Linguistic and cultural authenticity of a Chinese literacy curriculum
Abstract
The reported study highlights the importance of an L2 curriculum integrating authentic linguistic and cultural input to promote learners’ linguistic, communicative, and cultural competencies. Through content analysis, the researchers evaluated the linguistic and cultural authenticity of the Grades K-6 Mandarin Matrix Curriculum designed for Chinese DLI and Chinese bilingual students across Asia, the UK, and North America. The analyses revealed a high level of linguistic authenticity in coded word usage, word order, and situational representations (>90%). Over 92% of illustrated scenarios and character behaviors were coded as culturally authentic. Notably, overall linguistic and cultural authenticity increases across Grades K-6 books (88%–99%). However, the illustrated settings in K-5 books exhibited lower authenticity (43%–58%), while the newly revised Grade 6 books’ rich emphasis on Chinese history was deemed more authentic. These results offer valuable insights into the significance of highly authentic texts with a developmental sequence to support Chinese language learning.
Keywords
authenticity, dual language immersion, intercultural communicative competence, Mandarin Matrix, textbooks
How to Cite
Tsai, H. & Mohr, K. A., (2025) “Linguistic and cultural authenticity of a Chinese literacy curriculum”, The Journal of Second Language Acquisition and Teaching (JSLAT) 31, 78–97. doi: https://doi.org/10.2458/jslat.7413
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