Pains and Gains of Ethnic Multilingual Learners in China: An Ethnographic Case Study PDF
Preview Pains and Gains of Ethnic Multilingual Learners in China: An Ethnographic Case Study
Multilingual Education Ge Wang Pains and Gains of Ethnic Multilingual Learners in China An Ethnographic Case Study Multilingual Education Volume 17 Series editors Andy Kirkpatrick Department of Languages and Linguistics, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia Bob Adamson Head, Department of International Education & Lifelong Learning, Hong Kong Institute of Education Editorial Board Jan Blommaert, University of Tilburg, The Netherlands Feng Anwei, University of Wales at Bangor, UK Ofelia Garcia, The Graduate Centre, City University of New York, USA Saran Kaur Gill, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Gu Yueguo, The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Hartmut Haberland, Roskilde University, Denmark Li Chor Shing David, The Hong Kong Institute of Education Li Wei, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK Low Ee-Ling, National Institute of Education, Singapore Tony Liddicoat, University of South Australia Ricardo Nolasco, University of the Philippines at Diliman, Manila, The Philippines Merrill Swain, Ontario Institute of Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Canada Virginia Yip Choy Yin, Chinese University of Hong Kong The book series Multilingual Education publishes top quality monographs and editedvolumescontainingempiricalresearchonmultilinguallanguageacquisition, language contact and the respective roles of languages in contexts where the languages are not cognate and where the scripts are often different, in order to be able to better understand the processes and issues involved and to inform govern- ments and language policy makers. The volumes in this series are aimed primarily at researchers in education, especially multilingual education and other related fields, and those who are involved in the education of (language) teachers. Others who will be interested include key stakeholders and policy makers in the field of languagepolicyandeducation.Theeditorswelcomeproposalsandideasforbooks that fit the series. For more information on how you can submit a proposal, please contactthepublishingeditor,JolandaVoogd.E-mail:[email protected] More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/8836 Ge Wang Pains and Gains of Ethnic Multilingual Learners in China An Ethnographic Case Study 123 Ge Wang Yunnan University Kunming, Yunnan China ISSN 2213-3208 ISSN 2213-3216 (electronic) Multilingual Education ISBN978-981-10-0659-3 ISBN978-981-10-0661-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-0661-6 LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2016934438 ©SpringerScience+BusinessMediaSingapore2016 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublisher,whetherthewholeorpart of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission orinformationstorageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilar methodologynowknownorhereafterdeveloped. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publicationdoesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesareexemptfrom therelevantprotectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authorsortheeditorsgiveawarranty,expressorimplied,withrespecttothematerialcontainedhereinor foranyerrorsoromissionsthatmayhavebeenmade. Printedonacid-freepaper ThisSpringerimprintispublishedbySpringerNature TheregisteredcompanyisSpringerScience+BusinessMediaSingaporePteLtd. This monograph is dedicated to my son, ChujunWang,aswellasallsupportingfamily members and friends. It is also a salute to all colleagues who are engaged in challenging but meaningful multilingual education in the ethnic minority areas in China. Foreword Thisvolumemarksawelcomeadvanceinresearchonlanguagepolicyandlanguage education in China. Ge Wang breaks new ground both methodologically and thematically.Byadoptinganethnographicapproachtoshedlightonhowpolicyis interpretedandappropriatedbylocalactors,henotonlybringsnewmethodological toolstothestudyoflanguagepolicyinChina,butalsocontributesanewcasetothe ethnographyoflanguagepolicyliterature(HornbergerandJohnson2007;McCarty 2011; Johnson 2013). Likewise, with this volume and his ongoing work (Wang2011,2015a,b),GeWangjoinsasmallbutgrowingscholarshipinChinathat expandsthescopeoflanguageeducationresearchbeyondpredominantattentionto English language learning to include multilingual education for ethnic minority learners(seealsoHu2012;Yu2014;Zhou2000,2001a,b). Reflecting on and motivated by his own experiences and successes as ethnic minoritylearner,teacher,andresearcher,GeWanghereexploresthelifestoriesand identities of two ethnic minority learners as they shape and are shaped by global, national, regional, and institutional policy discourses around trilingual ethnic minority education at Yunnan University of Nationalities in southwest China, one of the most ethnically diverse areas of the country–home to 25 of China’s 56 officially identified ethnic minority groups, 15 of them unique to Yunnan Province. He writes knowledgeably, comprehensively, and clearly about the demographic and language policy context for ethnic minority multilingual educa- tion in China, in Yunnan, and in higher education in particular. He acknowledges and confronts the dilemma of ethnic minority learners’ dwindling enthusiasm for learning and keeping their ethnic mother tongues while they see Chinese as a pathway to social mobility and English as a passport to a globalized world—a dilemmaexacerbatedbyChina’scontradictorypoliciesofferingprotectiontoethnic minority peoples, their languages and cultures, while infusing English language learning ever deeper into the educational curriculum. Withinthispolicycontext,theauthorsituateshiscasestudiesofthetwolearners in the international literature on multicultural education and multilingual learner identity, the