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The Chinese language teacher in Australian schools: an investigation into one Chinese teacher’s intercultural development. By Jianlian Liang PhD Candidate and Rouse Hill Public School teacher. 欢迎你们. Outline of the presentation. My understanding of IcLL development My stories:
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The Chinese language teacher in Australian schools: an investigation into one Chinese teacher’s intercultural development By Jianlian Liang PhD Candidate and Rouse Hill Public School teacher
Outline of the presentation • My understanding of IcLL development • My stories: 1) Educational aspiration 2) As a Second language learner 3) As a second language teacher • How my own cultural identity and intercultural growth influence my teaching practice
Intercultural Language Learning and role of teacher • Sociocultural: Language is part of/reflects culture( Firth, 1966; Haliday, 1975) • Culture is embedded in language, so two should be taught together ( Byram, 1988, 1997) • We notice and understand target language behaviour by comparing to our own language and cultural behaviour • Learners develop in ‘third place’ from which they can observe both critically ( Kramsch, 1993)
Story one: Education Aspiration Proverb:书中自有黄金屋，书中自有颜如玉There are golden houses in the books, there are beauty and truth in the books. Strongly influenced by my Mother Taught by my father Lots of physical hard work every day in the village
Autoethnography narrative: Mother As a girl, in her family of six children, mother gave up her schooling after Year 2, worked very hard physically to provide for the family, believed that education would give her daughters wings to fly higher and faster. positive attitude towards education very encouraging to us and motivated us to go further. Mum did most of the farm work for the family in the village while my grandmother looked after all of us. My mother used to raise silkworms to help the family income. She usually got up a few times at night to feed the worms. I was aware that this was not the case in other families in the village, many of my primary female schoolmates only finished primary school and didn’t progress to high school. I was the only one of my village peer class who went to senior high school. Those experiences and family values encouraged me to be independent, resilient, with some courage to go ahead on my own. My mother’s encouragement communicated to me her confidence that I could do and become more than she could imagine.
Autoethnography narrative: my schooling and my father I wanted to give up school during primary years. School was very boring to me. However, My father always taught us in conceptual ways. When I finished my primary school in my village, I moved to study at my father’s secondary school in JianCheng town (建城镇). However, in Year 10, I suddenly realized I need to do something in my life for my future. I was not developing the ‘Self’ that I imagined and wanted. Father gave me lots of support. I finally got into a teacher’s college without paying anything.
Influence on myself and my teaching Writing this narrative has made me deeply aware of my particular privilege in the context of a rural area background. The special treatment I received as a Chinese girl had already singled me out from my female peers in my village. This gave me the chance to visualize a different “self” and a different future identity (Dornyei, 2001; Markus &Nurius, 1986; Higgins, 1987, 1998; Pizzolata, 2006). As a girl treated differently to my peers, I was already experiencing a delineated identity, and being “other” within my community. I was able to imagine a future, and a future self, beyond what I could see in my village.I feel it is my responsibility to carry out this self, or identity, and show the leadership which was given to me. My responsibility, and my sense of individual self-fulfilment, is to share knowledge and opportunities, and to model this well in my class.
Look forward My aspirations: 1) understand learning more deeply; 2) develop a habit of look forward Provide differentiation for different aged children, provide children to think critically and globally. As an intercultural teacher and learner in Australia, both my students and I need to understand China, ourselves, and Australian culture, more deeply.
Story two: As a second language learner Learning English in China Voiceless in English at the arrival of New Zealand Process of learning and using English for my higher education
Learning English in China • We started to learn all the letters and memorized each single word then translated them into Chinese. Back in1987 in China in the rural areas high school, learning materials and teachers’ English ability was very limited, we didn’t have any goals or motivation to learn a second language. Learning English was a waste of time and boring to me. I spent my English class time all day dreaming, reading other books or sleeping. After 6 years of high school and twice a week English learning experiences, I couldn’t speak a completed sentence apart from the single words and short phrases such as “Hello, Ok, No, Yes, I am good. No problem…..”.
