PhD Dissertation Example 1

84 characteristics of novice Chinese language learners with high intercultural communicative competence. Research Questions Overarching Research Question: What curricular models and instructional strategies influence the development of intercultural communicative competence in novice Chinese language learners with Chinese language educators in two types of Chinese language acquisition programs— a Confucius Institute program in a public university and a traditional Chinese language acquisition program in small private baccalaureate college? Qualitative Research Sub-questions 1. How do differences in the additive, CLT, ICC, and ACTFL culture standard models influence intercultural competence within novice Chinese language learners with different language educators in the two language programs? 2. How do differences in instructional strategies using portfolios, lectures, semantic mapping, hands-on activities, field trips, ethnographic interviews, culture capsules, culture clusters, culture assimilators, culture mini dramas, word associations, collages strategy, and artifact study influence intercultural competence within novice Chinese language learners with different language educators in the two language programs? 3. How do the perceptions of the language educators and the novice Chinese language learners regarding intercultural competence differ in the two language programs? 4. What are the characteristics of the novice Chinese language learners with high intercultural competence at the novice level? Research Setting

85 Purposive sampling was practiced in the research since the type of sampling described by Yin (2011) stated that the selection of places or participants are “chosen in a deliberate manner” (p. 88) and the goal is to “have those that will yield the most relevant and plentiful data” (p. 88). Two institutions were selected in the research because of the following reasons. First, the different institutional types were taken into consideration because at different sites “with diverse social and economic conditions, the confidence can be greater than one single site” (Yin, 2011, p. 90). One institution is a public comprehensive university and one is a private liberal arts college. The public university is collaborating with the Confucius Institute. Second, the offered courses are one of the considerations. All the institutions offer Chinese language classes at the elementary, intermediate, advanced levels and different cultural classes that are taught in English. The two institutions offer a Chinese minor in a general sense. Fourth, faculty status is the last consideration. The public university has three full time faculty members in the Chinese program. The liberal arts college has one full time Chinese faculty member. Selection of Participants There are two types of participants, faculty members and 30 students. All Chinese language faculty members who had taught Chinese language elementary courses from the two universities were cordially invited to participate in the research by email invitations and then were followed by phone invitations if the potential participants did not reply. In the email, there is a formal invitation with the explanation of the purpose of the study, a description of the procedures and approximate duration of the study, description of the discomforts, inconveniences, and/or risks that can be reasonably expected as a result of participation in this study, description of confidentiality and the limits to these assurances, anticipated benefits resulting from the study, alternative procedures, contact information, rights of the interviewees and recording of

86 interviews. Once the faculty members agreed to participate, the researcher made an appointment with each faculty member for a one-hour interview over the phone. Non-heritage students who are in intermediate Chinese language classes and who have taken elementary Chinese courses from the two universities have been invited by email with a formal invitation that explains the purpose of the study, and provides a description of the procedures and approximate duration of the study, a description of the discomforts, inconveniences, and/or risks that can be reasonably expected as a result of participation in this study, a description of confidentiality and the limits to these assurances, anticipated benefits resulting from the study, alternative procedures, contact information, rights of the interviewees, and recording of interviews. If the potential participants did not reply to email invitations, face- to-face invitations would have been followed up in classrooms with the permission of the faculty members. The reason for selecting the students at the intermediate level is that these students have one more academic year of learning experience in the Chinese language and culture than the students at the elementary level and the students are more in number than the advanced level. The first five students of each language faculty member who agreed to participate would become the research participants. Once they agreed to participate in the research, a one hour interview would be arranged with each student. Data Collection Procedure The first contacts were made by emailing the Chairs of the two foreign language departments and the directors of the two Chinese programs in the beginning of the fall, 2015 semester, after the research proposals were approved by the institution review boards of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock first and then of the two institutions. The intent is to

87 inform the departments about the research, and collect general information on Chinese courses offered in the recent three semesters, and contact information on faculty members and students. In the research, there are two types of data collection, interviews with faculty members and students, and CCAI self-assessment. The estimated time for all data collection would be one semester, starting from August 2015 to December 2015 after the IRB proposal had been approved by each of the three institutions including the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and the other two institutions. The location of the interviews for faculty members were their faculty offices and the interview places for students will be held somewhere quiet, relaxing, and comfortable on campus. All faculty members who have taught elementary Chinese language classes and are willing to participate have been interviewed for one hour bout the approximate time devoted to intercultural communicative instruction, curricular models practiced and the teaching strategies to increase learners’ intercultural communicative competence that are employed in their teaching. In each institution, the first five students of different language faculty members at the intermediate level who have taken elementary Chinese language classes and are willing to participate will be interviewed for one hour about their learning experiences of acquiring intercultural communicative competence. The protocols interviewing instructors and students are found in Appendix A and Appendix B. The semi-structured face-to-face interview questions are composed of open-ended questions. As gratitude, the researcher offered a $20 gift card to every faculty member. Each Student Participant received a one-hour interview including CCAI self-assessment. The self-assessment is composed of 50 questions which are closed-ended questions. Students

88 were given ten minutes to fifteen minutes to complete the self-assessment and then the questionnaires were returned to the researcher before the interviews start. Purchasing the CCAI assessment and permission of using CCAI assessment related information were obtained by contacting Vangent Company by email and mail. The researcher also abided by their policy of ownership. Transcribed interviews were sent to the research participant by email; therefore, each participant could assure accuracy of the transcripts. The researcher would make changes if there were errors. Instrumentation In the qualitative research, face-to-face open-ended interview questions were employed to discover the experiences of faculty participants and student participants on teaching and learning intercultural communication. In order to assess students’ intercultural communicative competence, the study also applied the Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory to student participants. The results of the CCAI were emailed to each student participant. Student participants were able to compare his or her single score with Stanine Equivalents on each dimension and or total score on the four dimensions, which are emotional resilience, flexibility / openness, perceptual acuity, and personal autonomy. Two sets of standardized open-ended interviews (Patton, 2002) were designed to interview participants, one set for faculty participants, the other for student participants. At the beginning of the interviews, general information was collected from all participants, such as demographics, duration of foreign language education, family background for students, title, and years of teaching Chinese languages for faculty members. In the next step, student participants completed the CCAI self-assessment in ten minutes to fifteen minutes and then answered

89 interview questions; faculty participants were asked questions directly in the interview. The interview questions were developed in accordance with the curricular models and effective teaching intercultural strategies which were based on the literature review and the conceptual framework. The semi-structured face-to-face interviews were two-way communication and discussion related to the research. The second instrument of data collection is the Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory self-assessment questionnaire (Kelly & Meyers, 1992), a 50-items questionnaire with 6 levels of Likert type answers ranging from “Definitely True,” “True,” “Tends to Be True,” “Tends to Be Not True”, “Not True and Definitely Not True,” which was developed to gather data on the “Emotional Resilience Scale,” the “Flexibility/Openness Scale,” the “Perceptual Acuity Scale and the “Personal Autonomy Scale.” To be specific, the Emotional Resilience Scale emphasizes “aspects of the cross-cultural experience that may produce negative and unpleasant feelings” (Kelly & Meyers, 1992, p. 14). The score “indicates the extent to which a person can regulate his or her emotions, maintain emotional equilibrium in a new or changing environment, and deal with the setbacks and difficult feelings that are a normal part of the cross-cultural experience” (Kelly & Meyers, 1992, p. 14). The Flexibility/Open Scale focuses on “the extent to which a person enjoys the different ways of thinking and behaving that are typically encountered in the cross-cultural experience” (Kelly & Meyers, 1992, p. 16). The Perceptual Acuity Scale assesses “the extent to which a person pays attention to and accurately perceives various aspects of the environment” (Kelly & Meyers, 1992, p. 17). “This applies particularly to the verbal and nonverbal cues communicated by people who are different from oneself” (Kelly & Meyers, 1992, p. 17). The Personal Autonomy Scale “measures the extent to which an individual has evolved a personal system of values and beliefs that he or she feels confident enough about to act on in

