A multimodal approach looking at the cultural significance of a festival : a unit of work for young learners of Chinese in a NSW school

Abstract

This research explores the potential effects of a multimodal approach on motivating young learners' Chinese learning in Australian primary schools. The study's main research question was: How can different modes be combined to motivate Chinese learning within an Australian primary school context? The contributory research question was: How can a teacher-researcher integrate their knowledge as a native speaker with the knowledge of local teachers to design a unit of work for primary school students using a multimodal pedagogy? The teacher-researcher was a bilingual volunteer teacher of the Research-Oriented School-Engaged Teacher Education program. She was provided the opportunity to teach in a local school and implement research for its students. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this study was conducted through online interviews via Zoom meetings with two experienced teachers about a unit of work based on the theme of the Dragon Boat Festival. The research method was a qualitative case study. Research data was mainly collected from the two interviewees' feedback and the teacher-researcher's reflective journal. Based on the findings generated from the data, visual-auditory and kinesthetic-visual are the two types of combined modes for Chinese acquisition. These modes are combined to interpret Chinese for students based on the linguistic features of the Chinese language and the characteristics of targeted young learners who are energetic in doing movements and keen on interesting images. Further, this study found two main teaching strategies for novice teachers to motivate students' language learning under a multimodal approach. One is getting students to realise their responsibility in language learning, and the other is making an effort to find teaching materials related to students' daily life and the topics they like.

Date of Award	2021
Original language	English