Chinese As A Foreign Language Teachers Research Articles

“For me, it is important to maintain self while adapting.” Understanding Chinese foreign language teachers’ identity in an intercultural context

ABSTRACT This qualitative exploratory study addresses how Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) teachers perceive their identity in an intercultural context in the Netherlands. In this study with twenty-one native Chinese-speaking language teachers, empirical data was collected through semi-structured interviews. Foucault’s poststructuralist view of identity is employed to conceptualize teachers’ identity. The findings show teachers’ perceptions of their identity are shaped by their cultural and educational background, as well as their teaching experiences in an intercultural context. CFL teachers’ professional identity adapts during the process of interacting with students from another cultural background. Although CFL teachers sometimes struggle during this process of transformation, they generally showed willingness to adjust. The findings indicated that even if teachers’ identity reconstruction is inevitable in the cross-cultural setting, most CFL teachers hold onto their primary Chinese identity. Implications for teacher professional development and teaching Chinese in intercultural settings are discussed, for instance, the need for pedagogical courses that fit the Dutch educational context and consider the Chinese language’s specific features, and for the creation of a collaborative CFL teaching community.

A Q methodological study into pre-service Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) teachers’ mindsets about teaching competencies

Abstract A teacher’s mindset significantly affects their engagement, development, teaching quality, and well-being. This is crucial for pre-service teachers acquiring competencies for effective teaching. While research often focuses on English language teaching in Western contexts, little explores non-Western language teaching mindsets. Given the intersections of associated social, cultural, and linguistic variables with mindset, this study investigates Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) pre-service teachers’ mindsets on teaching competencies. The study utilized Q methodology, which is a philosophical and conceptual framework for examining subjectivity, and post-sort questionnaires with 39 pre-service teachers in China. The research findings provide important insights into the diverse and contradictory mindsets of pre-service CFL teachers, and the ideologies influencing beliefs as to what constitutes effective language teaching in the Chinese socio-cultural and socio-political context, providing insights into how teacher training programs need to be tailored to challenge and extend the complex mindsets held by pre-service language teachers.

Effective character teaching methods for L1 English Chinese-as-a-foreign-language learners

Abstract Chinese character instruction has been one of the most challenging aspects in teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL). CFL teachers need access to a pool of effective character teaching methods to practice evidence-based and research-informed teaching. This synthesis study comprises an exhaustive search of literature published from 1952 to the present on character instruction for L1 English CFL learners and a systematic review of 22 articles identified through that search. The articles were cross analyzed in terms of research methods, learners’ proficiency levels, learning settings, methodological approaches, and theoretical bases. The analysis found an increasing number of studies on character teaching methods in the past ten years and that technology plays an important role in the design of these methods. Six categories of character instructional methods were identified out of the 39 methods examined in the literature. Within five of the categories, effective methods were identified, described, and discussed. Analysis of the data points out the strengths and weaknesses of the current research on character teaching and highlights the need for more research on character learning with younger learners and on using different approaches at the curriculum level. This article concludes by identifying the next steps to take and calling for more action research to examine the application cycle of these effective methods in classroom teaching.

Chinese Education at Confucius Institutes in Belgium: A Pedagogical and Socio-Cultural Perspective

