Performed Culture in Action to Teach Chinese as a Foreign Language

This volume explores best practices in implementing the Performed Culture Approach (PCA) in teaching Chinese as a foreign language (CFL). Offering a range of chapters that demonstrate how PCA has been successfully applied to curriculum, instructional design, and assessment in CFL programs and classrooms at various levels, this text shows how PCA's culture-focused paradigm differs fundamentally from the general communicative language teaching (CLT) framework and highlights how it can inspire innovative methods to better support learners' ability to navigate target culture and overcome communication barriers. Additional applications of PCA in the development of learner identity, intercultural competence, autonomy, and motivation are also considered. Bridging theoretical innovations and the practice of curriculum design and implementation, this work will be of value to researchers, teacher trainers, and graduate students interested in Chinese teaching and learning, especially those with an interest in incorporating performance into foreign language curriculums with the goal of integrating language and culture.

Jianfen Wang is an Associate Professor of Chinese and Asian Studies at Berea College, Berea, KY, USA. Junqing (Jessie) Jia is an Assistant Professor of Chinese in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures at Hamilton College, Clinton, NY, USA.

Introduction: Performed Culture as a Holistic, Embodied Approach to Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language Part I: Performed Culture in Goal Setting 1. Developing a PCA-Informed Learning Spiral for a Beginner-Level STARTALK Chinese Program [Yongfang Zhang] 2. Meaningful Local Immersion: Strategies to Help CFL Learners Perform the Target Culture Locally [Donald Newman and Chris Stellato] 3. Connecting International Students with the Local Community through a PCA-Informed Orientation Program [Xin Zhang and Cong Li] Part II: Performed Culture in Assessment 4. Sustaining a Newly-Established PCA-Based CFL Program: The Role of Formative Assessment and Grading [Jianfen Wang] 5. Implementing Dynamic Assessment in PCA-Based Second-Year Chinese Language Courses [Nan Meng] 6. Designing and Implementing the PCA Prochievement Oral Interview [Xizhen Qin and Jianfen Wang] Part III: Performed Culture in Material Development 7. Adapting and Supplementing Integrated Chinese for PCA-Informed Instruction [Donglin Chai] 8. Localizing Language Learning for Beginner-Level CFL Curricula [Junqing (Jessie) Jia] Part IV: Performed Culture in Instructional Design 9. Performing Transportation in the Lower-Level CFL Classroom [Litong Chen]10. Designing a Performance-Based Curriculum for Beginning Business Chinese to Enhance Students' Intercultural Competence[Bing Mu]11. Maximize Learners' Engagement with a Chinese Novel through Podcasting and Book Club Discussion [Zhini Zeng]12. Using Performed Culture Approach in an Online Chinese Language Program [Yunxin Zhang]