Abstract
The General Education Foundation Programme is a common core programme which plays an important role in the undergraduate curriculum of the University. In “In Dialogue with Humanity”, Chinese classics, such as The Analects and Zhuangzi will be introduced to the students. To better understand the philosophical thoughts and explore the cultural knowledge behind the reading texts, it is of paramount importance for students from diverse backgrounds to be familiarized with the linguistic knowledge of Classical Chinese and to be able to express their views in essays.
With the aim of enhancing students’ academic writing skills of modern Chinese and understanding of Classical Chinese, the Department of Chinese Language and Literature (hereafter “Department”) will collaborate with the Office of University General Education to implement a pilot course in the second term of 2021-22, in which teachers from the Department will be teaching linguistic knowledge of Classical Chinese in three of the lectures of “In Dialogue with Humanity” (45 minutes each). In addition, writing consultations will be provided to the students in the pilot course. Each student can join a 15-minute one-on-one writing consultation session on a voluntary basis to discuss their work with the teachers of the Department before submitting the assignment. It is expected that around 100 students will participate in the pilot course. Apart from the abovementioned, the Department will also help grade the “Text Organization/ Format” of one reflective journal, which accounts for 30% of the assignment. Four to five frontline teachers of the Department will be involved in the project.
Brief write-up
Project objectives
To enhance students’ academic writing skills of modern Chinese and understanding of Classical Chinese.
Activities, process and outcomes
Through the three lectures given by the lecturers of the Department, students of “In Dialogue with Humanity” enhanced their knowledge of Classical Chinese and the intellectual interactions between the major philosophical schools during the Pre-Qin period. Students also grasped the key features of genre and the style of the Analects and Zhuangzi, which facilitated their comprehension of excerpts from these two classics. Besides, through the individual consultation sessions students were provided with a good opportunity to receive constructive suggestions on their assignments from the language experts regarding the academic writing skills.
Deliverables and evaluation
99 students from one class of “In Dialogue with Humanity” benefited from the pilot project; 82 times individual consultation appointments were organized;
Positive feedback was received from both the content teacher and the students of the General Education Foundation Programme.
Dissemination, diffusion, impact and sharing of good practices
A joint workshop on Chinese across the curriculum (hereafter “CAC”) organized by the Department and the Office of University General Education will be held on 29 June 2022 to share the experiences of the pilot project, and to explore how to strengthen Chinese language teaching and learning in the General Education Foundation Programme under an approach of Chinese across the curriculum in the future.
Considering the positive feedback received from the content teacher and the students, the Department and the Office of University General Education reached agreement at two meetings in June 2022 to extend the project to all classes of “In Dialogue with Humanity” in 2022/23.
Meanwhile, the Department will also actively seek collaboration with other departments and units and provide tailor-made lectures and tutorials to support their teaching and learning.
Impact on teaching and learning
Through the pilot project, students enhanced their academic writing skills of modern Chinese and understanding of Classical Chinese, crossing knowledge boundaries. The pilot project can be deemed and seen as the foundation to develop other CAC programmes in the future.
