Introduction: Prepared by Min-Min Liang
The Contemporary Chinese Writers Website Project centers on a series of scholarly websites featuring prominent contemporary Chinese writers from China, Taiwan, and the Chinese Diaspora. There has been a tremendous number of visits to the website since it went live in mid-March 2010. However, the project team understands that reading literature in its original language still poses a major challenge to Chinese language learners. Language instructors usually don’t introduce literature until students are at the advanced level, thus delaying a rich engagement with contemporary writers whose skills and insights could become rich material for less advanced learners to grapple with on their way to more advanced mastery. One of the project’s goals has been to bridge the gap between language class and literature class and at the same time to shift the class dynamic from teacher-centered approach to student-centered approach so students will become more active participants in their learning. To facilitate this, the project team believes it is critical to look at new approaches that can help instructors design a curriculum of reading literature at the intermediate level.
The following are some tips/steps for using the website as a resource in the language classroom, developed by the website project co-director, Min-Min Liang.
The female writer, Li Ang 李昂, is used as an example:
Stage I.
Before Class: (input and scaffolding)
- Students will be assigned to read one section of the work by Li Ang in English translation. The instructor can use the website to find the collection of her work in English translation and carefully select a story that is easy for students to follow the plot. Since the story at this stage of instruction is in English translation, the assigned pages can be longer than four pages but should not be the whole story. Also, students should be asked to look up specific English words in the story and find their Chinese counterparts.
- Assign students to watch one or two short interview video clips of Li Ang which are available on the website. The interviews were conducted in Chinese so inform students to do their best to comprehend the interview’s content. It’s not necessary to understand every word; instead, students should focus on understanding a general idea of the subject. The instructor should create a listening guide for students.
In Class: (active learning)
- Students will discuss their thoughts about their reading in groups and then present the results from the group discussion to the class in Chinese. Students will be asked to use their new vocabulary. During the discussion, students will see the similarities and differences in each interpretation of the topic. Since all discussions are conducted in Chinese, students will not only gain knowledge of vocabulary, but also learn to verbally express a sophisticated idea in Chinese language. The role of the instructor should just be as an information resource to students, not the center of the classroom. The instructor will go around the classroom to check on each group’s progress.
- Students will synthesize the conclusions of the group discussion in Chinese and post the written results on a designated place on the website, such as discussion forums or blogs after the class. The goal is to challenge students’ writing skill, and since it is a group work, the focus will not be on individual students, and which can relieve some of the anxiety for individual language learners.
Stage II.
Before Class: (synthesize and analyze the content)
Students will read the written results posted by other groups and each student will post his/her comment about the result.
In Class: (cooperative learning and applying)
- Students will read a small section of the work by Li Ang in the original language in small groups. This section of the work has to be part of the English translation that students read earlier. In this way, students will have an overview of the content and the vocabulary they have acquired in the earlier reading. The original passage should be just one or two paragraphs because the focus is on the language and sentence patterns. Note, this is the second time for students to read the same story and actually learn the writing in a different language. The learning focuses on a more technical level, such as the usage of the vocabulary and the construction of the sentence. A long reading assignment could defeat this purpose.
- While reading passages, ask students to think about what they have read earlier in the class. Students naturally will encounter more grammatical questions and vocabulary. Ask students to write those questions down.
- Ask students to write these technical questions on the board, and the instructor will explain these questions later. The goal is to encourage students to think independently and formulate questions on their own.
Stage III.
Before Class: (creating and applying)
- Ask the same group to do a collaborative project—imitating the writer’s style to write a different ending of the sections that they read. Instructors should encourage students to use newly learned vocabulary as much as they can.
- Groups will post their story endings on a designated place on the website.
- Students will read the endings posted by other groups.
In Class: (Evaluation)
- Students will nominate the best endings and explain the reasons behind the nomination.
- A reflection on what they have learned from this exercise ends the process.
The learning process matches Benjamin Bloom’s Taxonomy of Cognitive Domain: Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating and Creating (order from the basic tier to the highest one).
The overall goals:
- Facilitate students to assess their own language skills.
- Promote active learning and problem solving skills by encouraging interaction among students (à la Richard Felder).
- Expose students to different styles of writing with authentic material that does not overwhelm them at the same time.
- Apply their learning in a novel situation.