Schools at Home: Parental Support for Learning Mandarin as a Second or Foreign Language

This study examined how parents of various backgrounds supported their children learning Mandarin as a second or foreign language. It addresses two questions which have previously rarely been addressed in the literature. 1. Whether and if so in what ways do parents of different backgrounds support their children in learning Mandarin as a second or a foreign language? 2. How is this affected by social, cultural as well as the parents’ own educational experience? Here the most relevant socio-cultural theories of learning: prolepsis; guided participation; syncretism; synergy and funds of knowledge have been studied. Ethnographic research was conducted on six families chosen from three categories: families in which both parents had Chinese heritage; one parent had Chinese heritage and those in which neither parent had a Chinese background. Data were collected through participant observation and interviews. The method of multi-layering was applied to analyze these data: the outer layer- social and cultural background, the middle layer- supporting strategies and the inner layer- the pedagogic methods used by the parents. The results reveal that these parents were determined to assist their children’s learning and employed different methods: both direct (teaching) and indirect (providing access to resources, cultural activities and events). All parents set aside time for formal, serious, regular (school-like) learning sessions. The support they provided was affected significantly by their social, cultural and educational background. All enhanced their children’s motivation and learning achievement

An anthropological study of ethnicity and the reproduction of culture among Hong Kong Chinese families in Scotland

This thesis is about inter-generational relationships and the reproduction of culture in the family lives of Hong Kong Chinese people in Scotland. It is based on fifteen months of ethnographic fieldwork and informal interviews in family homes, Chinese language schools and community organizations in Edinburgh. A central question is that of ethnicity and how people learn to “be ethnic” while living in a Western, multicultural society. The first part asks what Scottish-born Chinese children learn about ethnicity through growing up in families who work in the ethnic catering trade. Chapter 1 introduces the themes of ambition and achievement, and the mixed emotions associated with this sometimes-stigmatized occupation. Chapter 2 focuses on ideas about the duties of parents, drawing on life stories of three generations of Chinese Scots to describe their decisions concerning childcare and schooling. The second section concerns the learning of specific cultural practices – language and handicrafts – in the institutional context of Chinese complementary schools. Chapters 3 and 4 show that these are important spaces where people feel part of a group with shared moral responsibility for the maintenance and transmission of culture. The question of “authenticity” in both cultural practice and interpersonal relationships is discussed. Chapters 5 and 6 explore how Hong Kong Chinese Scots are responding to the rise of China as a global economic and cultural power. Ethnographic data from Chinese New Year celebrations in Edinburgh, and Mandarin language classes for Cantonese-speaking children suggest that people may engage in “inauthentic” cultural practices for strategic economic or political reasons. However, these articulations of ethnic identity are also important for the nurture of inter-generational relationships. The thesis concludes with the argument that Chinese Scots take a futureorientated approach to family and community life, drawing selectively on the resources of inter-ethnic ties and language to prepare their children for a changing economic and social environmen

Mandarin Chinese community schooling in England: Language, culture and pupils’ identities

This qualitative ethnographic study adopts a social constructionist approach to investigate the significance of Chinese community schooling in the lives of pupils, parents and school staff. The study is important because it challenges homogenous and stereotypical constructions of Chinese language, culture, and identity evident in some previous studies, and promoted in the media. Several key findings emerged from the study. First, pupils and adults understood language learning as the main focus of Chinese community schooling, whether focused on learning Mandarin, or English for Chinese-migrant pupils. Second, pupils and adults valued the role of the school as capital in various forms (i.e., social, economic, and cultural). Third, a contrast emerged between the focus of the schools on Mandarin as dominant Chinese language and the diversity of Chinese languages spoken by pupils and adults (e.g., Hakka and Cantonese). Fourth, pupils valued the transmission of Chinese culture but, unlike the adults, they were interested in its meaning for their family histories and identities rather than in the interiorisation of values. Finally, community schooling played a positive role in pupils' lives as it encouraged them to claim the right to construct their identity as Chinese, regardless of their spoken language(s), their life trajectories, and family background. Overall, this study has shown that Chinese community schools are linguistically and culturally varied spaces where pupils and adults coconstruct concepts of Chinese language and culture that are both informed by their life trajectories and ideologically charged. Furthermore, the schools are spaces that encourage intercultural encounters and, as such, are sites for intercultural awareness and development rather than “ethnic enclaves”. The study provides valuable insights for researchers in the areas of international and intercultural Chinese language education and researching multilingually. Also, the findings offer insights for researchers, educators, policy makers, and the parents and children participating in the life of the schools to better understand the phenomenon of Chinese language community schooling

