This document discusses building an effective Chinese language program with vertical articulation between K-12 and university levels. It notes that many high school students who study Chinese lack usable language skills and must relearn topics when entering university programs. The document advocates for teaching Chinese through cultural contexts and performance-based learning to develop students' communicative competence. It also stresses the importance of teaching behavioral culture and creating opportunities for students to use Chinese autonomously. The goal is to help students adapt their communication styles to interact appropriately in Chinese.

1. Building the Culture of Your Chinese Program:
Optimal Learning Experiences and Smooth K-16
Vertical Articulation
Eric Shepherd
University of South Florida

2. A Typical Example
 Conversation with a 3rd year high school Chinese student
 Me: 您贵姓？
 Student: 。。。。(no response)
 Me: 你叫什么名字?
 Student: 。。。(no response)
 Me: 你叫什么名字？
 Student: (long delay) “Oh, my name. 我的名字Megan.”

3. Another Typical Scenario
 Have developed rudimentary character recognition skills (not
reading skills) and rudimentary understandings of Chinese
grammar but have no awareness of what (how bad) they sound
in Chinese and no ability to use what they have learned
 Have to return to beginning to “un-learn” what they have
“learned”-must develop concept of tones and ability to
accurately produce them, must learn how to use everything that
they “learned” previously, must “un-learn” American ways
they have been using Chinese

4. The Result
 Students get frustrated and quit studying Chinese
 Students get frustrated with high school teacher for
not teaching them real skills and spend significant
extra time outside of class struggling to learn what
they thought they already knew
 “Why didn’t she teach me anything?”

5. Vertical Articulation
 Even after investing significant amounts of time studying in
organized Chinese programs a large number of current high
school students still lack usable skills IN Chinese (linguistic or
cultural)
 Most students who have had Chinese in high school, when
coming into the USF Chinese program, test into Chinese I,
which is an introductory course designed for students with zero
background
 Those who have developed some introductory skills have
significant adaptation problems because they have to un-learn
or re-learn most of what they have learned

6. The Disconnect
 There is significant gap between what is happening in at
the K-12 level and what is happening in the USF Chinese
program (university level)
 Not an isolated problem
 Observed same learner characteristics in Florida, Iowa,
Ohio, Maryland, Kansas, Texas, and California K-12
settings

7. Learners Who Think They Know Chinese Often Lack…
 Ability to use Chinese autonomously
 Metacognitive awareness of their own production of Chinese
 Understanding and awareness of Chinese behavioral culture
 Understanding and awareness of Chinese interaction patterns/ways of
viewing the world (cognitive orientations)
 Ability to establish intentions acceptable in Chinese culture
 Listening comprehension skills
 Ability to read in Chinese
 Ability to write at more than the simple sentence level (familiarity with
Chinese discourse norms)
 Ability to sustain attention in Chinese
 Effective study habits associated with Chinese
 Ability to accept utilize feedback on their performance

8. Learning Chinese Is Not Like Learning
Other Languages
 Chinese is a Category IV language-requires significantly
more time to reach advanced levels of proficiency than
other languages!
 Chinese is a tonal language-requires aural learning!
 Chinese has a very different orthographic system-requires
knowledge of phonological system first!
 Cultural gap is more significant-requires additional time to
develop cultural, behavioral, and cognitive skills
necessary to successfully interact in Chinese!

9. Implications
 Must work with foreign language supervisors/administrators to create own
Chinese model-may or may not nicely fit the Spanish/French/TESL/SLA
model at your school if model was not developed based on how Chinese is
most efficiently and effectively learned by Americans
 Separate skills: reading, writing, speaking, listening
 Must teach behavioral culture-coach new behaviors
 Must coach students to cognitively organize information (think) in
completely new ways
 Must understand how Americans efficiently learn Chinese so that you can
help students
 Must build this into curriculum (most students do not know how to best go
about learning Chinese!)

