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Chapter 5. Learning and teaching Chinese in the Netherlands

The metapragmatics of a polycentric language
  • Jinling Li and Kasper Juffermans
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Learning Chinese in Diasporic Communities
This chapter is in the book Learning Chinese in Diasporic Communities

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the metapragmatics of Chinese as a polycentric language. Based on ethnographic observations and interviews in and around a Chinese complementary school in the Netherlands, this paper describes an ongoing shift along with demographic, economic and political changes, in what counts as Chinese: a shift from Hong Kong and Taipei to Beijing as the most powerful centre of Chinese in the world. Migration makes communicative resources like language varieties globally mobile and this affects the normativity in the diaspora classroom. A clearer understanding of the metapragmatics of Chinese is useful because it provides a key to understanding social identities in contemporary Chinese migration contexts and to understanding language within contexts of current globalisation.

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the metapragmatics of Chinese as a polycentric language. Based on ethnographic observations and interviews in and around a Chinese complementary school in the Netherlands, this paper describes an ongoing shift along with demographic, economic and political changes, in what counts as Chinese: a shift from Hong Kong and Taipei to Beijing as the most powerful centre of Chinese in the world. Migration makes communicative resources like language varieties globally mobile and this affects the normativity in the diaspora classroom. A clearer understanding of the metapragmatics of Chinese is useful because it provides a key to understanding social identities in contemporary Chinese migration contexts and to understanding language within contexts of current globalisation.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. Contributors ix
  5. List of figures xiii
  6. List of tables xv
  7. Introduction 1
  8. Part I. Family socialization patterns in language learning and literacy practices
  9. Chapter 1. Language socialization into Chinese language and “Chineseness” in diaspora communities 13
  10. Chapter 2. Family language policy 35
  11. Part II. Complementary/heritage Chinese schools in diasporas
  12. Chapter 3. Chinese complementary schools in Scotland and the Continua of Biliteracy 59
  13. Chapter 4. Chinese heritage language schools in the United States 81
  14. Chapter 5. Learning and teaching Chinese in the Netherlands 97
  15. Chapter 6. Language and literacy teaching, learning and socialization in the Chinese complementary school classroom 117
  16. Part III. Bilingual Chinese educational models
  17. Chapter 7. Chinese Education in Malaysia 139
  18. Chapter 8. Conflicting goals of language-in-education planning in Singapore 159
  19. Chapter 9. Chinese language teaching in Australia 181
  20. Part IV. Chinese language, culture and identity
  21. Chapter 10. Speaking of identity? 203
  22. Chapter 11. Chinese language learning by adolescents and young adults in the Chinese diaspora 219
  23. Index 239
https://doi.org/10.1075/aals.12.06li

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. Contributors ix
  5. List of figures xiii
  6. List of tables xv
  7. Introduction 1
  8. Part I. Family socialization patterns in language learning and literacy practices
  9. Chapter 1. Language socialization into Chinese language and “Chineseness” in diaspora communities 13
  10. Chapter 2. Family language policy 35
  11. Part II. Complementary/heritage Chinese schools in diasporas
  12. Chapter 3. Chinese complementary schools in Scotland and the Continua of Biliteracy 59
  13. Chapter 4. Chinese heritage language schools in the United States 81
  14. Chapter 5. Learning and teaching Chinese in the Netherlands 97
  15. Chapter 6. Language and literacy teaching, learning and socialization in the Chinese complementary school classroom 117
  16. Part III. Bilingual Chinese educational models
  17. Chapter 7. Chinese Education in Malaysia 139
  18. Chapter 8. Conflicting goals of language-in-education planning in Singapore 159
  19. Chapter 9. Chinese language teaching in Australia 181
  20. Part IV. Chinese language, culture and identity
  21. Chapter 10. Speaking of identity? 203
  22. Chapter 11. Chinese language learning by adolescents and young adults in the Chinese diaspora 219
  23. Index 239
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