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Arab World English Journal (AWEJ) Volume 15. Number 4, December 2024 Pp. 225-240
School of Foreign Studies, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, China
School of Foreign Studies, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, China
The localized English version of Chinese cultural material has played an essential role in spreading Chinese culture worldwide. However, insufficient attention had been paid to the readability of Chinese cultural reading materials, and far less to the readability of Chinese cultural reading materials for middle school students. The readability of Chinese cultural reading materials was calculated based on a self-created corpus, considering various factors such as vocabulary, sentence structure, and comprehensive indicators to analyze the readability of these materials in English quantitatively. Two questions were addressed: 1) To what degree are the current Chinese stories in English readable to middle school students; 2) What readability of Chinese stories in English is ideal for middle school students? The results indicated significant variations in readability among the five sets. It also recognized the need for further adjustments and development of the textbooks to better align with students’ grade levels and curriculum requirements. Moreover, it is crucial to enhance students’ engagement with Chinese culture via textbooks. It helped demonstrate the lack of sufficient attention to the readability of Chinese stories in English, and it inspired future Chinese cultural texts designed for middle school students to possess good adaptability in terms of readability.
Su, Y., Li, X., Dong, S., Dai, Y., Mohammed, A. S. A., Liu, S., & Jia, M. (2024). Corpus-based Readability Assessment of Chinese Cultural Textbooks for Middle School Students from an English Glocalization Perspective. Arab World English Journal, 15(4):225-240.
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Yujie Su received her Ph.D. in English linguistics at Chonnam National University in South Korea. She is currently a lecturer at the School of Foreign Studies at Wenzhou University. She has published articles on teachings and language research, covering topics of contrastive study between Chinese and other languages, corpus-based studies of vocabulary, online writing automatic correction and other linguistic-related issues. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1444-1598
Xueyan Li received her MA. in English Education at Zhejiang Normal University. She is a lecturer at Wenzhou University (China). She is an experienced teacher in child English education and college English education. She has published papers on higher education and teacher development in many journals. Email: Kykiwen@wzu.edu.cn
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-9097-4720
Shuchang Dong, a BA holder, graduated from the School of Foreign Studies at Wenzhou University. His research interests include translation from English to Chinese and from Chinese to English. Email: 1740627301@qq.com
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-5017-6624
Yuqing Dai is a ME candidate conducting her research on EFL teaching and learning. Moreover, she attended and participated in various conferences and workshops. Email: daiyuqing@stu.wzu.edu.cn ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-2768-8507
Altayeb Salih Ahmed Mohammed is an ME candidate and overseas student conducting his research on corpus linguistics and the contrastive study of EFL and ESL in China and Sudan. He also has participated in various conferences and workshops. Email: altayeb@stu.wzu.edu.c ORCID: https://orcid.org/ 0009-0003-3004-8662
Liu Shanshan holds a Master of Education and graduated from the School of Foreign Languages at Wenzhou University. His research interest is English teaching methods. Email: 2653886423@qq.com
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-4674-1381
Meiqi Jia (ME) is a postgraduate student at the School of Foreign Studies at Wenzhou University. Her research interests include EFL teaching and learning. Email: 2307995546@qq.com
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7741-790X