This poster presents the overview and the first step of the PhD project Chinese Education at Confucius Institutes in Belgium: A Pedagogical and Socio-Cultural Perspective. In recent decades, the enhanced globalization (Badwan, 2021) and mobility (McWilliams, 2008) have increased the complexity in foreign language classrooms in multilingual contexts (Bonnet & Siemund, 2018). It is thus worthwhile to explore the dynamics among diverse pedagogical and socio-cultural factors in real-life practices of foreign language education. Situating this issue in Belgium, this project investigates Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) education at local Confucius Institutes (CIs), aiming to provide insights into educational approaches at CIs as designed; delivered and received by different stakeholders (administrators, teachers, and learners). In the sections of Project Overview and Research Design of the poster, the key information on the project is summarized. First of all, Research questions identify the scope of the research, probing mainly in the following directions: What are the gaps between actual local educational practices at CIs in Belgium and CIs’ official educational objectives? To what extent does the teaching of CFL at CIs reflect Belgian learners’ socio-cultural backgrounds? What are the pedagogical and managerial practices exerted at CIs in Belgium? How do these pedagogical and managerial practices interact with local socio-cultural contexts? It is evident from the Research questions that the project mainly focuses on the potential misalignment between official objectives and on-site practices of management, teaching, and learning at CIs in Belgium, as well as the interplay of local socio-cultural factors (e.g., language conflicts, language ideology) in such educational contexts. In regard to Methodology, a mixed methods approach is chosen for data collection, in order to tackle the research questions from both qualitative and quantitative perspectives. A variety of data collection instruments including interviews, classroom observations, and a survey questionnaire are applied among three main target groups, namely, administrators, CFL teachers, and CFL learners at CIs in Belgium. The section on Research design then synthesizes the key information of the project in a multilayered structure. At the outer layer, the official objectives of CIs are examined through document analysis. The inner layers of Administrators, Teachers, and Learners are then studied by employing fitted data collection instruments, with the foci on the status quo and the relevant socio-cultural factors. For example, the target group of teachers triggers the research on local socio-cultural contexts of CFL teaching, and the current teaching methods and classroom practices conducted by the CFL teachers at CIs in Belgium. Hence, interview and classroom observation data are collected to analyze these aspects. The next section on First Step of the Project provides general information on the initial systematic review of the project, which is a review of post-2010 literature on the administration at CIs around the globe. In the total research project, it is situated at the inner layer of Administrators of Research Design, acting as a preparatory study for the empirical research on administrators at CIs in Belgium, in order to tackle Research question ① and ③. The aim of this systematic review is to examine the actual managerial practices at CIs in different areas, especially regarding the misalignment of CIs’ official objectives in local institutions. The article selection routine follows the PRISMA guidelines (Page, M. J. et al., 2021) with “Confucius Institutes/CIs” as the search term. 347 articles were selected with research foci in seven categories and cases from 46 countries/regions. Relevant contents of the selected articles are then extracted for Thematic analysis, based on which a Coding tree of themes with three levels of generalization is constructed in the section of Present Findings. Level 1 of the coding tree is developed from the research aim of the systematic review, namely, to map CIs’ official status (Overview of CIs' management) and CIs’ actual managerial practices (successes, problems, and suggestions), which are then deconstructed. The practical sides of CIs’ management are categorized in the three most relevant aspects of Management, Education, and Intercultural communication at Level 2. Themes for further analysis surface at Level 3 and stand for the most prominent messages of the upper-level categories. For instance, the Level 3 theme “Lack of local socio-cultural concern” reflects one aspect of key information of the Level 1 and Level 2 categories “Problems of CIs' management – Management”. Finally, the Conclusion section of the poster states the strengths of the research project and the next step following the first step. The project is encompassing educational research collecting data from multiple sources, and the output might improve the localization of CFL education and intercultural understanding of such global educational institutions. The ensuing step of the project will be the systematic reviews of the other two target groups of teachers and learners as well as their practices at CIs.

When East meets West: A practitioner inquiry of culturally responsive pedagogy in an Australian Chinese as a Foreign Language classroom

AbstractA nuanced description of “what” (the curriculum) and “how” (the pedagogy) to teach in Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) education remains unexplored in existing scholarship. This paper addresses this paucity by undertaking a practitioner inquiry to explore the intersection of Eastern pedagogy and Western students in an Australian CFL classroom, with the aim of improving classroom practice and enhancing low socio‐economic status (SES) students’ learning experiences. Ten language lessons were segmented into phases and analyzed within the parameter of classification and framing theorized by Bernstein. An analysis of research journals and students’ focus groups shows culturally responsive pedagogy integrating constructivist and traditional Chinese approaches to teaching has the potential of inducting underprivileged students into knowledge about curriculum and language, providing them with linguistic capital and high aspirations for the future. Pedagogically, this article offers insights for CFL teachers to mediate Chinese and Western teaching beliefs and education schemas; practically, the findings glimpse the ways in which CFL education can be discursively constructed as a cultural agenda that (re)shapes the educational experiences of underprivileged students and mobilizes them into critical hopes that can be acted upon. This paper has important implications for foreign language theory building and for responding to the “back to basics” curriculum approach in schools serving disadvantaged communities.

