Improving pre service english teachers native cultural knowledge and english language knowledge of native culture in a pbl classroom

Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching

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Improving pre-service English teachers’ native
cultural knowledge and English language
knowledge of native culture in a PBL classroom

Danyang Zhang, Junjie Gavin Wu & Zhuxia Fu

To cite this article: Danyang Zhang, Junjie Gavin Wu & Zhuxia Fu (21 Feb 2024): Improving
pre-service English teachers’ native cultural knowledge and English language knowledge
of native culture in a PBL classroom, Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, DOI:
10.1080/17501229.2024.2318568
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INNOVATION IN LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING
/>
Improving pre-service English teachers’ native cultural
knowledge and English language knowledge of native
culture in a PBL classroom

Danyang Zhang a, Junjie Gavin Wu b and Zhuxia Fu a

aCollege of International Studies, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China; bFaculty of Applied
Sciences, Macao Polytechnic University, Macao, SAR

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY
Received 6 August 2022
Purpose: Globalization underscores the importance of developing Accepted 9 February 2024
language learners’ intercultural communication competence (ICC).
English language teacher education nowadays thus necessitates KEYWORDS
Native culture knowledge;
pedagogy training on not only linguistic, but also intercultural English language knowledge
dimensions. However, the development of PSETs’ home-country cultural of native culture; project-
knowledge (HCK) and English language knowledge of home-country based learning; pre-service
English teachers
culture (ELKHC) has been overlooked. Given the wide application of
project-based learning (PBL), this study aims to enhance Chinese PSETs’
HCK and ELKHC via group projects. Top of Form Bottom of Form.

Design: The study was conducted within a PSET training course involving

43 participants at a Chinese university. An intervention comprising four

group projects was implemented, which required participants to utilize

various technologies to showcase Chinese culture via the English
language. The instructor’s evaluation, students’ self-evaluation, and
reflective journals were collected.
Findings: Quantitative analysis of the students’ self-evaluations and the
course instructor’s evaluations demonstrated that the PSETs made
significant progress in HCK and ELKHC. Qualitative analysis of students’
reflective journals showed their learning experiences, gains, challenges,

and solutions.
Originality/value: This study highlights how PBL affords authentic
learning experiences and stimulates learning motivation and autonomy.

Strategies for helping learners make more progress in HCK and ELKHC
via PBL are also discussed. Ultimately, we believe this study offers
insights into the training and development of foreign language

professionals.

1. Introduction

Nowadays, language learners are expected to develop their global citizenship to thrive in an increas-
ingly interconnected world. An essential premise to achieving this educational goal is to help
language learners become intercultural speakers (Byram 1997). This means they should have high
intercultural communication competence (ICC) to engage in intercultural interactions using a
language such as English as a lingua franca. ICC, which is conceptualized as ‘the ability to
communicate effectively in cross-cultural situations and to relate appropriately in a variety of cultural
contexts’ (Bennett 2004, 149), has become one of the most critical competencies in foreign language
education (Liddicoat and Scarino 2013).

CONTACT Junjie Gavin Wu R. de Ls Gonzaga Gomes, Macao, China
© 2024 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

2 D. ZHANG ET AL.

Nault (2006) highlighted that the cultivation of ICC in language education should be bidirectional,
including the ability to understand, compare, evaluate, and apply cultural knowledge of the target
language and that of the home-country culture. Similarly, Chun (2011) highlighted the significance
of the willingness to reflect on one’s home-country culture and critically evaluate the values in one’s

home-country cultural practices. Home-country culture, therefore, should be considered a bench-
mark to help learners compare with the target language culture, protect their national identity,
develop their intercultural sensitivity, and enhance their ICC.

Regarding curriculum, over two decades ago, Kramsch (2000) argued that home-country culture
should be integrated into language courses promptly and appropriately. In China, The Guidelines for
Teaching Foreign Language and Literature Undergraduates by the Chinese Ministry of Education in
2018 require establishing courses related to Chinese culture. Chinese culture, in this paper, refers
to the ways of life across the 56 ethnic groups in China and their manifestations (e.g. music, art,
language, politics, history, and religion). The guidelines emphasize the significance of enhancing
learners’ competence in understanding the culture of English-speaking countries and promoting stu-
dents’ appreciation of their Chinese cultural heritage via other languages such as English. However,
the learning of home-country culture has been mainly stressed at the policy level, whereas
implementation in the classroom has been limited. Chinese English teachers’ lack of home-
country cultural knowledge (HCK) and English language knowledge of home-country culture
(ELKHC) poses a great challenge to improving learners’ ICC (Song and Xiao 2009). In the current
study, HCK is understood as the knowledge that constitutes a person’s heritage and identity,
ranging from tangible aspects of culture (e.g. architecture, food) to intangible ones (e.g. language,
music) in his or her country; ELKHC can be defined as the knowledge that enables speakers to intro-
duce their home-country culture and communicate with others through the English language. In
China, the Ministry of Education stresses the importance of equipping with not only foreign cultural
knowledge to know more about the world but also Chinese cultural knowledge to introduce their
native identities to the world in English and, more importantly, to help future students to do so (Min-
istry of Education 2022). Thus, as future English teachers, pre-service English teachers (PSETs) in
China should be able to support their students to develop diverse identities that adopt the
variety in ethnicity, gender, thought, personality, culture, working, and lifestyles (Darvin and
Norton 2015) to engage in intercultural conversations where they can fluently introduce their
home-country culture via other languages (Sehlaoui 2001). Therefore, cultivating HCK and ELKHC
seems to become a priority in foreign language education and the professional development of
PSETs.

