2011．第39卷第12期（Vol. 39 Nos. 12）．pp. 117138
On Students’ Language Adaptation in PMI Classroom
Previous studies on PMI seldom investigate PMI issue from the perspective of student learning as their main concerns are other aspects like teaching, curriculum, and school administrative support. Essentially, PMI is a reform in classroom teaching language. Only when teacher-student verbal interaction in PMI classes is included in the investigation can the issue and its core problems be scrutinized and better understood. This article uses a series of video recording of primary one PMI classes to probe into students’ language performance, like word selection and sentence structure selection. An analysis is also carried out to understand the communicative barriers (including silence, omission, transcoding, all arising from avoidance) faced by P1 students at their adaptation stage. Suggestions for adjusting teaching strategies are made.
Keywords: teaching Chinese in Putonghua (PMI); classroom language; language adaptation