Breaking boundaries, building bridges: Reconceptualizing and integrating the cultural dimension into Chinese language pedagogy

Breaking away from conventional disciplinary boundaries between language instruction and cultural studies, this dissertation puts forward a new pedagogical paradigm and web-based implementation for teaching culture in the Chinese classroom. Despite the profession's effort to recognize the importance of cultural knowledge in foreign/second language education, the realization of the idea remains elusive. Further limited by the dearth of university curricula, language teachers and cultural theorists often follow disconnected paths and thus produce separate bodies of knowledge.;Utilizing a dialectical framework that combines empirical, interpretive, and critical approaches, this dissertation bridges the gap between the realms of language teaching and cultural teaching. A variety of research methods are employed, including the first nationwide online survey on the subject, in-depth interviews with both teachers and students and classroom observation, as well as critical analyses of curricula, classroom settings, textbooks, and teaching resources. The goals are, on one hand, to explore the cultural approaches, contents, and methods that most apply and appeal to the pedagogical community, and on the other hand, to better understand the feelings, attitudes, and problems regarding cultural pedagogy among the participants.;Grounded in these empirical findings and framed by critical theories, this study then proposes a new paradigm---4Ps of cultural pedagogy (4Ps)---as the guideline for instructional strategies, curriculum design, and intellectual debate. The four-dimensional model advocates that educators should pay as much attention to how cultures are presented and perceived in the classroom as to what is taught and who teaches it. The 4Ps are Cultural Plurality, Cultural Progressivity, Cultural Positionality, and Cultural Performativity, and they provide a paradigm for exploring the material, temporal, spatial, and communicative factors in cultural pedagogy, respectively. A set of interactive online tools illustrating the functionality of the paradigm is also presented. Together, the new paradigm and practices can help the Chinese pedagogical community reconceptualize the field, moving towards a more transcultural direction, and therefore, facilitating new ways for both teachers and learners to engage with ever-evolving Chinese culture, and making the classroom experience more productive and enjoyable for all.