90 unfamiliar settings” (Kelly & Meyers, 1992, p. 19). Meanwhile, it “examines the extent to which an individual respects others and their value systems” (Kelly & Meyers, 1992, p. 19). In May of 1989, the Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory was presented at the Society for Intercultural Education Training and Research conference in Boston, Massachusetts based on a meta-analysis conducted by Colleen Kelley of 653 studies. Kelley is a human relations consultant specializing in cross-cultural training and Judith Meyers is a psychologist with a concentration in assessment and diagnosis (Kelly & Meyers, 1992). The CCAI has been developed and adjusted according to more sophisticated statistical tests since then. The complete set of The Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory includes the CCAI Self-Assessment, the CCAI Action-Planning Guide, and the CCAI Manual. The Action-Planning Guide provides suggestions for increasing cross-cultural adaptability on the four aspects: the “Emotional Resilience Scale”, the “Flexibility/Openness Scale”, the “Perceptual Acuity Scale and the “Personal Autonomy Scale”. The research will adopt the current version of the CCAI published in January of 1992. The Manual provides an overview of the CCAI, the inventory development, the scales and items of CCAI, the scoring system, the statistical information and the guidelines for using the CCAI and ancillary materials (Kelly & Meyers, 1992). Qualitative Data Analysis Plan The data analysis began as the research progressed. The variables in the research are the role of intercultural communicative competence in curricula, curricular models, the time devoted to intercultural communicative competence in class, teaching strategies, curricular models and characteristics of students studying Chinese. The goals of conducting qualitative research are to support the quantitative findings, to determine the curricular models and types of instructional strategies participants used in the research.

91 The researcher coded every variable in the conceptual framework. In order to create a formal data base, the data were transcribed into a Microsoft Word document. In the disassembling phase, the names and identities of the universities and participants were coded by a combination of letters and numbers. For example, AF1 means university A, faculty number 1; AS1 means university A, student number 1; BF2 means university B, faculty number 2. The interpretation of The Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory four scales and total score are based on stanine equivalents. Stanine equivalents are standard scores consisting of the numbers from 1 to 9, which are “normally distributed and have a mean of 5 and a standard deviation of 2” (Kelly & Meyers, 1992, p. 23). Table 4 displays the stanine equivalents for the four scales and the total scale. Participants’ score in the category of Stanine 1, 2, 3 indicate low intercultural communicative competence, in the category of Stanine 4, 5, 6 indicate medium intercultural communicative competence, and in the category of Stanine 7, 8, 9 indicate high intercultural communicative competence. Table 3.4. Stanine Equivalents for Raw Scale Scores (N=653) Stanine ER FO PAC PA Total Score Score Score Score Score 9 95-108 80-90 56-60 40-42 261-300 8 90-94 77-79 53-55 38-39 251-260 7 86-89 73-76 51-52 36-37 241-250 6 82-85 70-72 48-50 34-35 231-240 5 78-81 66-69 46-47 32-33 221-230 4 74-77 62-65 43-45 30-31 212-220

92 3 70-73 57-61 41-42 29 202-211 2 65-69 54-56 39-40 27-28 192-201 1 0-64 0-53 0-38 0-26 0-191 Note. ER=Emotional Resilience, FO=Flexibility/Openness, PAC=Perceptual Acuity, PA=Personal Autonomy. Adapted from The Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory Manual (p. 23) by Kelly & Meyers, 1992, Arlington, VA: Vangent, Inc. Validity and Reliability Validity, also termed as trustworthiness, authenticity, and credibility, is discussed regarding whether the findings are accurate from the standpoint of the researcher, the participant, or the readers by employing different procedures (Creswell & Miller, 2000; Gibbs, 2007). To check the accuracy of findings, validity strategies were highly recommended to “triangulate data sources of information by examining evidence from the sources and using it to build a coherent justification for themes” in proposals (Creswell, 2014, p. 201). The study will achieve triangulation by various means. Member checking is implemented “through taking the final report or specific descriptions or themes back to participants” (Creswell, 2014, p. 201). “The researcher takes back parts of the polished or semi-polished product, such as the major findings, the themes, the case analysis, the grounded theory, the cultural description, and so forth” (Creswell, 2014, p. 202). In the study, the transcribed interviews will be emailed to all the participants to confirm the accuracy of the findings before the results are published. “Rich, thick description” was used to “convey findings”, which “may transport readers to the setting and give the discussion an element of shared experiences” so that “the results become

93 more realistic and richer” (Creswell, 2014, p. 202). The researcher took detailed notes in every interview on the settings, the participants, and their non-verbal languages, such as their gestures, tones, attitudes, and facial expressions. “Self-reflection creates an open and honest narrative that will resonate well with readers” and it has become “a core characteristic of qualitative research” (Creswell, 2014, p. 202). To clarify the researcher’s bias (Creswell, 2014), the researcher is a female doctoral student in her mid-30’s, a native Chinese speaker teaching Chinese language at a public American state university. Her doctoral concentration is in faculty leadership and she holds a Bachelor Degree in English literature and a Master Degree in English linguistics from a Chinese university. The researcher has been living in the United States for six years. During the six years, she has been teaching Chinese language courses of elementary and intermediate levels in one state university. The researcher taught Chinese language courses at different levels at one private college for four years and is a well-trained instructor in a teaching second language. Knowledge and experience of the discipline will hopefully keep prejudice and bias of the participants in the study to a minimum. Yin (2009) suggested that to determine if approaches are reliable, “researchers need to document the procedures of their case studies and to document as many of the steps of the procedures as possible” (p. 203). In this study, the researcher provided step-by-step procedures for other researchers’ references. Institutional Review Board and Ethical Issues Since the research included interviewing faculty members and students, the researcher submitted a research interview protocol and CCAI self-assessment to the Institutional Review Board-IRB at her own university and the two selected institutions.

94 Selected faculty members and students were invited to participate in the research formally by email and confirmed by phone calls. Formal consent to participate in the research was given to the participants before the interviews and the consent forms were collected prior to the interviews. The informed consent forms for faculty and student participants are found in Appendix A and B. All participants have joined voluntarily and are free of penalty to withdraw from the study at any phase of the research. All participants in the study are assured of confidentiality and their names and institutions’ names will not appear in any publication related to this research. The researcher is responsible for designing, conducting, transcribing the interviews, applying the CCAI instrument, and analyzing the responses. The researcher will also be responsible for the confidentiality of the data. Identifiable information and their respective number codes will be kept in a personal computer with password protection. Before the dissertation is finished, audio materials and printed materials including questionnaire responses, transcribed interviews, notes taken from interviews, will be kept in a safely locked file cabinet in the researcher’s private office and after the dissertation is completed, the materials will be given to the dissertation committee chair. All materials, written and audio, will be duplicated against the possibility of loss and be kept in a different locked file cabinet. The instruments used for data collection and the consent form will be retained for five years following the end of the study and then will be destroyed. Summary Chapter 3 discussed the conceptual framework, research questions, the research design, the research settings, the sample selection, the instruments, the data collection procedures, the validity and reliability, the data analysis procedures, and the ethical issues for the dissertation. Chapter 4 will reveal the results from the qualitative research.

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96 CHAPTER 4 The Peach University Case History Background In this university, the Chinese program is run by the Department of Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Cultures and the Confucius Institute. The Confucius Institute was established in 2007 with one of the prestigious Chinese universities as its partner university. The exchanges and cooperation between the two universities are “multi-disciplinary, multi-domain and multi-level.” The institute was formed in collaboration with the Office of Chinese Language Council International and the State of Arkansas Department of Education. According to their website, the mission of the Confucius Institute at the University is to strengthen the ties between the state and the People’s Republic of China, to enhance the mutual understanding of each respective culture, to promote Chinese language and culture within the state. The goals have been achieved in a variety of ways including teaching Chinese in the state, cultural experience, business translation and consultation services, seminars, and cultural performances and exhibitions on campus and in the local community. The institute works with a number of multinational corporations, governmental agencies, NGOs, school districts, Chinese Americans, the Chinese alumni at the university and other individuals or entities interested in China.

