Teacher Discussion Forums

Hi, Guys! I am doing some reserach about chinese students' communicative competence. I would like to hear your opinions, thank you for your participation.
(1) How do you think chinese students' communicative competence generally?
a. competent b. fair c. uncompetent
(2) What do you think is chinese students' weakest skill in communication?
a. listening b. understanding c. pronuncation d. fluency
(3) Chinese students are lack of confidence and the cultrual knowledge.
a. disagree b. uncertain c. agree
waiting for your answers

Pretty tough to answer such generalizations. Were you talking about Chinese students in China? or in an English-speaking environment? Are you talking about kids of a certain age? or college students? or adults?

I am interested in Chinese adult learners in a English-speaking environment.
Thank you!

I am interested in Chinese adult learners in a English-speaking environment.
Thank you!

Hmm, I teach Chinese-speaking adults from many different countries (not just China). Some of them have been here a couple weeks, and some of them have been here over twenty years. Needless to say, their competencies differ depending on how long they've been here, what kind of job they have, and whether they speak English outside the classroom. I personally haven't noticed "lack of confidence and cultural knowledge" to be any more or less than students from other non-English speaking backgrounds.

As for skills, I'm not sure what the difference is between listening and understanding. Not being able to understand fast American speech is a problem common to all my students (which is why I spend a lot of time on it!) In general, speakers of Mandarin are better able to approximate an "acceptable" pronunciation than are speakers of Cantonese, although it's a generalization and doesn't apply to all of them. It could also be partly a function of the number of years spent in school in the native language, as well as current age. There are so many variables to consider.