institutional context of Yunnan University of Nationalities and its vii viii Foreword School of Foreign Languages, and the historical and sociocultural context of their peoples—the Naxi and Hani, respectively. Drawing from his long-term ethno- graphic study including participant observation in classrooms and off-campus, interview, autobiography, oral narrative, and online chatting, Ge Wang provides in-depth description, analysis, and interpretation of how the two young women, Mammuts and Noma, negotiate multiple identities amidst curricula, examinations, and educational practices that largely ignore or exclude their familiar ways of speaking, learning, knowing, doing, and being. His ethnographic portraits succeed asholisticandemicaccountsofthelearners’experiences,honoringandrespecting the complexity of challenges they confronted and the resiliency with which they met them. Ge Wang skillfully presents the young women’s experiences while also con- textualizing them to both Chinese language education policy and the international literature on multilingual education. His work carries implications for ethnic minority multilingual higher education, not only in Yunnan and China, but also around the world. It is both poignant and telling that publication of this work in EnglishaffordsthelatterpossibilityinwaysthatpublicationinChinese,Naxi,Hani, or his own heritage language Lisu would not. Though I am not a scholar of China or Chinese languages, it has been my privilegetohostanumberofChinesescholarsinEducationalLinguisticshereatthe UniversityofPennsylvaniaGraduateSchoolofEducationovertheyears,including Ge Wang during his recent Fulbright year. I have been equally honored to visit China several times at the invitation of Chinese colleagues in sociolinguistics and educational linguistics. It is from that vantage point that I welcome Ge Wang’s unique and courageous work, powerfully lifting the voice of ethnic minority multilingual learners whose resilience and resourcefulness speak back to marginalizing language policy and education practice. Philadelphia, USA Nancy H. Hornberger January 2016 References Hornberger,N.H.,&Johnson,D.C.(2007).Slicingtheonionethnographically:Layersandspaces inmultilinguallanguageeducationpolicyandpractice.TESOLQuarterly,41(3),509–532. Hu, D. (2012). Situation of trilingual education for the ethnic minorities at the border areas of YunnanChina.Unpublished. Johnson, D. C. (2013). Ethnography of language policy: Theory, method and practice. InternationalJournaloftheSociologyofLanguage,219,entire. McCarty,T.L.(Ed.)(2011).EthnographyandLanguagePolicy.NewYork:Routledge. Wang, G. (2011). Bilingual education in southwest China: A Yingjiang case. International JournalofBilingualEducationandBilingualism,14(5),571–587. Wang,G.(2015a).EthnicmultilingualeducationinChina:Acriticalobservation.WorkingPapers inEducationalLinguistics,30(2),51–64. Foreword ix Wang G. (2015b). Glocalization of Western Pedagogy in China: A Mother Tongue-based EducationProjectinJianchuan,China.Unpublished. Yu,Liming(Ed.)(2014)EducationalLinguisticsinChina.Shanghai,China:EastChinaNormal UniversityPress. Zhou,M.(2000).LanguagepolicyandilliteracyinethnicminoritycommunitiesinChina.Journal ofMultilingualandMulticulturalDevelopment,21(2),129–148. Zhou, M. (2001a). Language policy and reforms of writing systems for minority languages in China.WrittenLanguageandLiteracy,4(1),31–65. Zhou, M. (2001b). The politics of bilingual education and educational levels in ethnic minority communities in China. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 4(2), 125–149. Preface Existing research on multilingual acquisition indicates that learners confront challenges not only in mastering unfamiliar linguistic forms but also in forming new identities, especially when the languages concerned are socially and linguis- tically distant from each other. This study shows that ethnic multilingual learners (EMLs)inChinafacemorechallengesatuniversitiesthantheethnicmajorityHan, whentheychoosetostudyEnglishastheirmajorsubject.Thetextbookwrittenfor the majority Han and instructive methods for mainstream students are imposed uponthem.TheenvironmentisunfamiliartoEMLs,andtheyareoftenregardedas “strangers” to the new language learning community. Their problems include the national examination system, the medium of instruction, learning difficulties, psy- chologicalissues,andculturalexclusion.Inasense,thecurrenteducationalpolicies in China are designed to protect the educational rights of ethnic minorities, but ignore the role of education in promoting ethnic minority cultures. The current university curricula mainly focus on subject knowledge and patriotic education. As a result, the “cultural self-consciousness” or wenhua zijue in Chinese and “culturalcapital”inEnglisharelessemphasizedandencouraged.Inthisstudy,data are collected on two female ethnic multilingual minority students at Yunnan UniversityofNationalities(YUN)throughethnographicinterviews,autobiography, oral narrative, online chatting, and field observation. Thisstudyprovidesinformationatthemicro-levelonhowthetwostudentshave successfullynavigatedtheChineseeducationsystemtothetertiarylevel.Theyhave triedtheirbesttoexcelinthecurriculaofYUNbyconstructingmultipleidentities. The findings suggest that the informants negotiate their multiple identities through their active engagements, on and off the university campus, as legitimate partici- pants in various “communities of practice.” These identities are shaped partly by theirownculturalheritageandpartlybythepresentsociopoliticalrealitiesinChina. Drawingmainlyonpoststructuralistandmulticulturaleducationtheories,thestudy also examines the power relationships exercised in YUN and discusses the impact ofthesepowerrelationshipsontheidentityformationofthetargetinformants.The nationalandlocalpoliciesaswellasthecurriculumstructuresofYUNareanalyzed xi
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