K-12 Chinese Language Teaching, Issue 5

In order to develop students’ cross-cultural awareness, teachers can use a dialogic
approach (Aukerman, 2013; Kramsch, 1993) to emphasize the element of world
interconnectedness in the varied cultural learning activities that compare cultural similarities and
differences in the Chinese classroom. First, a dialogic approach involves reflection, discussion,
and even confrontations while students examine their orientations toward their own cultures and
other different cultures (Kramsch, 1993). Teachers can facilitate dialogues and conversations on
the related cultural topics through pair talk, small group discussion, and the whole class
reflections. Readings, images, news, and social media posts can be utilized for analysis and
critiques on the perspectives and beliefs that held when teachers facilitate the discussions. A
dialogic approach encourages students to express their knowledge of and experience in different
cultures along with a critical reflection on their beliefs and viewpoints toward cultural diversity
through interactive dialogues with teachers and peers in the study on topics.
Then, an emphasis on world interconnectedness (Pike & Selby, 1999) allows students to
see that people around the world share universal human values and basic ideas including life,
liberty, equality, justice, education, social and economic rights etc., regardless of times and
locations. It also provides an opportunity for students to understand how the progress of
technology and globalization has propelled a rise of global popular culture such as K-Pop 8 and
TikTok 9 among younger generation that transcends regional barriers and cultural differences. In
the teaching of Chinese language and culture, teachers can lead students to see more similarities
among different cultural groups and find more connections and relevancy (Gao, 2021) in their
learning experience. Teachers can encourage students to identify their own cultural heritage and
the development, the historical development of the nation, the experiences and contributions of
different racial/ethnic groups including Chinese Americans and Asian Americans, and
interactions among various cultures throughout history within the larger context of the world.
Teachers can further help students to recognize and understand the legitimacy of a wide range of
human experiences, and develop their empathy and respect for cultural differences with an
8
K-Pop, representing Korean popular music, is a genre of music originally from South Korea. K-Pop includes styles and genres
of music around the world, such as pop, hip hop, R&B, experimental, rock, jazz, gospel, reggae, electronic dance, folk, country,
and classical on top of its traditional Korean music roots. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-pop
9
TikTok is a video-focused social networking service that hosts a variety of short-form user videos, from genres like pranks,
stunts, jokes, dance, and entertainment with duration from 15 seconds to ten minutes. TikTok is an international version of
Douyin, originally released in China in 2016. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TikTok