The development and validation of a C-test and a pseudo-character test for online CFL assessment

Abstract Taking inspiration from a popular online English test, this study first documents the development of an achievement test containing a newly developed C-test and pseudo-character test for beginner-level Chinese learners. Then, based on the test results collected from 53 university learners and using statistical tools, analyses were conducted on its content validity, construct validity, criterion-related validity, difficulty, discrimination power, and reliability. Results indicate that this new achievement test has relatively satisfactory reliability and validity, with only minor issues that need to be addressed in future studies. Situated in the context of language assessment, the study sheds light on the application of the C-test and a pseudo-character section in both face-to-face and at-distance Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) classrooms. Furthermore, the study also provides practical and applicable methods for CFL teachers to develop their own assessments.

Novice Chinese as a foreign language teachers' identity construction in primary schools in New Zealand from positioning and affordance perspectives.

While there has been an increase in research on Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) teachers' identity worldwide, limited attention has been drawn to CFL teachers' positioning and affordances to interpret their identity construction in an overseas context. To fill the gap, this study investigated seven novice CFL teachers' identity construction as Chinese language teachers in primary schools in New Zealand from positioning and affordance perspectives. Retrospective semi-structured interviews were adopted to understand how the novice CFL teachers were positioned, how they positioned themselves, and what affordances they perceived to be influential to their Chinese language teacher identity construction. The findings showed that the novice CFL teachers' identity construction was subject to the social, institutional, and individual levels of being positioned, self-positioning, and affordances. Specifically, (1) consistent self-positioning at the social, institutional, and individual levels could largely determine the novice CFL teachers' identity construction; (2) inconsistency of identities between being positioned and self-positioning at the social, institutional, and individual levels might weaken the novice CFL teachers' identity construction; (3) affordances as opportunities at the social, institutional, and individual levels could strengthen the novice CFL teachers' identity construction, whereas affordances as challenges could not. The study concluded with implications and limitations to inform future research.

Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge in teaching Chinese pronunciation

Three kinds of knowledge that effective teachers should master have been proposed: content knowledge (CK), pedagogical knowledge (PK), and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). Most PCK studies have been conducted in the mathematics or science domain. In recent years, a growing number of studies related to foreign language teachers’ PCK have appeared. However, there is a paucity of studies that explore teachers’ PCK in the field of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL). In this study, we present a conceptualization of Chinese as foreign teachers’ PCK when they teach Chinese pronunciation. The research design builds on semi-structured interviews involving 20 CFL teachers ( n = 20), focusing on five PCK domains: (1) teachers’ knowledge of Chinese pronunciation subject content (initials, finals, tones, intonation, and stress), (2) their curriculum knowledge, (3) their knowledge of students’ mistakes and difficulties, (4) their knowledge of Chinese pronunciation-specific instructional strategies, and (5) their knowledge of instructional media. The results show that CFL teachers reflect a strong mastery of PCK concerning teaching tones, followed by initials and finals. Teachers’ PCK regarding teaching intonation and stress were much weaker in all five PCK components. Their PCK of teaching intermediate-level and advanced-level students was also limited by curriculum and time arrangement restrictions.

