Faculty Publications and Conference Presentations

Watching movies are beneficial to improving proficiency levels in a second language and intercultural communication. Recently, there are several popular animation features for children that are related to Chinese culture, but they lack detailed analysis in terms language learning (including Chinese as a second language) and intercultural communication. For instance, in the classification of Leal (2020), Kung Fu Panda (2008, 2011, 2016 & 2024) mainly center on a single culture but have a global market. In contrast, produced by a studio in Mainland China, Nezha: Birth of the Demon Child (2019) is about a youngster in ancient Chinese myths. It is all based on traditional Chinese culture, mostly targeting at viewers in the Greater China region. One of the highest-grossing movies in China, will it be a problem for foreigners trying to learn Chinese, both the language and culture? Still, the third category includes Turning Red (2022), set in the Chinese community in Toronto. It is a teenage girl in conflict with her family, the keeper of the historic temple for the clan in the country. The story is bicultural in its setting, especially in the girl’s friendship with her classmates, and the movie is targeted at multicultural audiences. What English words are used in relation to Chinese culture, and in what ways Turning Red can serve as a bridge between Chinese and western cultures?

Responding to new challenges and opportunities arising from recent global developments in international Chinese language education, the research focuses on the language analysis, movie themes, Chinese cultural elements, aiming to explore multimodal and intercultural communication on teaching models and methods in international Chinese language education. The research utilize movie clips, movie characters, and critiques of different areas of the world with different cultural backgrounds, to address core issues in the development of international Chinese education through intercultural communication. The aim is to provide a new insight and teaching approach in international Chinese language education and to enhance cultural interaction among civilizations through exchanging ideas.

Since the implementation of the "Chinese Proficiency Grading Standards for International Chinese Education" (GF0025-2021, hereinafter referred to as the "Proficiency Standards") by the Chinese Ministry of Education and the State Language Commission four years ago, experts and scholars from different countries and regions have engaged in extensive discussions and research on the application of the "Proficiency Standards" in curriculum design, language teaching and assessment. The main focus of our discussion is how to effectively utilize the "Proficiency Standards" in localized curriculum design, teaching methods, and assessment arrangements to accurately assess learners' Chinese proficiency levels.

Specifically, the research question of this study is: How can we, based on the new system of the "Proficiency Standards," center on the learners, adopt differentiated teaching methods, and utilize students' learning motivations to address their diverse needs in a context of increasingly diverse learner backgrounds and widening differences? The research objective is to promote the localization of the "Proficiency Standards" in teaching materials, approaches and assessment practices.

Our students have diverse backgrounds, various proficiency levels, and individualized needs. Additionally, limited course hours, a wide range of proficiency levels, and challenges in providing ample practice opportunities within and outside the classroom due to the language environment have hindered optimal learning outcomes. In response to this, we have begun exploring new ideas in curriculum design, aiming to meet diverse and personalized local learning needs through innovative teaching strategies. Tailored micro-courses, workshops, community activities, and other initiatives are utilized to align with students' motivations, interests, abilities, and needs, aiming to engage and encourage students to embrace challenges and immerse themselves in various language environments. This approach not only compensates for deficiencies inside and outside the classroom but also provides opportunities to experience the local culture, thereby enhancing comprehensive Chinese language proficiency.

By examining the application of the "Proficiency Standards" in curriculum design and teaching practices, this study aims to ensure the quality of Chinese language education to international students while driving curriculum innovation. This endeavor will contribute to an overall and effective enhancement of language teaching and curriculum design guided by the "Proficiency Standards."

Language is a carrier of culture. Learning Chinese through the immersion of traditional and modern culture is a feature of many current Chinese courses. However, most course designs treat cultural themes as an independent part added after class, providing supplementary Chinese teaching, or simply as a separate course dedicated to teaching culture. As a result, this may not spark students' interest, and the limited class time cannot cover all ideal content, thereby affecting the teaching effectiveness.

