This presentation reviews and extends the theoretical foundations for the educational uses of pop culture, and consider applications to the teaching and learning of Chinese languages. We review research trends and then describe teaching principles and practices. We conclude with criteria for optimally leveraging pop culture for pedagogical purposes.
There is a growing amount of theory, research and practice related to the use of popular culture in education generally as well as in the teaching of European languages such as English and Spanish, more specifically, as well as in teacher education (Benson & Chik, 2014). Interest in the incorporation of pop culture in the teaching of Asian languages (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) has also expanded steadily over the past two decades due to the popularity and global reach of TV dramas, pop music, variety shows and other performative genres, and movies from East Asia. In this paper, we review and extend the theoretical foundations for the educational uses of pop culture (see, e.g., Duff, 2002; Duff & Zappa, 2012a, 2012b; Fang & Duff, 2018), and consider applications to the teaching and learning of Chinese languages such as Mandarin and Cantonese. We review research trends and then describe some promising teaching principles and practices (whether implemented inside or outside of class) based on our recent experiences at a Canadian university. We emphasize the importance of critical engagement with pop culture(s) and media (Rawnsley & Rawnsley, 2015), student prosumption and not just consumption of pop culture resources and practices, the importance of student motivation, and relevance of media to students and their educational and personal contexts. This paper concludes with a set of criteria for optimally leveraging pop culture for pedagogical purposes with and beyond language classrooms.