Schools at home : parental support for learning Mandarin as a second or foreign language

This study examined how parents of various backgrounds supported their children learning Mandarin as a second or foreign language. It addresses two questions which have previously rarely been addressed in the literature. 1. Whether and if so in what ways do parents of different backgrounds support their children in learning Mandarin as a second or a foreign language? 2. How is this affected by social, cultural as well as the parents’ own educational experience? Here the most relevant socio-cultural theories of learning: prolepsis; guided participation; syncretism; synergy and funds of knowledge have been studied. Ethnographic research was conducted on six families chosen from three categories: families in which both parents had Chinese heritage; one parent had Chinese heritage and those in which neither parent had a Chinese background. Data were collected through participant observation and interviews. The method of multi-layering was applied to analyze these data: the outer layer- social and cultural background, the middle layer- supporting strategies and the inner layer- the pedagogic methods used by the parents. The results reveal that these parents were determined to assist their children’s learning and employed different methods: both direct (teaching) and indirect (providing access to resources, cultural activities and events). All parents set aside time for formal, serious, regular (school-like) learning sessions. The support they provided was affected significantly by their social, cultural and educational background. All enhanced their children’s motivation and learning achievement.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Schools at home : parental support for learning Mandarin as a second or foreign language

This study examined how parents of various backgrounds supported their children learning Mandarin as a second or foreign language. It addresses two questions which have previously rarely been addressed in the literature. 1. Whether and if so in what ways do parents of different backgrounds support their children in learning Mandarin as a second or a foreign language? 2. How is this affected by social, cultural as well as the parents’ own educational experience? Here the most relevant socio-cultural theories of learning: prolepsis; guided participation; syncretism; synergy and funds of knowledge have been studied. Ethnographic research was conducted on six families chosen from three categories: families in which both parents had Chinese heritage; one parent had Chinese heritage and those in which neither parent had a Chinese background. Data were collected through participant observation and interviews. The method of multi-layering was applied to analyze these data: the outer layer- social and cultural background, the middle layer- supporting strategies and the inner layer- the pedagogic methods used by the parents. The results reveal that these parents were determined to assist their children’s learning and employed different methods: both direct (teaching) and indirect (providing access to resources, cultural activities and events). All parents set aside time for formal, serious, regular (school-like) learning sessions. The support they provided was affected significantly by their social, cultural and educational background. All enhanced their children’s motivation and learning achievement.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

MULTILINGUAL EDUCATION AND EDUCATION POLICIES IN TAIWAN PUBLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS: TEACHERS’ PERSPECTIVE AND EXPERIENCE

The number of new immigrants and international marriages is increasing in Taiwan, resulting in growing interest in multicultural and multilingual education. The purpose of the present study was to explore public elementary school teachers’ perspectives and experiences regarding the implementation of education policies for new immigrants and their children through an in-depth analysis of a principal, teachers, and parent-teachers at two public elementary schools in rural Taiwan. I examined education policies that were established in response to concerns involving the new immigrants and their children in Taiwan. Using an interpretive phenomenology methodological framework, I obtained a deeper understanding of elementary school teachers’, principal’s, and parent-teachers’ experience of teaching English and their mother languages and how they perceive the new immigrant children compared with Taiwanese children. The findings of this study are based on interviews, class observations, education policy documents, and field notes. I applied culturally responsive teaching theory to enhance the analysis and interpretation of the findings. The teachers perceived multicultural education as increasing cultural awareness, developing positive racial and ethnic attitudes, and addressing the inequality and social justice of new immigrant groups. From the participants’ experiences and perspectives, this study presents a deeper understanding of the multicultural and multilingual practices in the elementary schools in Taiwan

Discourses of Tension in a Rainbow Nation: Transcultural Identity Formations among Hakka Mauritians

