Second language acquisition by native Chinese speakers

Abstract

English is the second language most widely learned by Chinese speakers in their native countries or overseas. This chapter focuses on the psycholinguistic research on the learning of English by native Chinese speakers who are immigrants in English-speaking countries. In comparison to English learners in their native countries, English learners in immigration settings experience a more variable English environment, and thus tend to exhibit larger individual differences in their learning speed and the proficiency level they attain in the long run. Therefore, studying English acquisition in immigration settings allows researchers to more fully document the processes by which language proficiency changes, identify persistent linguistic problems, and better understand the factors that impact on language proficiency.