This study applies project-based learning (PBL) to develop pre-service teachers’ HCK and ELKHC,
which we argue are inseparable in learning, given Agar’s (1994) proposal of ‘languageculture’. In par-
ticular, we integrated Chinese culture into a PSET training course in China and used PBL to promote
their learning of HCK and ELKHC, which would guide them to become capable and talented foreign
language professionals.

2. HCK and ELKHC teaching in China

The significant role of home-country culture in improving ICC has recently been underscored in
China (Wen 2016). However, although many Chinese learners have studied English for a long
period, they still face challenges in communicating their knowledge of Chinese culture in their inter-
actions with non-Chinese speakers. For example, Xiao et al. (2010), who investigated 64 English
majors and 107 non-English majors’ HCK and ELKHC, reported that Chinese university students
were competent in understanding the culture of English-speaking countries but deficient in their
home-country culture. An important reason for this surprising result was the teachers’ little emphasis
on using English to express students’ Chinese identities and culture. Liu et al. (2018) focused on
Chinese English majors, reporting that only a quarter of the 40 students who participated in their
study could correctly and appropriately express Chinese culture in English. Song and Xiao (2009)

INNOVATION IN LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING 3

grouped the challenges faced by students into two main categories: one relating to students’ lack of
HCK and the other concerning their deficiency in ELKHC.

These challenges are caused by intertwining factors, including classroom teaching, teachers’ com-
petence, and textbook development. First, relatively little Chinese cultural content has been incor-
porated into classroom teaching, after-school tutoring, homework, and course assessment, partly
due to the exam-oriented nature of education in China. Specifically, this goal-dominated type of
teaching imposes a washback effect on learners and teachers, where most attention is paid to intro-

ducing the knowledge of the English language and Western culture instead of Chinese culture or the
two-way intercultural interactions between the different languages.

Secondly, most Chinese English teachers have never systematically studied Chinese culture
before, which leads to their lack of HCK and ELKHC and overlooking the significance of Chinese
culture. Song and Xiao (2009) investigated the HCK and ELKHC of 197 Chinese university English tea-
chers and students. Their results showed that teachers and students performed poorly in the HCK
and ELKHC tests. In particular, the teachers had deficiencies in understanding key aspects of
Chinese culture relating to education, philosophy, literature, and history. In terms of ELKHC, although
the teachers could translate Chinese cultural elements into English, they still encountered difficulties
sharing their knowledge and understanding of Chinese classics, which are essential in Chinese
culture.

Thirdly, the HCK and ELKHC in English textbooks in China usually belong to a type of rote learning
process, which is insufficient and oversimplified (Wu and Miller 2021; Godwin-Jones 2013; Jordan
2016; Svihla et al. 2015; Wu and Miller 2021). For example, Wang (2010) analyzed the proportion
of cultural elements in two national college English courses. Results showed that English-American
culture accounted for 68.7% and 53.1% respectively, while Chinese culture only represented 1.56%
and 4.1%. Furthermore, most of these Chinese cultural elements are related to traditional Chinese
culture, whereas stories about more recent economic and social advances in China are comparatively
scarce. Therefore, teachers need to guide learners to understand and discuss contemporary societal
advancements to enable them to become global citizens. Besides,, the ELKHC input in the textbooks
is very low, which inevitably limits the development of students’ language ability to introduce
Chinese stories in English. Given the above issues, we call for more sustained efforts and systematic
approaches to providing an authentic, progressive, and interesting learning environment for
language students and teachers to develop their HCK and ELKHC.

3. The role of projects in learning language and culture

Inspired by constructivist learning theory, PBL is centered on a project, which integrates various skills

into different complex tasks, including planning, gathering and discussing information, solving pro-
blems, and writing reports (Hedge 1993). PBL is usually applied in language education to equip lear-
ners with critical thinking skills to solve challenging problems autonomously and collaboratively
(Fried-Booth 2002), enabling them to learn at their own pace (Boubouka and Papanikolaou 2013;
Wu and Miller 2021).

