Xiuming (Vivien) CHEN xiuming.chen@adelaide.au

1. Teaching Intercultural Competence through Chinese Literature:the application of Reader Response Theory and Schemata Theory in TCFL Xiuming (Vivien) CHEN xiuming.chen@adelaide.edu.au

2. Contents Significance Literary texts and intercultural competence Theories The merger of the Reader Response Theory (RRT) and the Schemata Theory (ST) Case Study The application of RRT and ST in the Chinese literature classroom

3. Intercultural Competence (IC) • Definition( Byram,1997; Kramsh,1998) • to interact with “others” • to accept the perspectives from other cultures • to be aware of the difference between different cultures

4. Intercultural Competence • Components (Byram, Nichols and Steven,2001)

5. Intercultural Competence • Components (Byram, Nichols and Steven,2001)

6. Intercultural Competence • Components (Byram, Nichols and Steven,2001)

7. IC and Literature Teaching

8. IC and Literature Teaching

9. IC and Literature Teaching

10. Conclusion Significance Literary texts are good material for improving students’ intercultural competence.

11. A Historical note

12. A Historical note

13. A Historical note

14. Teaching Approach • Traditional teaching approach Teacher-centered; text-centered; Single interpretation; “close” the open text • Modern teaching approach Student-centered; reader-centered; multiple interpretation; open the text Proposed teaching approach: A merger of Reader Response Theory (RRT) and Schemata Theory(ST)

15. Reader Response Theory • Concept • Reader Response Theory, begun in the 1960s, views the reading process as a transaction between the reader and the text (Ali, 1994) • Readers are encouraged to fill in the areas of “indeterminacy” by their own creations according to their past experiences, beliefs, expectations and assumptions (Iser,1978;Fish,1980;Carson,1993) • Students freely respond to text and the teacher accept “multiple interpretations”(Amer,2003;Rosenblatt,1955)

16. Reader Response Theory • Relationship

17. Reader Response Theory • RRT research in China (CNKI)

18. Reader Response Theory • Limitation of RRT • Not every student has achieved the level that he or she can freely express in a second language. • Learning the new vocabularies, new sentence Patterns, new text structures and basic cultural knowledge are still the important tasks in foreign language classroom. Reader’s cognitive skills are the foundation of free affective responses.

19. Schemata Theory • Concept • Kant (1781): “the procedural rule by which a category or pure, non-empirical concept is associated with a mental image of an object. • Bartelett (1932): “Theory of Remembering” • Piaget (1977;1983): “Schemata, assimilation, accommodation, equilibration” • Rumelhart (1980): “Our schemata are our knowledge” Reasons for misunderstanding a text Bottom-up and top-down reading

20. Schemata Theory • Classification • Formal schemata and Content schemata (Carrell, 1983b) • Text schemata, genre schemata and content schemata (Filmore, 1981) • World schemata, text schemata and language schemata (Cook,1997) • Culture schemata (Holland & Naomi,1987) • My classification: language schemata, text schemata, content schemata and culture schemata

21. Schemata Theory • Relationship

22. Schemata Theory • ST research in China (CNKI)

23. Schemata Theory • Limitation of ST • The cognitive approach to representing narrative is not adequate in representing literary texts. Purely cognitive models cannot account either for the indeterminacy of literary texts or for the variety of different and often conflicting readings that result from the same text. • The reader emphasizes creating the schemata rather than comprehending the text. (Miall,1989) Reader’s affective response guides the process of schemata creation (Miall,1989).

24. Eemphasize a reader’s past experience and background knowledge. A merger of RRT and ST • Relationship • Product • Process

25. A merger of RRT and ST

26. A merger of RRT and ST

27. A merger of RRT and ST

28. A merger of RRT and ST By linking RRT to ST, it will be possible to create a model for teaching literary texts.

29. Conclusion Theories RRT and ST are suitable approaches for teaching intercultural competence through literature.

30. Case Study • Participant Five university students studying intermediate or advanced Chinese. Among them, one has Chinese background, one has Vietnamese background, the remaining ones are Australian. They have learned Chinese from 2.5 years to 9 years.

