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Chapter 6. Language and literacy teaching, learning and socialization in the Chinese complementary school classroom

  • Li Wei and Zhu Hua
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Learning Chinese in Diasporic Communities
This chapter is in the book Learning Chinese in Diasporic Communities

Abstract

The Chinese complementary schools for overseas-born ethnic Chinese children provide an interesting, complex and forever changing context where the teaching and learning of the Chinese language, especially literacy, is intertwined with the teaching and learning of Chinese cultural values and ideologies. These values and ideologies, however, are not static but changing across the generations and with the on-going process of transnational movement and globalization. This article focuses on classroom interactions in Chinese complementary schools in Britain and aims to show how the teachers use the opportunity of language and literacy teaching to pass on cultural values and ideologies to the pupils, how the pupils react to this kind of socializational teaching and how the teachers and the pupils negotiate identities through the process of language and literacy learning. The findings of the study have implications for both policy and practice regarding the education and development of multilingual children.

Abstract

The Chinese complementary schools for overseas-born ethnic Chinese children provide an interesting, complex and forever changing context where the teaching and learning of the Chinese language, especially literacy, is intertwined with the teaching and learning of Chinese cultural values and ideologies. These values and ideologies, however, are not static but changing across the generations and with the on-going process of transnational movement and globalization. This article focuses on classroom interactions in Chinese complementary schools in Britain and aims to show how the teachers use the opportunity of language and literacy teaching to pass on cultural values and ideologies to the pupils, how the pupils react to this kind of socializational teaching and how the teachers and the pupils negotiate identities through the process of language and literacy learning. The findings of the study have implications for both policy and practice regarding the education and development of multilingual children.

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.12.07wei

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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