Arts Integration for Foreign Language Teaching and Learning: A Three Paper Dissertation

This three-paper dissertation examines whether arts integration-an approach to teaching in which students construct and demonstrate understanding through an art form-helps with foreign language teaching and learning, especially language performance. The first paper conducts a comprehensive literature review of research on arts integration and its use in the context of language classrooms, including both English as a Second Language and Foreign Language classrooms. The second paper is a qualitative case study exploring how a French teacher perceives the role that arts integration plays in her students’ language performance. Specific arts-integrated strategies are discussed, and connections are made to students’ language performance defined by The ACTFL Performance Descriptors, which serves as the theoretical framework for understanding how arts integration supports language performance. Seven domains of language performance are examined in relation to arts integration from multiple sources of information, such as interviews, observations, and documents. The third paper provides some concrete examples of integrating arts into an elementary Chinese classroom in order to promote students’ language performance in three modes of communication: interpretive, interpersonal and presentational. All three papers together offer insights into an arts-integrated approach to foreign language education with a special focus on language performance that refers to students’ abilities “to use language that has been learned and practiced in an instructional setting” (ACTFL Performance Descriptors for Language Learners, 2012, p. 4)

Self-efficacy in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language in Australian Schools

Participating in a research-oriented teacher education program, 20 university graduates from China were invited to teach Chinese as a foreign language in western Sydney schools and conducted teacher research for one and half years. By analysing their research on their own teaching through a qualitative approach, this study attempted to identify the factors that influenced their self-efficacy in teaching Chinese as a foreign language in an English-speaking school system. Influential factors identified in this research include teacher factors, student factors and contextual factors. Findings of this research have implications for foreign language teacher education

Building 6C’s (Critical Thinking, Collaboration, Communication, Creativity, Culture, Connectivity) in the Chinese Learning Classroom

This teaching portfolio is a product of the author’s studies in the Masters of Second Language Teaching Program at Utah State University and her experiences as a teacher of Chinese at the elementary school level in the State of Utah’s public school Dual Immersion program. The author provides a selection of teaching reflections and research that have had the most impact on her teaching practice. First, the author offers personal reflections and a theoretical framework for her pedagogy in the Teaching Perspectives section, through a discussion of her professional environment and teaching experience; this is followed by the Teaching Philosophy Statement, which explains the lens through which she views her teaching practice, and a discussion of a selection of teaching observations conducted. The Teaching Philosophy Statement speaks to the importance of connectivity and how learners may best connect with language. The Teaching Philosophy also offers some best practices for a student-centered, task-based, communicative, classroom environment and how best to facilitate language learning. Second, the portfolio focuses on the scholarship of teaching and learning, in the Research Perspectives section, in which the author includes two selected papers written in the course of the masters program, including: a paper that investigates teaching culture in the elementary Dual Language Immersion context and a paper that explores teaching Chinese as a foreign language through task-based learning and Computer-Assisted Language Learning. It concludes with an Annotated Bibliography that represents a literature review and crystallization of the topic of humor in enhancing learner engagement. Through these select theoretical and practical discussions of teaching, the author suggests that language teachers need to be mindful of 6 C’s: critical thinking, collaboration, communication, creativity, culture, connectivity, offering a modification of the 5 C’s in the American Council of Teaching of Foreign Languages standards. The portfolio culminates with the author’s career plans and the continuing journey to improve and innovate in her teaching

LEVERAGING READ-ALOUD INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY (RAIS) FOR ENHANCING ENGLISH READING FLUENCY, ANXIETY, AND CONFIDENCE OF EFL CHINESE UNDERGRADUATES: A QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL MULTI-GROUP DESIGN

The perennial challenge of reading fluency, notably profound among Asian EFL learners, stems largely from linguistic disparities, conventional teaching paradigms, and ingrained cognitive practices. This study critically investigates the challenges Chinese undergraduates face with English reading fluency, notably due to linguistic disparities and historically rooted teaching methodologies. Leveraging the Read-Aloud Instructional Strategy (RAIS), this quasi-experimental study sampled 73 students from a private university in Thailand. Baseline assessments depicted similar fluency levels across groups. Post-intervention, the instructor-centered approach demonstrated profound efficacy, with the mean fluency score soaring to 4.35, compared to the student-centered mean of 2.69 and the near-static comparison group at 2.04. Additionally, confidence metrics evinced a remarkable ascent to 3.46 for the instructor-led group, a notable rise to 2.19 for the student-centered cohort, juxtaposed against the comparison group's minimal shift to 1.71. Furthermore, the instructor-centered method substantially ameliorated reading anxiety (d=1.378) and showcased stronger, albeit weak to moderate, post-intervention correlations between fluency, confidence, and anxiety. This comprehensive study underscores the transformative potential of RAIS, particularly the instructor-centered paradigm, in concurrently augmenting reading fluency, confidence, and reducing anxiety among Chinese EFL undergraduates. The implications herein suggest the exigency of reassessing prevalent pedagogical methodologies in Asian EFL environments.  Article visualizations

The integration of CALL in EFL/ESL learning environment

A number of studies have shown that learning through the use of computers is more efficient than traditional methods and arouse students motivation (Johnson & Osguthorpe, 1986; Jung, 1992 ). The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI), to investigate the immense potential of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL), and then to identify ways in which computers can be used to enhance foreign language learning

Does a 3D immersive experience enhance Mandarin writing by CSL students?

