This book reports the results of an ethnographic study, focusing primarily on the experiences of four teachers of the Chinese language in Australian secondary schools. The author creates an audience for their voices as they reflect on their own understandings of culture, language teaching, and culture in language teaching through semi-structured interviews, and compares these reflections with written stimulus dialogues designed to elicit 'culture-in-language' reflections, as well as curriculum and policy documents produced by the Australian government. The book's findings indicate that teachers of the Chinese language are diverse in their views on culture, language teaching, and the ways in which culture can or should inform language teaching, and the author argues that language teacher intercultural competence cannot be assessed through a synthesis of the current English-only research literature. This book will be of interest to teachers and teacher trainers of Chinese as a foreign language, as well as students and scholars of applied linguistics and language education more broadly.
Author(s): Scott Smith
Series: Palgrave Studies in Teaching and Learning Chinese
Publisher: Palgrave Pivot
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 150
City: Cham
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Chapter 1: Who is Teaching Who What? Chinese as a Foreign Language Teaching in Australian Schools
Why This Book?
Contextual Background to the Book: The Status of Chinese as a Foreign Language in Australia
Teacher Interviews
Intercultural Competence
Who is Teaching Who What?
A New Metaphor: Building a House or a Home?
Numbers of Students of Chinese
Numbers of Students of Year 12 Chinese Courses
Comparisons between Languages
References
Chapter 2: Intercultural Competence as a Goal of Language Learning: What Are Chinese Teachers Doing with Culture?
The Survey
Culture in Language Pedagogy
Teacher Voices
On Being a ‘Native Speaker’
Caught Between Two Worlds
A Way to Conceptualise Relationships Between Self, Culture, and Identity
Are Previous Culture Teaching Models Being Perpetuated?
References
Chapter 3: A Way to Discover Culture in Language
Teacher Voices
SD1: Responding to Compliments in Chinese
Summary
SD2: Asking for Directions from a Stranger in Chinese
Summary
SD3: Being Called a ‘foreigner’
Summary
SD4: The Use of Titles When Greeting Others
Summary
SD5: The Eating Greeting
Summary
Conclusion
References
Chapter 4: Teacher Voices on Thoughts About Language and Culture Teaching
Personal Background and School Context
General Beliefs About Culture
Beliefs About Culture and Language Teaching
Interculturality and Pedagogy
Teacher Jiang
Teacher Chen
Teacher Song
Teacher Fan
Conclusion
References
Chapter 5: The Way Forward
Appropriateness of a Western Intercultural Competence Model
Dominance of Visible Culture
Pedagogical Diversity
Playing the Role of Gatekeeper
Recent Studies and Their Contributions to This Discussion
Reading Strategies in L2 Chinese Learning
Oral Corrective Feedback
Motivation
Limitations and Implications/Recommendations for Further Research
Recommendations
Further Research
References
Appendix A: Online Survey for CFL Teachers
References
Appendix B: Interview Questions (Part A)
Index
