The present Ph.D. project aims at developing the intercultural competence of Italian Chinese learners, with a view at improving their language proficiency in the Chinese language and enhancing their intercultural awareness by means of a multimodal teaching approach. In this project, the development of intercultural competence refers to the improvement of language proficiency in the target language (i.e. the phonological, semantic-pragmatic knowledge of the target language), the open attitudes towards a language and cultural knowledge, the critical awareness of the contentions related to a cultural phenomenon, the ability of self-reflection and intersubjective alignment, namely empathy and the ability to produce meanings based on each other’s interests and needs. Based on the notion of intercultural competence, I proposed a cultural model with two dimensions, namely the macro dimension and micro dimension. On the macro dimension, the effects of family parenting, school education and the influences of mass media, i.e. newspapers and magazines contribute to shaping the intercultural competence of Italian learners of Chinese by operating on their ways of conceptualizing the world. (Vygotsky, 1978; Buttjes & Byram, 1991). On the micro dimension, neurological and cognitive dispositions, specific linguistic and cultural knowledge, personal cultural trajectories and meta-cognitive capabilities (meta-pragmatic capability, self-reflection and critical cultural awareness, empathy and the motivation for language learning) are the main agents for developing students’ intercultural competence. With reference to the notion of intercultural competence, I carried out my teaching program, deploying a multimodal approach in accordance with the multimodal semiotic framework proposed by Gunther Kress (2010, 2016) and Theo van Leeuwen (2005) The teaching program was divided into eight sessions, involving an out-of-classroom activity and We-chat online sessions. It began by distributing a questionnaire to the Italian learners and it ended by encouraging Italian learners to give feedback about my lessons. The participants of the present teaching program were Italian Chinese learners enrolled in Bachelor and Master programs in the Department of Studies on Language and Culture at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. I collected my data by asking the Italian Chinese learners to fill in my designed questionnaires, conducting individual and group interviews with them, initiating a role-play with two Italian Chinese learners and observing their pragmatic performance during their interaction with a Chinese bar owner. After that, adopting the framework of multimodal social semiotics, I described, interpreted and explained the collected data by deploying the methods of critical discourse analysis and intertextuality proposed by Norman Fairclough (1992, 1995, 2001, 2013). The results show that through my teaching program which is multimodal-oriented, Italian Chinese learners developed their intercultural competence by improving their Chinese language proficiency at phonological, morphological and pragmatic levels and developed their intercultural awareness, especially learning how to intersubjectively align themselves with the Chinese native speakers and to view a cultural phenomenon in a dynamic and complicated way.

Il presente progetto di dottorato ha lo scopo di sviluppare le competenze interculturali degli apprendenti italiani di cinese, con l’intento di migliorare le loro competenze nella lingua cinese e accrescere la loro consapevolezza interculturale attraverso un approccio didattico multimodale. In questo progetto, lo sviluppo della capacità interculturale fa riferimento al miglioramento della competenza linguistica nella lingua target (i.e. la conoscenza fonologica, semantico-pragmatica della lingua target), l’atteggiamento di apertura verso una conoscenza linguistica e culturale, una consapevolezza critica dei fenomeni culturali, l’abilità di auto-riflessione e di allineamento intersoggettivo (intersubjective alignment), vale a dire l’empatia e l’abilità di produrre i significati sulla base degli interessi e dei bisogni degli interlocutori. Con riferimento alla nozione di capacità interculturale, ho proposto un modello culturale a due dimensioni. Nella macro dimensione, ho preso in esame gli effetti dell’educazione genitoriale e scolastica e l’influenza dei mass media, come giornali e riviste, sullo sviluppo di una competenza interculturale degli apprendenti italiani di lingua cinese, influenzando la loro concettualizzazione del mondo (Vygotsky, 1978; Buttjes & Byram, 1991). Nella micro dimensione, ho fatto riferimento alle disposizioni neurologiche e cognitive, alle specifiche conoscenze linguistiche e culturali, alle traiettorie culturali personali e alle capacità meta-cognitive (capacità meta-pragmatiche, autoriflessione, consapevolezza culturale critica, empatia e motivazione all’apprendimento linguistico), che sono i principali agenti per lo sviluppo della competenza interculturale degli studenti italiani che studiano la lingua cinese come lingua straniera. Con riferimento alla nozione di capacità interculturale, ho messo in pratica il mio programma d’insegnamento, usando un approccio multimodale ispirato dalla struttura semiotica multimodale proposta da Gunther Kress ( 2010, 2016) e Theo Van Leeuwen (2005) Il programma d’ insegnamento è stato diviso in otto sessioni, includendo attività fuori dalla classe e sessioni online con We-chat. È iniziato con la distribuzione di un questionario agli apprendenti e si è concluso incoraggiando gli studenti a fornire un feedback alle mie lezioni. I partecipanti al programma d’insegnamento erano gli apprendenti italiani di lingua cinese iscritti ai corsi di laurea triennale e magistrale nel Dipartimento degli Studi Linguistici e Culturali dell’Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia. Ho raccolto i miei dati chiedendo agli studenti italiani di lingua cinese di compilare il mio questionario, conducendo interviste individuali e di gruppo con loro. Inoltre, ho raccolto i miei dati non solo grazie a role-play con due apprendenti italiani che studiano la lingua cinese come lingua straniera, ma anche osservando la performance pragmatica degli apprendenti italiani durante l’interazione con il proprietario cinese di un bar. In seguito, ho descritto, interpretato e spiegato i dati raccolti usando il metodo dell’analisi critica del discorso di Norman Fairclough (1992, 1995, 2001, 2013). I risultati mostrano che attraverso il mio programma di insegnamento ispirato ad un approccio multimodale, gli apprendenti italiani di cinese hanno sviluppato la loro capacità interculturale grazie al miglioramento della competenza di lingua cinese a livello fonologico, morfologico e pragmatico e hanno sviluppato una propria consapevolezza interculturale, in particolare imparando come esercitare la lingua cinese con le persone native e come interpretare un fenomeno culturale in modo dinamico e complesso. Parole chiavi: insegnamento e comprensione della lingua straniera, apprendenti italiani che studiano la lingua cinese come lingua straniera, competenza interculturale, comunicazione multimodale, analisi critica del discorso.

