Abstract

This study aimed to develop a Chinese culture (music) module to address the primary issues faced by freshmen from the “Belt and Road Initiative” countries in Chinese higher vocational colleges, including a low level of Chinese cultural cognition, learning motivation, and cross-cultural adaptability. The teaching content of the developed module was divided into four lessons: Chinese classical music, Chinese traditional music, Chinese modern music, and Chinese pop music. In addition, Merrill’s Principles of Instruction were applied to develop an effective teaching plan for this module. To compare the teaching effectiveness between the current Chinese music module and the developed module, 106 freshmen from Belt and Road countries in four higher vocational colleges in the Sichuan Province of China were divided into two groups. Each group learned the different modules separately for twelve weeks. Three questionnaires were used to explore changes in Chinese cultural cognition, learning motivations, and cross-cultural adaptability before and after module learning. The developed Chinese culture (music) module is expected to help freshmen adapt to school and life in China more effectively.