Experiential Learning and Foreign Language Teaching: Native Chinese Teachers' Experiences of Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language to American College Students and Learning Abroad at a Midwest Private Liberal Arts College

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe how the native Chinese teachers' experiences of teaching Chinese as a foreign language to American college students and learning abroad at a Midwest private Liberal Arts College impacted their foreign language teaching perspectives and practices in order to discover the connections between experiential learning and foreign language teaching. Experiential learning theory and the five C's of foreign language teaching themes provided the theoretical framework for this study.;Eleven native Chinese ESL/EFL teachers who had one year experiences of teaching CFL and learning abroad in the U.S. were purposefully selected as the participants. The participants came from a long-term exchange program between an American college and a school district in China. The participants had all completed their one-year experiences teaching CFL and learning abroad in the U.S. and had returned to China. The research sites were the participants' schools in China. Two-hour long comprehensive one-on-one semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. Observations of the current ESL/EFL teachers' classroom teaching sessions were also used as supplemental data collection methods.;Data collection involved the four stages of the experiential learning process consisting of experiencing, reflecting, thinking, and acting. Data collected from interviews and classroom teaching observations involved the four categories which were experiences of teaching and learning abroad, reflections on their experiences, perspectives and thoughts of foreign language teaching and practices and actions of effective foreign language teaching.;Through the spiral process of data analysis steps suggested by Creswell (2013), seventeen themes emerged as the findings in these four categories respectively answered the four research questions. Results of analysis demonstrated that these seventeen themes were naturally connected to the five C's of foreign language teaching standards and themes which were Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities. Experiential learning processes were naturally connected with these five C's of foreign language teaching.;The study of the native Chinese teachers' experiences of teaching CFL and learning abroad fills the gap in experiential learning connected with teaching Chinese as a foreign language field. Implications of the study suggest the rich teaching resources and practices of CFL and ESL/EFL teachers in the settings of both the U.S. and China. The implication for foreign language teacher training and professional development is also discussed. Future research recommends focusing on CFL or ESL/EFL students' experiences in language learning in connection to the field of experiential learning.