Mainland Chinese Undergraduates

1
Mainland Chinese Undergraduates English-learning
Experiences in Hong Kong A Case Study focusing
on Learning Strategy Use

• GAO, Xuesong (Andy)
• English Centre/ Faculty of Education
• Xuesong.Gao_at_hkusua.hku.hk
• Nov. 8th, 2006, HKU Constituent Theme,
• Languages, media and Communication Language in
  Education and Assessment Seminar

2
Purpose

• A case study on one mainland Chinese
  undergraduates language learning experiences in
  Hong Kong
• limited in generalization
• Researchers background, position, and
  subjectivity
• Drawing on a larger interpretative, ethnographic
  and longitudinal inquiry
• A sociocultural perspective on learning and
  learning strategy

3
Background Constructivist Learning

• Learning through cooperative social
  activity, discourse, and debate in the
  communities of practice (Fosnot, 2005, p. ix)
• The classroom seen as a mini-society, a
  community of learners engaged in activity,
  discourse, interpretation, justification, and
  reflection (ibid, p. ix)
• The role of language medium vs. means
  (Glaserfeld, 1998 Scheinder, 2006)
• a shared repertoire of stories, artifacts,
  tools, actions, historical events, discourses,
  and concepts, and styles to negotiate meaning
  without the constant need to compare notes
  (Wenger, 1998, p. 84)

4
Background Constructivist Learning

• Language problems related to constructivist
  learning in Hong Kong (e.g. Jackson, 2002 Liu
  Littlewood, 1997)
• Causes of students apparent reticence (Liu
  Littlewood, 1997)
• Lack of experience in speaking English
• Hong Kong as input-poor learning environment
• The dominance of Cantonese
• The arrival of mainland Chinese students

5
Background Language Learning Strategy

• Social turn in language learning research
• Learning is both a kind of action and a form of
  belonging (Wenger, 1998, p. 4)
• Learners are able to reflect upon and seek to
  alter or reinforce, the fitness of the social
  arrangements for the realization of their own
  interests. (Sealey Carter, 2004, p. 11)

6
Background Language Learning Strategy

• Learning strategy Learners contributions to
  their own language learning (Chamot, 2001)
• Learning strategy open up access within power
  structures and seek cultural alternatives
  (Oxford, 2003, p.79)

7
Background Language Learning Strategy

• Accounts of strategy use reveal the interplay of
  structure and agency
• Structure anterior and enduring (Layder, 1991,
  1993)
• Structural constraints/facilitation (Norton,
  2000 Norton Toohey, 2001 Palfreyman, 2003,
  2006) discursive resources, material resources,
  and social agents
• The role of agency (Tseng et al, 2006 Wenden,
  1998, 2002)
• Agency revealed in the use of power, the will
  and capacity (Giddens, 1984)

8
Background A Realist Perspective
Agent
9
Background Mainland Undergraduates

• Cultural tradition a pragmatic approach
• Hierarchical worldview
• Acquire academic and literacy skills, upward
  social mobility, and personal development
  (Thogersen, 2002)
• Learning for earning or learning (Cheng, 1996)

10
Background Mainland Undergraduates

• Contextual reality on the Chinese mainland
• Overcrowded and competitive educational context
• Search for better educational opportunities
• The increasing importance of English
• Motives for coming to Hong Kong for tertiary
  studies quality education, English and better
  opportunities for social advance

11
Background Mainland Undergraduates

• Mainland undergraduates in Hong Kong social and
  cultural vulnerability
• Huge investment, uncertain results
• Linguistic problems Cantonese vs. Putonghua
• Differences between mainlanders and Hong Kongers
  may be diminishing but still ongoing and enduring
  (Li, et al, 1995 Ho, Chau, Chiu Peng, 2003)

12
Background Mainland Undergraduates

• English is widely spoken by the foreign community
  and in business circles, but not every Chinese
  person will necessarily understand English, as
  many are new immigrants from mainland China (The
  University of Hong Kong, 2005, p. 39).
• ??????????????????,???????,???????,????????,??????
  ???????,??????????,????????????????(HKU Post,
  2006, p. 4)

13
Background Mainland Undergraduates
14
Background Mainland Undergraduates
15
The Study

• It has three stages
• 1) Interviewed twenty-two mainland undergraduates
  in 2004
• 2) follow-up ethnographic inquiry into 6
  volunteer participants learning experiences
  (2004-2006)
• 3) Interviewed 15 out of the original 22 in 2006