Faith or path? Profiling the motivations of multilingual Chinese as a foreign language teachers using Q methodology

As a topic of rising interest, language teacher motivation has been studied through various lenses and across different contexts over recent years. Yet, relatively scant attention has been paid to Chinese language teachers teaching overseas. Using Q methodology and supplementary interview data, this study investigated the motivational profiles of multilingual Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) teachers who teach abroad. An analysis informed by the Factors Influencing Teaching Choice (FIT-Choice) model identified four types of career choice motivation: ‘self-devotion and social contribution’, ‘personal utility’, ‘personal interest+’, and ‘personal pursuit and immigration path’. The results show that teachers with a strong sense of national pride and social responsibility chose the career mainly for social contribution. They shared with teachers driven by personal interest, a positive attitude and a strong commitment to the career. Teachers driven by personal utility and teachers pursuing diverse life experiences or permanent residence were more likely to choose to teach Chinese as a last resort, which potentially inhibited their determination and commitment to the job. The study further explores the complexity of teachers’ career choice motivation by investigating the interaction between the identified types. The discussion of these findings contributes to a better understanding of the subjectivity of multilingual CFL teachers and provides insights into Chinese teachers’ professional development and the sustainability of international Chinese education.

Classroom management in CFL education at all-girls secondary schools in the UAE

Classroom management is a significant issue for foreign language teachers. However, in Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) education, little is known about classroom management for female secondary school students in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This paper focuses on classroom management issues and solutions in CFL education at all-girls secondary schools in the UAE, with the aim of providing insights toward enhancing teachers’ classroom management and students’ learning. Data were collected in March 2020 via online surveys completed by CFL teachers and students of all-girls secondary schools in the UAE. In addition, several teachers (chosen at random) were interviewed to obtain further details on their classroom management experiences. Quantitative and qualitative analysis revealed that CFL teachers face issues with students frequently entering and leaving the classroom, being late to or absent from class, talking out of turn, disrespecting teachers, and coming to class without the right materials. Teachers use various strategies to address these issues, including getting help from administrators, creating reward and consequence systems, and changing their teaching methods. The findings suggest that CFL teachers can enhance their classroom management by being more professional, building rapport with students, and avoiding seeking frequent help from administrators.

Chinese Self, Australian Other: Chinese as a Foreign Language Teacher Identity Construction in Australian Contexts.

Research in the field of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) education has been increasing in the past decades. However, the number of studies on CFL teacher identity is limited. To bridge the gap, this study employed a qualitative method to explore Chinese CFL teachers’ identity formation and reformation in Australian contexts. A Chinese-Australian language program was studied to examine the challenges, struggles and developments of Chinese CFL teachers who came to Australia to pursue professional growth. Five Master’s theses and three interview participants were included to paint a picture of how Chinese CFL teachers interact internally and externally with a new environment. Guided by Mead’s theory of self and other, we found that Chinese CFL teachers’ identity formation and reformation in Australian classrooms are deeply influenced by their self-identification and their integration with others in the community. Cultural connectedness is a key for organizational attitudes in the relationship of self and other. Chinese CFL teachers were found lacking the wholeness of self in Australian contexts, which led to obstacles in teacher identity construction. Insufficient communication between self and other resulted in their positioning crisis.

Pedagogical content knowledge: A systematic review of Chinese language pronunciation teaching in the CFL context

AbstractThe increasing attention on Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) pronunciation instruction gives us an opportunity to look into the current directions of teaching CFL and the specific instructional pronunciation strategies employed by CFL teachers. This paper offers a review of empirical evidence on the use and impact of instructional pronunciation strategies in the CFL field from 1980 to 2019. Our findings reveal that: (1) controlled segmental‐based strategies—such as comparative strategies, listening, and repeating strategies—are used widely and effectively to improve pronunciation of Chinese initials and finals; (2) suprasegmental‐based strategies, especially computer‐assisted strategies, largely improve CFL students' tone accuracy; and (3) the validity of assessments in quantitative studies needs to be further developed by including comparative groups, making tests before and after instructions, and involving discourse assessment contents.