Educators like Sercu (2010) have maintained that courses that involve student projects to exercise
critical thinking and problem-solving skills are more effective than textbook-based spoon-fed
language classrooms. According to Stoller and Myers (2019), there are many benefits of PBL for L2
and foreign language students, including improving language abilities, reinforcing content learning,
and mastering real-life skills (Norris 2016). Students’ language learning motivation (intrinsic and
extrinsic motivation, especially intrinsic), engagement, and positive attitudes could also be pro-
moted during the PBL process based on their learning pace (Brown 1994; Deci and Ryan 1995;
Fischer 2007; Poehner and Lantolf 2005; Tsai 2011).

Stoller and Myers (2019) proposed and elaborated a five-step process to guide teachers to plan,
implement, and evaluate PBL in language classrooms, including (1) preparation, (2) information
gathering, (3) information processing, (4) information display, and (5) reflections (Figure 1). During

4 D. ZHANG ET AL.

this learning process, students are in charge of their learning, with the assistance of teachers as
coaches and experts (Pucher and Lehner 2011). In the first stage, students must determine the
project theme, topics, final aims, and a progression plan. The second stage requires students to
collect information via various approaches like reading, web searches, questionnaires, and inter-
views. In the third stage, students are guided in processing the information by giving scaffolded
instructions. During the fourth stage, students share the projects with teachers and peers before
assessments, including feedback, comments, or grades for finalizing the projects. Scarino (2010,
327) argues that the assessment paradigm in PBL, which combines the formative and summative
assessment approaches, recognizes the power of diverse assessment evidence. This new paradigm

enables the analysis of the ongoing, dynamic, and complex learning process and the understanding
of students’ growth over time. The final stage asks students to reflect on what they have learned
from the project via discussion, journal entries, or mediation. This would help them identify the
strengths and weaknesses of their current projects based on their teachers’ and peers’ comments
to improve their future projects (Carless and Boud 2018; Larmer and Mergendoller 2010). Compared
with typical teacher-led classroom teaching, PBL may offer a superior alternative to achieving the
objectives above, as it is effective in improving the skills of pre-service teachers, including their lea-
dership, teaching motivation, collaboration, self-efficacy, and achievement (Mahasneh and Alwan
2018; Torres, Sriraman, and Ortiz 2019). All these skills are essential to being a competent and
well-rounded language teacher who can impart HCK and ELKHC to one’s students.

Figure 1. The five-step process of PBL (Stoller and Myers 2019).

INNOVATION IN LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING 5

The five-step process provides instructional guidance for language teachers to carry out PBL,
while only a limited number of PBL studies have sought to explore students’ HCK and ELKHC
levels by following this five-step process. The rapid advance of technology has brought authentic
texts and intercultural communication experiences into the classroom, which surmounts the limit-
ations of classrooms (Byram 1997; Byram et al. 2002). For example, social networking sites facilitate
online practices that connect a classroom with the global community (Peters 2009); online education
communities offer collaborative opportunities that enable teachers and students to build authentic
cross-cultural communication channels (Chen and Yang 2014). One important study to explore the
role of PBL in social networking sites is by Wu and Miller (2021), who investigated Chinese university
students’ HCK via an informal PBL WeChat community. Their case study demonstrated the develop-
ment of HCK and ELKHC among Chinese EFL learners, as the students were more willing to partici-
pate in the English learning community in the WeChat Group and to communicate and share their
thoughts and experiences with others than in traditional classroom learning. Nevertheless, to our
knowledge, no studies have focused on PSETs, exploring their development of HCK and ELKHC in
a participatory learning environment. This study focused on Chinese PSETs to enhance their HCK

and ELKHC via four group projects. The two overarching research questions are:

(1) Can the four group projects in the course improve Chinese PSETs’ HCK and ELKHC?
(2) How do PSETs’ HCK and ELKHC develop via the four group projects in the course?

4. Research design

4.1. An overview of the course and the participants

The present study aims to develop Chinese PSETs’ HCK and ELKHC based on a PSET training course
called Multimedia and Foreign Language Teaching (see Zhang and Wu 2023 for the detailed project
design). The course comprised four theoretical sessions (eight weeks) and four practical sessions
(eight weeks). The four theoretical sessions introduced basic concepts, development, advantages,
and challenges of multimedia technologies in English language teaching. Based on the theories
and concepts, the four practical sessions allowed learners to experience, design, and reflect on
four technology-mediated approaches (i.e. MOOC, micro lessons, gamification, and social media).
All the sessions were taught in English to simultaneously develop learners’ English language abilities.

HCK and ELKHC were integrated into the theoretical and practical classes to lay the foundations
for project-based group work. For instance, in the computer-assisted language learning (CALL)
session, the course instructor introduced online media reports on Chinese history and Chinese
food in English and showed learners an example of an English MOOC named ‘Chinese Culture
English’. In the mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) session, the instructor presented the
example of 24 Chinese solar terms1 in English based on a report from China’s state-owned
English language TV channel, CGTN. Regarding the session on new technologies in English language
teaching, four virtual reality (VR) examples of Chinese culture: (1) The Palace of the Emperor in the
Forbidden City; (2) The ‘V-Palace’ WeChat mini-program; (3) The Virtual National Museum on
WeChat’s public account; and (4) Traditional Chinese Culture in the Multilingual Context VR learning
platform – were respectively illustrated and discussed in English. After each practical session, the
PSETs collaborated with their teammates to complete a group project relating to Chinese culture

in English, contributing to their HCK and ELKHC development.

