Design for the Intermediate-level Oral CSL Class in the Postmethod Era

Abstract

The main purpose of the oral Chinese class is to improve students’ Chinese speaking ability, which includes not only the speaking accuracy, fluency and complexity of Chinese language, but also the communicative ability in the Chinese social and cultural context. Second language teaching pedagogy has entered into a Postmethod era from the previous grammar-translation, audio-lingual, and communicative method etc. Under this background, this paper explores how to design the intermediate-level oral Chinese as a second language (CSL) class in the Postmethod era. Kumaravadivelu’s (2003) Postmethod pedagogy, specifically the ten macrostrategies were adopted as the basis for the design of the intermediate-level oral CSL class. The exact tasks and activities such as quick share, speech-making, and cooperative activities are designed and scheduled in a detail for the students to improve their Chinese proficiency. The whole design should have some help and shed some lights on the oral CSL class teaching and learning in China.