16
The Case Study ParticipantJo

• Born in a middle-class professional family
• Parents closely involved in her previous language
  learning experiences
• Use of rote memory strategies on the Chinese
  mainland
• Studying in a faculty where there is a constant
  need for defending her designs in English
• Most of her time spent in a studio, working in
  groups
• A desire to continue studying and working in Hong
  Kong to acquire her professional qualification

17
The Case Study Participant

• Highly motivated
• Positive perceptions of learning environment
• Some disappointment with learning progress
• Strategy use (from a questionnaire in the 3rd
  stage)

18
Experiential Narrative Learning Cantonese

• I try to communicate with my classmates in
  Cantonese because local students, after all, like
  to use Cantonese. If I use Putonghua or English,
  it will cause barriers in our exchanges. They
  will not be too willing to talk to me. If I use
  Putonghua, Putonghua will be too difficult for
  them (Sept. 28th, 2004).
• If I keep speaking Putonghua, maybe they (local
  students) do not want to speak to me. (Because)
  They have a lot of chances to speak to other
  students in Cantonese. So I will have less chance
  to communicate with others. I speak Putonghua
  to myself. And I speak Cantonese to my classmates
  in order to be part of them (Nov. 20th, 2004).

19
Experiential Narrative Learning Cantonese

• I do not feel good about it. (Interviewer Why?)
  It was just like this. If I do not speak, they
  cannot tell me that I am not one of them. They
  cannot tell that I am actually not from Hong
  Kong. The sudden change in their ways of talking
  to me always reminds me of the fact that I am not
  from Hong Kong. It is an act to differentiate my
  identity from theirs. I feel annoyed for there is
  always someone who wants to separate me out from
  them (May 30th, 2006).
• their lifestyle is a bit different from mine.
  They like to sing KARAOKE. Sometimes they spent
  too much time on doing something meaningless. I
  think that they are wasting time (Nov. 20th,
  2004).

20
Interpreting Narratives

• The need for learning Cantonese
• partially generated by constructivist learning on
  the campus
• a cultural fear of being isolated and
  marginalized

21
Experiential Narrative Struggle for English

• In fact, English matters more to me than
  Cantonese (Sept. 28th, 2004).
• I watch TV in English. When I watch TV, I just
  want to improve my English (Dec. 12th, 2004).
• I watch TV, most of the time, English TV, on
  CCTV, ATV world. I watch David Late Show.
  CCTV 9 is much easier for me to understand. Maybe
  because of its accent and the key words they
  chose. For the other English channels, I have
  difficulty in understanding them. (March,
  3rd, 2005).

22
Experiential Narrative Struggle for English

• Speaking English with teammates
• I cannot express myself in Cantonese efficiently.
  So I use English and Cantonese at the same time
  (Nov. 20th, 2004).
• I still made some progress in English, in
  spoken English. When we (my partner and I) were
  designing the model, I kept talking English (Dec.
  18th, 2004).
• Memorization
• I really need words helping me to understand
  other peoples English I just have one book
  on vocabulary and tried to remember words.
  Everyday twenty words or so. Just go through it.
  Most of them, I have already been familiar with.
  I just take out those difficult ones. I also
  tried to memorize words from architecture
  textbooks (Nov. 6th, 2004).

23
Interpreting Narratives

• The struggle for learning English English medium
  of instruction the critical importance of English
• Strategy use
• Contextual facilitation rich resources,
  availability of English speakers (limited)
• Contextual constraints learning without
  belonging
• An intriguing question to what extent watching
  TV programs has benefited her learning English?

24
Experiential Narrative GRE

• One of my classmates (mainland Chinese student)
  who is from Beijing went to New Oriental School
  because she wanted to take GRE or TOEFL. She
  wanted to go abroad after her undergraduate
  study. I have not decided whether to go or not.
  But I need to take it as well. I plan to take
  the course in Beijing in August. I just want to
  push myself to learn more English. Everybody
  else is doing the same thing. If I do not do it,
  I feel that I am losing something. They say
  that the school is very good at this thing,
  guessing exam questions. a lot of people have
  decided to take the course even they have not
  decided whether to go abroad or not. They just
  said that they wanted to improve their English
  (April 16th, 2005).

25
Experiential Narrative GRE

• I spent about ten days trying to memorize all the
  GRE words. I used the Red book and memorized
  most of them. Ten days, I just memorized
  these words. And I did nothing else. Our
  teacher told us that we did not need to remember
  the words pronunciation. Because we only used
  them in the exam and we did not have to read
  them. I just read all the sample sentences for
  three new wordlists for the day. For other lists
  that I should review for the day, I just read
  Chinese and English. I did not have time to read
  all the sample sentences if I had to memorize
  twenty four lists on one day (Sept. 17th, 2005).

