Defining and Assessing Chinese Syntactic Complexity via TC-Units

This book is a cutting-edge exploration of Chinese syntactic complexity by introducing a Chinese-language-specific approach, and providing a clear rationale and methodology for gauging syntactic complexity development along proficiency increase. It informs research and practice on assessment, proficiency scale and rubric descriptors, and task design for different language performances. This book appeals to a broad audience of researchers, not only those focused on Chinese and other Asian languages but also linguists, applied linguists, and language educators interested in understanding and measuring complexity.

Introduction.- Defining and Assesing Chinese Syntactic Complexity.- Chinese syntactic complexity and task influences .- Development of Chinese syntactic complexity.- Teaching Chinese syntactic complexity.- Conclusions.

Qiaona Yu is Associate Professor of Chinese at Wake Forest University, North Carolina, USA. Her research specializes in Chinese as a second language acquisition, Task-Based Language Teaching, Language for Specific Purposes, technology-assisted language learning, and cognitive linguistics. Qiaona has published first author articles in Journals including Applied Linguistics, Global Business Languages, Research In Higher Education as well as book chapters with publishers including Cambridge University Press, Routledge and Springer. She reviews for journals including Language Learning, System, IRAL, Chinese as a Second Language and currently serves on the editorial board of Foreign Language Annals. She has received research grants from the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) and the US Department of Education. She is also currently serving as Board of Director of Chinese Language Teacher Association (CLTA), USA.