Exploring Generative AI-Enhanced Dialogue Teaching Strategies for Argumentative Classical Chinese in Senior High School ()
1. Introduction
Dialogue teaching involves the interactive relationships among teaching subjects, deep classroom communication, and the co-construction of meaning, representing a systemic transformation of educational models. Although a unified definition of dialogue teaching has yet to be established in academia, a set of shared characteristics—such as emphasis on harmonious and democratic teacher-student relationships, question-and-answer as the primary method, and a focus on cultivating students’ logical thinking and expressive abilities—has been widely recognized. How to harness generative AI to assist dialogue teaching of classical Chinese in the era of artificial intelligence is a critical issue deserving the attention of high school Chinese teachers. Accordingly, this paper first elucidates the defining features of dialogue teaching in the AI era, then analyzes the practical dilemmas of dialogue teaching for argumentative classical Chinese from three dimensions—dialogue subjects, content, and form—using specific teaching examples, and finally explores specific application strategies of generative AI in teacher-student, student-student, and student-text dialogues, aiming to advance dialogue teaching from knowledge transmission to knowledge construction and to provide a feasible pathway for technology-enhanced classical Chinese teaching reform.
2. Defining Dialogue Teaching
Dialogue as an educational method has a long history. Whether it be Confucius’s advocacy of “not enlightening until the student is eager to learn, not elucidating until the student is eager to speak”, or Socrates’ “maieutic” teaching in ancient Greece, both sought to deepen inquiry through layered questioning, laying the early practical foundation for dialogue as a pedagogical method. German educator L. Klingberg argued that teaching and dialogue are closely interconnected: “In all teaching, ‘dialogue’ in the broadest sense is taking place…Regardless of which teaching mode dominates, this interactive dialogue is an essential marker of excellent teaching” (Klingberg, 1962). Dialogue itself is an integral part of teaching. Subsequently, it was Brazilian educator Paulo Freire who truly elevated dialogue from a teaching method to an educational model. In Pedagogy of the Oppressed, he was among the first to propose “problem-posing education” centered on dialogue, asserting that authentic education should be equal dialogue and intellectual exchange between teachers and students, emphasizing the collision and integration of diverse ideas and the co-construction of meaning (Freire, 2001). Since the new curriculum reform, China has deepened its exploration of dialogue teaching, producing a wealth of research. Professor Liu Qingchang notes, “The spirit of dialogue is connected to the democratic trends of contemporary and modern society as well as the post-modern human condition. Dialogue teaching is teaching that pursues humanization and creativity, echoing the spirit of the age in the educational field” (Liu, 2001). Further deepening theoretical understanding, Professor Zhu Dequan proposes, “Dialogue teaching is a pedagogical activity in which teacher-student and student-student interactive dialogue serves as the representation and vehicle of instruction. From an existential perspective, it is teaching characterized by mutual cognitive shifting and reciprocal spiritual responsiveness between teachers and students. From an epistemological perspective, dialogue teaching is the collision of open, freely inquiring rational thinking, wherein dialogue subjects jointly seek genuine insights, thereby initiating and extending wisdom” (Zhu & Wang, 2003). Focusing specifically on Chinese language teaching, Professor Sun Jianfeng argues, “Dialogue teaching in Chinese is a process of spiritual dialogue wherein teachers consciously pursue equality of personality and spiritual encounter with students, manifesting a magnificent beauty of mutual influence, mutual creation, and mutual elevation” (Sun, 2013).