Identity formation happens at a crossroads of that which people believe they are and are not. Acknowledgment, reification, or subversion of identity frictions form powerful communicative patterns that I call ‘discourses of tension’. I argue in this dissertation that discourses of tension are foundational to the formation of transcultural identities—positionalities that emerge between or beyond perceived cultural boundaries—because they enable people to identify and express cultural complexities and expectations. Based on ten months of ethnographic fieldwork and research in other relevant sites, this argument is supported by my analysis of how Hakka Chinese Mauritians express agency and identity within the affordances and constraints presented by historical relations, ideologies, policies, and sociopolitical developments in postcolonial Mauritius. This small Indian Ocean island state is lauded for its peaceful multicultural society while imposing restrictive ethnic classification into four groups (Hindu, Muslim, Chinese, and ‘General Population’) onto its citizens. Mauritian identity formation is anchored in raciolinguistic ideologies which view language and race as naturally linked. These ideologies produce expectations of people’s language use and identity expression, which often conflict with social realities in Mauritius. Within this field of tension, Hakka Mauritians often find themselves having to reassert their identities as ‘authentically’ Mauritian, Chinese, or Hakka. This is further complicated by the recent ‘rise’ of China, which promotes Mandarin language education (instead of Hakka) and affects local perceptions of what it means to be ‘Chinese’. I present three key contexts in which discourses of tension become salient for Hakka Mauritian expression: Mauritian discourses of nation-building and ethnolinguistic community formation Shifts from Hakka to Mandarin in Chinese Mauritian heritage language classrooms Ideologies of ‘Chineseness’ in the semiotic landscape of Mauritian Chinatown My research shows that Hakka Mauritians occupy constant ‘in-between’ spaces and engage in discourses of tension to (re-)examine their identities. My dissertation thus contributes to anthropology an account of individual agency in expressing fluidity and complexity in transcultural identities against the backdrop of discursive tensions

Heteroglossia, ideology and identity in a Birmingham Chinese complementary school: a linguistic ethnography

This thesis presents a linguistic ethnographic case study on a large Chinese complementary school (CCS) in Birmingham, England. Guided by Bakhtin’s theory of heteroglossia, the study investigates multilingual practices of adult participants in and around the school, focusing on the changing constructions of language ideology, Chinese teachers’ professional identity and the ethnic identification of Chineseness. It documents the impact of globalisation on the shifting relations among Chinese varieties and English in the Chinese diaspora. The 10-month fieldwork for the study was conducted in 2013/14 academic year, with observations and interviews as dominant methods for data collection. Main findings are: (1) an ideological ecology including ‘separate bilingualism’, ‘translanguaging’, ‘a hegemony of Putonghua’, and ‘a preferred school-wide monolingualism’ is dynamically constructed in the school. ‘Language as pride’ and ‘Language as profit’ are simultaneously in play leading to the dynamic ecology; (2) Chinese teachers’ professional identities are shaped by the changing structure of Chinese diaspora, the shifting power balance among different Chinese varieties and English, and teachers’ own biographical trajectories of settlement into English society; (3) practices in CCS context reflect an evolving ethnic identification of diasporic Chineseness which ‘de-freezes’ from a cultural heritage affiliated purely with the past and the national homeland

Chinese children's experiences of biliteracy learning in Scotland

This thesis explores the experiences of Chinese children acquiring literacy in both Chinese and English in Scotland. A three-dimensional research design is adopted in order to take into account the influential domains where children are exposed to literacy learning. First, it investigates the attitudes and approaches to literacy learning in fourteen Chinese homes, with evidence gathered from semi-structured interviews with parents. Second, observations of and conversations with children and Chinese teachers in a Chinese complementary school in the central belt of Scotland provide insights into the approaches to teaching and learning Chinese literacy. Third, miscue analysis of reading and thinking aloud protocols are conducted in mainstream schools with six Chinese boys, aged eight to nine years, in order to analyse in depth the reading strategies deployed by children in their attempts to gain meaning from both Chinese and English texts. The findings reveal that Chinese parents provide a rich learning environment where children consolidate and in some cases extend the literacy learning experiences gained in the complementary Chinese school. What also emerges from the research is that while the children in the study have a great deal of metalinguistic and metacognitive knowledge gained from learning diverse writing systems, this knowledge is not recognised within policy or practice in mainstream schools. Finally, Hornberger’s Continua of Biliteracy are used as a model both in order to analyse the mosaic of qualitative data generated during the research process and to provide a framework for a discussion of educational policy and practice in multilingual Scotland