Jianfei Chen (Instructional Associate Professor in the Department of Modern & Classical Languages), "Advancing Pragmatic Competence in Chinese through Theatrical Texts: A Practitioner Inquiry on 'The Thunderstorm'"
Project- The study tackles advanced Chinese learners’ difficulties in deriving contextual inferences from literary texts, often resulting in culturally shallow interpretations. Focusing on "The Thunderstorm" by Cao Yu, it merges pragmatic inferential strategies with pedagogy to unite literary analysis and language learning. Through practitioner inquiry (Lytle & Cochran-Smith, 1992), the project analyzes Spring 2025 classroom data (student reflections, discussions) alongside archives from four prior semesters. It aims to create a framework for teaching implicit meaning in high-context dialogues, illustrating how dramatic texts foster culturally nuanced communication. By bridging literary pragmatics and classroom practice, the study advances L2 pedagogy for advanced learners.
January 26, 2026