Negotiating C2 expectation and Third-Space personae in transdisciplinary L2 learning: Collaboration with Chinese professionals in advanced Chinese language curricula
This chapter addresses the immediate challenge Chinese as a second language programs face to readjust program goals to prepare learners for China-related careers with pathways to professional-level proficiency. Drawing from the Third Space as a new framework for CSL pedagogy and key themes of the transdisciplinary framework, this chapter advocates for a shift in the focus from language proficiency to communicative performance in CSL programs for those learners with a long-term commitment to and a vision of becoming multilingual professionals in Chinese workplaces. CSL programs should train such learners to recognize and negotiate what is culturally expected of them at the most sophisticated level to best achieve their own communicative intentions and agenda in the multilingual workplace. Showcasing the pedagogical manifestation of this proposal, this chapter discusses the collaboration between a Chinese language instructor and a Chinese professional expert in an advanced CSL course at a Sino-U.S. joint-venture university.
