Alice in the multicultural-land: the reading/writing and writing/oracy connection to enhance Chinese competence in literature education

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Foreign language anxiety (FLA)(Horwitz, Horwitz & Cope, 1986) has often been reported by Chinese language teachers among ethnic minority (EM) students. Second language performance seems negatively correlated with higher levels of FLA, and FLA is typically highest for speaking. Not only do EM students need to learn Chinese as a second language to enhance Chinese competence and promote social inclusion, local students with Chinese as their native language would also add dimensions to their Chinese learning by multicultural exposures. Literature was employed to link students with their multicultural and ...