97 Faculty and Staff There are two faculty members in the Chinese program under the Department of Languages, Linguistics, Literatures, and Cultures, the director of the Confucius Institute and an assistant professor of Chinese. The director of the Confucius Institute is also an assistant professor of Chinese. In the Confucius Institute, there are four faculty members together, director of the institute, deputy director, and two faculty members. The director of the institute is the head on behalf of the American university. The deputy director is the head on behalf of the Chinese university. Their main administrative responsibility is to promote Chinese language and culture, operate the Institute, report to the two universities, organize Chinese faculty and teacher training, send Chinese teachers to K-12 schools, and coordinate with the school districts. In addition, they teach one to two higher-level language classes or culture classes. The two faculty members are sent from Hanban, China every two years. After the first two years, the faculty members can choose to renew the contract for two more years or return to China. Their teaching load is two courses per semester and administrative office hours. Courses The institute offers a minor in Mandarin Chinese. In the fall semester, 2016, the Institute will start to offer the Chinese language major with the concentration of Traditional and Business Chinese. The Chinese language courses they have been offering are Elementary Chinese I and II, Intermediate Chinese I and II, Advanced Chinese Grammar I and II, Conversational Chinese, Intensive Chinese Conversation Abroad, Advanced Intensive Conversation Abroad, Introduction to Business Chinese, Advanced Reading in Chinese Literature, Practicum in Chinese: Teaching Chinese to Children, Travel Seminar in China,

98 Independent Study in China, Chinese Senior Capstone Project, Introduction to Chinese Linguistics, Chinese Culture and Society: Advanced Readings on Modern China, Chinese Calligraphy: Theory and Practice, Advanced Business Chinese, and Independent Study in Chinese. Findings Participating Faculty Members All the three faculty members who have taught elementary Chinese courses from the Institution participated in the research. All three are female and from China. Their names were coded as AF1 (University A faculty member 1), AF2 (University A faculty member 2), and AF3 (University A faculty member 3). AF1 is at her thirties. She has been teaching Chinese for eleven years. She received her doctorate from University of Iowa, specializing in Second Language Acquisition. In 2011, she started teaching Chinese in the Department of Foreign Languages, Literatures and Cultures of the university as an Assistant Professor. In the university, she has taught all the courses offered in the program. Before teaching at the university, she taught at another American university as a graduate teaching assistant for six years. AF2 is at her twenties. She is from the Confucius Institute. She received her master degree in Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages from the East China Normal University. She has four years of experience teaching Chinese. She started teaching in the fall of 2015. In the East China Normal University, she taught Beginning Chinese I and Intermediate Chinese I. Before teaching at the university, she taught Chinese in a Chinese university through Hanban’s program. She also had the experience of teaching elementary school students Chinese for about ten months in the United States.

99 AF3 is also in her twenty’s. She received her master degree in Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages from East China Normal University. She has three years of Chinese teaching experience. She also has been teaching since fall, 2015 at the Confucius Institute. In the university, she taught Beginning Chinese II and Intermediate Chinese II. She also taught Chinese to students from their community school. The students’ ages ranged from five to eight and from 11 to 13. Before teaching at the university, she taught intermediate and advanced level classes in The Council on the International Education Exchange (CIEE) program, which is an American Flagship program. Analysis of Variables from Faculty Member Interviews The analysis of variables follows the conceptual framework as outlined in Chapter 3. Curricular Models The Additive Model Target Language and Target Culture. All the three faculty members believe that teaching Chinese language should take up most of the class time. However, they all teach or talk about Chinese culture at the elementary level. AF1 said that: Teaching culture is everywhere. There seems to be a dilemma between incorporating culture learning from the very start of language study and the general class rule of target-language-only ideal. If only the target language is used in the classroom, the privilege of comprehension in the native language is somewhat exploited. I think students’ first language should be taken good advantage of. The ideal condition is target language only, but I don't think it should become the only standard to judge a good language teacher as well as a good language class.

100 AF2 thinks that the teaching of Chinese culture should serve for language points and help students understand language points or help students memorize language points. AF3 states that teaching culture depends on the timing. When it is close to Chinese festivals, she would introduce the related culture. When it is close to American festivals, she would compare the American festivals with equivalent Chinese festivals. She would also introduce the related Chinese culture before the activities held by the Confucius Institute and encourage her students to participate. Communicative Language Teaching Model Communicative Competence. One faculty member regards developing communicative competence as the most important objective. One faculty member considers developing communicative competence as one of the most important objectives. One faculty member does not emphasize communicative competence. Developing communicative competence is one of the most important objectives for AF1 but not the only one. In her lower level Chinese classes, listening and speaking are emphasized more than communicative competence. In order to lay a solid foundation and motivate each student’s interest to learn Chinese characters, she would introduce the writing system and etymology. She gave an example of the character “妾”, reads as qie4, English meaning concubine. In ancient times, the old Chinese social system, as in the movie Raise the Red Lantern, only allows the first woman of a man, the wife, to sit in the living room. Other women, “妾”, could not sit, only stand. So the social status of women at that time was reflected in the

101 character and the social status of individuals was also reflected in creating other Chinese characters. Many characters reveal their historical meanings based on their etymology. Pursuing cultural appropriateness linguistically and culturally is also an important objective for AF1. She still hopes students within their limited language skills can express Chinese culture appropriately. For example, Chinese people greet strangers, acquaintances, friends, and family members differently. AF2 regards developing communicative competence as the most important objective in her elementary Chinese classes by emphasizing speaking. Other important objectives are that students can recognize one hundred radicals and parts, so that the students can know or guess the meaning of a character even though they have never learned the character. AF3 thinks that developing communicative competence is not important in her elementary classes. In her elementary Chinese classes, she would try to train students to speak complete sentences. The ability to use Chinese flexibly is another important teaching objective. If she teaches a grammar rule, she expects her students to be able to use the rule and make their own sentences. She also focuses on the function of the language by designing class activities reflecting real life scenarios. Learner-Centeredness. All the faculty members have the same goal: to design learner- centered classes. AF1 explained that her elementary classes are learner-centered. When I was teaching greetings, I asked students how you greet each other in English. So they would be aware of how they greet people differently in various occasions. And then we would come back to Chinese greetings. Students would discuss the topic and a lot of times students would talk pretty much. But as an educator, I have my objectives. I would like the students to take advantage of their English to learn Chinese.

102 AF2 claims that her elementary classes are learner-centered, too. When she prepares classes, she would try to think from the student’s position; in this way, it is easier for them to understand the lesson. Second, she would not lecture excessively. When she goes over a new grammar point, she would give students time to practice with each other, such as sentence practice, dialogue practice, in class activities and out of class activities. AF3’s goal is learner centered but she thinks it is hard to achieve. Authentic Texts. The textbook the faculty members are currently using is Integrated Chinese, which is the most widely adopted Chinese textbooks in North America. The textbook set includes a textbook, a workbook and a character book. The three faculty members agree that the textbook contains some authentic texts but not enough. AF1 thinks the textbook serves as a resource, but the important part is how to present the language to students so she combined the new concepts from other textbooks into the textbook set. According to AF2, she does not use much from authentic texts; rather she only uses them in the workbook. She feels that when she uses authentic materials, her students are not able to be in their role. She explains that she has a heavy teaching load so she would select the materials related to their everyday lives. AF3 explains that at the elementary level; there are not many authentic materials in most textbooks. If it is truly authentic, students would not be able to understand. However, she would try her best to add authentic materials to her teaching.