The PSETs (i.e. the participants) in this study were 43 third-year undergraduate students majoring
in English language education at a comprehensive university in Mainland China. All participants took
a compulsory course on Chinese culture in their first year of university, but they had yet to have the
chance to use English to communicate about Chinese culture in real life. The PSETs formed 12 groups
in the course, and each group comprised three to four members.

6 D. ZHANG ET AL.

Figure 2. Research procedure of this study.

4.2. Research procedure

The study contained three main phases (see Figure 2). At the onset of the course, participants were
asked to self-evaluate their HCK and ELKHC. Following this, the 16-week course was implemented,
during which four group projects relating to Chinese culture were assigned (see Section 4.3.1).
PBL in the course followed the five-step process proposed by Stoller and Myers (2019) (See
Section 3). The PSETs first decided on the topics of their projects before gathering and processing
information. They were invited to present their projects in front of the class, receiving comments
from the audience. The course instructor, the first author of this article, provided feedback regarding
the content and language uses and then gave marks on the PSETs’ four group projects regarding
their HCK and ELKHC. As the course ended, participants were invited to self-evaluate the two
types of knowledge again. They were also asked to complete a reflective journal to report their learn-
ing experiences based on prompt questions.

4.3. Intervention and instruments

4.3.1. PSET group projects
This course has four group projects, respectively centring on the four technologies taught in the

course (i.e. MOOC, micro lesson, game, and social media). The PSETs could choose topics they
tended to explore, but the topics needed to relate to Chinese culture in order to improve their
HCK and ELKHC. The first group project required participants to design an English MOOC outline
of Chinese culture. The course outline included reasons for designing the course, the target
student group, course overview, prior knowledge of students, overall course structure, homework,
examinations, certificate requirements, discussion topics, and reference materials. The second
group assignment required the participants to apply gamification to English teaching activities,
introducing and discussing Chinese culture. The activity needed to cover the activity name, type,
platform, length, and activity structure. The third group assignment required the participants to
design an English micro lesson about Chinese culture. The project required participants to design
a 10-minute micro lesson involving teaching objectives, target student groups, length, course struc-
ture, and script. Participants were asked to design an English language teaching class activity using
relevant social media knowledge in the fourth group project. The submitted work needed to include
the activity name, social media platform, length, and activity structure.

INNOVATION IN LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING 7

4.3.2. PSETs’ and course instructor’s evaluations
Before and after the course intervention, participants were invited to evaluate their HCK and ELKHC
by completing two rating questions. The total score for each question was 10, with 1 being the
lowest and 10 being the highest. No answer was not scored. Near the end of the semester, the
course instructor marked the PSETs’ group projects based on their HCK and ELKHC. This article’s
second and third authors and a teacher from the course teaching team provided their perspectives
on the scoring, and any differences were negotiated. Both HCK and ELKHC had a maximum possible
score of 25.

In this study, descriptive analysis and statistical analysis were adopted to analyze the evaluation
data. Descriptive analysis was mainly used for the average score. In terms of statistical analysis, the
paired sample t-test was used to investigate whether there were statistical differences between the
pre- and post-intervention scores. SPSS 26.0 was used to descriptively and statistically analyze the

data.

4.3.3. PSETs’ reflective journals
As Godwin-Jones (2013) highlighted, a reflective journal is a helpful way for learners to record, report,
and share their experiences and feelings. After completing each group project, every participant was
required to summarize their perceived gains and deficiencies along with the strategies and solutions
they used to address the deficiencies. In total, 164 reflective journals were collected, consisting of
more than 65,000 Chinese words.

This study used thematic analysis to analyze the reflective journals. We firstly read all the journals
several times and familiarized ourselves with the data. As the journals were highly personalized, we
used an open-coding method, which is efficient for initially labeling and categorizing chunks of data
(Rivas 2012). We descriptively labeled the data as ‘units of meaning’ (Miles and Huberman 1994, 56)
to obtain the initial codes at a relatively lower conceptual level. Subsequently, we grouped these

initial codes and reorganized them into broad categories relating to HCK and ELKHC at a more
abstract level. For example, ‘the cooking method for Dongpo Pork2’ was coded into the broad cat-
egory of HCK, while ‘vocabulary about Dongpo Pork’ was coded as ELKHC.

The codes were further categorized into four themes based on Pavlovich’s (2007) four dimensions
of reflective journal design: (1) descriptions of the learning experience; (2) analysis of the learning
experience; (3) creation of new meanings and understandings3; and (4) actions for change4. After
defining and naming the themes as well as identifying the relationships between the themes,
initial results were examined. We then checked whether any information was missing and
whether the coding was accurate before making modifications. All journal data were coded and ana-
lyzed by MAXQDA Plus.

