Rob has spent the last two decades engaging with Mandarin as a learner, teacher and researcher. His research focusses on the learning and teaching of Mandarin at schools with a particular focus on the intelligibility of young beginner learners of Mandarin. Rob hopes that Mandarin will increasingly be seen as a school subject that can be taken by learners from all backgrounds and all learning capabilities, as well as a vehicle for raising aspirations and opening opportunities.
Rob Neal
Departmental Lecturer in Modern Language Education (Mandarin)
About me
Research
Publication
- Neal, R. (2025). Intelligibility, tones and young beginner learners of Mandarin Chinese. London and New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003251286
- Neal, R. (2022). How do L1 Chinese raters process the L2 Chinese speech signal at the sentence level with respect to accentedness, comprehensibility and intelligibility? Chinese as a second language research. 11(2), 233-288. https://doi.org/10.1515/caslar-2022-2003
- Neal, R. (2020). Knocking tones off their perch: investigating the intelligibility of Anglophone beginner learners of Chinese at two secondary schools in the North of England. [Doctoral dissertation, The University of Cambridge]. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.61921
- Neal, R. (2018). Investigating the intelligibility of Anglophone young beginner learners of Mandarin Chinese. In F. Diamantidaki, L. Pan, & K. Carruthers (Eds.), Mandarin Chinese teacher education: issues and solutions (pp. 126-142). London: UCL Institute of Education Press.
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Pan, L., Neal, R., Tykesrud, P., & Carruthers, K. (2018). Chinese teachers as researchers: using research as a tool to improve practice. In F. Diamantidaki, L. Pan, & K. Carruthers (Eds.), Mandarin Chinese teacher education: issues and solutions (pp. 102 – 125). London: UCL Institute of Education Press.