10. Learning IN the Culture
 Learning originates in concrete experience
 Culture creates contexts in which meaning is
negotiated (Walker, 2000)
 Culture and language are inseparable
 Students learning Chinese need to have Chinese
cultural experiences

11. Learning IN the Culture
 Culturally contextualized mimetic learning works best
 There is typically no Chinese language or cultural environment
here (at your American school) so you must build it into the
program
 Simulation of contexts in classroom (not traditional “role play”
but memorized dialogs are very useful)-purpose is to develop
memory, foster “empathy”, contextualize learning process,
include behavior, and set acceptable intentions in Chinese

12. Learning IN the Culture
 Many foreign language teachers think we should
relate things to what students know so that they can
learn easily so they use typical American contexts
 Fosters thinking in English and ultimately culturally
inappropriate use of language in the case of Chinese
 Contexts we use are all drawn from Chinese culture

13. Building Cultural Contexts
 Language learning is most effective when it is done in a cultural
context
 Most notions of culture do not include behavioral culture
 Without context students do not understand how to use the language
they are learning
 Without context difficult to move what is learned from short-term to
long-term memory
 Constructing controlled cultural contexts in the classroom
 Much more complex than telling a student ABOUT a context
 Without context difficult to provide students opportunity to gain
GUIDED experience using the language or to provide feedback
 Account for social dynamic involved in language use and learning

14. Creating Cultural Contexts
 Being exposed to a culture is not enough
 There is no magical process of cultural osmosis. Culture is
learned behavior.
 Learners must participate in on-going cultural activities to
learn new cultural behaviors
 Must participate in meaningful roles in culturally
significant performances (can’t go through motions and
can’t be American in Chinese)
 Move beyond guest, tourist, and performing monkey roles
in target culture

15. Creating Chinese Contexts
 Chinese culture is goal and standard
 Learner not “becoming Chinese” but developing new set of
cultural skills to add to existing repertoire (Shepherd, 2005)
 Gaining empathy/learning to understand world from new
perspective
 Cannot negotiate meaning (COMMUNICATE) without it

16. Constructing Chinese Contexts
• Select contexts: most commonly occurring (IN CHINA!)
• Is this something that your students (not you) will
encounter/need to know how to do?
• Simulated context but real communication
• What kind of context?
• Not just “foreigner Chinese”
• Reduces “teacher talk”

17. Constructing Context
• Specific but not too specific
• Applicable to other situations, transfer of knowledge
is possible
• Context must be clear; can be complex but students
must be able to immediately know where we are, who
we are, what time it is, and what we are doing
• Realistic context is important but even more important
is the linguistic/cultural task within the context must
be authentic communication

18. Raising Level of Expectations
 Goal of training students to use linguistically accurate
AND culturally appropriate Chinese (thinking in Chinese)
 Break normal pattern of simplifying Chinese for the
students (setting them up for failure) to begin helping
students develop skills necessary to deal with real
(difficult) Chinese
 Stop accepting less than accurate student performance

19. Learning Chinese Is Not a Spectator Sport
 You can’t learn Chinese for your students
 Students must develop new habits/behaviors if they are to be
successful interacting in Chinese culture over the long term
 To develop new behaviors they must do things themselves =
autonomous learners with occasional guided/scaffolded
performances
 Hearing it 100 times is not as effective as seeing it once
 Seeing it 100 times is not as effective as doing it once

20. Fostering Use of Chinese
 Must utilize every opportunity to give exposure to authentic
and natural target language in contexts of use
 Make Chinese the language of use with your students, inside
and outside the classroom
 If you communicate with your students in English, you have
removed their motivation for learning Chinese from the
classroom and increased the amount of time it will take them to
learn Chinese!

