The emergence and the functions of popular text in Chinese language classroom using drama pedagogy

This paper aims at investigating the emergence and the functions of popular texts in Chinese language classrooms using drama as pedagogy. Data collected from 28 Chinese classrooms indicates that the openness and pleasure of drama pedagogy give rise to a collision of literacy and language between the pupils and the teachers. Drawing on John Fiske's theory of popular culture (1989), pupils’ popular literacies are argued as deviant, pleasurable, substandard, clichéd and hybrid. These characteristics embody pupils' culture, taste, interest and identity. Evidence supports that the emergence of pupil’s popular literacies promotes pupil’s classroom participation and accessibility of textbook language. It finally brings about a transformation of the traditional Chinese language classroom.