Intercultural language learning

activities in

the Chinese language classroom

Joanne Chen2015

Objetives

By the end of this presentation we’ll have… Experienced intercultural activities

Identified a framework to introduce intercultural activities in the classroom

1. The rise of international students from countries all over the world.

2. US classrooms are more and more like international schools in 2015.

3. Great opportunity to learn other culture 4. The study of non-verbal aspects of

communication5. Community connection

Why there is a need to take an intercultural

perspective in language teaching?

Artefact -Any construction of the human being

Fact - Elements of a country’s culture (history, art, institutions, music) and way of life.

Nature of the educational effect: behavior, beliefs, perceptions expressed to language and determine the acceptance (sometimes rejection) of a person in the host community.

Intercultural framework:

Who is attending Chinese classes today?

ChineseBackground Speaker

Speakers of other

languagesNative English speaker

Five Principles ofIntercultural Language Learning

Active Construction (thinking skills, solving problems)

Making Connections (of one’s existing conceptions)

Social interaction Reflection ( identity one’s thoughts and

feelings) Responsibility (for better understanding

oneself)

Before we start the activities:

1. Individualism / collaboration 2. Level of students 3. Logical Sequence4. Space and Budget 5. Link to the language lessons 6. Support from others

Crossing culture: example 1, popular terms

Crossing culture: example 2

美國 TAXI 英國 TAXI TAXI 拉丁美洲

出租車 計程車 的士

Crossing culture: example 3, holidays

Easter-USA Korean New YearJapanese New Year

Chinse New YearChinese Moon Festival Japanese Moon Rabbit

Noticing Activity Watch the video: Made in China –Factory

of the World What are the three things you learn from

the video that you did not know before? https://youtu.be/WlSHo61nRWw

Questions you may use:Where is the event taking place?What is happening?Who are the people involved?Why do they do these activities?

If this took place in your country… What would happen? Who would be there? What would they wear? What would people do?

Video Watching

Activity: Acting Greetings

How do people give business cards in Taiwan /Japan/USA?

Practice giving your business cards to your colleagues

Why (do you think) are business cards given in Japan the way that way?

How did you feel giving the business cards the Japanese way?

Activity: Drama / Story Telling

Group students in small group of 3-4 Giving each a reading material – story

from other counties Have each group act out a different story (for example - 嫦娥奔月 和 亞當夏娃 ) Asking students how did they feel being in

a different culture situation

Writing activity:Experiencing “Haiku” ---Create A bilingual poem

Haiku is 17 syllabus which are broken into 3 line, 5, 7, and 5 words per line

中國人吃飯吃很多很多很多喝茶喝很多

Activity: Quiz and Game

Cultural information can be delivered through quiz or game

Formats: Online, Paper, in-class activity A way of assessing student’s learning

outcomes

Activity: Small Group Discussion 1

In you culture, do you have special festivals or holiday? What are they?

What are they tradition?

What are the food associated with these festivals or holidays?

Activity: Small Group Discussion 2

Can you describe one of the Chinese Festivals from the presentation -

What are they?

What are they tradition?

What are the food associated with these festivals or holidays?

Processes Analyzing

What information did you learn?

How are the actions performed?

Why are these information the way they are?

What did you feel/think about practicing these activities?

Raise cultural awarenessWhat? How?

Information of the cultural aspects.Information about the actions.

The actual action, conditions and context

Why? Self

Explanations for the actions.Cultural understanding

FeelingsReasoningAdaptingAssimilatingRejecting

Reflection

How would this activity benefit our students?