ABSTRACT
This chapter details the design and implementation of a beginning-level business Chinese curriculum with intercultural competence as the goal and Performed Culture as the pedagogical framework. Intercultural competence covers three domains – cognitive, behavioral, and affective (Bennett, 2009), and each domain highlights a particular aspect of intercultural competence: knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Performed Culture Approach (PCA) provides a useful framework to maximize the learners' holistic experience in each of the three domains by developing intercultural knowledge, skills, and attitudes. In PCA, performance is understood as a situated communicative event that can be concretely defined by specified time, place, roles, audience, and scripts (PARTS) (Walker, 2000). By consistently using performance as the basic instructional unit and explicitly specifying its five elements in language practice, the course maximizes students' opportunities for communication with “Chinese professionals” in various business situations. Instructor feedback informs learners of target cultural perspectives, helps them develop a more sophisticated understanding of Chinese-speaking cultures, and fosters curiosity and openness about the acceptable ways of doing business in China.