103 Context. All the faculty members in the research emphasize real life scenarios in their elementary Chinese classes. AF1 puts forth that language educators should think: is this the language you use out of the classroom? If not, please do not teach students to say this. When they were asked how often they use real life scenarios, the answers were “all the time”, “a lot” and “as long as they are related to the dialogues of the textbooks”. Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) Model Communicative Competence. The three faculty members hold different opinions and practices on this point. AF1 thinks her class is all about intercultural communicative competence. When students choose to take Chinese classes, it indicates the students are already aware of increasing their intercultural communicative competence and taking Chinese is a motivation to improve their intercultural communicative competence. AF2 considers that intercultural communicative competence is not the most important element in her teaching. AF3 also considers that intercultural communicative competence is not very important. She wishes she could talk more about culture, but all the talking should help motivate language learning. Regarding the time devoted to intercultural communicative competence, AF1 sets intercultural communicative competence as a learning objective for the duration of the class. AF2 spends twenty to thirty percent of class time per dialogue in the textbook. AF3 spends ten to fifteen minutes out of fifty minutes of class. She also takes advantage of ten minutes right before class to play some Chinese songs and videos and then start a short discussion about it or she would pose a question to her students to provoke discussion.

104 Intercultural Sensitivity. Intercultural sensitivity is highly emphasized by all three educators in elementary Chinese classes. AF1 may not emphasize it explicitly, but it is definitely important in her classes because she emphasizes the appropriateness of language and culture. AF2 thinks intercultural sensitivity is crucial in elementary Chinese classes. Many American students choose to take Chinese out of curiosity so teaching students to have the intercultural sensitivity is a motivation for students to learn Chinese. AF3 states that since we are teaching the Chinese language, we do not expect students to think only with a Western mindset. They should know what and why Chinese people think or say things in certain ways. For example, Chinese people sometimes say “请您……” instead of “请你……”. They both mean “would you please…”. The difference is the usage of the pronouns. “您” and “你” both mean you, but “您” has one radical under “你”. The radical “心” means heart. The difference between “您” and “你” is that the first one is politer than the second one. “您” is used for addressing elderly people, people with higher social status, or simply to show respect. “你” is used for other situations. From the language point of view, respecting someone with the heart is politer than respecting someone without a heart. From the cultural point of view, the characters reflect that in general, Chinese people respect the elderly and they speak in a humble way. American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Standards The three faculty members all introduce cultural perspectives, practices, and products in their elementary Chinese classes. The most commonly introduced cultural elements are festivals, such as the Chinese Spring Festival, and the Mid-Autumn Festival. They would

105 explain the cultural perspectives of why people celebrate the festivals, the practices of what people do in the festivals, and the products of what typical food people eat in the festivals. AF2 introduces cultural perspectives, practices, and products by comparing the traditional China with modern China. She puts more emphasis on the current situations in China than on past traditions in China. She usually talks about culture spontaneously without preparing it before class. AF3 brings up the Chinese celebration that takes place on Dec. 11th in her elementary classes, the Bachelors’ Day which is also called the Hand-Chopping Day. This date is considered the Bachelors’ Day in China because Dec. 11th is written as 11.11, which resembles a person who is single and lonely. An E-commerce businessperson, Ma Yun, successfully infused the idea of single people online shopping on the Bachelors’ Day to Chinese people. At the same time, sellers give various promotions and sales to drive up the consumption of goods on that day. In this way, too much buying makes some people feel like chopping off their hands since some people cannot control their desire to shop and overspend on unnecessary items. She also shows students the popular online shopping websites such as Taobao and Jingdong and the low prices on the websites. She vividly explains the cultural perspectives, practices, and products of December 11th. Perspectives. AF1 introduces the traditional Chinese perspective of valuing the male and devaluing the female when she teaches the Chinese character “女”, female. By observing the character, one sees that it is a woman kneeing down and it reflects the social status of females in an oracle inscription from ancient times. This character constitutes many other characters. Since she explains the meaning and etymology, students are able to recognize

106 other characters and their deeper meanings. When AF2 covers the lesson of family, she talks about the current Chinese family structure, the one child policy and the social issues caused by the policy. Practices. AF1 consider most of lessons covered in the textbook to be cultural practices like the introduction of family members, time expressions, visiting friends, and hobbies. In Chinese culture, there are Chinese featured greetings such as have you eaten yet. AF2 explains why people would use this as a greeting based on historical reason. In addition, she introduces other concurrent greetings to update language usage. She discovers a surprising similarity in perspectives and practices between Chinese culture and American culture. When children are at the age to get married, parents will begin discussing the situation first and cannot help asking about it and even arranging blind dates for their children. Products. For cultural products, AF1 introduces Chinese calligraphy and practices calligraphy with students. During the Chinese Spring Festival, paper cutting is typical for decorations during the Chinese Spring Festival and red envelopes are traditional gifts presented to among Chinese people, so she teaches paper cutting and gives students red envelopes; in the red envelopes, she places real Chinese currency. When her Chinese money is used up, she buys chocolate in the shape of Chinese golden coins in an Asian store and puts one chocolate coin in each red envelope. AF2 mentioned a detail when she was handing out red envelopes in one class. Her students looked very calm until they found out that there was Chinese money in it, which excited them a great deal. Because the Chinese people use a regular calendar and a lunar calendar at the same time, she prints the two sets of calendars and

107 distributes them to students to help students understand the two calendar systems. When AF2 covers the lesson, concerning dates and times, she talks about the traditional Chinese birthday food and how people celebrate birthdays. Instructional Strategies When the three educators were asked how to introduce cultural perspectives, practices and products, AF1 says that she has never thought about a special way of introducing them on purpose. Coming from an English teaching background, she insists that students should be aware of their own cultural perspectives, practices and products first, and then they would be able understand different perspectives, practices and products from other cultures. She usually does not make a special effort to discuss it. If a perspective, a practice, or a product helps students to understand language points, she talks about it specifically. AF2 is not interested in some of the section, in particular, Culture Highlights in the textbook and would omit the uninteresting parts in class. Instead, she would replace this section with some cultural points, which are not in the Culture Highlights, but related to the topic of a unit. She would like to lead into the culture from a language point of view. She thought that if the culture point was not related to the topic, she was more inclined to speak too much English which was inappropriate. Field Trip AF3 utilizes every opportunity to promote the activities and events held by the Confucius Institute. She would take her class to Confucius Day, which is an event held at the end of September. While called Confucius Day, it usually lasts a week. During the event, there are various activities with the features of Chinese culture. She would also assign

108 students tasks for field trips. One language example is a survey which asks about people’s living habits. One question on culture from the survey asks what Chinese culture students have observed, what is most interesting to them and why. The three interviewees did not mention the other instructional strategies, listed in the conceptual framework in Chapter 3. The other instructional strategies include portfolios, lectures, semantic mapping, hands-on activities, ethnographic interviews, culture capsules, culture clusters, culture assimilators, culture mini-dramas, word associations, collages strategies, and artifact studies. Cross Cultural Adaptability Inventory (CCAI) Emotional Resilience Emotional Resilience. Every student in a Chinese language class has a language partner who is an international student from China. The feedback from most students upon meeting Chinese people and making Chinese friends was positive from the educators’ point of view. According to the educators, some students would felt sense of achievement when they could understand what native speakers said. Emotional Balance. The educators would use encouraging words like “Great”! “You see, not that difficult”. “You used it immediately after you learned it”. In AF2’s class, an American student once generalized the characteristics of Asian people by saying Japanese people were a little more fashionable, and Chinese people were traditional. The instructor did not feel it was a compliment, compared to outgoing Americans. AF2 did not give many comments on this because she said that she respected the student’s opinion since she had all kinds of thoughts about Americans. When she communicates with her students, she would not respond in a reactive way. AF3 is surprised by the new words that her students

109 occasionally come up with in class. When she observes that the students learn from their language partners, she praises them. AF3 is also glad that her students could learn new expressions or synonyms that typically appear in a textbook’s vocabulary section from their language partners. She shared two instances of negative feedback from one of her students of a Chinese heritage. A student told her that his friends living in a Chinese community that Chinese girls were eager to marry American born Chinese men for permanent resident status warned him. AF2 explained to the student that this was not common. There were exceptional cases in every country and people with bad intentions were everywhere not just in China. The other time she played a song by a singer from Taiwan. The student said it was not a Chinese song, but a Taiwanese song. She responded that this was a singer from a specific region of Taiwan. She spent almost half of a class explaining the relationship between the Communist Party and Kuomintang. Positive Attitudes. The challenging parts of learning Chinese are different for various students. AF1’s students find writing and listening challenging, AF2’s students find tones difficult, and AF3’s students find grammar difficult. In order to help students with these challenges, AF1 would design activities which require students to listen to each other speaking Chinese to improve listening. AF2 makes flash cards with tones, English meaning, and characters, and she practices tongue twisters and poems to improve her students’ tones. AF3 asks students who understand the grammar to demonstrate how to answer a question or make a sentence and to give several opportunities for the students who could not use the grammatical rules correct to practice.

