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An Ecology of Literacy: A Context-based Inter-disciplinary Curriculum for Chinese as a Foreign Language

Wang, Jianfen
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0890-5253
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1461251633

Abstract Details

2016, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, East Asian Languages and Literatures.
Traditional approaches to teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) are based on a reductionist view of communication. In the reductionist view, communication is construed as a matter of arriving at understanding through the use of semiotics (verbal and non-verbal behavior). The semiotics is seen as the means to understanding instead of the consequences of understanding. Literacy is construed as an endpoint ability achieved through reading and writing. Constrained by the reductionist view of communication, the constructive nature of conversation has not been appropriately taken advantage of by CFL programs. This dissertation proposes a conversation-driven approach based on a complex, systemic view of communication, which has been informed by an extensive literature in related disciplines, such as biology, developmental psychology, linguistic anthropology, sociolinguistics, neuroscience, information theory, systems theory, media studies, phenomenology, and philosophy of mind. In the systemic view, communication is construed as complex and dynamic processes that are embodied as coordinated behaviors among the participants. Behavior is not something a person does by himself. Rather, it is constituted by the changes of a participant’s position or attitude, which an observer describes as movements or actions in relation to a certain environment. Therefore, communication is irreducible to the physical sum of verbal and non-verbal behaviors that we observe. We conclude that learning to communicate in Chinese is not reducible to “mastering” isolated verbal and non-verbal behaviors we observe from acts of communication. Rather, learning to communicate is to orient one’s behavior toward Chinese-speaking contexts. This can only be done through personally enacting processes of communication over a sufficient period of time. Complex, dynamic processes of communication constitute an ecology of literacy (EOL) – a system that sustains itself by the diverse and interrelated communication processes that bring texts into being. The construal of “literacy as communication-related processes” has been promoted by scholars of Multiple Literacies Theory (MLT) and applied to educational research on literacy development of children in multilingual societies and on principles of curriculum formation. The construal of literacy as processes shifts our understanding of the relationships between literacy, texts, and the reader. Literacy is no longer viewed as a matter of endpoint abilities. Instead, it is seen as a system of ongoing processes that produce texts in a broad sense. The readers are essentially ever-evolving products of the texts that they embody. Indeed, they are living texts constituted by the processes of communication in which they are engaged. Conversation is identified as the most fundamental and productive process of communication in an EOL. It drives the evolution of literacy. The second half of this dissertation discusses how we may employ “conversation-driven” as a guiding principle for designing CFL curricula that can effectively accommodate the ever-growing involvement of multimedia in communication and lead to the construction of self-sustainable structures of the Chinese language in the learners’ systems.
Galal Walker (Advisor)
Charles Quinn (Committee Member)
Mari Noda (Committee Member)
Xiaobin Jian (Committee Member)
370 p.
Communication; Curriculum Development; Ecology; Education Philosophy; Foreign Language; Literacy; Pedagogy; Sustainability; Teacher Education; Teaching
Chinese as a foreign language; curriculum; context; inter-disciplinary; ecology of literacy; embodied mind; literacy as processes; knowing as doing; learning as transformation; performed-culture; conversation; learner diversity; dynamic assessment

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Citations

  • Wang, J. (2016). An Ecology of Literacy: A Context-based Inter-disciplinary Curriculum for Chinese as a Foreign Language [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1461251633

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Wang, Jianfen. An Ecology of Literacy: A Context-based Inter-disciplinary Curriculum for Chinese as a Foreign Language . 2016. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1461251633.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Wang, Jianfen. "An Ecology of Literacy: A Context-based Inter-disciplinary Curriculum for Chinese as a Foreign Language ." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1461251633

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1461251633
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© 2016, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.