Cross-cultural Awareness and Solutions: A Social Perspective Taking (SPT) Module for Competence-based Training

Yumin Ao敖玉敏

Confucius Institute of KSU, Associate Director

论文摘要Paper Abstract：CFL teachers from China encounter a challenge when trying to bridge large cultural gaps and may lack skills to effectively engage with the local populace, including students, teachers, parents and host-school administrators. The successful promotion of Chinese education requires the full support of a partnership with host schools and local communities. Thus, it is of crucial importance that CFL teachers use effective interpersonal technique and communication strategies in the classroom and beyond to overcome potential barriers in cross-cultural communication. However, the majority of CFL teachers from China either have had no exposure to new ideas, people and cultural situations, or had occasional but insufficient cross-cultural knowledge prior to being deployed to host schools. This paper uses Social Perspective Taking (SPT) to address these interpersonal challenges of CFL teachers. 37 CFL teachers voluntarily and anonymously participated in a recent survey regarding cross-cultural interactions and competence. The results of the survey have shown the necessity of competence-based training programs to be designed for in-service CFL teachers. The SPT module proposed in the paper allows teachers to accurately consider students, parents, host-schools’ perspectives without cultural bias and erroneous assumptions, which is the key to successfully promoting instruction of Chinese language and culture. The paper introduces the implementation of the SPT module for an in-service professional development workshop. The paper aims to: (1) contribute to escalating CFL teachers’ cultural competence locally and globally; (2) allow teachers to understand host-schools’ goals while accomplishing objectives of Chinese education; and (3) provide constructive suggestions to develop courses for in-service teacher training. Keywords: Chinese as a Foreign Language, Cross-cultural Competence, Competency-based Training, Social Perspective Taking Modules

发言人简介Presenter's Bio：Dr. Yumin Ao received her PhD in Chinese Language and Literature from the University of Otago in New Zealand. She did research at Taiwan Academia Sinica and worked as a foreign research fellow at the University of Tokyo. She taught at George Mason University before she joined the faculty of Kennesaw State University. She serves as coordinator the Chinese Studies program of the Foreign Languages Department. She is currently Associate Director of Confucius Institute at KSU, leading a research team and working in collaboration with the Georgia Department of Education to develop a Chinese Curriculum Companion to Support the Georgia Performance Standards for World Languages (K-12). She is also working together with Higher Education Press (Beijing, China) to develop Chinese teaching materials. Her research interests include Teaching Chinese as a Second Language, Traditional Chinese Drama and Theater, and Cross-cultural Studies.