110 To keep a positive attitude among students who are learning Chinese, the three educators try various methods to build their students’ confidence. For AF3, if a student does well on the first try, she will praise him or her. If he does not do well, she will demonstrate or ask another student to demonstrate how to say it. If a student does well after her or another student’s demonstration, she still compliments him. In order to receive the students’ feedback in a timely manner, AF1 would ask for students’ informal oral feedback before class or after class. In addition to the school evaluations, she would design an evaluation questionnaire for her students to leave their comments and suggestions so that she can make appropriate adjustments in her teaching. AF2 uses different strategies to build her students’ confidence. I would take them to play Ping-Pong. I would get to know what they like to do, their talents, and make the best use of them. For example, for the New Year celebration, I would ask a student to play guitar and some students to sing a Chinese song in the celebration. If few students have questions, I would talk with them about learning strategies. If it is a whole class, that means the teaching strategy does not fit this class and I will adjust my strategy. (AF2) It is very natural for language learners to make language and cultural mistakes. When the three educators face students’ mistakes, they take an encouraging attitude. AF1 thinks the most important thing is to build their confidence. She usually says, “Do you know how many people have the courage to learn Chinese? You have already overcome the first and biggest step.” AF2 would demonstrate how to finish a task so students would not feel like they were suddenly falling into a pit and would feel too timid to speak Chinese. She would not ask students to do a task until they were ready. She thinks that when a student makes a mistake, the reaction of the educator, including facial expressions, and hand gestures are very

111 important, especially if it is a nervous student. Sometimes she would ask a student to say a random foreign word and she would repeat after the student to show she could not say a foreign word 100% correctly either because it is very natural for a language learner to make mistakes. AF1 would share a language or cultural mistake upon the approval of a student because the mistake is very authentic and a helpful teaching moment. The Flexibility/Openness Cognitive Flexibility. AF1 chooses not give her students any suggestions in intercultural communication because she thinks that people have different cultural backgrounds and standpoints, moreover, they are neither good nor bad. If students can realize this, they would feel there is no need for conflicts or disputes. Even though she would not give suggestions, she would emphasize that different cultures demonstrate different perspectives. She emphasized that faculty should not push others to support his or her own opinion. AF2 mentioned that instead of lecturing, she preferred to talk about how she settled issues in intercultural communication when the class discussed a certain topic. When a student’s opinion is very different from hers: I would show my respect. That is why I do not want to judge their opinions; everyone is different. This varies from people’s personality, constitution, and latitude. That is how a person looks at an issue. I cannot change him or her. I am not him. I cannot imagine why he thinks that way. I would ask his opinion and make him feel I really want to know his opinion, in this way, students would respect my opinion too.

112 AF3 brought up that teaching Chinese in China and teaching Chinese in the United States was very different. She felt that students do not care about intercultural communication because they were not in China. The students only get in touch with the Chinese language when they have Chinese classes. She suggests to her students, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do”. She would tell students that it is fun to do what everyone does and one of the reasons that students go to China is to experience the cultural differences. Interpersonal Competence. The Chinese program and Intensive English Program at the university cooperate to pair a language partner for every student learning Chinese and every Chinese student. Both the AF1 and IEP require the students meet with each other once a week for one hour. The Confucius Institute hosts the Chinese Table, the Confucius Day, and holiday celebrations. The Chinese Table is a Chinese conversational-based informal meeting between Chinese faculty members and students who are interested in practicing their Chinese. AF1 also encourages students to go to various activities and events held by the Confucius Institute by giving extra credit. AF2 organizes students to perform in the celebrations and events. AF2 also gives students assignments to finish while they participate in the activities, such as interviewing Chinese scholars and students on certain topics. The Third Culture Perspective. When the faculty members were asked that what parts of cultural perspectives, practices, or products your students think are interesting, mind opening, and even mind changing, AF1 thinks that cultural perspectives, cultural practices, and cultural products are difficult to discuss separately.

113 I think characters, first of all, characters are cultural products. Second, using characters to show meanings is a cultural practice. Third, using characters to explain etymology is explaining cultural perspectives. Students think the characters are extremely deep and wide. I even feel proud to be a Chinese. It never stops humbling me. AF2 felt that Americans are very confident in their culture as a strong and big nation and they are accustomed to imposing the influences of American culture on other countries and cultures. She found that her students were very interested in the influence of Chinese culture on American culture. For instance, they are amazed by the English expression “Long time no see.” This sentence pattern comes from Chinese grammatical order and literal translation of saying “好久不见”. AF3 expresses what students find interesting is not about traditional China, but about modern China. I think mind changing is almost impossible, but I think they would consider it in different perspectives. They have seen so much about Chinese traditional culture. Some of their impression on China is countryside. When I showed them some very messy dorm pictures in which a guy sat on top of a bunk bed, suddenly one student said that was what he thought about China. I meant to shock them but they were calm and said that was what they thought about China. He also said, “China has a large population, crowded, and this is normal.” “We have heard about it,” but when I showed them the pictures of a modern and fashionable subway, they were surprised that there was such a beautiful subway station in China.

114 The Perceptual Acuity Verbal Cues. The Chinese program at this university adopts the textbook set entitled Integrated Chinese. Every semester faculty members cover five lessons. For Elementary Chinese I, they cover Lesson 1 Greetings, Lesson 2 Family, Lesson 3 Dates and Time, Lesson 4 Hobbies, and Lesson 5 Visiting Friends. For Elementary Chinese II, they cover Lesson 6 Making Appointments, Lesson 7 Studying Chinese, Lesson 8 School Life, Lesson 9 Shopping, and Lesson 10 Transportation. Nonverbal Cues. Distance. When AF1 covers greetings, she would ask students to perform a greeting scene. She would mention that the social distance among Americans is further away than with Chinese people. She would explain, “Chinese people may step close to you and greet. It’s not an intrusive act, but a cultural practice.” Eye contact. AF1 would tell students she might not look at students all the time because it looks aggressive and intimidating to Chinese people. She explains that not having long eye contact is also related to animals’ nature behavior. If a person stares at a monkey for a long time in a zoo, the monkey would strike the person. Numbers. There are different hand gestures to express numbers from zero to ten in Chinese culture. One hand to express ten numbers is a special feature of Chinese hand gestures. AF2 introduces the hand gestures for numbers to her students. Fist greeting. AF3 introduces fist greeting to her students, which is the right hand on top of the left hand for females, and the left hand on top of the right hand for males. She also explains when Chinese people use the fist greeting.