In summary, this paper defines dialogue teaching as an open instructional model centered on deep dialogue and communication, aimed at guiding students to discover, understand, and evaluate diverse perspectives through equal and democratic interaction and cooperation, thereby cultivating their critical thinking, creativity, and logical expression. In the era of artificial intelligence, dialogue teaching, compared to its traditional forms, exhibits new contemporary features and educational connotations in terms of subject composition, mediating tools, and instructional objectives: the dialogue subjects shift from the “teacher-student” dual subject to the “teacher-student-AI” tripartite collaboration; AI technology is integrated into the teaching process as a key assistant tool; students must continuously enter the intellectual worlds of others—teachers, peers, and generative AI—to achieve integrated understanding of meaning, and in this process, reflect upon and reconstruct themselves, thereby realizing the high school Chinese educational goal of “educating through texts and promoting holistic development. ”
3. Practical Dilemmas in Dialogue Teaching of Argumentative Classical Chinese
Based on stylistic features, classical Chinese can be categorized into argumentative, lyrical, narrative, rhapsodies(fu), prefaces and postscripts, and other types. In a broad sense, argumentative classical Chinese refers to all texts that analyze, reason, and argue around a central thesis (Chu, 1990); in a narrow sense, it specifically denotes texts titled with the characters “论” (discourse) or “说” (exposition). This paper adopts a intermediate understanding, focusing on argumentative classical Chinese texts selected for the unified high school Chinese textbooks based on curriculum objectives—texts that express viewpoints, judge matters, articulate insights, and combine argumentation and reasoning. Based on the above analysis, the author conducted a comprehensive search and organization of teaching cases for the 10 argumentative classical Chinese texts in the compulsory textbooks of high school Chinese published by the Ministry of Education through authoritative databases. To enhance the pertinence and effectiveness of the research, the teaching cases with the highest download and view counts in the past five years were selected for each text for analysis. The analysis results show that current instruction of argumentative classical Chinese faces problems in three dimensions: dialogue subjects, dialogue content, and dialogue forms.
3.1. Imbalance in Dialogue Subject Relationships
The dialogue subject refers to the roles involved in the teaching dialogue and their interrelationships. Equal status between teachers and students is a fundamental prerequisite for effective dialogue teaching. However, due to the difficulty of teaching argumentative classical Chinese and the significant class time it occupies, some teachers resort to a “teacher-lecturing, student-listening” approach, using mechanical question-and-answer “dialogues” to transmit textual content and knowledge unidirectionally. For example, in a lesson on Reply to Sima Guang’s Letter of Advice, a teacher asked, “Regarding the fifth accusation—‘universal resentment’—did Wang Anshi deny it?” and “Does the refutation end here?” (Cheng, 2020) After students briefly answered “yes/no” or “ended/not ended”, the teacher launched into lengthy analysis. Such questioning ostensibly gives students speaking opportunities, but the answers are fixed and unique. The teacher merely transforms traditional teaching into“message-delivery teaching” without genuinely understanding dialogue teaching, resulting in imbalanced subject relationships.
3.2. Misalignment in Dialogue Content Focus
The content of the dialogue refers to the specific knowledge discussed in the dialogue teaching. Salient stylistic features of argumentative classical Chinese lie in rigorous reasoning, flexible argumentation, profound content, and rich philosophical insights. These constitute both the difficulties and the unique pedagogical value of teaching such texts, and should be explored in depth in class. Most teachers focus on the logical structure and specific methods of argumentation but often overlook the deep sense of urgency and responsibility that traditional Chinese intellectuals bore regarding national fate. Taking on the Six Kingdoms as an example, most teachers concentrate on the core thesis—“the downfall of the six kingdoms was due to appeasing Qin” and argumentative methods such as comparison and exemplification, but rarely analyze Su Xun’s purpose of using the past to critique the present. The reasons include teachers’ perception that such questions require students to master extensive historical knowledge, or their own sense of difficulty in designing such questions. Yet, understanding the author’s realistic concern and profound patriotic anxiety is precisely the key to grasping the spiritual core of traditional argumentative prose and appreciating the intellectual integrity and sense of duty of the literati.
3.3. Rigidity in Dialogue Form Perspectives
Dialogue form refers to the organizational method and questioning strategies of dialogue-based teaching. Examining current questioning practices in classical Chinese classrooms, teachers’ question design is often limited to single class periods, lacking holistic integration with entire units or the textbook series. Question phrasing also tends toward formulaic and homogeneous patterns, failing to stimulate students’ interest and initiative. For instance, when teaching Ode to the Epang Palace, many teachers habitually ask: “What are the author’s thoughts and feelings in this paragraph?” “What argumentative methods are used in this text?” “What are the linguistic features of the text?” Such questions, though text-related, are conventional in angle and lack innovation, resulting in students’ superficial understanding of the unit theme “responsibility and commitment” and the continuous tradition of patriotic sentiment among ancient Chinese literati.
4. Optimization Strategies for Dialogue Teaching of Argumentative Classical Chinese in the AI Era
The eighth unit of the compulsory high school Chinese textbook compiled by Ji is a summary unit for argumentative classical Chinese texts, in which four articles selected are all exemplary works from the prosperous and mature period of ancient argumentative writing. In response to the above dilemmas, this paper takes this unit as an example to specifically elaborate on the practical approaches for optimizing the teaching of argumentative classical Chinese dialogues through the use of generative artificial intelligence, exploring how to enhance the quality of dialogues without replacing teachers’ judgments or weakening students’ autonomy, with the final aim of improving the quality of Chinese dialogue teaching.
