This volume explores best practices in implementing the Performed Culture Approach (PCA) in teaching Chinese as a foreign language (CFL). Offering a range of chapters that demonstrate how PCA has been successfully applied to curriculum, instructional design, and assessment in CFL programs and classrooms at various levels, this text shows how PCA’s culture-focused paradigm differs fundamentally from the general communicative language teaching (CLT) framework and highlights how it can inspire innovative methods to better support learners’ ability to navigate target culture and overcome communication barriers. Additional applications of PCA in the development of learner identity, intercultural competence, autonomy, and motivation are also considered. Bridging theoretical innovations and the practice of curriculum design and implementation, this work will be of value to researchers, teacher trainers, and graduate students interested in Chinese teaching and learning, especially those with an interest in incorporating performance into foreign language curriculums with the goal of integrating language and culture.

This volume explores best practices in implementing the Performed Culture Approach (PCA) in teaching Chinese as a foreign language (CFL). Offering a range of chapters that demonstrate how PCA has been successfully applied to curriculum, instructional design, and assessment in CFL programs and classrooms at various levels, this text shows how PCA’s culture-focused paradigm differs fundamentally from the general communicative language teaching (CLT) framework and highlights how it can inspire innovative methods to better support learners’ ability to navigate target culture and overcome communication barriers. Additional applications of PCA in the development of learner identity, intercultural competence, autonomy, and motivation are also considered. Bridging theoretical innovations and the practice of curriculum design and implementation, this work will be of value to researchers, teacher trainers, and graduate students interested in Chinese teaching and learning, especially those with an interest in incorporating performance into foreign language curriculums with the goal of integrating language and culture.

This new major reference work provides a comprehensive overview of linguistic phenomena in a variety of Sinitic languages in a global context, highlighting the dynamic interaction between these languages and English. This “living reference work” offers a window into the linguistic sphere in China and beyond, and showcases the latest research into diverse and evolving linguistic phenomena that have resulted from intensified interactions between the Sinophone world and other lingua-spheres. The Handbook is divided into five sections. The chapters in Section I (New Research Trends in Chinese Linguistic Research) present fast-growing research areas in Chinese linguistics, particularly those undertaken by scholars based in China. Section II (Interactions of Sinitic Languages) focuses on language-contact situations inside and outside China. The chapters in Section III (Meaning, Culture, Translation) explore the meanings of key cultural concepts, and how ideas move between Chinese and English through translation across various genres. Section IV (New Trends in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language) covers new ideas and practices relating to teaching the Chinese language and culture. The final section, Section V (Transference from Chinese to English), explores dynamic interactions between varieties of Chinese and varieties of English, as they play out in multilingual sites and settings

The introduction of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has ignited a fervent academic discourse. AI's role is as both a powerful ally and a potential adversary in education. For instance, ChatGPT is a generative AI which mimics human conversation with impressive precision. Its capabilities span the educational spectrum, from answering questions and generating essays to composing music and coding. Yet, as with any innovation, its advent has sparked a spirited academic dialogue. AI in Language Teaching, Learning, and Assessment seeks to address these concerns with rigor and thoughtfulness. It explores the undeniable drawbacks of AI in language education and offers strategic insights into their prevention. It scrutinizes the resources and safeguards required to ensure the ethical and secure integration of AI in academic settings. This book lays out the multifaceted benefits of incorporating AI into language teaching, learning, and assessment. Its chapters dissect the transformative impact of AI on pedagogy, teaching materials, assessment methodologies, applied linguistics, and the broader landscape of language education development. This book is a valuable resource for language learners, educators, researchers, and scholars alike. It beckons to those who are keen on exploring and implementing AI in education, as well as AI developers and experts seeking to bridge the chasm between technology and language education.

This book examines how foreign language speakers establish and maintain social and transactional relationships in their target language, and how pedagogic intervention can help learners implement practices that will allow them to participate and react in both socially acceptable and individualistically empowering ways. Arguing that ‘doing’ foreign-language politeness and culture does not simply involve the indiscriminate and uncritical adoption and implementation of target-language patterns and practices, the author advocates instead for active, judicious and even critical social action. As such, the book presents a dynamic and vibrant dimension to target language politeness and cultural practices, demonstrating that raising learners’ critical language awareness in identifying productive communicative resources and assets can lead to successful interpersonal and transactional communication. Building on this notion of a ‘positive’ pedagogy, Halliday’s model of ideational, interpersonal and textual is utilised as a framework for exploring how foreign language users can approach target language politeness in terms of prosocial, interpersonal and contested politeness, with reference to a study of Mexican speakers of English as a foreign language. Heightening awareness of foreign language politeness patterns and practices, as well as presenting knowledge and resources for overcoming challenges and accentuating benefits of a nuanced learning scheme for politeness in foreign language, this book will appeal to language educators, researchers and bilingual speakers. It will also benefit those working across pragmatics, sociolinguistics, TESOL, cultural studies.