115 Empathy. In every country or culture, there exist unique cultural perspectives, cultural practices, and cultural products related to a country’s history, politics, and culture. Educators should not expect students to agree with their values and beliefs. However, they can explain why in the culture or the country, people think, say, or act in certain ways from a historical background, geographical background, economical background, political background, and so forth. AF1 said, I would try to give them a whole picture. It’s their matter to agree or not agree. Through language, they can see a different mindset. But we can’t force students to agree with it. Sometimes students are actually able to understand deeper than we thought. AF2 emphasizes the importance of variety in intercultural communication. She understands that sometimes some cultural perspectives, practices, and products are very difficult for American students to understand because China has gone through different phases and historical events from the United States. The Personal Autonomy Personal Value System. Usually the faculty members would not mention sensitive issues like Taiwanese issues, Tibet issues, Falun Gong, or human rights unless students ask about them. None of the faculty members is afraid to express their true thoughts. For example, AF1 expresses “students have the right to express their opinion so I have my right to guard my opinion with my life. I would try my best to explain the history, but it is students’ matter to have their opinion.” AF3 would share what the majority of Chinese people think about sensitive issues, it may not 100% thorough though. AF2 shares that her students are more understanding than she expects sometimes. Once she mentioned that Facebook is

116 blocked in China; her students’ reaction showed that it was not a big deal. When she mentioned human rights, students replied that there were pros and cons to different political systems and America has problems too. Sense of Identity. When in Rome, do as Romans do. AF1 emphasizes appropriateness in her class, which she thinks reflects the expression “Do as the Romans do”. She agrees with this, but students have the right to keep their autonomy. She thinks that since students learn Chinese, they need to know what is appropriate in Chinese culture. Some things are appropriate in one culture, but might not be in another culture, such as body distance. One cultural practice maybe appropriate on one occasion, but not on another. For example, on one hand, Chinese people value tradition and politeness (AF1). On the other hand, Chinese people look rude. They do not say thank you often to their friends (AF1). Educators should explain why Chinese people do what they do. I think this is a change of “润物细无声”, rain touches grass gently without a sound, or “潜移默化”, unnoticeable influence. That’s why we feel the longer students study Chinese, the more they will resemble Chinese. The more they know about the cultural perspectives, the more it will affect their action. It’s a gradual process but teachers should know why we do this. (AF1) AF2 thinks it is impossible to do as Romans do completely. From her point of view, if she does not imitate the behavior of others, her students would not be comfortable being with her. She recommends her students imitate within reason. AF3 recommends her students to do as Romans do while keeping their bottom line.

117 Participating Students from the Institution Five students participated from the University in the research. All five students have studied Chinese at the university for one and half years. Their names are coded as AS1 (the Peach Institution, student 1), AS2 (the Peach Institution, student 2), AS3 (the Peach Institution, student 3), AS4 (the Peach Institution, student 4) and AS5 (the Peach Institution, student 5). AS1 is white and in her twenties. She has taken Chinese for two years in high school. She has many friends of different nationalities, but not from China. The reason she wanted to take Chinese was because she wanted to travel and there were so many interesting places to see in China. She has never been to other countries. AS2 is a Chinese heritage student in his thirties. His father is American and his mother is from Taiwan. His mother was adamant while he was growing up, requiring Chinese be spoken at home. She also tried to push his reading and writing but he was less receptive to her teaching style. He took French in high school for two semesters and in college for two semesters. He also studied Korean at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey California for 65 weeks. He has many friends from Taiwan and mainland China, a few Korean friends, some Puerto Rican friends, and abundant Mexican friends from his military experience. He contacts most of them at least once every two months if they do not live nearby. The other ones he contacts every other weekend. He has spent around three and a half years in the Middle East and about that long in Taiwan and mainland China. He has traveled up to six months a year in Europe. He has been to 15 to 20 countries as far.

118 AS3 has Korean heritage and is in his twenties. His parents moved to Argentina when he was three and lived there for 17 years. He majors in Science and Biology. He has taken three semesters of Chinese at the university. He can speak English, Korean, Spanish, and is currently learning Chinese. He attended a trilingual school in Argentina to learn Korean, English, and Spanish when he was very young. His sister was born in Argentina. He has some friends from South America. His family members are Koreans. Their family speaks Korean at home. Besides Argentina and the U.S., he has been to Canada a few times and Brazil for a very short time. AS4 is Korean, in her twenties, and is majoring in psychology. She has taken three semesters of Chinese at the university, and Spanish in high school for four semesters. Her family members are Korean and she has some Japanese friends. She gets in touch with her Japanese friends once a week. In addition to the United States, she has been to Mexico five days on a summer vacation. AS5 is white and in her twenties. She majors in Linguistics with a focus on Spanish. She has been learning Chinese for three semesters at the University. She took Spanish in the first grade and in the ninth grade. She also took a semester of German at the university. Her best friend is from China and they hang out once or twice a week. She hasn’t been to other countries. Analysis of Variables from Students’ Interviews Intercultural Competence Four out of five students admitted that they attempted to gain intercultural competence by various ways such as attending different intercultural events on campus, meeting people from different cultural backgrounds, trying different food, watching foreign movies and dramas,

119 and reading books related to different cultures. Only one student with a multi-cultural background considered he gained intercultural competence naturally. Instructional Strategies Formal and Informal. AS1 thought it was helpful for her instructor to mention the formal way of expression and informal way of expression so that it did not sound weird to native speakers when they were having a conversation. Sharing a Piece of Mind. AS2 appreciated that his instructor asked his opinion on some language points to help other students better understand. So when I thought that they were scared of asking something, I would ask them to get it out of the way. The most common phrase I could not understand for a long time was my uncle who asked me “你吃了吗?” (Have you eaten yet?) If it was 12 o’clock my time, I think it is an absurd question from an American culture standpoint, but it is good for other people to know that it is a greeting. It doesn’t literally mean have you eaten? I try to point out little things like this along the way. When you watch the first interactions that people have, when they learn a language, it often does not make sense, so you'll just have to accept that. Videos to Complement Textbooks. AS2 liked the videos his instructor played in class to show colloquial ways of expression at the street level compared to the expressions in the textbook. The videos also presented ways of expression that people use to talk with people of different ages.

120 Random Videos. AS2 also considered that random videos are one of the most effective instructional strategies his professor used. These were played concurrent with an event or a brief history in a certain area in China, songs, movie trailers, and food. Then the whole class would learn little phrases from the videos. As for the contents of videos and timing of playing videos, AS2 expresses his opinion: I think it is a little bit of everything because you are learning a foreign language. It doesn’t matter how you collaborated in a lesson, you are still teaching Chinese. If you open a class with a video, as she sometimes did, it is a great attention grabber to get everyone to discuss and open their eyes and minds a little bit. If it is at the end of a class, especially if it is more like an award, we followed the teacher and found that it was more fun. If it is in the middle of the class, then it could be a great thing, maybe everyone is slow or groggy that day which I know teachers can sometimes struggle with, that can bring everyone back in. This will make it a little livelier and offer a helpful discussion point. So I think planned properly with things you can use everywhere. I have seen videos used just about everywhere. Sometimes it is really hard for students to open up to voice their opinions. Even if it comes to calling their names by asking “what do you think of the video?” especially if there is very commonly used phrase. The teacher writes it out and asks “What does this mean to you?” Then I think students are challenged to translate first in their heads because they have to listen to the video and listen to what the teacher said, so the mind is engaged. They have to translate in their head, and then they have to come up with a connation of what they think that phrase means. So with the three levels of associations, I think the Chinese