The analysis produced 312 codes in total. Of these, 173 pertained to HCK, and 139 were about

ELKHC. To ensure inter-rater reliability, the authors randomly invited an applied linguist to

analyze 40 (24.4%) reflective journals. The results of the authors and the rater were then compared.
The consistency was 92.8%, indicating that the analysis of the PSETs’ reflective journals had high
inter-rater reliability.

5. Results

5.1. Research question 1: can the four group projects in the course improve Chinese
PSETs’ HCK and ELKHC?

In this section, we compare (1) the PSETs’ pre- and post-self-evaluation scores; and (2) the instructor’s
evaluation scores for the four group projects. According to the PSETs’ self-evaluation results, their
HCK and ELKHC improved. Specifically, their self-evaluation average score for HCK before the
course was 5.49, which increased to 6.83 at the end of the course. Regarding ELKHC, the self-evalu-
ation average score was 5.32 before the course and 6.66 afterward. Table 1 shows that the paired

8 D. ZHANG ET AL.

Table 1. Paired Sample T-test of PSETs’ self-evaluation.

Paired Differences

95%
Confidence
Interval of the
Difference

Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean Lower Upper t df Sig. (2-tailed)

Pair 1 Pre-HCK–Post-HCK 1.34 2.07 .32 .69 1.99 4.15 40 .000

Pair 2 Pre-ELKHC–Post-ELKHC 1.34 2.39 .37 .59 2.10 3.59 40 .001

sample t-test results demonstrate significant differences between the pre- and post-self-evaluation
(p ≤ .001), indicating that the PSETs believed they made noticeable progress regarding their HCK
and ELKHC.

The instructor scored the PSETs’ four group projects (Table 2). As the course progressed, the
scores gradually increased. Specifically, participants only achieved 18.10 on average for HCK in
the first group project. However, the average score rose steadily and reached 22.34 for the fourth
project. Regarding ELKHC, gradual growth was also evident, from 19.27 to 21.47. In comparison,
the improvements in the learners’ HCK were more significant (M = 4.24) compared to ELKHC (M =
2.20). According to the paired sample t-test results, statistically significant differences could be
found in both aspects (p ≤ .001) (Table 3).

5.2. Research question 2: how do Chinese PSETs acquire their HCK and ELKHC via the four
group projects in the course?

Reflective journals allow language learners to think about their L2 learning experiences, empowering
them to adjust their approaches and perspectives over the language course (Burke and Dunn 2006).
In this section, we report the PSETs’ reflective journal data concerning their acquisition of HCK and
ELKHC based on Pavlovich’s (2007) four dimensions.

5.2.1. Reflections on HCK
Among the 173 codes about HCK, 32 related to ‘descriptions of the learning experience’; 105 con-
cerned ‘analysis of the learning experience’; and 36 were classified as ‘creation of new meanings
and understandings’. There was no code about ‘actions for change’. Regarding ‘descriptions of
the learning experiences’, participants mainly shared how their groups worked together to complete
the projects. Generally, they completed their group projects by consulting online and offline litera-
ture, soliciting professional suggestions from the instructor, discussing with their peers and finishing
the parts of the project for which they were responsible. For instance, as Lin reported, her group

gathered to brainstorm ideas about cultural themes before searching for references individually
and integrating useful information collaboratively.

Most answers were categorized into ‘analysis of the learning experience’, which included the par-
ticipants’ analysis of their gains and deficiencies in the group projects. On the one hand, regarding
gains, participants highlighted that their understanding of HCK had been strengthened. As Lai said:

Though I come from Shandong, I previously knew little about my hometown cuisine. I developed a deeper
understanding of Shandong cuisine by completing the MOOC project. I have learned a lot about the cooking
techniques, everyday ingredients and signature dishes of Shandong cuisine.

Table 2. Average score of four group projects for HCK and ELKHC (25 points/each project).

First group project Second group project Third group project Fourth group project

HCK 18.10 20.47 21.26 22.34
ELKHC 19.27 20.15 20.79 21.47

INNOVATION IN LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING 9

Table 3. Paired sample T-test of course instructor’s evaluation.

Paired Differences

95%
Confidence
Interval of the
Difference

Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean Lower Upper t df Sig. (2-tailed)

Pair 1 Pre-HCK–Post-HCK 4.24 1.30 .20 3.83 4.65 20.91 40 .000

Pair 2 Pre-ELKHC–Post-ELKHC 2.20 .93 .15 1.90 2.49 15.15 40 .000

In addition, participants’ gains in HCK were also reflected in the enhancement of their HCK learning
motivation. For instance, Wang shared that her HCK learning motivation was previously not very
high, so she seldom paid attention to Chinese cultural issues on social media and in books.
However, after taking this course, she found that Chinese culture is ‘interesting, brilliant and beauti-
ful’ and felt responsible for acquiring more HCK in the future.

