese learners were lower than the native Mandarin speakers indicating that the Vietnamese learners failed to grasp the manner distinction between fricatives and affricates in Mandarin. As to the production of their native Vietnamese consonants by the Vietnamese learners, the acoustic analysis of Vietnamese consonants showed that, there is indeed only one aspirated consonant th[th] and one affricate consonant ch/tr[tʃ] in Vietnamese, confirming the descriptions in the literature. The results of the perception experiment show that the errors in the perception experiment echo the results of the production experiment. That is, Vietnamese learners could not distinguish fricatives vs. affricates and aspirated vs. unaspirated consonants. Although Vietnamese has one aspirated consonant and one affricate consonant, the sound system of Vietnamese does not seem to help them with their Mandarin learning. In conclusion, the results of this study show that in both production and perception, the Vietnamese learners failed to grasp the differences in Mandarin fricatives and affricates and the distinction between aspirated and unaspirated sounds. This study has at least the following contributions: (1) It provides acoustic measures of Mandarin fricatives and affricates by native speakers as well as Vietnamese learners; (2) It gives an explicit description of the errors in production and perception of Mandarin fricatives and affricates by Vietnamese learners; (3) It has pedagogical implications for teaching Mandarin as a second language to Vietnamese learners. Keywords: Mandarin, Vietnamese, phonetic study, production errors, fricatives, affricates, acoustic analysis, perception experiment, teaching Chinese as a second language

碩士
中國文化大學
華語文教學碩士學位學程
101
The structural particle “的de” is used very frequently in modern Chinese, and it is a function word and grammar which one should learn in the Chinese course as a second language for beginners. The particle “de” symbolizes “attributives” in grammar and connects “attributives” and “qualified words” in noun phrases. It indicates genitive, modified, and clause relations through “pronoun/noun + de + qualified word,” “adjective + de + qualified word,” and “verb/clause + de + qualified word.” This study was aimed to investigate the types and frequency of the errors that Vietnamese beginning learners of Chinese make when they learn “de,” and the possible causes of the errors. The errors made by Indonesian and Japanese learners of Chinese in a similar proficiency level and with similar learning progress are sewed as baseline data. The data were compared to study if learners with first languages whose noun phrase structures are respectively “branching rightward” (qualified word - attributive) and “branching leftward” (attributive - qualified word) are influenced by the negative transfer of their first languages in terms of the language errors caused by the use of “de.” In this study, the test papers (compulsory text), sentences construction and composition (spontaneous text) of students were regarded as the research tools to establish a text coding system and differentiate the errors according to the grammatical features. In total, 3 types of omission errors, 5 types of addition errors, 3 types of mis-selection errors, 15 types of misordering errors, and 10 types of other errors were identified. Based on the research statistics, the misordering errors of Vietnamese students were 64% and 46.5% respectively in compulsory text and spontaneous text. Among their misordering errors, the errors of “qualified words placed in the front; attributives placed in the back” accounted for 49% and 78% respectively in compulsory text and spontaneous text. The misordering errors of Indonesian students were 55% and 51.3% respectively in compulsory text and spontaneous text. Among their misordering errors, the errors of “qualified words placed in the front; attributives placed in the back” accounted for 72% and 94% respectively in compulsory text and spontaneous text. The misordering errors of Japanese students were 46% and 26.3% respectively in compulsory text and spontaneous text. The ratios in misordering error of Japanese students were the lowest, and they did not have any error of “qualified words placed in the front; attributives placed in the back.” With the analysis of interlanguage data, this study sketched out different sentence orders generated and difficulties encountered by the Vietnamese beginning learners learning the “de” structure. The research result also evidenced that the students with the first languages whose noun phrase structures is “branching rightward” were likely easier to be influenced by the negative transfer of the first languages. Other errors included the errors caused by over-generalization of Chinese rules and the errors caused by teaching sequence and materials. Suggestions for teaching the structural particle “de” and future research were brought up at the end of of the paper as references to the strategies and studies of teaching Chinese as a second language in the future.