121 sticks more. Because they’ve seen it, they’ve seen it written, they’ve heard it said and they’ve had it mentally translated through association. Trivia Questions. AS3 recalled one of the most effective instructional strategies is trivia questions. These questions were mainly about language points, some culturally related. They were not graded but it made class more interesting. Emotional Resilience Emotional Resilience Meeting Chinese People and Making Chinese Friends. All the five participants enjoy making new friends. Only one student admitted that she had not have the opportunity to meet any Chinese people. Two of them feel sad that most of the Chinese students were exchange students and after one semester or two they would have to go back to their Chinese universities. One student expressed that there are mixed feelings meeting Chinese people and making Chinese friends. Trying New Cultural Practices or Products. Rice crackers, red beans snack, and red envelops with money in them were introduced to the students. They were all brave and excited and enjoyed the cultural products their instructors brought to class. Emotional Balance Handling Uncomfortable Feelings. Based on the interviews, participants felt uncomfortable under different situations, such as when people could not understand what he or she was saying when they tried their best to express themselves. The more people are exposed to multicultural backgrounds or the more people get in touch with people from different nationalities and cultures, the fewer uncomfortable feelings they will have. AS2 expressed that he had learned to handle uncomfortable feelings over time. When he

122 approached a culture, he was not eager to show people his culture but preferred to hear about their culture first so he could make an evaluation as to how to interact with them. He shared an example when he was in the military and was meeting with village elders in Afghanistan. …I had to take the time to understand how their culture operated. Something simple like the sense of time. You know, they may tell you we will meet in the afternoon. But that’s as specific as they get. They have no concept like let’s meet at 2:30 or let’s meet at 4 o’clock. So when is that, you don’t really know. So you will just have to wait around and do stuff. So if I was meeting the village elder, I would show up in the village in the afternoon with my team and then somebody would go get them regardless where they were at. So I would wait a little bit longer, and the reverse is true. When someone wanted to come to our base for a visit, they would give us an imprecise time. And we need to understand that OK, we would just have to keep operating and doing our mission like normal, then have someone wait so when they get there, we can be contacted and we will come and have our meeting. AS3 shared an experience he and his sister had when they were getting off a train in Argentina. A man attempted to spit on his sister but he missed. The way he dealt with it was deemphasizing the bad perspectives some Argentinian people had regarding Asians. He chose to let it go and not stir up more conflict. AS5 choose to leave politely if she has uncomfortable feelings or feels offended. AS4 would handle the situation if she had time. Positive Attitude The five students were asked the most challenging part of learning Chinese. Among the five, two students answered that it was the listening skills, two students answered it was writing and one student did not have any frustrations in learning Chinese. In order to

123 overcome the frustrations, students chose to study by themselves first. If they had questions, they would go to their classmates. If their questions remained unanswered, they finally went to their instructors for help and they found their instructors very helpful in answering their questions and rebuilding their confidence. The participants were generous to share some of the mistakes they made. Some are language mistakes and some are cultural mistakes. Usually language mistakes can be spotted immediately, but most cultural mistakes are not realized until the person has learned that part of the culture or by reflection. AF5 mispronounced her Chinese friend’s name “飞龙” into “肥龙”. “飞龙” pronounced as fēi lóng and means flying dragon but “肥龙” pronounced as féi lóng means fat dragon. AS2 once travelled to Japan where he took a taxi. The taxi driver did not speak English, so when he kept giving the driver a tip, the driver kept shaking his head. Finally, the taxi driver took the tip. He felt bad after he learned the culture that nobody tipped taxi drivers in Japan and in some Asian countries. Some taxi drivers may feel offended because the person who tips is showing pity that they are not making enough money. In the United States, if a customer does not tip, the taxi drive would feel insulted. AS3 shared a cultural mistake a Chinese person made with him. He was eating with a friend and other people. One of the people asked him “Have you had any plastic surgery?” which is a stereotypical way to view Koreans. When the students realized the mistakes, most of them took a positive attitude such as “I don’t feel nearly as badly as most people do I’m like oh, it’s a mistake and I will learn from it” (AS1). However, the student did appreciate it when her instructor gave her feedback. “So I feel mistakes can happen. I really don’t think it’s a bad thing to learn from mistakes since

124 there is no way to know the otherwise” (AS3). “I just laughed. I did not know what I was doing. He thought it was funny too. So it was OK” (AS5). I don’t think I try to make myself feel better anymore, which I think is part of the fact of knowing no one is perfect. If you do not make a mistake, something is wrong with you. I think it is the hardest part for students learning a foreign language. They are so terrified of saying it wrong and then they do not say it. If they do not say it, it takes them longer to understand why they are saying it wrong. Whereas if they just accept the fact that they cannot say it right at first, they can say it over and over fast, and eventually get it right which would be a shorter time frame. (AS2) The Flexibility/Openness Cognitive Flexibility When the students were asked how to think through and handle differences and conflicts in intercultural communication, keeping an open mind, trying to understand, being objective, having lots of patience, respecting other people’s opinions are their key answers. Lots of patience is always on my mind, the conflicts you come across are simple to solve if you don’t become aggressive. Open mindedness is huge. I think the greatest conflict resolution is to ask the person you have the conflict with what do you think of the conflicts or how should we resolve this because most of the time, if you ask them for their opinion, they automatically become less hostile and they don’t have a sense of conflict. But if you say, no, we should do it this way, automatically they become protective and they want to defend their face and their pride. So definitely ask the question first. Don’t give an answer first. (AS2)

125 Interpersonal Competence The participants have gone to celebrations of Chinese New Year and Mid-Autumn Festival with considerable enjoyment. Most of them have been to the Chinese Table, which is for people learning Chinese to practice speaking Chinese once every week. Some of them even make some friends at the Chinese Table. Some instructors give students bonus points for attending the activities and events. The Third Culture Perspective When the participants were asked what cultural perspectives, practices, or products have your instructors introduced that are enlightening, their answers varied. Both AS1and AS4 thought calligraphy practice every couple of weeks in class was enlightening. AS2 felt everything using language is helpful. Since AS2 is half Chinese and half American, he encountered fewer enlightening moments in class. In his words, “if it was ten years ago, I think I would have more enlightening scenarios to point out.” Since AS3 has Korean background and the cultures in Asian countries are similar, he does not have any enlightened moments in class. AS5 does not know what has enlightened her. The Perceptual Acuity Scale Verbal Cues The Chinese program at this college also adopts the Integrated Chinese textbook. In the first year, every semester five lessons of the Integrated Chinese Level 1, Part 1 are covered. For Elementary Chinese I, it will cover Lesson 1 Greetings, Lesson 2 Family, Lesson 3 Dates and Time, Lesson 4 Hobbies, and Lesson 5 Visiting Friends. For Elementary Chinese II, it will cover Lesson 6 Making Appointments, Lesson 7 Studying Chinese, Lesson 8 School Life, Lesson 9 Shopping, and Lesson 10 Transportation.

126 Non-verbal Cues Some students did not remember any non-verbal cues covered in class. Some students recalled bowing greetings and hand gestures for numbers. I had not picked up anything in class like body wise and facial expression wise. All of them I got from watching Japanese or Chinese cartoons. Like one of my favorites one is “蜡笔小新”, Crayon Shin-chan. It is hilarious from his body language and the way his parents interact with him. I think I get taught more from animations about what he does and his parents do. (AS2) Empathy When asked what cultural perspectives, and practices their instructors explained to them to help them better understand why Chinese people think or act in certain ways, even if they may not necessarily strongly agree or adopt the same ways of thinking or behaving. AS2 mentioned a common Chinese greeting, “你吃了吗?”, which means “Have you eaten yet?” The historical reason for the greeting was hunger in the country, but gradually it has become a common greeting to start a conversation. A second example mentioned by AS2 was the birthday tradition, the birthday person treated everybody in the party because the guests were supposed to give a red envelope or birthday gifts. AS2 mentioned the tones, that when Chinese people speak so fast, it sounded like people arguing. It was normal and common. AS1 wished they would talk about that more because her instructor focused more on learning the language. They didn’t learn much about the people in that aspect. AS5 kept silent on the question. She did not know how to answer the question.