Un Approccio Multimodale per Migliorare le Competenze Interculturali degli Apprendenti Italiani che Studiano la lingua Cinese come lingua straniera - Uno studio pilota / Nianyu Guo , 2020 Sep 30. 32. ciclo, Anno Accademico 2018/2019.

Un Approccio Multimodale per Migliorare le Competenze Interculturali degli Apprendenti Italiani che Studiano la lingua Cinese come lingua straniera - Uno studio pilota

GUO, NIANYU
2020

Abstract

The present Ph.D. project aims at developing the intercultural competence of Italian Chinese learners, with a view at improving their language proficiency in the Chinese language and enhancing their intercultural awareness by means of a multimodal teaching approach. In this project, the development of intercultural competence refers to the improvement of language proficiency in the target language (i.e. the phonological, semantic-pragmatic knowledge of the target language), the open attitudes towards a language and cultural knowledge, the critical awareness of the contentions related to a cultural phenomenon, the ability of self-reflection and intersubjective alignment, namely empathy and the ability to produce meanings based on each other’s interests and needs. Based on the notion of intercultural competence, I proposed a cultural model with two dimensions, namely the macro dimension and micro dimension. On the macro dimension, the effects of family parenting, school education and the influences of mass media, i.e. newspapers and magazines contribute to shaping the intercultural competence of Italian learners of Chinese by operating on their ways of conceptualizing the world. (Vygotsky, 1978; Buttjes & Byram, 1991). On the micro dimension, neurological and cognitive dispositions, specific linguistic and cultural knowledge, personal cultural trajectories and meta-cognitive capabilities (meta-pragmatic capability, self-reflection and critical cultural awareness, empathy and the motivation for language learning) are the main agents for developing students’ intercultural competence. With reference to the notion of intercultural competence, I carried out my teaching program, deploying a multimodal approach in accordance with the multimodal semiotic framework proposed by Gunther Kress (2010, 2016) and Theo van Leeuwen (2005) The teaching program was divided into eight sessions, involving an out-of-classroom activity and We-chat online sessions. It began by distributing a questionnaire to the Italian learners and it ended by encouraging Italian learners to give feedback about my lessons. The participants of the present teaching program were Italian Chinese learners enrolled in Bachelor and Master programs in the Department of Studies on Language and Culture at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. I collected my data by asking the Italian Chinese learners to fill in my designed questionnaires, conducting individual and group interviews with them, initiating a role-play with two Italian Chinese learners and observing their pragmatic performance during their interaction with a Chinese bar owner. After that, adopting the framework of multimodal social semiotics, I described, interpreted and explained the collected data by deploying the methods of critical discourse analysis and intertextuality proposed by Norman Fairclough (1992, 1995, 2001, 2013). The results show that through my teaching program which is multimodal-oriented, Italian Chinese learners developed their intercultural competence by improving their Chinese language proficiency at phonological, morphological and pragmatic levels and developed their intercultural awareness, especially learning how to intersubjectively align themselves with the Chinese native speakers and to view a cultural phenomenon in a dynamic and complicated way.
A Multimodal Approach to Improving the Intercultural Competence of Italian Learners Who Study Chinese as a Foreign Language - A Pilot Study
30-set-2020
POPPI, Franca
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