Intercultural Interactions in Chinese Classroom

Abstract

Creating a learning environment conducive to intercultural interactions is essential in today’s higher education, where the internationalisation strategy has increased student diversity. Encouraging intercultural interactions is not only beneficial for students to develop intercultural competence, but also a sensible way to achieve ‘internationalisation at home’, meaning that every student benefits from the strategy. Intercultural interactions do not often happen naturally in classroom; instead, well-designed instructional strategies are necessary. However, academics are inadequately prepared for teaching across cultures (Harrison, 2015). As a result, teaching and learning in classroom has not yet exploited the cultural diversity. The universities in Hong Kong are actively developing internationalisation strategies. In 2017, the University of Hong Kong is ranked the world’s third most international university among 150 institutions around the world, according to Times Higher Education. Meanwhile, the Quality Audit Report of the University also points out a lack of instructional strategies for teaching across cultures. This study aims to unpack the complexities in intercultural interactions and formulate effective strategies. There is currently an insufficient understanding of Chinese classroom. For example, existing literature usually regards international students as having language barriers and deficiencies in active learning. On the contrary, international students in Chinese classrooms are typically seen as more active and with higher language proficiencies. The main methodology was a multiple-case study and the methods included interviews as well as classroom observations. Eight courses, two from each of the four faculties (i.e., Science, Social Science, Architectures, and Law) were selected for investigation. The interview with teachers covered course design and instructional strategies. The interview with students focused on their perceptions and experiences in interactions. Observations recorded instructions leading to intercultural interactions. Data were firstly analysed within each course and then compared across courses and disciplines. The findings show intercultural interactions are highly complex. Most teachers found it difficult to encourage intercultural interactions and felt extremely hesitant to intervene when there was such as need. Students’ experiences were different across courses. More positive experiences were found in the courses with well-designed groupwork and sufficient formative feedback. Consistent with the literature, structured learning opportunities are necessary to make intercultural interactions meaningful to students’ achievement of the course intended learning outcomes (Leask, 2015). Examples include creating comparative tasks or facilitating cultural related discussions. In this study, preparatory learning tasks are found to be important in building trust and creating an open atmosphere. In large classes, an effective task is to solicit students’ opinions with their identity protected, for example, asking them to input their responses in their mobile phones anonymously. An additional point is to ensure that all students speak English in small group discussions. This study contributes new insights into the dynamics embedded in intercultural interactions in Chinese classroom, which can be used to design suitable teaching strategies that respond to the university’ mission of internationalisation. References Harrison, N. (2015). Practice, problems and power in ‘internationalisation at home’: critical reflections on recent research evidence. Teaching in Higher Education, 20(4), 412-430. Leask, B. (2015).Internationalising the Curriculum. London: Routledge.