Yuan-Yuan Meng
Abstract
Television dramas serve as a valuable teaching tool at advanced levels. Students in advanced classes have learned the basic grammatical rules and accumulated a working vocabulary, and many are ready to improve their comprehension by watching Chinese television. Television dramas present the target language in a lively fashion that can easily engage students in the learning process. Furthermore, television dramas usually deal with social dilemmas, thereby providing an excellent source of discussion. Finally, such programs also have the potential to raise students’ awareness about the target culture.
This presentation will explore the use of television dramas at advanced levels, addressing the following pedagogical issues: (1) how to choose the proper segment of a television drama, including its length, content, relevance to the overall curriculum, and difficulty and usefulness of the language; (2) how to design meaningful activities based on the drama that integrate the training of listening, speaking and writing skills; (3) how to create supplementary materials and tools that help maximize students’ performance; and (4) how to avoid certain pitfalls when designing a drama-based lesson. I will conclude by presenting some student writing samples that attest to the effectiveness of the design.