21. Student Language Use In the Goal
 Move from text-based, character-based, or test-based
curriculum to skills/student performance-driven
 Building a culture of use among teachers and students
 Using target language in class and for real purposes
 Using target language to give instructions
 Using target language before and after class
 Increasing amount of time STUDENTS use Chinese inside
and outside of class

22. Create a Culture and Community of Use
 Learning Chinese, like any language, requires significant time
and commitment (but it is learnable)
 By time child six years old, has been exposed to at least 22,000
hrs of language (estimate 10 hours/day)
 Takes more than 40 years for student who spends two hours
each weekday in foreign language classes to get equal practice
time!
 Students will not learn Chinese in your class; it requires more
practice than they can get in ANY Chinese class (or program)

23. Eliciting Student Performance
 Increase amount of student target language use in- and outside
class
 Teacher-dominant model
 Students never get to speak
 Parrot-model
 Students never have to do it themselves
 Still have to gain this experience after they leave the
classroom…when they realize this…..
 Elicitation model
 Teacher creates opportunities for students to use what they have
learned in context
 Students have opportunities to succeed and to fail themselves
 Opportunities for contextualized feedback

24. Elicit Student Performance
• Elicit: creating conditions in which the student can
produce the target language without your cues or help
(they have to have the opportunity to put the pieces
together themselves and application of new knowledge on
one’s own generates intrinsic motivation!)
• How can I get the students to use the target language
without telling them to use it? (not natural context of use)
• Embed target dialog in larger context of story

25. Elicit Performance
 Let students figure it out on their own (discovery learning;
don’t feed them (performing monkey)
 Don’t ruin the fun of it for them, let students discover it on
their own
 Most effective technique is to elicit the context and
student use rather than explanation or demonstration (行
李/谢谢。。。椅子/请坐)

26. Extrapolating/Stretching
 Wait for students/give students room to extrapolate or expand
upon target within context
 Only when appropriate for context
 Only after appropriate Chinese culturally appropriate model is
learned!
 Otherwise = translation filter = CHINGLISH
 Encourage adding contextually and culturally appropriate
language and behavior
 When one adds something, the next will do that and add
something else of his/her own
 Gradually complete the construction of the context
 By the end of class, doing some pretty sophisticated things

27. Utilize Performance-Based Learning
 Learning by through mimesis; learning by doing
 The learner does not “know” something until she can
demonstrate it by doing it
 Only way to develop ability to do something is to do it
 Learner must have opportunities to fail at increasingly
higher levels
 Doing meaningful things in culturally appropriate ways
 All roles-must learn how to ask and answer, initiate and
respond

28. Performance-based Learning
 Cultural (including linguistic code) learning can be facilitated
by isolating recurrent structures and associated rules to be used
in guided trial and error participation in commonly occurring
contexts
 Performances are learnable segments of culture/5 elements: 1)
location; 2) time; 3) roles; 4) scripts; 5) audience
 Developing new set of cultural skills; best learned through
mimetic learning (performance, doing)

29. Use Cultural Reverse Engineering
• Build in five elements of a performance
• Roles: Who are they? What is relationship?
• Audience: Who else is there? How does that change things?
• Time: What time is it?
• Location: Where are we?
• Script (What are they saying and what are they doing with that
“saying”?)
• List all related language, select target language/behaviors for
lesson
• Check to see if earlier content be can recycled? Add new things？

30. Creating Contexts
• Select props (no props just to have props, must have function,
provide information)
• Don’t provide too much information
• Pictures very clear (glass half empty)
• Most important prop = Teacher
• Context must have “multi-modal elements”; speech, behavior,
visual, aural (Focuses student attention! Generates interest!)
• Set up room, physical classroom
• Arrange sequence of events (time, difficulty, naturalness,
rhythm)

31. Embed Target Content
• Select target language based on context rather than
traditional method of explaining grammar points
• Prioritize most commonly occurring contexts, most
important language to naturally participate in those
contexts
• Can I elicit the use of the target language?

