Intercultural language learning activities in the Chinese language classroom Joanne Chen 2015

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 Great opportunity to learn other culture 4.The study of non-verbal aspects of communication 5.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? Chinese Background Speaker Speakers of other languages Native English speaker

Five Principles of Intercultural 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 Sequence 4.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 Year Japanese New Year Chinse New Year Chinese 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? 

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 awareness What?How? Information of the cultural aspects. Information about the actions. The actual action, conditions and context Why?Self Explanations for the actions. Cultural understanding Feelings Reasoning Adapting Assimilating Rejecting

Reflection How would this activity benefit our students?