Boundary Crossing: Integrating Visual Arts into Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language

Abstract

This chapter reports on the author’s effort to cross disciplinary boundaries in teaching Chinese as a foreign language (CFL). It presents a mixed-methods study that examines student perceptions about, as well as the benefits and the challenges of, integrating visual arts and online art museum visits into CFL teaching. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. Based on the findings, the author discusses the benefits of using art-integration approaches in CFL teaching, particularly their potential in answering the Modern Language Association’s call for curricular transformation in collegiate foreign language curriculum (MLA, Foreign languages and higher education: New structures for a changed world. Retrieved from http://www.mla.org/flreport, 2007). The author also analyzes the challenges encountered and proposes future research directions and suggestions for future integration of visual arts in the CFL curriculum.