何婉麗 乐琼 愛墨蕾大學 Wan-Li Ho, Ph.D Qiong Le Emory University

1. Fostering Environmental Care Through Chinese-Language Teaching---Using "Scholar blog" to Enhance Content-based Language Instruction 何婉麗 乐琼 愛墨蕾大學 Wan-Li Ho, Ph.D Qiong Le Emory University

2. Introduction Emory Piedmont Project 2005— Encouraging faculty to integrate both environmental concerns and pedagogical creativity into their teaching. Winship Award in 2009– Researching and collecting environmentally-focused content for teaching. This blog is user-friendly and provides resources for students and teachers alike to utilize.

3. Motivation • The purpose of this blog is to combine environmental/animal protection and Chinese language learning in an interactive manner. • Apply knowledge of Chinese language to current issues relating to environmental/animal protection.

4. “How Green Are You?” Survey

5. Theory: Content-Based Language Instruction (CBLI) • Definition: “Content-based, or content-enriched, means that the subject content is taught in a foreign language. Thus the focus is not language instruction alone.” (Reeves,1989) • “CBLI has been regarded as an effective approach to improve students’ language skills and develop critical thinking.” (Chapple & Curtis, 2000)

6. Theory: Content-Based Language Instruction (CBLI) • “Content and Language Integrated Learning programs [are practiced] across Europe and elsewhere.” (see Coyle, 2007; Mehisto et al., 2008)

7. Goals for Environmental Chinese Scholarblog • To provide supplementary reading materials • To expose students to different genres of writing • To improve student writing and listening abilities • To foster awareness about environmental and animal protection

8. Wordpress • WordPress is a free and open-source blogging tool with many interactive features including plugins, widgets and themes. • ECIT offers a blogging space, known as Scholarblogs, for teaching and research. • https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/environmentalchinese/

10. Course Materials in FlipAlbum Format • FlipAlbum was a powerful • way to get course materials into a • digital format. However, it turned • out to be difficult for the students to • use, and soon became too • old-fashioned.

11. FlipAlbum vs Scholarblog Scholarblog is: • Easier to access & download • More convenient to upload • Has better search functions • More user friendly • Accessible on any PC platforms • Accessible on mobile devices

12. Scholarblog Content • The content of this blog fits into three categories: • E-Book • Student Projects • Podcasts

14. Category 1: E-Book • Includes numerous genres: • Classical poetry, idioms, short essays, children’s stories, narratives, journal report, movie critiques, interviews • Blog contents are arranged in order of difficulty. Instructors can easily choose genres suitable to the students’ ability level. • Language levels are suitable for: • Intermediate Chinese (201/202) • Advanced Chinese (301/302) • Chinese for Heritage Speakers (203/303) • Advanced Reading in Modern Chinese (401)

15. Use in Classroom • In being exposed to different genres, students can learn different styles, techniques and methods of composition and enhance their reading ability. • Instructor assigned articles at a suitable level for students to read. Students then completed the Report Sheet. • Students spent 15-20 minutes on each article on Tuesdays or Thursdays.

16. ReportSheetsonE-Book(Most popular genres in CHN 202) • Children’s Story (The Big Selfless Tree); 11 students liked it the most • Fable (Bamboo is sick); 9 students • 010 • Slogan (Environmental Protection Slogan); 5 students • Poem; 2 students • Short Story; 2 students • Other genres; 1 student each

17. Report Sheets on E-Book (Reasons for liking E-Book) • Interesting Chinese children’s stories that teaches the importance of environmental protection • Well-written and entertaining • Fairly easy to understand while introducing new words and ideas • Outside material from class that encourages studying outside of the classroom.

19. Category 2: Student Projects • Writings by the students about environmental issues • Human relationship with nature • Environmental projects at Emory • Students’ compositions are written at the intermediate and advanced levels of Chinese

20. Composition Subjects • Mountains and Rivers • Birds and Flowers • Animals • Environmental Protection at Emory

21. UseInClassroom • Instruction for writing project (CHN 202, 203)

22. Mountains and Rivers

23. Birds and Flowers

24. Animals

25. Category3: Podcasts • “Chinese Beyond Emory,” contains videos about environmental/animal protection in China, Taiwan, and Japan. • The videos are supplemented with vocabulary lists, questions for listening comprehension, etc.

27. Category3: Podcast • Student podcasts related to environmental protection at Emory University. • Used in Dr. Ho’s intermediate CHN 202 for non-heritage speakers and in Le’s CHN 203 class for heritage speakers.

28. UsingPodcastin 202 Class • Listening practice • Taiwan Pink Dolphin

29. Why choose Scholorblog in CHN 203 classes? • Authentic materials for improving students’ four language skills • Combine classroom study and out-of-classroom study • Teacher can evaluate students’ learning outcome • Build up students’ environmental awareness through Chinese language learning • Growing environmental awareness will motivate students to read more essays on the blog and make contributions to the blog

30. Theory: Vygotsky’s Zone Of Proximal Development (ZPD) • What someone can achieve on their own: • What someone can achieve with assistance:

31. Four-Stage Process of ZPD • 1: Assistance provided by More Knowledgeable Others (MKO’s) or capable peers • 2: Assistance provided by self • 3: Automatization through practice • 4: De-automatization; recursiveness through previous three stages

32. Theory: Four-Stage Process of ZPD

33. Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory • Learning is largely mediated by social interaction of students and “More Knowledgeable Others”.

34. Application in 203 class • How to use the blog in class • Student-centred, communicative classroom activity: ebook reading & sharing

35. Application in class • Student outcomes

40. Suggestions from CHN 203 • Increase the number of the essays (sustainability of the blog) • Difficulty levels need to be marked • Simplified vs traditional

41. Improvements • ECLC grant to upload more environmental essays • The difficulty of each article has been marked

42. Evaluation of CHN 202, Spring 2012 Survey on Environmental Chinese-Emory Blog (Chinese 202) A. Rate 9 statements based on students’ experience with Environmental (1)  Strongly agree (2) Agree            (3) Disagree  (4) Strongly Disagree B. 1 opening question