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Representations of Chinese Language Learning in Contemporary English-language News Media: Hope, Hype, and Fear
Abstract
The growing body of research on Chinese as an international (or “global”) language examines linguistic, psycholinguistic, social-psychological, and orthographic aspects of acquisition primarily. There has been relatively little critical discussion or analysis of the larger social context and discourses in which Chinese language education is embedded. However, recently sociocultural, discursive, and critical aspects of the teaching, learning, and use of Chinese as an additional language have begun to receive more attention. This study analyzes circulating discourses, ideologies, and tropes related to Chinese in news media, as one means by which information and perspectives are spread by media and by which public attitudes and policy decisions are (recursively) shaped or reproduced. To this end, a large sample of English-medium news reports of Chinese language education in three Anglophone countries was created and analyzed for the years 2004 to 2012.
The findings revealed that reports dealing with Chinese education tended to fall into one of several major tropes, which we have roughly classified as “hope,” “hype,” and “fear,” distinctions that parallel existing models of cyclical or amplified media coverage of innovations or otherwise newsworthy events. The sociopolitically and socioeconomically motivated occurrence of these tropes in the media, combined with the novelty of the Chinese language itself, a historically less frequently taught language in comparison with various European languages, constituted a consistent and recurring narrative. Thus, the shifting representations of Chinese learning in the media tended to appear as corollaries or “side stories” servicing the needs of larger geopolitical events and perceived or desired changes in public sentiment. These trends and their significance are illustrated and discussed in relation to Global Chinese.
... Tian & Rubdy, 2008;Lorente, 2010Lorente, , 2012 and the commodification of Standard French (Boutet, 2012;Heller, 1999Heller, , 2003. For the commodification of the Chinese language and its varieties, only a few research studies (Duff et al., 2015;Teo Jia Min, 2015;Wee, 2006) have been carried out. For example, Teo Jia Min (2015) and Wee (2006) focused on the commodification of Chinese in the Singapore context as a result of the Speak Mandarin Campaigns (SMC) initiated by the government. ...
... S. Gao (2017a) illustrates how the Chinese government adopted the logic of economic transaction to create a Chinese learning market worldwide by analysing the mass media coverage in mainland China. In English speaking countries such as Canada, the UK and USA, Duff et al. (2015) investigated changes in media constructions of Chinese language education, with a strong focus on how political ideologies embedded in the media discourse manipulate these changes. The shift from picturing Chinese primarily as a minority/heritage language to an important international language with economic values since 2004 was noted as an example of the 'hype cycle' of Chinese media coverage including hope, hype and fear (Duff et al., 2015). ...
... In English speaking countries such as Canada, the UK and USA, Duff et al. (2015) investigated changes in media constructions of Chinese language education, with a strong focus on how political ideologies embedded in the media discourse manipulate these changes. The shift from picturing Chinese primarily as a minority/heritage language to an important international language with economic values since 2004 was noted as an example of the 'hype cycle' of Chinese media coverage including hope, hype and fear (Duff et al., 2015). As far as the authors have noticed, no published research has been carried out which analyses social context and discourses in which Chinese language education is embedded in the Irish context. ...
Despite the growing importance of Chinese in many contexts, the ideological orientations towards the Chinese language and its speakers embedded in the wider socio-political context remain under-researched. This study intends to bridge this gap by interpreting media representations of ‘Chinese’ in Irish print media. A combination of corpus linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis was employed in the study. Informed by Ruíz’s (1984) metaphorical representations of language, 85 valid news articles retrieved from the major Irish newspapers (2010-2018) were analysed. The results of analysis suggest that Irish media discourse focuses on highlighting the instrumental value of the Chinese language, promoting standard Chinese and marginalizing the Irish Chinese diaspora community. It can be argued that a community-oriented approach to promoting the learning and teaching of Chinese may help create a positive synergy between heritage language maintenance and recognition of the Chinese language as a valuable resource. This study will have implications for the wider discussion of language ideology and language planning with regard to modern language learning and heritage language maintenance.
... The growing prominence of Chinese as a global language has caught the attention of not only the field of language and literacy education, but also mass media in North America and elsewhere (Duff et al. 2015). Despite the emergence of Chinese as a global language, few researchers have adequately considered identity and ideology issues in the teaching, learning, and use of Chinese as an Additional Language (CAL) (see Duff et al. 2013;McDonald 2011, for exceptions). ...
