ABSTRACT

Addressing a crucial aspect of the Chinese Foreign Language curriculum, this chapter presents teachers with multiple options for systematically incorporating culture with language teaching so students will think critically about aspects of their own culture as they explore aspects of Chinese culture. Various models of Intercultural Communicative Competence are presented, and online resources are shared to show the broad range of possible ways to incorporate ICC and other approaches to teaching culture. After reading this chapter, teachers will better understand how to add an intercultural and critical perspective into their language teaching by guiding students to compare themes and ideas given in current textbook materials. Similarly, they will discover how to develop new cultural frameworks for authentic and semi-authentic texts that will engage and motivate students. Teachers themselves will gain new ideas and attitudes about how to present contrasting cultural views within contextualized language activities. In addition, they will be equipped to ascertain how including formal and informal measures of assessment of ICC, including students’ self-assessment, can strengthen their own ‘pedagogical toolbox’.