31. Case Study • Text • Genre: short-shorts focuses on one incident, has a single plot, a single setting, and a small number of characters; and covers a short period of time (Gelfant, Blanche & Graver, Lawrence, 2000) • Content:“The reading of love” by HuifenXu The story begins with a man’s wife who has just attended an old man’s funeral ,suddenly dying. When the man is remembering his wife and packing up her possessions, he finds a love letter to her from the dead man. Through dialogue with his daughter, the man emphasizes that his wife loved him rather than cheated him because no one without love would conceal the truth for over twenty years. He feels that he was a happy man retaining his wife’s love and also feels guilty that he could not offer his wife the love she wanted.

32. Case Study • Procedure and Response • The Reader’s prediction（RRT and ST） • Pre-reading predicting: what are your expectations when you see the title of the story • Student’s response:

33. Case Study • Plot prediction: what do you think the man will discover? • Student’s response:

34. Case Study • Sentence and words prediction: 1. Guessing meaning according to the Context. 人很难把握生命。一位医生说，毛病不断的人，不一定短命。（然而），______________________。 2. Use a noun to describe the “life”. 人很难把握生命。一位医生说，毛病不断的人，不一定短命。（生命）就像_____________。就像就像一只瓷瓶,即使已经显现出裂缝，但如果仔细爱护，也可避免破碎。而一只好碗，一不当心也会粉碎。 3. Guessing the adjective words according to the context. 每一样东西，都让他重温妻的一切：_____的笑脸，____的声音，偶尔也发一点 ____，还有那双为他长年端汤端药的_____得一点不像读书人的手。 4. Guessing the measure words according to the context. 几十___蓝色的信纸，每一___上都有着长短句——这是一个男人写给女人的几十___情书……一笔一划，写活了一____持续了二十多年的静悄悄的爱!

35. Case Study • Student’s response:

36. Case Study • Semantic field training (ST) • Semantic field training (1)：love • Semantic field training (2):“相--”

37. 相遇 选词填充：相~ 相伴 • 他和她遇见了对方，他们ˍˍˍ了。 • 他们开始了解对方，慢慢地ˍˍˍ。 • 三个月以后，他们发现自己喜欢上了对方，他们ˍˍˍ了。 • 三年以后，他们结婚了，他们要一直ˍˍˍ到老。 相知 相爱

38. Case Study Semantic field training (3):“死”委婉说法

39. Case Study Semantic field training (3):“死”委婉说法 qùshì jiàn mǎ kè sī shēngtiān wǎngshēng xīshēng ān xī míngmù yāo zhé xiān shì Yuán jì

40. Case Study • Intercultural comparison（RRT） • Question: why the author use “走” replace “死”? Are there any similarities or difference in your culture? • Student’s response:

41. Case Study • Personal response (RRT) • Please use an adjective to describe the mother and the father’s image? • If you are the daughter of the father, what will you say to your father? • If you are the father in the text, how will you respond when you find your wife’s love letters? • Student’s response:

42. Case Study • Describe a person you love or dream love: • Do you think the story could happen in real life? Why? • In your reading experience or life experience, what is the most touching love story? • Role-play: daughter and father • Student’s response:

43. Case Study

44. Case Study • Story map and story-telling (ST and RRT) 父亲和女儿 发现母亲的 情书。 4 父亲怀念母亲。 3 1 2 母亲参加完老先生追悼会突然倒地。 母亲去世，父女悲痛。 父亲从母亲 的情书中读 到了“爱”。 主 题 老先生与母 亲的爱 母亲对父亲 的爱 父亲对母亲 的爱 人 物 6 父亲 母亲 老先生 女儿 5 女儿劝父亲原谅母亲。 Story Poker Card

45. Conclusion Case Study The merger of RRT and ST can be effectively applied in Chinese literature classrooms.

46. Conclusion Significance Literary texts are good material for improving students’ intercultural competence. Theories RRT and ST are suitable approaches for teaching the intercultural competence through literature. Case Study The merger of RRT and ST can be effectively applied in Chinese literature classrooms.

47. Thank You 谢谢