Forms of World Literature and the Taipei Poetry Festival

In poetry anthologies and works of literary criticism, the authority to select which literature can become “world” literature often lies with a single editor or theorist. This essay contrasts those centralizations of authority with the more egalitarian structure of international poetry festivals. Using the 2016 Taipei Poetry Festival as an example, the essay reads the impact of the form of the festival on its audience’s experience of translation, the local in the transnational, and intercultural solidarity. The essay then argues that boredom is a formal flaw in contemporary festivals, and advocates that translations be performed in local vernaculars

Does a 3D immersive experience enhance Mandarin writing by CSL students?

This study aimed at enhancing the Mandarin essay writing by learners of Chinese as a second language (CSL) in Singapore by using authentic contexts in Second Life (SL). The participants were students in two classes of eighth graders from a junior high school in Singapore, and the study lasted for 5 weeks. A quasi-experimental design was adopted by randomly assigning the two classes to the experimental group (N=26) or the control group (N = 34). The two groups received identical writing instructions and were asked to write essays about identical topics within an identical time period. The only difference between the two groups was the activities performed at the prewriting stage: with or without immersive exploration in SL. Three kinds of qualitative data were collected and analyzed: students’ writing plans, students’ compositions, and in-class observation data. The analysis results show that the writing motivation and performance of the CSL students varied depending on whether or not they performed immersive exploration before writing. Those who explored the authentic contexts in SL before writing performed significantly better at constructing a prewriting plan and exhibited significantly higher writing quality compared to those without such an immersive experience. The former group also demonstrated higher motivation

Beliefs in advance care planning among Chinese Americans: Similarities and differences between the younger and older generations

The purpose of this research is to explore behavioral, normative, and control beliefs in the discussion of advance care planning (ACP) among older and younger Chinese Americans. Ethnic minority groups have been identified as less engaged in ACP and this represents an ethnic and cultural gap. Older Chinese American adults often have different beliefs and values compared to the younger generation who are more acculturated to American mainstream culture. These differences may hinder the discussion of ACP with Chinese older adults. A qualitative design was used. The Theory of Planned Behavior guided the development of the interview guide. We recruited 60 Chinese Americans. Prior experience was identified as a theme that influenced attitudes about ACP. We found that older and younger Chinese participants had different beliefs in the norm and control related to ACP discussions, but not in the belief of attitudes about ACP discussions. Both younger and older Chinese American participants believed that ACP was important and necessary. Participants in both clusters expressed that they were ready and willing to engage in ACP discussions with their family members but hesitant to initiate these discussions. The reluctance in discussing ACP with Chinese older adults may be related to the expectations and obligations of Xiao (filial piety) in Chinese culture. This study describes the similarities and differences of beliefs in ACP between older and younger Chinese Americans. We identified barriers and facilitators in behavioral, normative, and control beliefs that can be used to promote ACP for Chinese Americans

How non-native speakers make do with words when doing things with words : an analysis of communication strategies in storytelling by Mandarin-speaking learners of English

This study employs a conversation analysis (CA) approach, which is concerned with the analysis of closely transcribed examples of actual talk recorded in naturally occurring settings. The study aims to describe and analyse sequences of actions generated by Native Speakers( NS) and Non-Native Speaker( NNS) in the course of telling a story. Emergent communication problems during the talk-in-interaction were engaged with and resolved through the application of communication strategies (CS). The storyteller and her/his co-participants utilized CS in an attempt not only to overcome communication difficulties so as to reach mutual understanding, but also to co-ordinate their actions with each other, or to enhance sufficient participant engagement in order to accomplish communication goals. In addition, the range of CS used by NS and NNS during ongoing discourses are identified, illustrated, and analysed. The differences and similarities in the way NS and NNS approach interactional tasks are examined. In addition, CS descriptions from the literature and this study are compared. CS categories and functions in the present study are shown to be more diverse and broader in shape. The conceptualisation of CS proposed in this study is thus richer than that proposed in the previous CS literature. The empirical investigation undertaken in this study shows that CS function not only as problem-solving devices or meaning-negotiation strategies, but also as meaning-creating and communication-enhancing strategies

Multimodal Resources in Turn-Taking in Semi-Institutional Mandarin Multiparty Interactions

This study investigates the utilization of multimodal resources in organizing turn-taking during multiparty interactions in a Mandarin talk show. By applying multimodal conversation analysis and interactional linguistics to 5.8 hours of impromptu talk show data, the study reveals that the chair and the other participants orient to their dual roles, both institutional and real-life, to configure a semi-institutional setting. Besides, the multimodal resources can be effectively used by the participants, i.e., the host and the guests, to manage contingencies during turn-taking, including visible cues, embodied movements, and pragmatic (in)completion. The findings contribute to our understanding of the dynamics of turn-taking in semi-institutional settings and shed light on the interplay of multimodal resources in larger group conversations. The research expands the existing literature on multiparty institutional conversations in Mandarin

Form and Function of Connectives in Chinese Conversational Speech

Connectives convey discourse functions that provide textual and pragmatic information in speech communication on top of canonical, sentential use. This paper proposes an applicable scheme with illustrative examples for distinguishing Sentential, Conclusion, Disfluency, Elaboration, and Resumption uses of Mandarin connectives, including conjunctions and adverbs. Quantitative results of our annotation works are presented to gain an overview of connectives in a Mandarin conversational speech corpus. A fine-grained taxonomy is also discussed, but it requires more empirical data to approve the applicability. By conducting a multinomial logistic regression model, we illustrate that connectives exhibit consistent patterns in positional, phonetic, and contextual features oriented to the associated discourse functions. Our results confirm that the position of Conclusion and Resumption connectives orient more to positions in semantically, rather than prosodically, determined units. We also found that connectives used for all four discourse functions tend to have a higher initial F0 value than those of sentential use. Resumption and Disfluency uses are expected to have the largest increase in initial F0 value, followed by Conclusion and Elaboration uses. Durational cues of the preceding context enable distinguishing Sentential use from discourse uses of Conclusion, Elaboration, and Resumption of connectives