... The internal and external factors are necessarily intertwined and co-produced in a very dynamic, socially situated, ongoing manner. Duff et al. (2015), for example, explored circulating ideologies regarding the teaching and learning of Chinese in North America and the UK in terms of the changing status of Mandarin in relation to other languages, and how being a learner of Chinese positions learners (as brilliant, novel, ambitious, etc.). However, learnersand the general publicmay take up, reproduce, resist, or defy such ideologies and the identities associated with them in various ways. ...
... With the globalization of Chinese language and culture, Mandarin is increasingly becoming the dominant medium of Chinese language and culture expression (and education) around the world (W. Li and Zhu 2011), especially taking into account the population of China and the role of Beijing in promoting Chinese language education abroad (e.g., Duff et al. 2015). "Chinese" language classes in public schools and universities in North America and the UK mostly teach Mandarin only (effectively making "Chinese" and "Mandarin" synonymous), while neglecting many other Chinese languages such as Cantonese (Li and Duff in press;Zhu and Li 2014). ...
Despite the emergence of Chinese as a global language, little research has been done to explore how learners of Chinese as an Additional Language (CAL), and Mandarin specifically, utilize semiotic resources in Chinese popular culture to negotiate their own and others’ language ideologies and identities. This study argues that popular culture is a rich site for ideological and identity work in which four sorts of questions can be explored: (1) Which language(s)? (2) Whose language? (3) Which texts and discourses? (4) What social implications? Employing this framework, this study draws on three focal adult participants’ reported experiences of engaging with Chinese popular culture as a means of improving their Mandarin proficiency. We discuss such themes as gender and heritage learner identity, and political ideologies and dispositions arising from the study. We conclude, briefly, with some implications for Chinese language education and for future research on this topic.
... In public discourse, Chinese teaching has been misrepresented as a political agenda disseminating Chinese government propaganda. Deep suspicion of the fast-growing Chinese-language programs has permeated local English-language media (Wang, 2022;Weinmann et al., 2021), similar to what Duff et al. (2015) found in other Anglophone countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Sometimes, Chinese teachers are perceived as spies with the intention of brainwashing local students through Chinese lessons (Wang, 2022). ...
... The ideological discourses and media representations are produced and reproduced through amplified and recurring media coverage. Popular perceptions and media rhetoric about China and the Chinese language are mostly framed in broad themes of "hope, hype and fear" (Duff et al., 2015), revealing an ambivalent attitude toward promoting Chinese-language teaching in English-speaking countries. Weinmann et al., (2021) argued that Chinese-language education would remain a side story to larger ideological and geopolitical interests that have shaped Anglocentric views of language learning. ...
... In public discourse, Chinese teaching has been misrepresented as a political agenda disseminating Chinese government propaganda. Deep suspicion of the fast-growing Chinese-language programs has permeated local English-language media (Wang, 2022;Weinmann et al., 2021), similar to what Duff et al. (2015) found in other Anglophone countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Sometimes, Chinese teachers are perceived as spies with the intention of brainwashing local students through Chinese lessons (Wang, 2022). ...
... The ideological discourses and media representations are produced and reproduced through amplified and recurring media coverage. Popular perceptions and media rhetoric about China and the Chinese language are mostly framed in broad themes of "hope, hype and fear" (Duff et al., 2015), revealing an ambivalent attitude toward promoting Chinese-language teaching in English-speaking countries. Weinmann et al., (2021) argued that Chinese-language education would remain a side story to larger ideological and geopolitical interests that have shaped Anglocentric views of language learning. ...
This chapter provides macro-level insights into the key issues and challenges in the development of Chinese-language education in two English-speaking countries in the Asia-Pacific region. With the massive demographic shifts since the 1990s, residents of Chinese heritage have become one of the largest and fastest-growing non-Indigenous ethnic groups in New Zealand and Australia. Within the first two decades of the twenty-first century, China has grown rapidly into the largest Asia-Pacific economy and the largest trade partner for the two Anglophone countries in the region. Due to China’s increasing economic influence, the Australian and New Zealand governments have repeatedly identified Chinese as key for building regional strategic cooperation and one of the most important languages for school students to learn. Despite increases in population and potential impacts in the region, Chinese remains a medium-sized program in most educational institutions in the two oceanic countries. Informed by the notion of the transdisciplinary framework, this chapter discusses the macro-level factors that promote or impede the development of Chinese-language programs in the two countries. It concludes that Chinese-language learning will continue to be a side story to larger ideological and geopolitical interests that have shaped Anglocentric views of language learning. Future research should take a decolonial perspective to transform Chinese-language education in the Asia Pacific.
