The impact on primary school children’s Chinese language learning by using elements of Peking Opera

Zhang, Yihan (2020) The impact on primary school children’s Chinese language learning by using elements of Peking Opera. PhD thesis, Middlesex University. [Thesis]

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Abstract

The Chinese language is gaining increasing importance regionally and internationally. It is considered a substantial learning challenge by a number of writers on its acquisition (e.g. Olmanson 2017). It is important for children in local and regional contexts of Chinese culture to acquire fluency as early as possible; fluency is not only about learning rules but about its culturally embedded cadences and rhythms. This research examines the design and application of elements of Peking Opera into the curriculum for primary school children in two classes of Primary 3 in the same school in Hong Kong: in one class I conducted teaching using elements of Peking Opera and in the other I conducted teaching by using the traditional curriculum to assess impact of the innovative intervention. My intervention was supported by literature and evidence collected.

Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were adopted. Data collection from the different methods were analysed and triangulated for reliability. This research was boundaried in a case study. Through analysing audio-records of students’ performance in class, I tried to understand the effect of introducing elements of Peking Opera into the curriculum of Chinese language on students’ speaking competence. I also conducted a quasi-experiment and two surveys to gain a deeper understanding of the effect on enhancing students’ speaking competence and to stimulate their interest in and motivation for learning the Chinese language.

The result of the research shows that the introduction of elements of Peking Opera into the curriculum of Chinese language can effectively enhance the speaking competence among the Primary 3 students. It also has a positive effect on students’ interest in and motivation for learning Chinese. In particular, with regard to grammar, there is a significant effect on the completeness of sentence structure produced by the students. With regard to pragmatics, the expressiveness of the tone of students and the appropriateness of the topics were enhanced significantly. However, the introduction of elements of Peking Opera into the curriculum of Chinese language has different effects in enhancing the pronunciation, grammar, semantics, pragmatics and so on of students. Its diverse effect on students with different characteristics is also evident..

To enhance the effects in teaching, a psychologically informed environment should be created for introducing elements of Peking Opera into the curriculum of Chinese language. Attention should be given to stimulating students’ interest in learning and a taking care of different groups of students and their abilities. Priority should be given to starting professional development for teachers and establishing a supportive system for them.
In conclusion, this research contributes to providing a reference for decision makers in innovative reforms to the teaching of Chinese language and to training teachers of Chinese language, to enable them to enrich their teaching of by using elements of Peking Opera to enhance students’ speaking competence. The results of this research also point to directions for further research.

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