26
Interpreting Narratives

• GRE effort
• Exercise of learner agency
• Anxiety over uncertain outcomes of educational
  investment

27
Conclusion

• Learning is both doing and belonging
• Language learning success lies at what levels
  learners participated in particular communities
  of practice in the target language (s) (at least
  partially)
• Individual learners responsible for deploying
  strategic efforts to create such communities
  and/or enhance their participation in such
  communities
• What about language teachers, administrators,
  policy-makers, and?

28
Questions and Answers
29
References

• Chamot, U. A. (2001). The role of learning
  strategies in second language acquisition. In M.
  Breen (ed.), Learner Contributions to Language
  Learning (pp. 25-43). Harlow Pearson Education.
• Cheng, K.M. (1996, November). Excellence in
  education Is it culture-free? Keynote paper
  presented at the annual conference of the
  Educational Research Association, Singapore.
• Fosnot, C. T. (Ed.) (2005). Constructivism
  Theory, perspectives and practice. New York
  Teachers College Press.
• Giddens, A. (1984). The constitution of society
  Outline of the theory of structuration.Berkeley
  University of California Press.
• von Glaserfeld, E. (1998). Why constructivism
  must be radical? In M. Larochelle, N.Bednarz, and
  J. Garrison (Eds.) Constructivism and education
  (pp. 23-28). Cambridge Cambridge University
  Press.
• ??? (2006). ??????????(Culture or
  internationalization, original in Chinese). HKU
  Post, Issue 19, 4.
• Ho, D.Y. F., Chau, A.W.L., Chiu, C., Peng,
  S.Q.(2003). Ideological orientation and political
  transition in Hong Kong Confidence in the
  future. Political Psychology, 24(2), 403-413.
• Jackson, J. (2002). Reticence in second language
  case discussions Anxiety and aspirations.
  System, 30, 65-84.
• Layder, D. (1991) The realist image in social
  science. Basingstoke Macmillan Press.
• Layder, D. (1993) New strategies in social
  research An introduction and guide. Cambridge
  Polity Press.
• Li, F.L.N., Jowett, A.J., Findlay, A.M., and
  Skeldon, R.S. (1995) Discourse on immigration and
  ethnic identity Interviews with professionals in
  Hong Kong. Transactions of the Institute of
  British Geographers, 20(3), 342-256.
• Liu, N. Littlewood, W. (1997). Why do many
  students appear reluctant to participate in
  classroom learning discourse? System, 25,
  371-384.
• Norton, B. (2000). Identity and Language
  Learning Gender, Ethnicity, and Educational
  Change. New York Longman.

30
References

• Norton, B., and Toohey, K. (2001) Changing
  perspectives on good language learners. TESOL
  Quarterly, 35, 307-321.
• Oxford, R. (Ed.) (2003). Towards a more
  systematic model of L2 learner autonomy. In D.
  Palfreyman R.C. Smith (eds.), Learner Autonomy
  across Cultures Language Education Perspectives
  (pp. 75-92). Basingstoke Palgrave Macmillan.
• Palfreyman, D. (2003). Expanding discourse on
  learner development A reply to Anita Wenden.
  Applied Linguistics, 24(2), 243-248.
• Schack, T. and Schack, E. (2005) In- and outgroup
  representation in a dynamic society Hong Kong
  after 1997. Asian Journal of Social Psychology,
  8, 123-137.
• Schneider, J. G. (2006). Language and mediality
  On the medial status of everyday language.
  Language and Communication, 26, 331-342.
• Sealey, A., Carter, B. (2004). Applied
  linguistics as social science. London Continuum.
• Thogersen, S. (2002). A county of culture
  Twentieth-Century China seen from the village
  schools of Zouping, Shangdong. Ann Arbor, The
  University of Michigan Press.
• Tseng, W., Dornyei, Z., Schmitt, N. (2006) A
  new approach to assessing strategic learning The
  case of self-regulation in vocabulary
  acquisition. Applied Linguistics, 27(1), 78-102.
• The University of Hong Kong (2005). Guide for
  newcomers. Hong Kong Office of Student Affairs,
  The University of Hong Kong.
• Wenden, A. (1998). Metacognitive knowledge and
  language learning. Applied Linguistics, 19 (4),
  515-537. Wenden, A. (2002). Learner development
  in language learning. Applied Linguistics,23(1),
  32-55.
• Wenger, E. 1998. Community of practices
  Learning, meaning, and identity. New York
  Cambridge University Press.