... The literature has shown that popular perceptions of China and Chinese are mostly framed by arguments that fit into the broad themes of "hope, hype and fear"-tropes that serve as "distinctions that parallel existing models of cyclical or amplified media coverage of innovations or otherwise newsworthy events" (Duff, Anderson, Doherty & Wang, 2015, p. 139). In a discussion of the larger social context in which Chinese language education is embedded, Duff et al. (2015) noted that the ways Chinese language learning is represented in the media as "side stories" to larger geopolitical events and to the ways public sentiment changes, continue to reflect and shape Anglocentric views of language learning. Following Duff et al. (2015), our chapter is conceptualised as an analysis situated within mediated discourse research (Scollon & Scollon, 2004), which "is grounded in the notion that human action is accomplished through discourse as it appears in many forms, whether talk, a wide range of hard copy and digital texts, mental representations of texts from the near or distant past and potential futures" (Roozen & Erickson, 2017, section 2.03). ...
... In a discussion of the larger social context in which Chinese language education is embedded, Duff et al. (2015) noted that the ways Chinese language learning is represented in the media as "side stories" to larger geopolitical events and to the ways public sentiment changes, continue to reflect and shape Anglocentric views of language learning. Following Duff et al. (2015), our chapter is conceptualised as an analysis situated within mediated discourse research (Scollon & Scollon, 2004), which "is grounded in the notion that human action is accomplished through discourse as it appears in many forms, whether talk, a wide range of hard copy and digital texts, mental representations of texts from the near or distant past and potential futures" (Roozen & Erickson, 2017, section 2.03). Our intention in this chapter is to explore discourses of Chinese language learning as they are represented in media and educator perspectives, which articulate the contentions surrounding Chinese language learning within broader debates about Australia's multicultural identity in the Asian Century. ...
This chapter examines multiculturalism through the discrepancy between advocacy for Chinese language instruction as key to Australia’s economic future, and the discourses that position Chinese as linguistically, culturally and geographically distant to Australia’s white and Anglophone identity. The chapter focuses on the language ideologies around the teaching and learning of Mandarin Chinese that frame everyday discussions about Chinese language programs, pedagogy and practice in Australian schools.
Our research interrogates data from two research projects: one that examined recent Australian media articles on Chinese language education, and another involving qualitative interviews with teachers of languages. Our argument is that Chinese language education is positioned within contentious debates about the “broken promises” of multiculturalism and their complex relationship to Chinese language and multilingual education in Australia.
These perspectives sit in tense relation with debates around the promotion of Mandarin Chinese as a global language, and the ideological and geopolitical discourses that shape representations of Chinese language education in Australian policy debates. They construct language learning as bound to national and geopolitical imaginaries, and divide speakers of different languages rather than foster multilingualism. It is this “elephant in the room” that ought to be more deeply interrogated in discussions about multiculturalism and educating future global citizens in the “Asian Century”.
... In the context of globalization, with the rapid development of information technology, the external dissemination of Chinese English news has been improving. Many colleges and universities utilize English websites for external communication [5][6]. In order to further improve the strength of foreign propaganda and to strengthen the teaching of foreign propaganda translation and news English translation in the teaching of translation courses, to guarantee that the discourse and discourse characteristics of news and foreign propaganda translation can conform to the linguistic expression habits of native English-speaking audiences [7][8][9][10], and to improve the quality of English news reporting and the quality of foreign propaganda translation teaching in Chinese colleges and universities, it is necessary to establish a domestic and foreign news corpus of English news [11][12]. ...
On the subject and influence of news is not an unfamiliar topic, however, audiences generally feel that journalists are manipulators of discourse. In this paper, from the perspective of linguistics, we explore the lexical dynamics in different English new corpora and construct a probabilistic model of discourse power for research. Web crawler technology is utilized to obtain relevant corpus information, and the data is processed and handled. Then the Bayesian belief network model is established by determining the common retrocausal reasoning logic of speech act derivation and Bayes’ theorem to link the two, and improved for the condition that their attributes must be independent of each other, and finally the discourse power probability model is constructed based on the Bayesian belief network model. English financial news, the World Customs Organization News Corpus, and the BROWN Corpus are chosen as research objects for empirical analysis. The results of the study show that discourse power construction of conversational meanings can be carried out based on lexical features if it is based on the optimal set of features F1 and F2, and the results of discourse power construction do not differ depending on the contextual discourse or the type of conversational meanings. In terms of lexical usage, the proportion of real words (especially nouns) in financial news is higher than that in generalized discourse, indicating that the information density of financial news is greater than that of generalized discourse, and in terms of discourse function, Customs News English shows a stronger informativeness than generalized and generalized news English.
