Grammatical Development of Chinese among Non-native Speakers: From a Processability Account

This book marks an exciting contribution to the development and application of Processability Theory. It offers the reader an extensive overview and a critical discussion of the existing research into processability procedural skills, from Germanic to Asian and Arabic languages. It also develops a new perspective on the study of Chinese as a second language (CSL) acquisition, moving from theory to practice. The strength of this book lies not only in its innovative approach to CSL learning, but also in the potential practical applications of the approach to the development of the Chinese teaching syllabus and elicitation tasks. This research presented will benefit both learners and teachers. As a second language learner acquiring Chinese, this book will tell you how to facilitate the learning process in an easy and scientific way. As a teacher of Chinese, this book will help you to know what to teach, and how to teach it, and, importantly, will teach you how to understand learners’ language processing from a practical point of view.The book affords a unique insight into the Chinese processability hierarchy which delineates the universal processing trajectory of CSL learners. The research design and data analysis procedures, which are presented and explained clearly and thoroughly, constitute an original contribution to the growing research into Chinese language acquisition, and will pave the wave for future research in the field. The book will be of considerable interest to linguists working in the field of Processability Theory and will be enjoyed by both CSL learners and their teachers.