On the other hand, regarding deficiencies, some participants (such as Lu) stated:

Although I agree that this course helped me understand Chinese culture better, I still don’t know much about it,
apart from the culture of my hometown. Also, I think the Chinese cultural knowledge I have acquired is relatively
superficial. Although I was interested in studying Chinese geography and history, it was not enough to teach
these to my future students.

Xu also differentiated the HCK she had acquired, and the HCK needed for teaching. She emphasized
that before she could teach HCK, she needed a much higher level of knowledge. Therefore, even
though this course ‘opened the door’ for the participants to start acquiring HCK, there is still
much work for them to do as PSETs in accumulating their HCK and developing their ICC.

‘Creation of new meanings and understandings’ in this study could be interpreted as the partici-
pants’ attempts to find solutions to resolve their perceived deficiencies. In their reflective journals,
most participants mentioned solutions, including (1) searching and reading more materials to
deepen their knowledge, (2) actively participating in activities relating to HCK, and (3) seeking help
from instructors and other groups. For instance, participants like Chen highlighted her lack of knowl-
edge concerning Chinese history, so she planned to read more media reports from sources such as
CGTN and China Daily to help her future teaching. In addition, participants like Liu decided to

attend more HCK-related activities, as she reported following their MOOC group project:

I plan to participate in more discussions and interact more with my teammates in the next group project. I plan
to read more relevant literature and search for high-quality MOOC examples. Apart from classroom learning, I
should attend more activities relating to Chinese culture, such as cultural knowledge competitions and cultural
exchange festivals.

Some participants underscored the importance of seeking help from instructors and other groups as
they acknowledged that, in this way, they could ask questions and uncover recommendations about
HCK. As Zheng said:

My instructor and classmates are my strongest supporters. They are vital in answering my questions and provid-
ing recommended resources about HCK. Without their help, I would have no direction about acquiring HCK for
my English learning and future teaching.

5.2.2. Reflections on ELKHC
Among the 139 codes relating to ELKHC, there were 18 about ‘descriptions of the learning experi-
ence’; 97 about ‘analysis of the learning experience’; and 24 about ‘creation of new meanings and
understandings’. However, no responses could be categorized as ‘actions for change’. Like the
descriptions for HCK, participants prepared for their projects predominantly by reviewing materials

and watching relevant course videos. In these ways, they could record and then learn appropriate

10 D. ZHANG ET AL.

English words and expressions for Chinese cultural activities. They also attempted to discuss their
confusion about some words with their teammates. For instance, Song stated that some words,
such as ‘porcelain’ and ‘ceramics’, were challenging to differentiate. After reviewing information
online and discussing it with her teammates, she finally determined that although these two
materials belonged to the same family, they were cousins but not twins.

When analyzing their learning experiences, many participants attributed their gains to vocabu-
lary, translation, and writing. As Zhu mentioned, she had learned expressions to describe the
steps of making some Chinese cuisines in English, such as ‘marinate the meat in soy sauce’ and
‘fry the meat until golden brown’. Some participants also learned to translate the cultural terminol-
ogy relating to pipa,5 Sichuan cuisine, tourism, and tea. Some, such as Wang, reported that they
applied the translation principles they had previously learned (e.g. the semantic proximity principle
and the cultural communication principle) to translate Chinese cultural terminology, which helped
improve their translation skills. For writing, participants underlined that planning and writing the
course/activity outline contributed to developing their English writing skills. As Li said:

I think that writing micro lesson scripts is helpful for my writing. I felt very productive when preparing the history
of Dongpo Pork. I realize that writing a script requires a careful choice of words because of the need to simul-
taneously consider lexical diversity and accuracy and the logic and organization of sentences.

At the same time, some participants also mentioned that they made few gains relating to phrases,
collocations, and sentences. Therefore, they were worried they could still not use the vocabulary they
had acquired in an authentic context. In particular, they expressed concerns about speaking. For
instance, Zhang stated:

I think my English ability to tell Chinese stories needs further improvement. I can only use simple words and
sentences to share Chinese stories with my foreign friends. I find it difficult to translate terminology, especially
terms about Chinese history.

In response to these challenges, participants recommended ways to enhance their English
linguistic knowledge about Chinese culture, including paying heightened attention to the differ-
ences between Chinese and foreign languages and spending time reading, watching, and listening
to local and international news. Furthermore, they indicated that they should make more effort at
the sentence level and attempt to actively use English to express their native identities and adopt
diverse identities in international encounters.

To summarize, the PSETs’ reflective journals demonstrated their learning experiences, gains and
challenges, and their corresponding strategies to tackle these challenges. Most of their contributions
are related to their analysis of their improvements, deficiencies, and challenges. Although we can see
their progress in HCK and ELKHC from the instructor’s evaluations, they generally did not discuss in
detail the actions they had taken to address the problems during the course.