4.1. Teacher-Student Dialogue: Optimizing Instructional Question Design and Deepening Classroom Interaction
Questions are the foundation and core of dialogue teaching (Zhan, 2020). Traditional classroom questioning often lacks precise design for students’ cognitive scaffolding, failing to trigger cognitive conflict, leaving students with no “stepping stones” (Hu & Yu, 2012). Generative AI can rapidly collect and systematically integrate cross-disciplinary knowledge resources, acting as an “intelligent teaching assistant” to provide teachers with ideas for designing instructional questions better aligned with social contexts and student experiences. In March 2026, a joint team from Tsinghua University’s School of Education and Department of Computer Science open-sourced OpenMAIC (Open Multi-Agent Interactive Classroom), a multi-agent AI classroom assistant with core functions including dynamically tracking student learning progress, one-click generation of interactive course designs, and AI peer discussions—a high-quality technological resource for teachers. In the “teacher-AI-student” tripartite collaborative dialogue model, teachers can leverage “teacher-AI” dialogue to skillfully design diverse question chains, scaffolded questions, and context-based questions, thereby stimulating students’ desire to engage in dialogue and their enthusiasm for participation, helping them fully invest in dialogue, and ultimately moving toward deep disciplinary knowledge construction (Zhao & Shen, 2025). Taking On the Six Kingdoms as an example, with generative AI assistance, teachers can design progressive question chains following this rationale: first, by identifying the central thesis and argumentative methods, help students build cognitive scaffolding for understanding the text; second, guide students to examine the historical logic of the arguments using historical sources, enabling them to independently discover Su Xun’s possible simplifications for rhetorical force; third, through questioning the author’s intent, help students grasp the text’s realistic concern as a political allegory, achieving deep understanding of the classic; finally, encourage students to transfer the acquired argumentative thinking to contemporary issues, achieving internalization and reconstruction of knowledge through creative application. With generative AI assistance, teacher-student dialogue refines cognition through repeated exchange and debate of multiple perspectives, reconstructing the entire learning process as an active inquiry along the trajectory of “textual logic—historical scrutiny—intentional insight—contemporary transfer”.
4.2. Student-Student Dialogue: Facilitating Group Collaboration and Promoting Collaborative Knowledge Construction
Teachers often use group discussions in class to encourage student-text dialogue. However, since one teacher cannot simultaneously attend to multiple groups, discussion quality varies, and teachers’ limited energy makes it difficult to address every student’s ideas. At this point, introducing generative AI as a “learning companion” into the classroom can greatly help teachers conserve energy while providing timely feedback and growth records for each student. After students studied Reply to Sima Guang’s Letter of Advice, a teacher divided a class into groups for discussion, requiring each group to select three questions they considered most worthy of in-depth exploration. After collecting all questions from the class, generative AI was used to distill three core issues:
1) Wang Anshi refuted Sima Guang using the “name-reality” distinction—is his argumentation truly flawless?
2) In writing to an old friend with whom he had “long enjoyed close association”, did Wang Anshi, adhering to the principle that “a gentleman’s break with a friend is never marked by harsh words”, preserve the friend’s dignity, or did it demonstrate the ruthless suppression of personal friendship by political stance?
3) If a reform encounters widespread resistance during implementation, should one persist as Wang Anshi did, believing that “what is right should be done”, or should one, like Sima Guang, be wary that “public opinion can melt metal”?
These three questions approach from the dimensions of argumentative logic, interpersonal relationships, and historical philosophy, offering rich speculative space. Teachers can guide students to conduct in-depth discussions in groups and then present their views to generative AI for verification.
