Material Adaptation in Language B (Mandarin) of International Baccaulareate Diploma Programme: Interpretating Text and Characterizing Tasks

This article aims to explore how Language B (Mandarin) teacher in International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme adapts materials to enact its curriculum understanding. The researcher adopted a purposeful sampling approach to select teacher participants and two teachers who had taught different Language B courses with students of different backgrounds were selected for in-depth interviews. Data collected from the interviews, including materials of a teaching unit used, were systematically analyzed to illustrate material adaptation strategies of the teachers’ intended curriculum and key features of the strategies. This study found three strategies adopted by teachers including concept-oriented teaching approach, interpreting authentic texts selected and characterizing task-based activities. Both teachers agreed on the mission of intercultural understanding, but at the strategy level, Teacher A focused on characterizing tasks for learners to take different roles to think through whereas Teacher B emphasized the interpretation of text to guide learners to re-examine what they have known. This study provides the empirical findings to enrich theories of international curriculum and also a specific reference for international educators on how to flexibly adapt materials for the education of the Learner Profile.

Keywords

International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme intercultural understanding material adaptation interpretating text characterizing tasks

source

International Journal of Chinese Language Education; Jun 2020; Issue No. 7; p.61 – 82

Publisher

Department of Chinese Language Studies, The Education University of Hong Kong
Chinese Language Program, Columbia University
Chung Hwa Book Co. (H.K.) Ltd.

Language

Chinese

ISSN

2520-7733 (Print); 2521-4241 (Online)