This research explores how to emphasize the cultural characteristics of the Greater Bay Area in the design of advanced communication courses for university students in Hong Kong, from the perspectives of course objectives, learning goals, and course design. It aims to provide students with opportunities to learn the language by understanding regional culture in various practical integration situations within the Greater Bay Area. The course is designed to facilitate communication and exchange among students from different regions, while also enabling them to gain a deep understanding of and mastery over the life, workplace, and cultural terminology of various places, as well as learning regional cultural elements. Ultimately, it seeks to ensure that students can apply what they have learned after graduation, smoothly handle situations related to the cross-strait and four regions in their work, face cultural challenges in their lives, unlock cultural confusions, and promote cross-regional cultural communication and understanding.

Using two university language courses as examples, the author illustrates how students from different backgrounds analyze various cultural themes in class discussions and assignments, learn different cultural connotations, and understand regional cultural differences, thus promoting mutual understanding.

This research references theories of Chinese language education, cultural teaching, and intercultural communication, advocating for cultural mutual appreciation, cross-regional communication, and cultural integration. It hopes to not only teach language knowledge in Chinese education but also impart the essential cultural connotations of the language to the youth of the Greater Bay Area, enabling them to carry forward the humanistic spirit of Chinese culture, regardless of where they are in the high-tech future.

As educators, we are in a constant dialogue with the future. The summer of 2025 provided a crucial opportunity to reflect on this dialogue and fundamentally reshape LANG2170, "Chinese Communication Skills for Humanities & Social Science Studies." This article aims to share the pedagogical principles that guided our revision, hoping to spark further conversation among colleagues about how we can collectively advance our teaching practices in an era of profound change.

LANG2170 serves a specific and vital role: it is a mandatory, discipline-specific language course for second-year Global China Studies (GCS) students. Our goal has always been to move beyond basic language proficiency and cultivate advanced academic communication skills. However, two major catalysts prompted a deeper revision: the introduction of the CLE’s new Communication Competency Framework (傳意能力框架) and the ubiquitous rise of Generative AI (GenAI). Our challenge was not merely to update a syllabus, but to re-envision the entire learning journey to be more authentic, resilient, and pedagogically sound.

Principle 1: From Framework to Aligned Practice

The new CLE Communication Competency Framework provided the foundational blueprint for our revision. Rather than treating it as a checklist, I viewed it as a compass for ensuring our course objectives were both ambitious and coherent. This process is a direct application of Constructive Alignment (Biggs, 1996), where the Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs), teaching activities, and assessment tasks are deliberately interwoven.

As detailed in our internal review, I mapped each of the course’s five ILOs directly to the framework’s core competencies, such as "Logical Expression (邏輯表達)" and "Appropriate Expression (得體表達)." For instance, ILO #2 ("Enhance the ability to critically analyze literature...") was linked to the framework's emphasis on "Critical Thinking (慎思明辨)" and "Source Evaluation (審辨信源)." This alignment ensures that when we teach students how to write a literature review (Assessment A3), we are not just teaching a format; we are explicitly cultivating the higher-order thinking skills defined by our center's shared educational philosophy.

Principle 2: Simulating an Academic Apprenticeship through Scaffolding

To make the learning experience more meaningful, we infused the course with a single, overarching narrative: the simulated journey of a young academic. This approach draws heavily on the theories of Situated Learning (Lave & Wenger, 1991), which posits that learning is most effective when it occurs within an authentic context and a "community of practice."

Our four core assessments were redesigned to be progressive stages in an "Academic Apprenticeship (學術學徒制)":

1. Assessment 1 (Oral Report): The student is a "Young Scholar" presenting their initial research idea at a mock symposium.
2. Assessment 2 (Peer Review): They become a "Discussant," critically but constructively evaluating their peers' work.
3. Assessment 3 (Literature Review): They then act as a "Paper Author," formalizing their research for a mock conference proceedings.
4. Assessment 4 (Article Analysis): Finally, they ascend to the role of a "Junior Reviewer," offering a professional critique of a published expert's work.

Each assessment guide now begins with a detailed " Scenario" (情境) description, immersing the student in their role. This scaffolded design (Wood, Bruner, & Ross, 1976) does more than just build skills incrementally; it cultivates a holistic "Scholarly Persona (學術人格)". Students learn that academic communication is not a series of disconnected tasks, but an integrated set of practices and ethical stances within a professional community.