During discussion, generative AI can record and present the discussion trajectory in real time, helping students identify the logical threads and cognitive pathways underlying conflicting viewpoints. For the first question, Wang Anshi’s logic essentially uses the correspondence between name and reality as the criterion: as long as the actual purpose of the reform was to “promote benefit and eliminate harm” and was based on careful deliberation, then regardless of opposition, his actions should not be labeled as “usurpation, troublemaking, profiteering, or rejection of advice”. Moreover, when encountering contentious issues, generative AI can guide each group to reflect and differentiate, promoting knowledge construction and deepening thinking through multiple rounds of exchange and collision, building cognitive bridges between different individuals. For the third question, one group might argue that “persistence is the reformer’s courage”, while another holds that “widespread resistance indicates the reform is out of touch with reality”. Generative AI can quickly list perspectives such as “the interest stances of resistors”, “long-term benefits versus short-term pains of reform”, and “differences in historical contexts”, guiding students to re-examine both sides, refine knowledge construction, deepen thinking through multiple rounds of exchange and collision, and build cognitive bridges between individuals. Finally, during the whole-class reporting session, generative AI provides overall evaluations and extensions for each group, making assessment more targeted and comprehensive, helping students clarify shortcomings, build consensus through reflection, and achieve an overall elevation in cognitive levels.
4.3. Student-Text Dialogue: Constructing Virtual Situational Spaces and Enriching Textual Reading Information
Student-text dialogue is grounded in deepening students’ understanding of the text and endowing it with new value through various means, helping students gain more profound reading experiences in cognitive development and emotional resonance. The application of generative AI in student-text dialogue teaching for classical Chinese is mainly reflected in two aspects: constructing virtual situations and supplementing background knowledge. On the one hand, classical Chinese is concise and implicit; students often struggle to form complete mental images from text alone. Using AI-generated images, videos, animations, and other visualization tools can transform abstract classical Chinese into perceptible imagistic spaces, helping students actively construct virtual situations in their minds, thus enabling more intuitive and vivid perception of textual content. For example, when teaching Ode to the Epang Palace, the text describes “corridors like winding ribbons, eaves like soaring beaks, each embracing its terrain, competing in intricacy”. Contemporary students find it hard to imagine the subtlety of Qin dynasty architecture from text alone. Teachers can use generative AI to generate images or dynamic videos, turning static words into vivid visuals, helping students more intuitively appreciate the grandeur and intricacy of the Epang Palace and deepen their understanding of textual details (Figure 1).
On the other hand, classical Chinese often carries the historical background of specific eras. Without understanding the social context, students struggle to grasp the author’s intent. Teachers need to use AI technology to integrate background knowledge, providing students with rich historical materials to help them quickly enter the text’s historical context. For example, when teaching Ten Admonitions
Figure 1. Architecture of the Epang Palace.
to Emperor Taizong, teachers can use AI to collect images, short videos, literary excerpts, and other historical sources related to the “Reign of Zhenguan”, organizing them into an engaging “historical materials package”. Students can read these materials in advance, annotating historical background relevant to the text, so that during formal instruction they more quickly understand Wei Zheng’s logic of remonstrance and its political context, improving the accuracy of textual interpretation.
After multiple rounds of teaching practice in 12 high schools including Lishui City and Ningbo City by the author and the team, it has been verified that integrating AIGC into argumentative classical Chinese can effectively stimulate students’ interest in critical thinking, significantly improve the interaction quality of the classical Chinese classroom, and provide practical references for implementing students’ core literacy in Chinese. Therefore, under the double verification of theory and practice, it can be seen that making good use of generative artificial intelligence to intervene in student-centered dialogues is conducive to truly achieving the ideal state of “dialoguing with the text, dialoguing with the author, dialoguing with history” in classical Chinese teaching, allowing students to gain rich reading experiences through the fusion of virtual and real, thereby enhancing their core Chinese language competencies. However, it is important to note that when teachers use related AI tools to assist teaching, they should also pay attention to issues such as inaccurate output, fabricated generated content, excessive student reliance, and privacy protection.
5. Conclusion
Dialogue teaching is not only an effective instructional model but also a future-oriented educational philosophy. In the new context of AI integration into classrooms, leveraging generative AI technology to empower dialogue teaching is likely to become an inevitable developmental trend for high school Chinese education. Teachers should adeptly use technological tools to create free and equal classroom dialogue environments, enabling students to learn effective communication, collaborative learning, and collective thinking through genuine interaction, achieving cognitive collision and integration through successive dialogues. The world is constantly changing, and dialogue teaching possesses the inherent quality of dialoguing with future possibilities. Its ultimate meaning lies not in transmitting predetermined answers, but in enabling students to understand the world through understanding others, to learn to cope with change through thinking about change, thereby cultivating talents needed for the rapid development of the new era.