Voiceless in English at the arrival of New Zealand (1) • When I first arrived in New Zealand where English is the official language, I couldn’t understand some simple questions like: “where are you from? Are you Chinese? How old are you?” I was very frustrated about my limited language ability. I went to the formal English language centre in Auckland for about one year. Majority of my classmates were Chinese, most of the time we spoke to each other in Mandarin outside of the classroom. The teaching methods were very different from my previous English teachers in China. They were very friendly and approachable and talked to us explicitly about our need and goals. They encouraged us to read lots of books to increase our vocabulary, reading newspaper and watch news each day. I kept a pocket sized notebook to write down all the new vocabulary with the meanings ( in Chinese), pronunciations ( recorded in phonic symbols) At one stage I forced by self to memorized 30 vocabulary a day from alphabetic order.
Voiceless in English at the arrival of New Zealand (2) • I started to write diary in English every day. I started this habit when our writing teacher required us to write every day as our homework and gave it to her in the next day. She suggested that use every chance to use English everyday meaning and practice would improve our linguistic skills. She would mark our diary carefully with positive feedback and clear commends about how to improve next. I was very encouraging by one of her feedback on my diary that “ I enjoyed reading your diary, your are very observant and imaginative…..”
Process of learning and using English for my higher education ( 1 ) • Even experiencing many struggles in learning and using English in both my real life and higher education at university, I was very motivated with courage and a strong desire to embrace the journey of what Liu (2001a) called “cultural adaptive transformation”.
Process of learning and using English for my higher education ( 2 ) • According to Liu (2001a) determination and willingness are require to recognize our own culture as well as to understand and appreciate the target culture during the journey of being transformed. My passion and motivation for learning and using English in a new culture are always alive. This passion encourages me to pursue further study consistently in both New Zealand and Australia. After a long journey using academic English as a medium, I eventually made the decision to challenge myself to take PhD study. However my cultural adaptive transformation process in the target culture came very slowly. I have encountered challenges and difficulties in both work place and PhD study very often. One of my biggest challenges in the journey is how to balance between my Chinese cultural background and the Western cultural diverse environment that I am in, as well as between my identity in Chinese communities and Western communities.
Influence on myself and my teaching • From my negative learning experience in China came a resolve and a determination to create a learning environment that would produce for students both achievement and enjoyment. • My positive English learning experience in NZ motivated me to want to learn more. I will share some of my learning English experience with some of my students. Learning how to enjoy learning is very important as part of the journey. • Learning hurdles and struggles are a part of making progress. I will encourage students to never easily to give up. Don’t be afraid to face any challenges. Be flexible in moving between two cultures.
Story three: As a second language teacher I relate this story as a teacher teaching a second language as well as teaching other school subjects. I have experienced many cultural and linguistic difficulties. During my early years as a student teacher in NZ, I was afraid to talk to my students and supervisor teachers. I tried to avoid saying anything. At that time whilst completing my last practicum, my supervisor teacher from a primary school failed me in the second week of the 6 week practicum. Her reason was my English is not good enough. In my first year of teaching at a private school an Australia, only a small number of year 6 students chose to continue their Mandarin Chinese classes. Year 7 class students lost their learning motivation. Behavioural problems in the classroom due to the teaching strategies were disruptive and the higher achievers did not engage fully. I considered how I might maintain their motivation and how to stimulate their desire to want to learn more, and to help them to be proud of themselves as Chinese language learners. Without any success I chose to teach at a primary school this year.
Influence on myself and my teaching • Since I have learned intercultural language learning. I started to pay more attention on IcLL in my classroom practice . • There are some examples of IcLL activities in my classroom: 1) encourage students: doing, thinking, noticing, comparing and reflecting 2) encourage students reflect on their language and culture and well as Chinesel anguage and culture . 3) lots of hands-on activities and meaningful experiences e.g making Hongbao, firecrackers, bamboo dance, performance for Chinese cultural events or school events. http://www.asiaeducation.edu.au/verve/_resources/GettingStardwithIntercultural.pdf
Conclusion • I am influenced by my intercultural background, my professional choices are influenced by my personal and intercultural identities. • I try to have a balanced picture as a teacher, my personal identity, my classroom practice and the relationships between those roles.