6. Discussion and implications

In this study, the PSETs’ self-evaluations and the instructor’s evaluations demonstrated gradual but
significant gains in HCK and ELKHC because of the course. The qualitative data provided a few poss-
ible interpretations to further understand the PSETs’ progress over the semester. Based on the
results, several issues deserve further discussion and interpretation.

First, the Chinese PSETs can obtain authentic HCK and ELKHC learning experiences via PBL, which
stresses authenticity in learning and testing and predicts how learners can use the language for auth-
entic purposes (Norris 2016). Implementing PBL generally involves re-organizing students’ accus-
tomed learning process (Boubouka and Papanikolaou 2013). Unlike traditional paper tests limited
to testing learners’ ultimate learning gains, PBL offers a dynamic and innovative way for teachers
and learners to analyze the learning process and promote their academic growth over time (Lee
and Wu 2023; Poehner and Lantolf 2005).

INNOVATION IN LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING 11

In the present study, authenticity in PBL was manifested in at least three different ways, including
audiences, texts, and purposes (Hafner and Miller 2019). Based on the participants’ reflections, they
were required to design HCK learning materials and tasks with the needs of their future students in
mind. Differing from the traditional role of the learner, when finishing these projects, they had to
take on the additional roles of teacher and course designer. These PSETs were learning to
become teachers by critically selecting appropriate materials, creatively generating learning activi-

ties, and accurately assessing student progress by considering their potential students. To participate
in the group projects and to design authentic tasks, the participants reported that they resorted to
real-world resources about Chinese culture, such as news reports, online videos, and academic refer-
ences. Based on these materials, they could integrate authentic content regarding Chinese culture
into their educational activities, for example, in the MOOCs. Thus, by learning to become language
teachers, the participants had the opportunity to develop their knowledge of HCK and ELKHC.

Second, the Chinese PSETs’ motivation and autonomy in learning about HCK and ELKHC have
been enhanced via PBL. In this study, the PSETs remarked that the PBL experience helped them
examine their knowledge and skills in expressing their Chinese cultural identity and adopting
diverse identities through English. Aware of their current deficiencies, the PSETs argued that PBL
seems to be an effective way to motivate them to take charge of their learning and help them
become autonomous learners. However, according to Wu (2018) and Wu and Miller (2021),
Chinese learners are generally passive learners who rely heavily on extrinsic motivation, including
exams, parental expectations, and teachers’ requirements. Although such extrinsic means of promot-
ing student learning are, to some degree, useful in an exam-oriented culture, intrinsic motivation is
regarded as a superior approach to achieving better language learning outcomes (Brown 1994). The
PSETs in the present study appreciated that the PBL experience empowered them to take control
and make decisions when designing tasks for their future students. The aforementioned diverse
identities that the participants took on, the awareness of their learning issues, and the active
reading and selection of task materials collectively suggest mixed intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
among the PSETs and their investment of effort to participate in the projects. Intrinsically speaking,
the interest in expressing their local identity and culture helps regulate student learning and facili-
tates a sense of autonomy (Wu and Miller 2021). Extrinsically, identified regulation, one of the mani-
festations of extrinsic motivation, also benefits autonomous learning behavior (Noels et al. 2000) as
learners recognize that developing HCK and ELKHC benefits their future development. Similarly,
studies such as those by Fischer (2007), Tsai (2011) and Hafner and Miller (2019) all confirm that
language learners’ involvement in projects contributes to positive attitudes toward learning and
learners are motivated to face the challenges that they expect to encounter in their future
careers. In China, Zhang and Wu (2023) demonstrates that Chinese learners’ home-country cultural

awareness and motivation could be enhanced via PBL.

Third, although the study highlights a few affordances of PBL in acquiring HCK and ELKHC, no sol-
utions were retrieved from the participants’ reflective journals to address their challenges and pro-
blems. It may be challenging for them to achieve this higher-order learning objective; therefore,
tailored support from tutors or peers will assist. Educators have argued that due to the washback
effect of high-stakes exams, many, if not all, Chinese students tend to develop the habit of learning
by closely following teachers’ instructions (sometimes referred to as spoon-fed learning). In this
case, instructions and guidance from teachers were of great importance. In this study, the participants
appreciated their instructor’s support when completing the learning projects across the term. They
were empowered with the necessary background knowledge and relevant practice in class before
they worked collaboratively to design their projects. Such PBL experience is novel to PSETs in China
since existing PSET courses tend to frame instructions as planning rather than designing, supervise
learning rather than address problems in various adaptive ways, and implement prepared teaching
plans rather than create participatory learning environments (Svihla et al. 2015). Very few teacher train-
ing programs have instructed guidance on achieving the growth of competent teachers who not only
own the knowledge gained from the classes but can also apply it in their future teaching (Jordan 2016).

12 D. ZHANG ET AL.

According to Pucher and Lehner (2011), teachers should take different roles in PBL. They may con-
sider themselves coaches who carefully accompany students to accomplish their learning goals,
while sometimes, they serve as experts who provide professional instructions (Tamim and Grant
2013). Moreover, according to Larmer and Mergendoller (2010), formalizing a process for support
and feedback during PBL makes learning meaningful and effective, because students can learn
from the comments for their next project. We suggest that future research could further investigate
the longitudinal impacts on learners’ uptake of feedback in future ICC learning projects.