An investigation of the language learning strategies used by Brazilian students learning Chinese as a foreign language

This study aimed to examine the strategy use of Brazilian students learning Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) and the factors that might affect the variations in strategy use. The Strategy Inventory for Language Learning was employed as the research instrument, and altogether 120 students in a Confucius Institute in Brazil participated in the questionnaire survey. Statistical analyses of the data revealed that metacognitive and social strategies were the most frequently employed strategies by the participants. No significant differences were observed in the use of either overall or individual strategies by gender, age, or education level. Chinese proficiency level was found to impose main effects on the learners' overall strategy use as well as on the use of memory and cognitive strategies. This study has pedagogical implications for CFL teachers, as findings related to the learners’ strategy use and the influencing factors can help CFL teachers tailor their instructions to the learner groups.

The cultural representation of Chinese-speaking groups in US-produced Chinese as a foreign language textbooks

ABSTRACT Foreign language textbooks not only aid language learners in developing their linguistic skills and knowledge but also reshape their cultural identities. Drawing on theories of critical curriculum studies, this paper examines cultural representation in two sets of US-produced Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) textbooks for American college learners at elementary and intermediate proficiency levels. Verbal and visual data comprising text and images were discursively examined with content analysis focusing on the distribution of cultural representations, the selection of cultural content, and the editorial strategies of inclusion and exclusion. Findings indicate that the textbooks skilfully employ eclectic approaches to addressing culturally controversial matters among various Chinese-speaking groups, such as Mainland Han Chinese, Taiwanese and ethnic minorities in China, in line with an overarching pan-Chinese cultural ideology. Implications are derived from the findings for CFL educators and teachers of other culturally contested foreign languages.

‘You just appreciate every little kindness’: Chinese language teachers’ wellbeing in the UK

Drawing on a positive psychology perspective, a resource-based view of wellbeing, and an ecological perspective, this article provides an in-depth account of Chinese language teachers’ wellbeing in the UK. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 7 teachers who teach Mandarin Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) at secondary-school level in the UK. This study identified four ecological systems that interconnected with one another that are associated with these CFL teachers’ wellbeing: the ecology of the school, the ecology of work and life, the ecology of the education system, as well as the societal ecology of teaching generally and modern foreign languages (MFL) specifically. The study also found that these CFL teachers drew on a number of psychological, social, and contextual resources to manage their wellbeing and remain positive in the face of challenges. This study provides an ecological understanding of CFL teacher wellbeing in the UK and offers a broader lens for the design and implementation of effective prevention, intervention, and remedial actions to address teacher wellbeing.

Chinese Writing Composition Among CFL Learners: A Comparison Between Handwriting and Typewriting

Abstract Situated in the context of CFL (Chinese as a foreign language), the current study examines and compares texts produced by twelve pre-intermediate CFL learners using both pen-and-paper and the pinyin input system. The participants were also invited for interviews to investigate their attitudes towards handwriting and typewriting. Because of the ease of use of the pinyin input system, CFL learners tend to prefer it over writing by hand when composing lengthy texts. Based on the evaluations of fifteen professional CFL teachers, the typewritten texts were rated higher than the handwritten ones. Using the self-report empathy test, there was no significant correlation between an evaluator’s empathy and his/her rating for the texts, whether composed by hand or with pinyin input. Pedagogically, typewriting might better assist Chinese language learning after handwriting has been introduced and practised among non-beginner CFL learners. The empathy effect on handwriting reported in previous literature is not found in the study. The study goes beyond the factors influencing typewriting and typewritten essays, to encourage future research investigating when to introduce computer-based writing and how it would best assist in language learning.

