Teaching the culture in language through film, presentation by Linda Marion at AFMLTA conference in Sydney 2009

1. “Culture is embedded in language as an intangible, all-pervasive and highly variable force. How are we to capture it and teach it?” (Crozet and Liddicoat, 1999)

2. Questions What is culture? 2. Why ‘film’ as a medium for teaching culture ina language program? 3. What aspects of Chinese culture are apparent in the Chinese film “Not One Less” 4. How can this cultural content be identified, then taught/learnt?

3. 1. What is culture?

4. When we use the word "culture" in its anthropological sense, we mean to say that culture is any of the customs, worldview, language, kinship system, social organisation, and other taken-for-granted day-to-day practices of a people which set that group apart as a distinctive group. By using the anthropological sense of the world "culture," we mean to consider any aspect of the ideas, communications, or behaviour of a group of people which gives to them a distinctive identity and which is used to organise their internal sense of cohesion and membership. Scollon & Wong Scollon (1995), p. 126.

5. 2. Why ‘film’ as a medium for teaching culture in a language program?

6. Teaching Culture in the Classroom “Culture is embedded in language as an intangible, all-pervasive and highly variable force. How are we to capture it and teach it?” (Crozet and Liddicoat, 1999) Australian Chinese language learners are faced with the enormous task of acquiring not only a new sound system, syntax and script but also of accessing an eastern culture which is also very different to a western one. In-country visits or exchanges are one way to overcome the problem of achieving exposure to the language and culture in a natural setting. However, for most students this is out of reach and anyway would not happen very often.

8. Allows teachers to bring particular aspects of Chinese culture to the students’ attention, by demonstrating them visually, with sound, in a real context.

10. High Cognitive 3 4 Low Linguistic High Linguistic 2 1 Low Cognitive Professor Do Coyle, Nottingham University

11. 3. What aspects of Chinese culture are apparent in “Not One Less”

12. Chinese Culture Cheng, 1999 community community family family self The Australians The Chinese

13. Culture and Chinese Education The notion of schooling in this film offers several strata of culture which can be brought to the attention of learners, these include Chinese educational philosophy, methodology and rural conditions; Confucianism including respect, honour, authority, obedience and the idea of the intrinsic goodness of mankind; Verbosity and silence; Inter-relational elements such as teacher and pupil, student peer groups; Naming and titles of address

14. How can the cultural content of a film text be identified, then taught/learnt?

15. Critical Discourse Analysis

18. Scene 1, Cut 5 Teacher Gao explains the daily routine Synopsis Teacher Gao gives Wei Minzhi a series of intense instructions, a sort of ‘professional development’ session about day to day housekeeping matters and how to teach the 28 primary school students left in his school

19. Text Analysis Key linguistic structures & features Instructions: Teacher Gao tells Weiminzhi when the sunlight reaches the nail on the pole in the classroom, it is time to go home. Teacher Gao’s face and voice reveal the extent to which he is worried about leaving the children.

20. ii) Questions and answers: 那 如 果 要 是 没 有 太 阳 呢 ? When Wei Mingzhi asks a question about what happens on days when there is no sun, Teacher Gao instructs her to send them home a bit earlier. iii) Questions and answers: 那 如 果 要 是 学 生 提 前 抄 完 呢 ? Repeating the pattern那 如 果 要 是, emphasises Wei Minzhi’s attempt to engage in a productive conversation with the teacher.

21. iv) Questions and answers: Finishing class work early: Wei Minzhi asks what students can do once they have finished copying the text. Teacher Gao answers they should go out to play and she should not let them fight. v) Questions and answers: Extension work: After they have finished the work, students can copy the text out again.

22. vi) Teacher Gao’s frown and gestures: to a western audience this might indicate annoyance or anger, but there is no intended suggestion here that the teacher is being unreasonable to Wei Minzhi. His tone of voice and manner expresses proper moral serious concern about leaving his students, which overrides all other considerations in this exchange. vii) Wei Minzhi is observing the politeness rules about eye contact and giving face to Teacher Gao by listening attentively.

23. Film Language: i) The Chinese audience would be both shocked and amused by this travesty of impoverished educational conditions being revealed by the camera with such intense and touching realism. ii) The actors, although playing parts, have themselves first hand experience of such conditions and there is a convincing natural and matter of fact quality to the dialogue enhanced by the close-up shots showing the teacher’s concerned expressions and Wei Minzhi’s animated responses.

24. Context, Processing Analysis Roles & Relationships i) Teacher Gao maintains an intense, formal distance as he systematically explains the daily routines. ii) Wei Minzhi relaxes a little in the familiar environment of listening to the teacher and is even bold enough to ask some pertinent questions.

25. Discourse i) Each question that Wei Minzhi asks is answered with seriousness and at times a sense of hopelessness. This is a teacher/student discourse of instruction in which he repeatedly asks her if she is listening, 听见没有? (tingjianmeiyou) ii) This solemn discourse is dominated and driven by Teacher Gao’s problem. It is not his intention or role to make Wei Minzhi feel comfortable or welcome as one might expect in a western setting.

26. Context, Social Analysis Cultural Themes i) The extreme poverty of rural China: No clock and the need to lengthen the teacher’s bed by putting a chair at the end of it, amplify the extreme poverty and declining standards of living and education in rural China.

27. Symbols i) The nail on the pole underlines not only the poverty, but also life being lived at a primitive subsistence level where even a basic item like a clock is missing. ii) Lack of sealed roads and being at the mercy of the elements underscores the neglected infra-structure and further stresses the extreme simplicity of the village lifestyle.

28. ii) Chinese resourcefulness and creativity: Teacher Gao explains the practical strategies he has developed for dealing with the hardships of the impecunious learning environment. Teacher Gao shows how Chinese people can find inventive solutions under difficult conditions and make the best of trying circumstances.

29. iii) The Chinese teacher’s duties: Chinese teachers are traditionally responsible for many aspects of their students’ lives apart from their education. In this scene, sleeping three to a bed with the female students, cooking for them, and on really windy or rainy days, personally accompanying students home, are all part of a teachers day, as well as teaching them.

30. 一个都不能少 Not One Less Directed byZhang Yimou Starring Wei Min Zhi

40. REFERENCES Culture: Kramsch, C. (1998). Language and Culture, OUP. Liddicoat A. J. & Crozet, C. Ed. c2000.Teaching languages, teaching cultures / Melbourne, Applied Linguistics Association of Australia [and] Language Australia, Scollon, R. W. S., Suzanne. (2001). Intercultural Communication. Malden, Massachusetts, Blackwell. Lo Bianco, J. C., Chantal., Ed. (2003). Teaching Invisible Culture - Classroom Practice and Theory. Melbourne, Australia, Language Australia. Chinese Culture Hu, W.-C. (1991). Encountering the Chinese. Yarmouth, Maine, USA, Intercultural Press, Inc. Bond, M. H., Ed. (1986). The Psychology of the Chinese People. Hong Kong, Oxford University Press.