Principle 3: A Principled and Metacognitive Approach to GenAI

The "elephant in the room" for all educators today is GenAI. A simple ban is both impractical and educationally shortsighted. Instead, we developed a detailed GenAI policy designed to foster academic integrity and, more importantly, Metacognition—the practice of "thinking about one's thinking" (Flavell, 1979).

Our policy avoids a one-size-fits-all approach by defining two distinct usage pathways:

• Content Integration (內容納入): For any AI-generated content that is directly used, students must cite it like any other source and provide a full transcript of their interaction in an appendix.
• Process Assistance (過程輔助): For using AI for brainstorming, grammar checks, or outlining, students simply need to declare this on a submission form.

This dual-pathway forces students to pause and self-reflect: What is my purpose in using this tool right now? Is this my idea or the machine's? How am I, the human, adding value to this output? This reflective process is a powerful learning tool in itself. It shifts the focus from a fear of "cheating" to a conscious cultivation of a human-AI collaborative ethic, preparing students to be critical users, not passive recipients, of technology. This policy is part of a wider "GenAI Resilience Strategy," which emphasizes personalized, process-oriented tasks that AI cannot easily replicate, such as defending a research outline in a one-on-one consultation.

Looking Forward: Questions for Our Community

The revision of LANG2170 is not an end-point but a starting point. It has raised several questions that I believe are pertinent to all of us at the CLE:

1. Authenticity at Scale: How can the principles of situated learning and "academic apprenticeship" be adapted for larger, more diverse language courses without a specific disciplinary focus?
2. Assessing the Process: As GenAI makes the final "product" less reliable as an indicator of student ability, how can we develop robust methods for assessing the "process" of learning, inquiry, and reflection?
3. The Future of Competency: How should our Communication Competency Framework evolve to explicitly include human-AI collaboration as a core skill? What does "originality" mean in this new context?

By embedding our course design in established pedagogical theory and confronting the challenges of our time head-on, we hope to have created a more engaging and effective learning experience. I look forward to continuing this vital conversation with all of you.

References:

• Biggs, J. B. (1996). Enhancing teaching through constructive alignment. Higher Education, 32(3), 347–364.
• Flavell, J. H. (1979). Metacognition and cognitive monitoring: A new area of cognitive–developmental inquiry. American Psychologist, 34(10), 906–911.
• Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge University Press.
• Wood, D., Bruner, J. S., & Ross, G. (1976). The role of tutoring in problem solving. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 17(2), 89–100.

In the digital Intelligence era, knowledge acquisition has been dramatically streamlined and accelerated. Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools offer students efficient and tailored educational experiences. Consequently, educators must adapt both the content and methodologies of their teaching to align with these advancements. This paper delves into how AI tools, exemplified by ChatGPT, can enhance students' writing abilities. It also examines the evolving roles of educators and the necessary restructuring of educational content.

Drawing on the capabilities of AI to furnish formal knowledge and generate logically coherent text (Yu Menglong, 2025), our pedagogical approach requires students to leverage their personal and collaborative experiences from group oral presentations. Students are tasked with synthesizing these experiences into comprehensive reports, thereby transforming observational data and experiential learning into structured knowledge, theories, or innovative concepts through critical reflection. This process is designed to foster connections between students' experiences and their existing knowledge frameworks.

Feedback indicates that this assignment effectively facilitates students' reflection on and organization of the knowledge they acquire in specific contexts, promoting a deep engagement with and generation of new knowledge. In this context, AI's role is to refine the linguistic quality and enhance the logical coherence of students' written outputs.

In the era of AI, the learning journey involves a dynamic interplay among educators, students, and artificial intelligence. This necessitates a shift in educational focus from a purely results-oriented approach to one that is process-oriented, and from a teaching methodology that primarily aims at knowledge transmission to one that enhances students' competencies.

The Standards for Chinese Language Proficiency in International Chinese Education (the Standards) provide essential guidance for textbook development. During the revision of our language center textbooks, the Standards’ quantitative language indicators informed the process. The revised content reflected students’ diverse backgrounds by including both mainland Chinese society and Hong Kong’s local customs. Language learning focused on communicative tasks based on thematic and functional approaches. Incorporating morpheme analysis into vocabulary instruction aimed to develop students’ word-formation skills for autonomous learning, supported by blended learning, micro-teaching, and AI tools to enhance communication skills efficiently.