Transformation of Chinese as a Foreign Language Teachers’ Relationship with Their Students in the Australian Context

This study explores the transformation of teacher–student relationship between expatriate Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) teachers and their students situating in the Australian educational context. The disparity of tradition between the two educational cultures influences substantially on communication between teachers and students within classroom. To better understand how CFL teachers’ background educational culture may impact their interaction with Australian students, focus group discussion data were applied as the data collection method. Findings reveal that at the beginning of their teaching practice CFL teachers’ understanding of teacher–student relationship influenced by their background educational culture had major impact on their strategies in teacher–student interaction in class. However, with the progress of teaching and meantime influenced by the Australian local educational culture, their behaviors for dealing with teacher–student relationship in class changed. Basically, their ways of handling teacher–student relationship transformed from a more Eastern guanxi tendency to a more Western rapport tendency. This transformation did not occur automatically and easily; it was achieved by the CFL teachers’ struggles and tribulations in the process of interacting with their Australian students. In an era of CFL teacher shortage, it is hoped that this study would shed some light on CFL teacher education.

Teaching Chinese in K–12 Schools in the United States: What Are the Challenges?

AbstractThis study deepens and extends research into the challenges that Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) teachers face both in terms of classroom instruction and in their work more broadly. These challenges reflect CFL teachers’ struggles to reconcile their educational beliefs, values, and experiences as teachers and learners in China with their experiences as teachers in American schools. The conflicts between the two educational systems manifest themselves in a large number and range of difficulties, including designing curriculum; selecting appealing lesson themes and choosing classroom activities, strategies, and materials that motivate students; managing student behavior; and working with parents. Cultural differences and difficulties inherent in the Chinese language are also issues for CFL teachers. Suggestions for teacher preparation, professional development programs, and school leaders as well as directions for future studies are offered.

Chinese language teachers’ beliefs about their roles in the Danish context

Abstract This paper focuses on how teachers of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) perceive their roles in the Danish context. In this qualitative study of twelve native and non-native Chinese-speaking language teachers, empirical data was collected from semi-structured interviews and classroom observations to explore teachers’ beliefs about their roles. The study found that most teachers saw themselves as filling multiple roles and revealed that these were defined based on the following perspectives: how teachers plan and conduct teaching activities, what they want to emphasise and achieve in teaching and their relationships with their students and work environment. These findings suggest that teachers’ individual cultural backgrounds, personal experiences and contextual factors all contribute to variations in their beliefs about their roles, including how they understand their facilitator role, teach culture and build relationships with students. Research results also reveal some contextual factors that challenge teachers’ beliefs about their roles, including inadequate teaching materials, limited access to professional training and students who lack motivation to learn. These factors suggest a need for institutional support in building a professional community of CFL teachers in Denmark.

Developing and evaluating a Chinese collocation retrieval tool for CFL students and teachers

The development of collocational knowledge is important for foreign language learners; unfortunately, learners often have difficulties producing proper collocations in the target language. Among the various ways of collocation learning, the DDL (data-driven learning) approach encourages the independent learning of collocations and allows learners to directly use corpora and tools to search for proper collocations. There are several useful collocation tools (JustTheWord, COCA, Tango, Gutenberg Collocation Tool) available for English as a second language (ESL) learners. There are, however, very few Chinese collocation tools available for learners of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL), despite the increasing numbers of CFL learners within the past several years. To help CFL students and teachers efficiently search for proper collocates, this paper introduces a new web-based collocation retrieval tool, ICE (Intelligent Collocation Engine), which is based on a large part-of-speech-tagged Chinese news corpus. To determine if the new tool can facilitate the searching of collocations, this tool was tested by a group of CFL students to find proper collocates in a translation task. The results showed that the students who used the ICE tool could successfully found many proper Chinese collocates for a given noun. In addition, 12 in-service CFL teachers were also invited to evaluate the effectiveness of this collocation tool. These teachers indicated that they could find proper Chinese collocates easily with the help of ICE. The teachers also commented that they might use the collocation retrieval tool to prepare their teaching materials. Both findings of the experiment as well as the survey suggest that the new collocation retrieval tool can facilitate Chinese collocation teaching and learning, but the content and functions of this tool can be further enhanced. The findings of this study can be useful for language teachers, researchers, and developers of corpus-based learning tools.