碩士
建國科技大學
服務與科技管理研究所
106
Recent years, more and more Taiwanese go for work in Vietnam. Therefore, learning Vietnamese is an important thing for them. Vietnamese and Chinese belong to the same type of language. Nearly 70% of Vietnamese vocabularies are inherited From Chinese. This commonality let Taiwanese have the dominant condition when learning Vietnamese. Chinese and Vietnamese belong to the same kind of languages, there are still some differences between them. The frequent things which easily to make mistakes when learning Vietnamese are pronunciation, words, sentence patterns and grammar. During tutoring Vietnamese in the language center of National Chengchi University, the author has collected lots of materials for analysis and research. Pointing out the word biases when Taiwanese learning Vietnamese. Almost All kinds of them have happened when Taiwanese start learning Vietnamese. Among them, 1263 word biases from researching, including 862 mistakes with the use of real words and 401 errors with the use of dummy words. One of reason which causes biases is the negative transfer of the mother language. The second reason is the cross-cultural between Vietnamese culture and Chinese culture. After finding out the biases, the author proposes to the strategy to overcome these situations. Make specific suggestions and propose various exercises in tutoring, writing materials, and learning methods. The author hopes that this research can make a contribution to Vietnamese tutoring territory. Helping Taiwanese Vietnamese learners to use Vietnamese more correctly and fruitful their goal.

碩士
文藻外語大學
華語文教學研究所
106
This study explored the "zhe", an important grammar point indicating continuous tense in Chinese language. There have been many researches on mistake in using this character basing on data analysis, but there seems to be very few of them targeted at Vietnamese learners. In Vietnam, the number of people studying Chinese is increasing, many of whom are advanced learners. However, when putting this "zhe" into practice, their grasp of its usage is relatively low. With the fact that Chinese and Vietnamese are isolating languages with their verbs undergoing no morphological changes, to indicate tenses and forms, the two languages adopt a variety of symbolic means. Differences between the two languages, however, still exist. Without clearly distinguishing grammatical and pragmatic differences between them, learners will be prone to mistakes in usage. Thus, the author used a variety of database as research tools as well as carrying out observations of learners’ learning process and achievement, then collecting statistics and analysis on the type, number and percentage of mistakes committed by Vietnamese students on the use of "zhe". After that, comparative analysis of two languages (Chinese, Vietnamese) was conducted in order to further the discussion upon the causes of those mistakes and appropriate instructional suggestions. This research will not only help learners avoid such mistakes with the "zhe" but also serve as the reference for future teaching and learning of Chinese language.

碩士
國立臺灣師範大學
華語文教學系
104
Recently, learning Mandarin has always been a popular choice for Vietnamese, leading to the promoting study on Mandarin pronunciations and tones for Vietnamese. Many studies have shown that tone 1 and tone 4 are the most difficult for Vietnamese learners and to mistake tone 1 and tone 4 (Tran Thi Thanh Loan (2005), Ngo Mon Cat & Ho Minh Quang (2004), Han Minh (2005), Lam Quan Phuong (2013), etc.). Although the current studies have achieved some merits, there is still a lack of the pronunciation training of Mandarin tones for Vietnamese learners. In the Mandarin pronunciations system, Mandarin tones are the difficult issue for foreign leaners (Chu Xuyen (2015)). Additionally, the pronunciation training is suggested to be considered as soon as possible; otherwise, they will face the fossilization issue. Based on the above concerns, this study will focus in the beginning Vietnamese learners by finding the Mandarin tonal errors then setting up the pronunciation training online for Mandarin tones on the MyCT software. Three research steps were conducted as follows: Mandarin tones pretest  Mandarin tones training by using MyCT (three times)  Mandarin tones posttest. Then, the effect of training will be evaluated based on the data collection and data analysis. The content has 5 chapters as follows: • Chapter 1: Introduction that includes motivation and objective research. The explaination of speciality terms are also included in this chapter. • Chapter 2: Fundamental of argument, including interlanguage, reviewing the studies on Mandarin tones concerns for Vietnamese learners. Additionally, the methods to correct the pronunciation for Mandarin tones and to design the training online are also be introduced. Following is to investigate methodically by comparing the tone system between Chinese and Vietnamese and the diversity of Southern and Northern Vietnamese tone system. After that, the Mandarin tonal errors that might be made by Southern and Northern Vietnamese learners could be predicted. • Chapter 3: to propose the research methodology and outline the research design, etc. • Chapter 4: data collection, data analysis, and discussion. • Chapter 5: summary and recommendations. Although much of improvement has been obtained, how to achieve better teaching, as well as learning Mandarin will be suggested. The result shows that the ratio Mandarin tonal errors in the pretest as follows (high to low): tone 4 > tone 2 > tone 1 > tone 3. Its errors in the posttest as follows: tone 4 > tone 1 > tone 2 > tone 3. There are some types of error have been found, such as: to confuse tone 4 with tone 1, and tone 2 and tone 3. In details, the ratio Mandarin tonal error of tone 4 becomes tone 1 is higher than that of tone 1 becomes tone 4. Similarly, the ratio Mandarin tonal error of tone 2 becomes tone 3 is higher than that of tone 3 becomes tone 2. Regarding the pronunciation training, all candidates have the scores higher than 74 (the scale of 100). After applying the pronunciation training, all the tones achieve the ratio Mandarin tonal errors decrease, except for the tone 1.

