Panel Title: Teaching Chinese Language and Literature at the College Level

 

以会话为中心：快速学习中文教学法尝试

A Conversation-Oriented Approach: Teaching Beginners Chinese for Better Effects

Shuming Lu & Yonggang Huang, The City University of New York, Brooklyn College

 

这是一个在中国举行的短期初级汉语学习班的教学探索/经验总结。教学设计的基本认识是应当分开学习和克服汉语的两大难点：声调和汉字。 采用的方法是在大量情景性对话中学习声调，字词和语法；汉字学习分成两步走，略微滞后于会话；提高课外自习和会话实践的要求，以提高教学效果；鼓励学生运用自创的句子交际，以增强信心和兴趣。

 

This presentation includes our experience of teaching American college students in a one-month long Chinese class in China.  The rationale of curriculum design is based on two major difficulties of the Chinese language: the tones and character learning.  The approaches are concentration on practice of topical and situational conversation by stressing pinyin first and following up with learning the Chinese characters; emphasis on extra-curricular self-study to  strengthen classroom teaching ; practice of self-made sentences in real communication situations to raise students’ confidence and interest.

 

汉语中级班课程设计

Intermediate-Level Chinese Course Design

Ginger Wu, Trinity University, San Antonio, TX

 

This course is designed to help students’ transition from low-intermediate to high-intermediate level Chinese. Three major goals for this course are:

1.      to improve Chinese language skills and language learning techniques

2.      to prepare students for 4th year Chinese language and literature courses that use Chinese only

3.      to prepare students to study abroad

 

Learning is not necessarily equal to acquisition. (Krashen 1982) I believe that as a language teacher not only do I have to teach students to learn about the knowledge of the target language, but I also need to guide them to utilize that target language’s knowledge and learning techniques for language production and communication. Along with traditional lecturing and assessment methods, several activities are used in the course such as song introductions, movies, story telling, forum discussion, writing, and interview. From a psychological perspective, learning motivation is an important aspect that will affect learners’ effort and the learning outcome. Some techniques, for example rewards and competition games are introduced into the course in order to escalate students’ learning motivation.  Finally, research results showed that a learner who uses more cognitive and metacognitive strategies achieves a better outcome on second language learning. (Phakiti, 2000; Smith, 1994; Kusiak, 2001) According to cognitive psychologists the processes of association, imitation, and reinforcement are important for language learning. (Young, 1999) Therefore, directing students to using those cognitive strategies as well as metacogintive strategies such as thinking through or monitoring one’s own works are also included in the course activities design.

 

These course activities have been conducted in a university level for four to five semesters. Students’ responses have also been collected from each semester, and the positive responses have been reported. 

 

中国文学与文化教学：《卧虎藏龙》里的生态禪机：从公案角度看电影

Teaching Ang Lee’s  Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon in Chinese Culture or Film Course

Chia-ju Chang, The City University of New York, Brooklyn College

 

The current discursive, ideological interpretation of film now in vogue in the United States may not be the best method for introducing students to Asian cultures because of its unexamined Eurocentric biases. In this presentation I offer an alternative pedagogy that starts with an attempt to rethink our existential connection to nature. Cutting across the boundaries that divide disciplines such as religion, film and ecology, I deploy a Chan Buddhist way of teaching Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000). I argue that film media offer a unique resource for educating college students about alternative ways of seeing--in this case, a spiritual ecology that derives from the Chan Buddhist principle of nonduality. By relating this film text to a particular gong’an (koan) story, I demonstrate an approach that subverts our conventional way of viewing film, which privileges narrativity over the spatial and ecological.

 

目前以論述及意識形態來分析詮釋電影的方式也許不是介紹亞洲文化最恰當的教學法, 因為以西方開展出來的意識形態批評多半難以逃脫歐洲中心主義之偏見 (如生態觀). 在這里,我想提供一個另類的教學法來重新思考人與自然的關系. 綜合宗教, 生態與電影三個不同領域,我發展出一個禪宗教學法并以李安的《卧虎藏龍》來當作一個個案師范.我認為電影是一個很獨特的大學教學資源, 因為它可以讓我們學習到不同的觀看方式. 從《卧虎藏龍》里, 我們可以學習到禪宗非二元式的精神生態觀.

　

古典文学教学：方法、重点和教材

Teaching Classical Chinese Literature in the U.S. College Classroom: Approaches, Contents and Textbooks

Yonggang Huang & Shuming Lu, The City University of New York, Brooklyn College

 

在美国大学教授中国古典文学，采用直接读经典作品（译文）的方法，学生可以直接进入古代中国的思想世界和文学氛围。 中国古典文化的一个特点是整体性强。应当选择具有代表性的作品作为教材，让学生通过经典作品了解中国的传统价值观和审美观。在此基础之上，介绍各个时期的历史背景，文学潮流和艺术风格，鼓励学生结合阅读，对比西方的文学，进行独立思考，以理解中国文学的特色。

 

Direct reading of classic works (via translation) is essential in learning Chinese classic literature in the American college classroom.  Students are able to get direct access into the thought and literary styles of ancient China. Classical Chinese culture is characterized by its integral and organic whole.  By studying representative works, students will achieve an understanding of China's traditionally ethical values and aesthetics.  On this basis, the instructor introduces the historical backgrounds, literary trends and artistic styles of various periods, and encourages students to learn, with appropriate comparison with the Western literature, characteristics of Chinese classical literature.