Learning Chinese in England: Renewed Forms of Social Inequality?

AS AN INTEGRAL PART OF A TWO-YEAR BOOK PROJECT “LEARNING ENGLISH AND CHINESE AS FOREIGN LANGUAGES: A SOCIOCULTURAL AND COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE”, THIS STUDY AIMS TO EXPLORE BRITISH SECONDARY STUDENTS’ SITUATED EXPERIENCES OF, AND ACCESS TO, CHINESE. FIVE SECONDARY SCHOOLS, INCLUDING FOUR STATE SCHOOLS AND ONE INDEPENDENT SECTOR IN ENGLAND TOOK PART IN THIS STUDY.RECENT SHIFTS IN GEOPOLITICAL AND LANGUAGE EDUCATION PRIORITIES WORLDWIDE REVEAL A GROWING POPULARITY OF LEARNING CHINESE AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE (CFL).IN ENGLAND, CFL LEARNING IS GRADUALLY BECOMING AN ECONOMIC CONCERN AS ENGLAND RECOGNIZES THE IMPORTANCE OF FUTURE ECONOMIC RELATIONS WITH THE WORLD IN GENERAL AND WITH CHINA IN PARTICULAR. HOWEVER, THERE IS A GAP OF CHINESE AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE PROVISION BETWEEN SOCIAL GROUPS SUCH AS STATE AND INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS THAT ENGENDERS ISSUES OF EDUCATIONAL INEQUALITY. THIS SOCIOCULTURAL STUDY ANALYZED DATA FROM CLASSROOM OBSERVATIONS, INTERVIEWS AND QUESTIONNAIRES TO PRESENT A “THICK DESCRIPTION”(GEERTZ, 1973)OF STUDENTS’ CHINESE LEARNING EXPERIENCES IN FIVE SECONDARY SCHOOLS (4 STATE AND 1 INDEPENDENT) IN ENGLAND. FINDINGS ARE TWOFOLD; FIRSTLY, A RESOURCE-DIVIDE IN CHINESE LEARNING EXISTS BETWEEN STATE AND INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS REVEALING YOUNG PEOPLE’S UNEQUAL ACCESS TO CHINESE. SECONDLY, AN EMERGING CHINESE LANGUAGE LEARNING IDENTITY IS AT ISSUE BECAUSE BOTH SCHOOLS AND STUDENTS OBSERVED TEND TO HAVE A GENERAL CONCEPT THAT ONLY ACADEMICALLY ABLE STUDENTS CAN DO FOREIGN LANGUAGE (E.G., CHINESE) BETTER, AND THIS HAS A CONSEQUENCE OF DISCOURAGING OTHERS WHO ARE INTERESTED IN THIS LANGUAGE.THIS STUDY’S INTENT HAS BEEN TO BROADEN THE FOCUS TO VIEW CHINESE LANGUAGE LEARNING AS EVERYDAY PRACTICE INFLUENCED BY SOCIO-CULTURAL FORCES INCLUDING HISTORICAL (E.G., SOCIAL CLASS DIVISION), POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, FAMILY, INSTITUTIONAL AND PERSONAL SETTINGS, CIRCUMSTANCES AND VALUES.THEATTEMPT WAS TO CHALLENGE THE PROBLEMATIC ASSUMPTIONS THAT CHINESE LEARNING BENEFITS ALL STUDENTS EQUALLY, AS A NEUTRAL LANGUAGE TOOL WITH NO CONNECTION TO UNEQUAL DISTRIBUTION OF POWER ALONG LINES OF SOCIAL STRATIFICATION SUCH AS CLASS DIFFERENCES. IT ALSO INTENDED TO EXPLORE THE PHENOMENA OF UNEQUAL ACCESS TO CHINESE BETWEEN STATE AND INDEPENDENT SCHOOL SETTINGS THAT MIGHT LEAD TOANEMERGING“EDUCATIONAL APARTHEID” IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN THE PROCESS OF CFL LEARNING. RESULTS FROM THIS SOCIOCULTURAL STUDY MAY SHED LIGHT ON OUR UNDERSTANDING OF STUDENTS’ CHINESE LEARNING EXPERIENCES AND ASSOCIATED DIFFICULTIES IN ENGLAND AND OTHER COUNTRIES SUCH AS THE USA AND AUSTRALIA.



Keywords:Chinese learning; cultural capital;resource-divide; sociocultural theory