碩士
國立臺北科技大學
應用英文系
107
Task Complexity (TC) and Pre-task planning (PTP) are two major dimensions that can affect Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency (CAF) of learners’ writing (Ellis, 2005). These two components do not act in isolation; PTP decreases processing limitations of working memory, giving learners an opportunity to focus on the meaning of target language, while TC influences within-learner variation in task completion. Previous studies have separately examined the effects of PTP and TC, but never together. The present investigates the impact and relationship of these two dimensions on written productions of EFL learners. Forty Vietnamese Intermediate learners were recruited and randomly assigned to four groups. Two tasks of complexity levels (TC) were designed and tested against planning time (PTP), so that each task was conducted with and without planning time provided. All groups were asked to write a narrative paragraph of a cartoon image, and written productions were evaluated by complexity (numbers of clauses per T-unit), accuracy (numbers of error-free per T-units), and fluency (numbers of words per T-unit). Results showed a significant difference between two different tasks in complexity and accuracy, but not fluency of written production, as well as a significant difference between with and without PTP for accuracy and fluency, but not the other of three dimensions. The nature of TC and PTP based on the theories of Cognition Hypothesis (Robinson 2007) and the Limited Attentional Capacity Model (Skehan & Foster, 2012) was revealed, showing how they influenced CAF of written production in different ways. Theories in linguistic research field and pedagogical implications regarding task design for EFL writing instruction will further be discussed.

碩士
國立臺灣師範大學
華語文教學系
104
At present, the largest number of international students in Taiwan is Japanese, while Vietnamese took up the second place. In recent years, many universities in Taiwan promote their English-taught courses in order to meet the challenges posed by globalization. English-taught courses attract more Vietnamese students to come study in Taiwan, but there is yet another problem. Although the medium of instruction in class is English, Vietnamese students still need to use Mandarin to communicate in daily life. Based on the experience of Vietnamese students studying in Taiwan, the author endeavored to design a short-term intensive Chinese course for beginner level Vietnamese learners that can meet with their needs. The course focuses on the basic topics in everyday life, such as the language and cultural problems that the students may come across when they first arrived in Taiwan, and during the period in which they study here. This study employed developmental research, document analysis, and questionnaire survey research as its research methods. It first reviewed some related literature, including the theory of second language acquisition, the teaching theory of short-term intensive courses, the problems encountered by Vietnamese students in their learning of Chinese, and theories related to course design. Secondly, the author administered a questionnaire and summarized students’ needs in their learning of Chinese. Interviews with several Chinese teachers were also conducted to understand more about the difficulties faced by Vietnamese students in the classroom, and the content of different short-term Chinese courses. Afterwards, based on the theories as reviewed, and the information collected from the questionnaire and the interviews, the author came up with a design of a short-term intensive Chinese course that catered to the needs of Vietnamese students at beginner’s level. Lastly, the study concluded with a summary of the research and suggestions for future studies. On the whole, this study confirmed the need for a short-term intensive Chinese course that caters for Vietnamese students who are studying in Taiwan. It is found that the learning of Chinese vocabulary is relatively easy for Vietnamese students, but pronunciation and grammar are more challenging for them. For instance, in pronunciation Vietnamese students often confuse the first and the fourth tone, and they are often not accurate enough in pronouncing the second and the third tone. Moreover, they sometimes mixed up the aspirated and unaspirated consonants too. Targeting the characteristics of Vietnamese students, the author has devised a few teaching activities that are specific to their needs, so as to strengthen their advantages in learning Chinese on the one hand, and on the other hand overcome the difficulties they have to confront; thus emphasis has been put on enhancing their pronunciation, expanding their vocabulary and strengthening their grasp of the grammar.

