User:Wongoc/sandbox

CHINESE LANGUAGE

Article Evaluation

Overall Structure and Coverage:

The article is relevant and generally neutral.

The coverage of the article is well balanced providing information on various important aspects of the language.

The "lead section" is well presented and provides a clear and easy-to-understand overview of the language. The following details are introduced:

• The language family to which Chinese belongs
• Proportion of the world's population speaking Chinese
• Varieties or dialects of Chinese
• The regional groups for which the varieties represent
• The number of people spoken in each variety

Other topics are relevant and unbiased which are outlined below:

• "History" - background and development of Chinese language from its origin to the current status.
• "Influence" - the relationship and influence of Chinese language to other languages of neighboring countries.
• "Varieties" - The classification of several main dialect groups and their presence in China.
• "Writing" - spoken Chinese vs. written Chinese as well as traditional system vs. simplified system.
• "Phonology, Phonetic Transcriptions, Grammar and Morphology" - explanation and description of Chinese in terms of linguistics
• "Vocabulary and Loanwords" - facts and data given on the number of vocabulary. Examples are quoted for words imported from other languages as well as those shared among languages.
• "Education" - a brief section stating the growing interest in the study of Chinese

The topic of Chinese language is a comprehensive coverage. Not only it is covered in the article of "Chinese language", but also many other related articles linked to "Chinese language". The coverage is so extensive that almost all aspects of the language are discussed in details on a number of different articles of related topics. The links are useful tools to explore further meaning of the related topics in order to understand the language thoroughly. Examples of the links that are most relevant to the topics discussed in "Chinese language" are:

• The lead section - History of the Chinese language
• History - History of the Chinese language
• Varieties - Varieties of Chinese, Lists of countries where Chinese is an official language
• Writing - Written Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Chinese characters
• Phonology - Standard Chinese Phonology, Varieties of Chinese & Phonology
• Romanization - Romanization of Chinese
• Grammar and morphology - Chinese grammar, Chinese classifiers
• Loanwords - Transcription into Chinese characters
• Education - Chinese as a foreign language

Table and Diagram

There is supplementary information provided on the side of the article which is a quick and useful summary of certain important topics and data.

There is a breakdown of 10 varieties as well we its relevant presence on the map of China. These references are particularly useful because some readers of other background may find them confusing given the numerous varieties and regional groups in China.

Examples in tables showing the tones of Standard Mandarin and Standard Cantonese provide a clear and easy-to-understand presentation on syllable and tones. To some readers, the concept of different tones would be difficult to understand because the difference among tones is too subtle in many cases.

Citations

A few random checks were made on the source of reference cited on the article. The links work normally and connect to the citations and sources. In addition, these sources are mostly references from books of independent publishers which are considered reliable.

#8:   Handel, Zev (2008), "What is Sino-Tibetan? Snapshot of a Field and a Language Family in Flux", Language and Linguistics Compass, 2 (3): 422–441, doi:10.1111/j.1749-818X.2008.00061.x.

#18:  Norman, Jerry (1988), Chinese, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-29653-3.

#47:  Wurm, Stephen Adolphe; Li, Rong; Baumann, Theo; Lee, Mei W. (1987), Language Atlas of China, Longman, ISBN 978-962-359-085-3.

#55:  Mair, Victor H. (1991), "What Is a Chinese "Dialect/Topolect"? Reflections on Some Key Sino-English Linguistic terms" (PDF), Sino-Platonic Papers, 29: 1–31.

#77:   Xinhua News Agency, January 16, 2006.

Areas for Improvement

Citations -

There are certain parts of the article where citations are not provided. Contents in those sections, therefore, are not attributable to the sources. For example, the lead section is an important part of the article that lacks any citation.

While the coverage on history, influence and varieties provides relevant citations, the subsequent sections on writing, phonology, phonetic transcriptions, grammar and morphology, vocabulary and loanwords are not given sufficient citations of sources.

"Education" -

The last section is named "Education". However, coverage in this section focuses on the demand for learning Chinese language in the western world as well as the trend of foreign people taking the Chinese proficiency test. It does not provide any information directly on the education of Chinese language anywhere in the world. Therefore, more relevant information would be helpful to extend the contents on this topic.

Use of Improper Word -

The use of "until recently" is found under the topic of phonetic transcriptions. More specific data on timing should be used to avoid unclear presentation.

Sentence Structure and Grammar -

There are minor grammatical mistakes and sentence structure issues that can be revised for better understanding of the contexts.

Peer Review I - Japanese Language

Hi Cythirixs,

I've assigned Japanese language as the article for my peer review.

I agree that the article Japanese language is logical and unbiased as you said.

I've also found that there are links for related topics on other Wikipedia pages so the coverage in the article Japanese language is not extensive. The article of Chinese language which I'm working on also has the similar structure and there are many links directing to other related topics elsewhere. I think it happens to most major languages. But still the article provides sufficient information for an overview of some important aspects, its background and development of the language.

The additions you've made on the changes to phonetics sections and dialect section are clear and unbiased. I've also checked that the links #9, 43, 44 work and the sources are reliable references.

Thank you and good luck to your exam next week.

Best,

Wongoc

Education

According to the Modern Language Association, there were 550 elementary, junior high and senior high schools providing Chinese programs in the United States in 2015, which represented a 100% increase in two years. At the same time, enrollment in Chinese language classes at college level had an increase of 51% from 2002 to 2015. On the other hand, the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages also had figures suggesting 30,000 - 50,000 students were studying Chinese in 2015.

More than half a million Chinese students pursued post-secondary education overseas in 2016, whereas 400,000 international students came to China for higher education. Tsinghua University hosted 35,000 students from 116 countries in 2016.

With the increase in demand for Chinese as a second language, there are 330 institutions teaching Chinese language globally according to the Chinese Ministry of Education. The establishment of Confucius Institutes, which are the public institutions affiliated with the Ministry of Education of China, aims at promoting Chinese language and culture as well as supporting Chinese teaching overseas. There were more than 480 Confucius Institutes worldwide as of 2014.

Peer Review II - Mandarin Chinese

Hi Yulu,

I've assigned Mandarin Chinese as the article for my peer review.

The article on Mandarin Chinese is balanced and neutral. Topics are relevant to the language, its background and development. The overall structure is clear and appropriate. I tried on a few links and they all work as cited. These are #5, 10, 14, 20 and 39, and the references are from reliable sources.

Noted that you've added contents on the history of Standard Chinese. That is an useful part providing further information on how Mandarin is developed. The additions you've made under vocabulary and grammar are also helpful with the examples provided.

Thank you and good luck to your exam next week.

Best,

Wongoc