In addition to instructor support, the importance of feedback from capable peers was stressed by
the PSETs in this project. As discussed, the participants appreciated the group work that enabled

them to support each other when synthesizing information and producing learning materials. An
exam-oriented learning culture often leads to competition rather than collaboration among learners
(Wu 2018), whereas, in this PBL course, the participants worked collaboratively to complete the out-
of-class learning projects. However, learners in PBL may lack sufficient pedagogical and content
knowledge, so some guidance from teachers regarding peer feedback literacy may be helpful
(Carless and Boud 2018; Larmer and Mergendoller 2010). Given this, future research should integrate
teachers’ formative feedback and other groups’ comments to improve the present study to offer a
more precise direction for further improvement.

Admittedly, the present study has some limitations. Firstly, the present study did not include a
control group to compare the potential differences in the PSETs’ HCK and ELKHC improvement
after taking the course. Researchers could consider conducting experimental studies by adding a
control group to measure the effectiveness of PBL in teaching HCK and ELKHC. In addition, the
study could have benefited more from an individual assessment of the impact of different projects
on the development of ICC. Secondly, apart from questionnaires and reflection journals, other
approaches, such as tests, observation, and interviews, could also be integrated to obtain more con-
vincing results to understand this issue. The reflection journal could be improved to track PSETs’ pro-
gress during the learning process. Thirdly, this study only focused on Chinese PSETs, so the sample
size should be enlarged in future projects to include PSETs from other non-English speaking countries.
This would make the results more generalizable and better represent all PSETs. Lastly, as the study
only focused on one course – Multimedia and Foreign Language Teaching, more English education
courses should be considered to further explore students’ development of HCK and ELKHC.

7. Concluding remarks

This study was conducted in a PBL course where instructed teaching and group projects were
employed to cultivate Chinese PSETs’ development of HCK and ELKHC. In the theoretical sessions,
Chinese cultural elements and examples were incorporated, and the practical sessions offered the
participants numerous chances to complete group projects relating to Chinese culture. According
to the PSETs’ self-evaluations and the course instructor’s evaluations, the PSETs’ HCK and ELKHC

improved significantly due to the course. The PSETs’ reflective journals depicted their group
project processes, gains and deficiencies, as well as solutions they adopted to address the problems
and challenges they encountered. Unlike previous studies that focused on ICC development via tele-
collaboration, this study attempted to implement PBL and infuse HCK and ELKHC into a pre-service
teacher training course. We expect that the results of this study can offer educators and teachers
practical suggestions on integrating HCK and ELKHC into current teacher education to cultivate
well-rounded interdisciplinary language professionals.

Notes

1. Based on the sun’s position in the zodiac, the 24 solar terms were created by ancient Chinese farmers to guide
agricultural affairs and farming activities.

INNOVATION IN LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING 13

2. ‘Dongpo Pork’ is a traditional Chinese dish named after a Song Dynasty poet. This dish is made by pan-frying and
then red cooking pork belly.

3. ‘Creation of new meanings and understandings’ refers to the actions that the learners planned to undertake.
4. ‘Actions for change’ refers to the actions that the learners had actually undertaken.
5. Pipa, sometimes called the ‘Chinese lute’, is a traditional Chinese musical instrument.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Funding

This work was supported by Guangdong Planning Office of Philosophy and Social Science under Grant [Grant Number:
GD21WZX02-01].

Notes on Contributors

Danyang Zhang is an Associate Professor and Associate Dean at the College of International Studies, Shenzhen Univer-
sity. She obtained her PhD in Education from the University of Cambridge and holds two master’s degrees from the
Institute of Education, University College London. Danyang has published her work in numerous SSCI journals, includ-
ing System, Applied Linguistics, Computer Assisted Language Learning, and Language Teaching Research. She currently
serves as a journal reviewer for ReCALL, Language Learning & Technology, Virtual Reality, and Interactive Learning
Environments. Her research interests include second language vocabulary acquisition, technology-enhanced language
learning, and teacher development.

Junjie Gavin Wu is a Lecturer (equivalent to Assistant Professor) at Macao Polytechnic University, where he supervises
doctoral students of educational technology. He is a Vice President of PacCALL and serves as an Associate Editor in IEEE
TLT (SSCI, SCI, & EI), an Executive Associate Editor in Computers & Education: X Reality, and a Book Review Editor in TESL-
EJ. He has authored over 40 publications, among which around 20 appearing in SSCI journals.

Zhuxia Fu is a lecturer at the College of International Studies, Shenzhen University. Zhuxia completed her PhD at the
Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. Her research interests are in Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory of learning,
concept-based instruction and second language writing.

ORCID

Danyang Zhang />Junjie Gavin Wu />Zhuxia Fu />
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