... Chinese teachers associated with Confucius Institutes are often viewed as representatives of the Chinese government recruited to instill students in the West with a pro-China viewpoint. In Englishlanguage news media, Chinese language learning is frequently reported in provocative ways that refl ect and reshape broader sociopolitical discourses and public attitudes in and beyond Anglophone countries (Duff et al., 2015). However, in China, teaching Chinese to speakers of other languages is regarded as 'a national cause' that is associated with patriotism and pride (Wang & Adamson, 2014). ...
... Another method to promote soft power is through Mandarin Chinese, which has become increasingly important to learn as a foreign language (Gong et al. 2020a(Gong et al. , 2020bMoloney and Xu 2015;Sharma 2018aSharma , 2018b. The strong demand for Mandarin Chinese as a foreign language in global markets has seen the language overtake French, German and Japanese as the desirable foreign language worldwide with many countries in Asia and Africa recognising Mandarin Chinese as their second language (Ding and Saunders 2006;Duff et al. 2015;Goh and Lai 2010;Hua and Wei 2014;Lo Bianco 2007;Sharma 2018a). The current position of Mandarin Chinese in the linguistic marketplace as an internationally competitive language reflects the social, cultural and symbolic capital that has been generated through China's socio-economic status (Bourdieu 1991;Sharma 2018b), and supported by the Chinese Government, which furthers a homogenising of Mandarin Chinese and Chinese people. ...
This study investigates Chineseness and internationalism through the naming practices of young Chinese learners' at EMI universities. Investigating the participants' use of their English/Chinese names in their immediate study environment to start, our study delves into issues related to who can be defined as Chinese, what Chineseness involves, and its intersection with internationalism. A questionnaire was distributed at a Sino-British university in mainland China and a pre-sessional course in the UK via email in 2019. Data from the 357 questionnaire responses was followed by nine randomly selected respondents who were invited for semi-structured interviews. The data was coded using NVivo 10 and thematic analysis was utilized to understand the key themes. The study found rising confidence among the participants, represented by a rejection of the association between internationalism and western-isation. The participants proffered Chineseness as equal claims to internationalism as western culture, albeit being a continuing site of struggle and confrontation. Further, a distinctive 'Chinese way of thinking' is a key marker of Chinese identity, which alludes to an essentialist Chineseness rooted in mainland China.
... The practices and developments in Chinese language teaching and learning have received little attention from policymakers in terms of policy and resource support. Although the government organises a Chinese Language Week each year, similar to events for other languages, its results appear to only generate some media hype (Duff et al., 2015) during the event in September, whereas little attention is paid to Chinese learning throughout the rest of the year. Furthermore, in comparison to the government funding provided in other countries specifically for Chinese language education in local educational organisations, such as the Mandarin Excellence Programme in the United Kingdom and the Language Flagship and STARTALK in the United States, the New Zealand government has not allocated regular funding to support additional language teaching in New Zealand schools and universities. ...
This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of Chinese language teaching in New Zealand within the context of declining foreign language learning in Anglophone countries. By examining the macro-sociological and demographic factors that have shaped the development of Chinese language teaching in New Zealand, this chapter identifies critical milestones and multilevel factors that have influenced the growth of Chinese as an additional language in the country's formal educational sectors. Enrolment statistics will be provided to illustrate the uptake of Chinese in comparison to other major languages offered in New Zealand schools and universities. The chapter introduces the key concepts, terms, and frameworks used in the studies included in this edited volume, outlines the organisation of the book, and emphasises its significance in international Chinese language education research. Overall, this chapter provides valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities facing Chinese language teaching in the Anglophone world by shedding light on the experiences and outcomes of Chinese language teaching in New Zealand.
... In addition, in 2015, a new journal, Global Chinese, joined the set of existing journals dedicated to studies of Chinese language teaching, learning, discourse, and sociolinguistics internationally in this new era. This surging interest in Chinese education, especially over the past 15 years, is associated with a number of converging factors: the rising political and economic power of China and international trade, national and international (Chinese) investments in Chinese language education as a matter of priority, growing patterns of emigration from China to Anglophone and other regions-in both longestablished diasporas and new ones-and profound interest in the richness of Chinese languages and cultures themselves (Duff, 2022, Duff et al., 2013, 2015Wang & East, 2023, Chapter 1, this volume). ...