This edited volume showcases state-of-the-art research in technological applications in second language writing. It examines multimodal composing, digital feedback, data-driven learning, machine translation, and technological applications in writing pedagogy. Technology in Second Language Writing reflects the rapidly changing field of technology in second language learning and highlights technological advances across different areas relevant to L2 writing. Composed of empirical studies, reviews, and descriptive essays, this book covers a variety of topics across the areas of composing, pedagogy, and writing research. It includes discussion of computer-mediated communication, language learners’ perceptions about using technology in their writing, the use of social media in writing, corpus learning, translation software, and the use of electronic feedback in language classrooms. Offering a multifaceted approach to technology in a wide variety of second language writing contexts, this cutting-edge book serves as essential reading for scholars and postgraduate students in the field of language teaching, applied linguistics, and TESOL.

This book offers a socially situated view of the emergence of emotionality for additional language (L2) learners in classroom interaction in Japan. Grounded in a complexity perspective, the author argues that emotions need to be studied as they are dynamically experienced and understood in all of their multidimensional colors by individuals (in interaction). Via practitioner research, Sampson applies a small-lens focus, interweaving experiential and discursive data, offering possibilities for exploring, interpreting and representing the lived experience of L2 study emotions in a more holistic yet detailed, social yet individual fashion. Amidst the currently expanding interest in L2 study emotions, the book presents a strong case for the benefits of locating interpretations of the emergence of L2 study emotions back into situated, dynamic, social context. Sampson’s work will be of interest to students and researchers in second language acquisition and L2 learning psychology.

This edited volume brings the important topic of teacher well-being to the fore, presenting a range of high quality and cutting-edge contributions that illuminate, advance and educate readers on the challenges and criticality of achieving teacher well-being in English language teaching (ELT). Taking Sarah Mercer’s call for action to make teacher well-being a priority in the ELT field, and adopting an ecological perspective reflective of the stance that teacher well-being is a societal duty and not a personal responsibility, the contributors present theoretically and methodologically innovative research studies from all around the world. The term ‘teacher’ is used to refer to those who deliver English instruction in a variety of formal and informal educational settings and at different levels including K-12 schools, adult education, higher education, teacher education programs, and in community organizations. Chapters offer clear implications for research and practice, and explore effective practices and interventions that can contribute to the improvement of teacher well-being overall. Addressing a profession which is not only characterized as being filled with high levels of stress, but delving into specific challenges around ELT in particular, the authors crucially speak to themes around the additional emotional investment and labor which come with being an English language teacher. As such, it will appeal to academics and researchers in the field of English language teaching, including scholar-practitioners, and teacher educators.

Performed Culture in Chinese Language Education: A Culture-Based Approach for U.S. Collegiate Contexts elaborates on a cultural awareness-oriented, cultural performance-based, and cross-cultural communication-focused foreign language pedagogical paradigm—Performed Culture Approach — in the context of U.S. collegiate Chinese language education. Guangyan Chen draws on the data collected through questionnaires, comparisons between this pedagogy and mainstream pedagogical frameworks, and analyses of curricular development, lesson plans, and classroom discourses. Chen promotes the performed culture approach by delineating the theoretical framework of this pedagogy, reporting studies that empirically support cultural primacy in Chinese language education, and illustrating this pedagogy through analyses of a curricular structure, a lesson plan, and classroom discourses. Chen shows how this pedagogy addresses the gaps between the social need for global citizens and the insufficient integration of culture into foreign language education. The performed culture approach also addresses the overall drop in U.S. collegiate foreign language enrollment as this pedagogy connects foreign language programs to university missions and social needs.

The human mind is best understood when it is studied in the context of meaningful and goal-oriented interactions between individuals and their environment. These internal and external activities help to shape the human consciousness and experience. Contemporary Approaches to Activity Theory: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Human Behavior is an opportunity to study the complex, socially-oriented contexts of humans by considering the entirety of our environments: cultures, motivations, signs and tools, and various activities. Highlighting strategies in design, educational and work practice, and methodological analysis, this book is an essential reference source for academicians, researchers, and students interested in gaining a thorough understanding of the interaction between humans and their environments.