127 The Personal Autonomy Scale Personal Value System Student participants shared some confusing aspects which reflected personal values and beliefs of Chinese people such as talking loud in a dorm hall, having a messy room, weird smelling soup, Chinese parents making decisions for their children, circling around a problem instead of pointing it out, and being indirect when asking a question. When they were asked, “how has your experience in Chinese class changed these values, beliefs, or your reactions to them”, the answers were negative. However, one student thought his Chinese classes gave him a deeper understanding of some language points and cultural aspects. One student learned that Chinese culture is more conservative and polite, which is reflected in the Chinese language as well. The participant felt that she will be able to read her Chinese friends better and understand how they truly felt. Sense of Identity When in Rome think as the Romans think and do as the Romans do? Participants can adopt this maxim reasonably. I think when in Rome, do as Romans do is ideal for any situation. Number 1, you don’t create any conflicts when you do that and it is not asking you to give up any values, rather it asks you to blend in. Obviously, there is a limit to what you can do and I think as long as you are trying, others will recognize and honor that. If they notice that they feel you are uncomfortable doing something, they will go out of their way to make you feel better so, that is why I agree with that one hundred percent. If you immediately do something against their culture, then immediately they want to defend their culture and kind of push their culture on to you. So do as Romans do is

128 the happy middle ground where both sides can find respect for each other. (AS2) “Being open-minded doesn’t necessarily mean changing who you are” (AS1). “You should not comprise everything that you stand for and believe in just because another culture does it differently. There are some things worth maintaining” (AS3). “I think preserving your own culture, and staying with what you believe is really important unless it hurts someone else” (AS5). Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory (CCAI) Student Participants CCAI is composed of four scales: Emotional Resilience Scale (ER), Flexibility/Openness (FO), Perceptual Acuity (PAC) and Personal Autonomy (PA). The CCAI total scores are used to interpret student participants’ intercultural competence level in the research. This research refers to stanine equivalents provided by the CCAI. Stanines are standard scores consisting of whole numbers from 1 to 9. 1 to 3 is Low low, Low mid and Low high. 4 to 6 is Medium low, Medium mid and Medium high. 7 to 9 is High low, High mid and High high. In this university, the average score of the CCAI is 225.8, which is medium mid on the stanine.

129 Table 4.1. Student Participants’ CCAI Scores from the Peach Institution Student Gender ER FO PAC PA Total Stanine AS1 F 83 81 51 33 248 7 High mid AS2 M AS3 M 98 80 53 31 262 9 High high AS4 F 69 64 46 30 209 3 Low high AS5 F 62 55 49 21 187 1 Low low 5 Medium 72 74 44 33 223 mid Note. ER=Emotional Resilience, FO=Flexibility/Openness, PAC=Perceptual Acuity, PA=Personal Autonomy. This research refers to stanine equivalents provided by the CCAI. Stanines are standard scores consisting of whole numbers from 1 to 9. 1 to 3 is Low low, Low mid and Low high. 4 to 6 is Medium low, Medium mid and Medium high. 7 to 9 is High low, High mid and High high. In this university, the average score of the CCAI is 225.8, which is medium mid on the stanine. Characteristics of the Student Participants with High CCAI Scores AS2 achieved the highest CCAI total score and highest Emotional Resilience, Flexibility/Openness, Perceptual Acuity scores. Based on the interviews from the instructors who have taught him, he is 36 years old and he has considerable life experience. He is a heritage student since his mother is from Taiwan and his mother is a high school Chinese teacher. He likes traveling for military and personal reasons. He was sent overseas when he

130 was in the army. His major is international business and he will graduate in May 2016. He loves learning languages and he knows several languages well. He chose to study Chinese after he was discharged from army. He has a Chinese girlfriend and he knows a lot about China. He has a high motivation and is very clear about what he wants. Additionally, he is a positive, open minded, person with dreams, which he pursues in a positive manner, yet avoids opinionated rigidity. AS1 performed the highest CCAI total score as a non-heritage student and the highest Personal Autonomy score. She is self-conscious in terms of what she says and what other people say to her. One instructor thinks that to learn a language, it is good to pay attention to what people say. Sometimes if a person is too self-conscious, the person would limit himself or herself in many areas. She wants to be a writer so she reads a lot, and is interested in different things. The other instructor thinks that what she writes should be different to attract other people as a writer. If she writes the same culture, it may not attract American readers. But different cultures may attract more people. She will not only attract the main culture but also other cultures. The instructor thinks her major helps her intercultural competence level too.

131 CHAPTER 5 The Orange Institution Case Historical Background In this college, the Chinese program offers a minor in Chinese language. The goal of their Chinese language courses is to develop communication skills in listening, speaking, reading and writing. Meanwhile, the Chinese literature courses, taught in English, aim to encourage aesthetic appreciation through the study of Chinese novels, poetry, films and so forth. Based on their website, both the Chinese language courses and literature courses guide students to a wide range of Chinese cultures and nurture global awareness. Faculty There is one faculty member in the Chinese program. Her research focuses on Chinese Ming-Qing dynasty fiction and Gender Studies. She teaches all the language and literature courses, and she is also the Chinese language program coordinator. Courses The Chinese program offers three levels of Chinese language courses and a variety of Chinese literature courses. The courses they offer are Elementary Chinese I, Elementary Chinese II, Intermediate Chinese I, Intermediate Chinese II, Advanced Chinese I, Advanced Chinese II, Survey of Chinese Literature (to 1911), Survey of Chinese Literature (since 1911), and Topics in Chinese Literature.

132 Findings The Participating Faculty Member The sole faculty member in the Chinese program is from China and her code for this research is BF1. In 2003, she started teaching as a teaching assistant. In 2012, she started teaching as a Chinese instructor in the institution. As the only Chinese faculty member in the program, she teaches all the courses offered in the program. Analysis of Variables from the Faculty Member Interview The analysis of variables follows the conceptual framework as outlined in Chapter 3. Curricular Models The Additive Model Target Language and Target Culture. The faculty member said she does not have any curricular models to follow, but she set up learning goals for different years of Chinese language learning. Based on the interview and the Chinese program’s website, the first-year Chinese language courses are an introduction to the Chinese language and culture. Students who complete the introductory Chinese classes are able to communicate in Mandarin Chinese at the novice level, to be familiar with the basic structure of Mandarin Chinese in general, to master the elements of Mandarin pronunciation, to master the rules and principles of Chinese character writing, to be familiar with the basic assumptions of Chinese culture that underlie communication (Institutional Website). The second-year Chinese language courses are a continuation of the first-year courses. The goals are to develop students’ listening, speaking, reading and writing proficiency at the intermediate Chinese level. Specifically, the program is to “build up vocabulary, expressions, and grammatical structures for a wider range of daily communication”. In listening and

133 speaking, students are able to “understand Chinese contemporary culture that underlies communication, to be able to engage in the oral exchange in various informal and daily situations”. In reading, students are able to “understand the meaning of short passages on topics in everyday life by using vocabulary knowledge, background knowledge, and possibly some contextual clues”. In writing, students are able to “write a series of sentences to describe, explain, compare and state an opinion” (Institutional Website). The third-year Chinese language courses function as a bridge to authentic Chinese texts. The goals of the courses are to improve the abilities of oral and written expression, as well as to continue improving listening and reading comprehension. Specifically, the program continues to increase students’ “vocabulary, expressions grammatical structures and use them appropriately, to distinguish between spoken and written forms of Chinese, to further the understanding of Chinese culture and contemporary Chinese society”. In listening, students are able to “understand face-to-face, non-technical speech in controlled contexts and familiar topics in everyday life”. In speaking, students are able to “engage in conversation and discussion on general topics, to express and defend your ideas in clear, connected discourse”. In reading, students are able to “understand the gist of written passage on social issues and be able to summarize the main ideas in short sentences or phrases”. In writing, students are able to “write cohesive and coherent short prose at passage level” (Institutional Website). Additionally, the Chinese literature courses introduce students to various genres and forms of Chinese literature in different historical background. The goals of the Chinese literature courses are to develop students’ “general knowledge of Chinese culture through literary texts, including poetry, novels, film, etc”. The courses give students opportunities to “appreciate the