碩士
國立臺灣大學
華語教學碩士學位學程
106
The confusion between Tone 1 (Yin Ping) and Tone 4 (Qu Sheng) in Mandarin is typical and persistent among Vietnamese learners of Mandarin. Existing research, when probing for the causes of this phenomenon, does not take into account the impact of Vietnamese Tone ngang’s variations on the perception of Tone 1 and Tone 4. This paper aims to analyse the patterns and causes of Vietnamese learners’ tone errors and, with the findings as basis, design learning materials, whose effectiveness is to be verified by an experiment. These materials are meant to be available online, serving as self-learning resources after class or supplementary materials for teachers in classroom. This study includes three experiments. Experiment 1 examines the patterns of tone errors, with 25 Vietnamese university students in Taiwan as subjects. Tests of perception, pronunciation and memorization were administered to examine the errors of Tone 1 and Tone 4 in monosyllabic and disyllabic words. The results indicate similar error patterns in perception and memorization, with Tone 1 at the highest error rate followed by Tone 4. Meanwhile, Tone 1 or Tone 4 in the former syllable of disyllabic words reports a higher error rate than in the latter syllable. Tone 4 reports the highest error rate for pronunciation followed by Tone 1: the error rate is higher when Tone 4 is in the former syllable of disyllabic words but higher when Tone 1 is in the latter syllable. Experiment 2 explores the cause of the errors of Tone 1 and Tone 4 among Vietnamese learners. Surveys were conducted to observe the characteristics of Vietnamese Tone ngang, with 35 Vietnamese students tested on pronunciation of Vietnamese disyllabic words, 25 on perception of Vietnamese sentences, and 17 on perception of Vietnamese disyllabic words. The results indicate that the high level Tone ngang is in free variation with a high falling tone. It is thus referred that Vietnamese learners of Mandarin perceptually assimilate both the high level Tone 1 and the high falling Tone 4 to their native Tone ngang category, which induces their difficulties in distinguishing between Tone 1 and Tone 4. Experiment 3 assesses the effectiveness of the online tone training materials, the treatment group and the control group each consisting of 20 Vietnamese students. Specifically designed to address the patterns and cause of Vietnamese learners’ tone errors, the materials provide the treatment group with high-variability perceptual training, starting from easy tasks to more difficult ones. With a large number of contrasts between Tone 1 and Tone 4, the perceptual training helps differentiate and then establish separate tone categories for Tone 1 and Tone 4. The treatment group exceeds the control group in the improvement of perception and pronunciation, particularly in pronunciation. Also, the progress of the treatment group in generalization tests and retention tests highlights the fact that the improvement gained in training was generalized to new stimuli and new talkers and could be retained after training.

碩士
元智大學
應用外語學系
107
This study investigated the stress placement in relation to structure of syllables in order to gain a deeper understanding of how Vietnamese learners of English assign the stress on English words as opposed to the performances of native speakers. We designed an experiment to test whether heavy syllables, those with long vowels (CVV) and those closed by a consonant (CVC), were more inclined to attract stress on penult syllalbes, as compared with light syllables, those wih short vowels (CV). Vietnamese learners of English and Naïve English speakers were recruited to participate in the experiment where the participants were to pronounce a series of three types of English words: common, rare, and made-up. The results showed that the Vietnamese learners performed slightly better on assigning the stress to the CV syllables, whereas the native speakers performed equally well on both types of syllable structure. We suggest that the preference for CV syllables by the Vietnamese learners may be because of the interference from the Vietnamese language, where words are monosyllabic, which leads to the prominence of the first syllable. Therefore we recommend the instruction of the notion of syllable weight in the teaching of pronunciation so that a better prosodic pattern may be learned