This study aimed at enhancing the Mandarin essay writing by learners of Chinese as a second language (CSL) in Singapore by using authentic contexts in Second Life (SL). The participants were students in two classes of eighth graders from a junior high school in Singapore, and the study lasted for 5 weeks. A quasi-experimental design was adopted by randomly assigning the two classes to the experimental group (N=26) or the control group (N = 34). The two groups received identical writing instructions and were asked to write essays about identical topics within an identical time period. The only difference between the two groups was the activities performed at the prewriting stage: with or without immersive exploration in SL. Three kinds of qualitative data were collected and analyzed: students’ writing plans, students’ compositions, and in-class observation data. The analysis results show that the writing motivation and performance of the CSL students varied depending on whether or not they performed immersive exploration before writing. Those who explored the authentic contexts in SL before writing performed significantly better at constructing a prewriting plan and exhibited significantly higher writing quality compared to those without such an immersive experience. The former group also demonstrated higher motivation

Promoting creative English teaching using Chinese culture for elementary schooling in Taiwan

To make English an interesting subject for elementary school students, teachers need to know what material attracts students, how to motivate students, and how to release students\u27 creativity. Therefore, This project incorporates the concepts of multiple intelligences, motivation, culture and language, and development of creativity to provide a model for promoting creative English teaching in the elementary schools of Taiwan. In addition, the content of the unit, based on Chinese culture and the comparison of Chinese and American cultures, is an innovative curriculum designed to motivate students to learn English

English Language Learners of Chinese Immigrant Families in Canadian Schools

Given the context that many Chinese immigrant families are settling in Canada, their children, as English language learners (ELLs), have encountered a variety of obstacles and barriers while studying at local schools. The purpose of this Major Research Paper (MRP) is to understand the obstacles and barriers that Chinese newcomer ELLs in Ontario have encountered and hence to offer some helpful suggestions. A series of official documents of Ontario ELL curriculum has been introduced to school educators by the Ontario Ministry of Education (2005, 2008), such as Many Roots, Many Voices: Supporting English Language Learners in Every Classroom and Support English Language Learners Grade 1 to 8. Meanwhile, Chinese newcomer English learners have accepted systemic English language education in China before immigration. Therefore, to better understand the needs and challenges of Chinese newcomer ELLs, English curriculum in compulsory education in China and educational documents for ELLs in Ontario Canada will be discussed in this paper, followed by a comparison of pedagogies applied in compulsory education in Canada and China. Comparing the similarities and differences, and giving suggestions to pre-service, and in-service educators may help ELLs and EFLs to improve their academic performance. Other literature in the field is concerned with Chinese ELLs in Ontario elementary schools and the obstacles that they face at school. However, only a few studies compare ELL curriculum documents in Canada and English curricula standards in China, then give suggestions to schoolteachers, parents, and students\u27 home countries about the challenges faced by Chinese immigrant children. Those barriers and challenges reflect the problems that still exist in curriculum and educational policies. Therefore, it is important to introduce Chinese EFLs to Ontario teachers in order to help Chinese ELLs get involved in their unfamiliar environmen

DEVELOPING STUDENTS’CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING IN THE DUAL LANGUAGE IMMERSION PROGRAM

This case study explores an important type of additive bilingual education program in the US-the two-way dual language immersion (DLI) program in a public school. The additive bilingual education program has become popular in recent years because it aims to promote bilingualism and biliteracy. It not only develops students’ English language skills, which is no doubt essential for students’ academic and professional development in the future, but also preserves and develops students’ home or heritage language skills which considers language minority students’ cultural identity and family ethnic background. However, this study indicates that the benefits of DLI program are more than simply maintaining heritage language students’ heritage language and culture. The values of the DLI program also include promoting all students’ (including both heritage language students and non-heritage language students) understanding toward diverse cultures in the classroom, school, in the community and the world along with teaching the literacy skills of target language and school subject content. As the influx of the international immigrants, the US society further become unprecedented culturally diverse. The benefits of DLI program more significant. On one hand, it is imperative for the US K-12 schools to develop students’ awareness of the cultural diversity, develop cultural understanding, protect the ethnic minority cultures and uphold democratic cultural pluralism. On the other hand, how to educate the immigrant children and ethnic minority children to help them accept the core values of the US society such as democracy, freedom, justice, equality, human rights and mutual respect is also important for the solidarity of the US society. The two aspects should go hand in hand. The DLI program in the public school provides a good solution. The DLI program may help heritage language learners find continuity and coherence in multiple communicative and social worlds and develop hybrid and situated identities since they are supposed to learn both heritage language and culture as well as American civic cultural values. These will beneficial for the diaspora community being structurally integrated into the nation and develop a clarified national identity while preserving aspects of their home and community cultures. The milieu created by the DLI program may also increase heritage language learners’ self-esteem and intrinsic motivation of learning their heritage language and culture. In addition, the DLI program aims at promoting cultural pluralism, cultural understandings and cross-cultural communication at school and in the community. It is because students and teachers of different cultural backgrounds communicates and interacts with each other on daily basis in the classroom and in the school building. Through participating in the community cultural activities, students in the DLI program join with community members celebrating their heritage culture and diverse cultures in school and in their community.Doctor of Philosoph

Promoting listening strategies use in elementary English as a foreign language computer-assisted learning environment

In Japan, English education in elementary schools is still in the process of innovation. The purpose of this project is to seek the most appropriate and effective way for elementary-level students to acquire listening skills in a computer-assisted language learning (CALL) environment