32. Cycle of Automatization
 Repeated rehearsal performances = forced over
practice of fundamental structures and skills in
context
 Learners develop routinized mastery of performance
skills
 Move them from conscious to subconscious level
 Attentional faculties freed up to deal with the new
elements
 Think of learning to play piano…you don’t have to
think about your fingers after hours of practice

33. Automatization/Internalization
 Teacher helps learner to undo routine to achieve higher levels
of competence
 Refocus learner attention on higher level aspects of each
performance (if you don’t focus their attention on it who
will?)
 Bring new aspects of performance into conscious awareness
 As students get words down, has them re-perform to correct
tones, intonation, interpretation of meanings, facial
expressions, movements and so on
 Trajectory of deepening complexity
 So same contexts need can be taught at differing levels of
complexity with students at differing levels of sophistication
 Forming new habits-takes time, uncomfortable at first

34. Successful Performance Generates
Intrinsic Motivation
 Performance in varied context also shows students their
growing mastery
 What areas they have yet to master
 Generates intrinsic motivation: “I did it!”
 Discovery learning (Gee)-learning on one’s own, more
effective than hours of explanation

35. Teach Behavioral Culture
 B. C. often not taught because “too difficult”/large amount of preparation; a
text provides an easy to follow framework for lesson
 Textual focus often at expense of language use; shift Attention away from
textual learning at foundational level
 Culture has patterns and structures that are recognizable (Walker, 2000)
 Often only implicitly to its members; “that’s just how we do it”
 We notice structure when it breaks down; “look at that weird foreigner”
 We become aware of “rules” when someone does not follow them
 Needs to be but is not a regular part of our pedagogical materials,
learning activities, and teaching approach
 Native/Experienced Non-native team teaching leads to “Smart Learning”

36. Helping American Learners Adapt to Chinese
 Our students must reduce accommodation (Shepherd, 2005)
 More work Chinese interlocutors have to do, higher
likelihood English becomes mode of communication
 They accomplish this by syncing (culturally calibrating
behavior)
 Our students must develop ability to think in Chinese
 Establish Chinese intentions/intentions recognized by
Chinese
 Can’t go through English/American culture filter
 Can’t do this if we adapt Chinese to them
 Do this first through mimetic learning, then through trial
and error

37.  To get around base culture filter, help them imitate correct way
of doing (including saying) things
 Mimetic learning; imitate behaviors (and language) that fits
Chinese ways of establishing intentions (ways of thinking)
and that are culturally appropriate (for Chinese culture not
American)
 Target culture is standard, not American base culture
 Fun and engaging for American learners (attention!)

38. Control the Learning Process
 Controlled activities first in order to get culturally
appropriate model down
 Memorize and imitate acceptable behavior and language
by doing in context
 Vary context and repeat until internalize it
 Begin to think in Chinese in that context
 Only then move to open ended (they create in context)
 Otherwise, rely on base culture-think in English, use
Chinese words-culturally inappropriate CHINGLISH

39. Do Joint Attentional Work
 Michael Tomasello-for new language skills to emerge
must share atttention on specific cognitive tasks-must be
done in Chinese in our case
 Create situations-students must focus on what others are
saying and then engage in communication about or based
on what was said
 Information gap; never know who will be called on; must
focus attention (uncertainty, nervousness can be used!)
 Performance model facilitates: two students perform
dialogue or context; others watch; teacher asks
comprehension questions

40. Keeping Attention IN Chinese
 Student-centered learning-give group work project…turns to English
thinking and speaking, attention not IN Chinese
 Joint attentional work
 Pace
 All Chinese
 Information gap
 Uncertainty-when will I be called
 Performance
 Comprehension questions
 Real world contexts
 Real communication in Chinese (reacting to what they say)

41. Don’t be afraid to speak Chinese!
 Examples:
 Teacher speaks in Chinese…students ask questions
in English (mixed codes/cultural
environment…they’re thinking in English!!)
 Teacher responds to unintelligible Chinese (to what
they mean instead of what they say)
 Teacher says it in Chinese then follows it up with
English or says it really slowly

42. Use Natural Chinese
 Teaching Chinese is not like teaching French or Spanish
 Chinese is tonal language, which presents special problems for
American learners
 Must have aural component to learning-materials you choose
and assignments you give (Yu Li’s study on reading)
 Impacts ability to distinguish and produce accurate tones
 Eliminate choral repetition-isolate individual students to find
tonal issues
 One of the hardest things for native speakers to do
(subconscious altering of rate of speech, word choice, etc.)