碩士
中原大學
應用華語文研究所
102
According to integration processes in modern society all over the world, language plays such a vital role in our daily communication; meanwhile, the current situation of foreign language learning in Vietnam, besides English, Chinese learning has become more and more common in almost university. However, for those Vietnamese learners who are familiar with Roman alphabet, Chinese characters that include shape, sound and meaning structure, will make Chinese characters learning becomes the toughest subject in Chinese learning course. For this reason, not only Vietnamese elementary level learners, beginning level learners also make Chinese characters errors. On the other hand, since the research that concern of Vietnamese learners learn Chinese characters is not too much, and these researches mostly focus on teaching methods of Chinese characters, lack of analyzing Chinese characters errors; therefore, by collecting, statisticing, classifying and analyzing Chinese characters errors of Vietnamese beginning level learners, and explore the reasons of errors; then design Chinese characters curriculum, textbook and provide teaching method of Chinese characters; perhaps enhance Vietnamese learners interest and motivation in Chinese characters learning, moreover reduce Chinese characters errors, so as to achieve satisfactory effect in both teaching and learning. Based on the above information, this research tried to explore from the angle of Chinese characters errors of Vietnamese beginning level learners, choosing a Case Study Research, through statisticing, classifying and analyzing Chinese characters errors, explore the reasons of errors. On the next step, in order to advance the effectiveness of Chinese characters learning, this research selects ADDIE Instructional Systems Design, by means of analyzing learning background and Chinese level of Vietnamese learners, design “Chinese Characters Errors Pretest and Posttest”, Chinese characters curriculum, textbook and “Chinese Characters Teaching Satisfaction Questionnaire”. Following that, apply both of Chinese characters curriculum and textbook into practical Chinese characters teaching. Finally, accommodate suggestions about Chinese characters textbook design and the effectiveness of practical Chinese characters teaching. The result of this research illustrates that Chinese characters errors of Vietnamese beginning level learners were divided into two types: component errors and stroke errors, and the rate of component errors are considerably higher than the rate of stroke errors. In addition, component errors include exchange component, increase and decrease component and change position of component; stroke errors involve increase and decrease stroke, extend stroke’s length and change shape of stroke. There are a variety of causes which can lead to these Chinese characters errors, such as: the feature of Chinese characters, the learning background and Chinese level of Vietnamese learners. Correspondingly, this research selects component teaching method, after introducing the meaning and the stroke’s sequence of component, through stroke’s order teacher gives information about Chinese characters and words that imply these components; from then on, through words construct sentences; by this method, learners based on context clues, improve Chinese characters knowledge. After seven weeks of Chinese characters curriculum, the learners performed significant progress; in “Learning Form” evaluation, it is found that the number of Chinese characters errors made a remarkable decline; in “Chinese Characters Errors Pretest and Posttest”, it is found that the percentage of errors in “Chinese Characters Errors Posttest” are far less than the percentage of errors in “Chinese Characters Errors Pretest”; in “Chinese Characters Teaching Satisfaction Questionnaire”, nearly all learners approve that Chinese characters textbook’s content and teacher’s Chinese characters teaching method of this curriculum are helpful for their Chinese characters learning, furthermore express that they are totally into Chinese characters curriculum and teacher’s Chinese characters teaching method. In conclusion, although researcher tried to make the substantial effort to improve the reliability and validity of this research, but there are still a several shortcomings that need to ameliorate. Hence, rely on the results and findings of the above-mentioned research, define suggestions for future research.

How to assist the child survivors of war is a problem. One of the most traumatic injuries a child can suffer is the loss or displacement of their care-givers. The practical details of what constitutes a helpful intervention are unknown. Beginning in 1975, a group from S.E. Asia, some children of war, traveled to the United States as unaccompanied refugee minors. One purpose of this study is to discover what inner strengths and external resources enabled these young people to create a viable life for themselves in a strange new culture. Another purpose of the study is to explore ways in which therapeutic approaches to working with dislocated children of war can be strengthened and informed. A sub-group of the unaccompanied minors is the Vietnamese Amerasians. Between 25 and 40,000 Vietnamese Amerasians were born to Vietnamese women and American servicemen between 1962 and 1975. An in depth, phenomenological interview was used to record the migration stories of these 11 children. The literature and the interviews supported the conclusion that a major predictor of positive adjustment was length of time the child had spent in the care of parents or parental substitutes before migration and the amount of stable foster care the child received after migration. Additionally, the child's relationship to institutions and case workers as adjunctive caretakers was also found to be a significant factor in adjustment. Finally, the methods employed in the case work required were divergent from the typical child welfare practice due to the importance of paying particular attention to culture and the meaning of “helping relationships” in the original culture.