Rousing dragons : re-imagining the role of literature in China's English curriculum

Ph.D. University of Hawaii at Manoa 2010.Includes bibliographical references.This broad-based qualitative study describes the development and deployment of culturally informed, literature-inclusive English-as-a-Foreign Language curricula in the People's Republic of China. Conducted at both the tertiary and secondary levels in three distinct regions of the country, this study involves a wide range of educator roles, including that of the classroom teacher, field supervisor, curriculum planner, textbook writer, document editor, and comparative ethnographer. Narratives were conveyed within intercalary sections, employing both traditional ethnographic and unconventional autoethnographic perspectives to illuminate long-term and varied fieldwork. The researcher was guided during his multi-year investigation by social constructivist assumptions about the nature of effective classroom discourse. His evolving understanding of second language English reading experiences was also shaped by Dewey's ideas concerning pragmatism and Rosenblatt's vision of the aesthetic reading act. Fieldwork design and analysis consistently operated from the premise that a well-conceived literature-inclusive curriculum has the capacity to enhance mainland Chinese students' understanding and appreciation of English-speaking cultures, and thereby facilitate their transition to meaningful global citizenship. In his role as a participant observer, the researcher found that frequent use of varied but structured discussions of language learner literature within an affective domain-centered curricular framework provided students with the opportunity to nurture and better articulate their feelings and thoughts, increased their tolerance for ambiguity, and developed their reasoning skills and strategic linguistic competence