43. Don’t Alter Your Rate of Speech
 Changes in rate of speech affect phrase and sentence level tone
shifts in Chinese
 Shepherd: study with native speakers at Iowa State-recorded
three rates of speech-words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs:
super slow teacher talk, normal, fast speech
 Results: fast and normal speech tone pattern the same; slowed
speech significantly different tone patterns
 If you slow your speech down to model for students, you are
modeling the incorrect tones
 Research shows that native speakers cannot detect these tone
shifts while they are producing the tones themselves!
 Students will adapt to you

44. Study On Tone Shifts with Changes in
Rate of Speech (ni hao)

45. Tone Shifts (Qingwen nin guixing)

46. Feedback with Tones
 Must provide immediate feedback
 Students subconsciously imitate tones of those around them
 Rehearsing incorrect tones
 Internalization and fossilization
 Feedback on tones must indicate that the problem is a tone,
which tone, and how to produce correct tone
 This type of information should be in your materials
 Class time limited, sustain Chinese language environment-
most effective technique: reverse build up

47. Feedback Loop
 Important reason American students do not move beyond
intermediate level…..lack of structured and informational
feedback
 Informational Feedback (Shepherd, 2007)
 Student knows what problem is AND how to fix it AND has
chance to do it again
 对了！真棒！很好！不错！
 Then student re-performs while teacher refocuses attention on
different aspect of performance

48. Separate Skills
 Separate skills/attentional and information overload
 In Chinese: tones, culture, orthography, meaning,
pronunciation, grammar, behavior, etc.
 If all presented at the same time, cognitive overload, none
of them learned to high levels, every lesson does not need
to include a writing focus for instance
 Foundation in phonology first (speaking, listening and
interaction) then reading, then writing
 Do a little of each but clear focus of each less on 1 skill set

49. Don’t Become Ms. Othmar
 Separating English explanation and rehearsal in target language
 Declarative and procedural knowledge (we don’t care if
students can complete grammar worksheets or explain
grammar-declarative-as long as they can use the language
appropriately-procedural)
 Extensive explanations (of grammar, etc.)
 Explanation mode vs. T-S mode vs. S-S mode
 Have them do it
 Students will remember ten times longer and understand
much better if they learn on their own in context

50. Separate English Explanation and Chinese Use
 Mixed linguistic codes confuse students, prevent them
from having the chance to develop listening
comprehension, and cause them to lose focus-just wait
for the English, it’s easier and safer
 If do not separate, fostering Chinese meat and English
bones-thinking in English-very dangerous “deti”
 Create two distinct locations, 2 days and three days,
etc.

51. Coach Your Students HOW to Learn
 Most students at the K-12 level (for most levels actually) do
not know how to study/learn efficiently
 Will tell you exact opposite of what they actually need
 Most important thing you can teach them is how to go about
learning Chinese (they can then do it on their own)
 Element built into program to teach them how to learn Chinese
efficiently and effectively
 Requires understanding things from learner perspective
 Teaching how to learn Chinese vs. teaching Chinese

52. Coaching How to Learn
 Most language learners don’t know how to effectively and
efficiently learn a foreign language
 Helping students LEARN HOW TO LEARN Chinese
 SHOW them effective study habits
 What works for American learners
 SHOW them efficient ways of learning
 SHOW them why certain ways are better than others
 SHOW them examples of successful learners
 SHOW them with their own performance
 If they see the results, they will do it themselves