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Constructing Memories: A Case for Using Video in the Chinese Language Classroom

Zhang, Yunxin
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1392044490

Abstract Details

2003, Master of Arts, Ohio State University, East Asian Languages and Literatures.
In this thesis, language and culture are interpreted as memory and our knowledge of culture and language is seen as composed of the stories we compile from the memories of experiences in our daily life. Story is considered as the unit of memory. Communication is based on understanding other people’s stories and selecting the stories that we know and telling or embodying them in relation to other people at the right time. Therefore, for people who are learning another culture and language, they are obtaining and accumulating experiences, i.e., constructing memories of that culture and language. The more stories they store, the more effectively they process new experiences in the culture. The final goal of compiling stories in foreign language learning is to construct a new worldview that incorporates the second-culture memory. Learners of the foreign language are thereby able to “think” in the language. Video is the most suitable medium for vividly revealing the experience of daily life and the most effective channel for looking into the memory of another culture and language. Video delivers culture in the form of stories with clear-cut thematic content and short scenes edited together. Moreover, video, providing a coherent verbal and visual representation of a virtual communicative situation, can stimulate memory and has a more lasting effect in memory than simply verbal description. Thus, video should be used as the core foreign language learning material. By using video, knowledge of foreign language and culture can be delivered in communicative events, or experience, in its “original state"’, i.e., under authentic and integrated cultural context. Therefore, the goal of foreign language teaching and learning, which is to obtain the ability to function in the culture effectively, can be fulfilled more successfully. According to different focuses of language learning, different types of video material can be incorporated, including movie and various kinds of television programs. When using video as core foreign language learning material, we need to make sure the video we make and select meet the goal of language learning, thus both the content and language use in the video need to be considered from the perspective of language pedagogy. Meanwhile, we should also consider the nature of the instruction at different levels and with different focuses, and the compilation of supplementary materials. Since video, as a one-way communicative vehicle, has some defects that may detract from its powerful effect as language learning material, video material must be supported by other materials and the instruction so that the curriculum based on video can be the most effective. In a video-core classroom, learners should also actively work with video, supplementary material, the teacher and video equipment, so that communication in the classroom is not just one-way from television to the learners, but a multi-way interaction, in which these all components work together in a unified whole.
Galal Walker (Advisor)
Mark Bender (Committee Member)
96 p.
Asian Literature; Asian Studies

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Citations

  • Zhang, Y. (2003). Constructing Memories: A Case for Using Video in the Chinese Language Classroom [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1392044490

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Zhang, Yunxin. Constructing Memories: A Case for Using Video in the Chinese Language Classroom. 2003. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1392044490.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Zhang, Yunxin. "Constructing Memories: A Case for Using Video in the Chinese Language Classroom." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2003. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1392044490

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1392044490
180
© 2003, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.