Learning Chinese In

1
Learning Chinese In Beyond Classroom

• Wenhao Diao
• May 16 2009

2
Background

• Study abroad linguistic cultural gains?
• Linguistic fluency gains only (e.g.Freed, 1995)
• Cultural challenges
• Intercultural sensitivity (Wilkinson, 1998)
• Fear of self-presentation in L2 (Pellegrino,
  2005)
• Social cultural conflicts (Kinginger, 2008)
• Study Abroad in China?
• China the new hot spot
• What does it mean to study abroad in China?
• Learning a language in classroom?
• Studying abroad in China?

3
Theoretical framework

• Language is contextual
• Voloshinov verbal communication can never be
  understood and explained outside of connection
  with a concrete situation
• Bakhtin it is inseparable from the total
  situation of the utterance to the same extent
  that it is inseparable from linguistic elements
• Gramsci there is nothing fixed, rigid, and
  indefinite and there never will be
• Norms as a system of a standard voice
• Bakhtin Hetereoglossia a system of linguistic
  forces
• Gramsci Norms are an instrument to unify
  individuals
• A justification of Mandarin Chinese in pedagogy

4
Language in Classroom A singular voice as the
standard

• Access to a minimum comprehension
• Bakhtin a system of elementary forms
  guaranteeing a minimum level of comprehension in
  practical communication
• Access to a maximum comprehension
• Bakhtin the unitary voice as a force for
  overcoming this heteroglossia, guaranteeing a
  certain maximum of mutual understanding
• The safest social marker
• Gramsci language is a choice, a cultural
  index, and is always, for that reason, a
  cultural-political act

5
Study abroad Emergence of hetereoglossia

• Encountering social hetereoglossia
• Discontinuity of the standardized voice
• The unitary voice is not the totality of the
  language
• Pronouncing ones foreign voice
• Foreign voice is distinctive from other voices
• The foreign voice is less comprehensible
• Each individual constructs a hetereoglossia
  within him-/her-self
• Extraverbal elements in a dialogic relation
• The physical foreign-ness speaks for the voice
• A case study

6
Methodology Qualitative case study

• Participant
• Steve 3rd year American college student.
  Caucasian male. Studied abroad in both urban and
  rural China (Shanghai, Beijing, Sichuan and
  Hainan) in 07 and 08.
• Procedure
• Journal Steves blog entry during his time in
  China
• Observation Steves conversation with Chinese
• Triangulation Foreigners learning Chinese in
  China

7
Results (1) Blog

• Encountering social hetereoglossia
• Lingao has their own dialecteven when the
  students spoke standard Mandarin, their tones
  were often inaccurate or difficult for me to
  understand.
• Foreign voice as a less comprehensible accent
• Saying ?? West as xi1bian4 instead of xi1bian1 (a
  minor tone difference) could leave me only with
  confused faces and students mumbling to each
  other probably asking "What is the guy saying to
  us??"
• Hetereoglossia within each individual
• I really realized just how important it is to
  speak really clearly ALL the time-- I often get
  tired and/or lazy and revert back to my monotone
  American voice.

8
Results (2) Observation

• S ???????????
• Excuse meCapital University of Economics and
  Business...how to get there
• NS Silent. Looking at the Chinese observer
• O Looking at S, in English Try again
• S ?????????????
• Excuse methat...Capital University of
  Economics and Businesshow to get there
• NS Looking at the Chinese observer ????
• What is he saying
• S
  ??????
• On Da Wang Road

9
NS NNS communication a site of ideological
struggles

• Social index of non-native speakers
• Voloshinov social connections
• Laowai is an index that excludes non-native
  speakers
• The authoritative discourse
• Native speakers inhibit the authoritative
  ideology
• The foreign voice is excluded from the totality
  of the Chinese language
• E.g. Kevin Rudds speech at Peking University
• The internally persuasive discourse
• Native speaker to alienate language learners
• Non-native speakers to be assimilated in the
  totality
• Interactions with NSs are a site of ideological
  tension

10
Results (3) Triangulation

• KR ????????????????
• Distinguished guestsladiesgentlemenstude
  nts
• AD Laugh
• KR ????????????????????
• Why are you all herenot having
  classhomework has all been done or not
• AD
  Laugh Chuckle
• KR ??????????????????????????
• President of the University said that I
  speak fluent Chinesehe was being politemy
  Chinese is getting worse
• AD
  
  Laugh
• KR ??????????????????????????????
• Chinaas we all knowChina has an old
  sayingwe are not afraid of the heavennot
  afraid of the hellbut only afraid of laowais
  speaking Chinese.
• AD Loud laugh and applauding

11
Results (4) Back to Journal

• The questions started out harmless How do you
  like China? How long have you been studying
  Chinese? What do you do when you dont understand
  Chinese? Where do you live in America? etc.
• But then the questions became very uncomfortable
  Do you want to marry a Chinese girl? So how much
  money did you spend a week in Shanghai? How much
  money do you spend now? How much money do you
  spend per week in America? Are you responsible
  for school tuition? Do you make money on your
  own? How much money do your parents make? How
  many rooms are there in your house in America?

12
Implication

• Classroom is a language lab for a standard voice
  which helps learners
• Achieve the minimum comprehension of each
  individual
• Achieve the maximum comprehension of the L2
• Safest social marker
• Going outside of the classroom is a process of
  exposing themselves to the hetereoglossia
• Learners accent is
• a distinctive voice from any other accented
  voices
• more alienated with their physical foreign-ness
• The Chinese language ideology
• excludes the foreign voice
• communication is a struggle between native
  speakers authoritative discourse and learners
  persuasive course to be assimilated to the
  totality of the language