This volume offers a comprehensive overview of Chinese language teaching in New Zealand in light of the declining interest in foreign language learning in Anglophone countries. While existing scholarly works have discussed Chinese language education in other Anglophone countries, this book is the first to provide an in-depth examination of the landscape of Chinese language teaching in contemporary, multicultural New Zealand, featuring insights from leading experts. The book consists of 21 chapters written by 29 contributors, including research students, experienced teachers, and leading scholars in every educational sector, from preschool to university and from mainstream education to community schools. As the first volume to focus on this subject, the book provides both historical perspectives and multilevel analyses of critical milestones based on the latest data, policy changes, and politico-economic conditions shaping the future direction of Chinese language education in New Zealand. Its purpose is to offer insights and an overview of the New Zealand case that can help policymakers, programme leaders, researchers, teachers, and learners in the Anglophone world and beyond, to better respond to the rapidly changing and challenging environments they face. In addition to the Foreword by Patricia Duff and the Epilogue, the book is a valuable resource for anyone interested in Chinese language education in New Zealand and serves as a catalyst for further discussion and research on this topic.
... Chinese teachers associated with Confucius Institutes are often viewed as representatives of the Chinese government recruited to instill students in the West with a pro-China viewpoint. In Englishlanguage news media, Chinese language learning is frequently reported in provocative ways that refl ect and reshape broader sociopolitical discourses and public attitudes in and beyond Anglophone countries (Duff et al., 2015). However, in China, teaching Chinese to speakers of other languages is regarded as 'a national cause' that is associated with patriotism and pride (Wang & Adamson, 2014). ...
Focusing on a group of pre-service Chinese language teachers studying abroad, this study has revealed a significant gap between self-perceptions (including those prior to studying abroad) of their professional identity and how they were viewed in the workplace and local communities. The teachers, for the first time, experienced difficult processes of negotiating multiple fragmented identities due to the unfavourable sociopolitical discourses and events surrounding Confucius Institutes and China. They discovered that their professional identity had become highly politicized, and its development was disrupted or denied due to political ideologies.
... There is now a rich and growing body of research on this issue in diaspora communities around the world, including Canada, the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom and Singapore (e.g., see Curdt-Christiansen 2013; Duff 2014; Duff & Li 2014;Li & Duff 2008;Li & Zhu 2010;Zhu & Li 2014). Factors involved in promoting the utility and importance of acquiring Mandarin include China's recent boom in the economic markets, the affordability of high-speed technology and communication, the availability of Mandarin-medium schools, the financial means of parents, and the political will to support Chinese heritage education in environments where Mandarin or another Chinese heritage language is not dominant (Duff et al. 2015;Mu 2016). Most of these studies have employed questionnaires and surveys to determine the attitudes that ethnic Chinese heritage speakers hold regarding language and Chinese cultural identity as well as their past and present learning and use of Mandarin. ...
Previous research has demonstrated that the increasing importance of Mandarin in education and public life has led many younger Chinese-Malaysians to regard Mandarin as their mother tongue and part of their cultural identity rather than a heritage language. Fewer studies have documented the language repertoires of middle-aged and older Chinese-Malaysians. This paper presents a qualitative study of Mandarin use conducted with six Chinese-Malaysians aged 40 and older. The participants reported extensive use of Mandarin in the domains of home, work, religion and cultural maintenance, which were served by a heritage language in the past. This indicates that the use of Mandarin by the older generation Chinese-Malaysians to engage with the contemporary linguistic world is influenced by hegemonic local and global factors. This study therefore highlights the significance of Mandarin as both an element of cultural identity and an instrument of heritage language loss.
... This perception of the rise of China on the world stage is often seen as a driving force for studying Chinese (e.g., Duff, 2017;Duff et al., 2013Duff et al., , 2015, and this was very much on Haruka's mind when choosing her L3. Though she did have a choice to go to mainland China for her SA, where she could also have learned Chinese, she opted for Taiwan due to it being in close proximity to Japan and to its image of having a friendlier relationship with Japan from a political perspective. ...
Studies focused on motivation to learn languages other than English or more than 1 language simultaneously have been gaining attention in recent years. However, there are far fewer than those related to second language (L2) English learning. To fill this gap, this article explores the evolving motivation of 2 Japanese students who spent 1 academic year learning both English and Chinese on a study‐abroad program in Taiwan. The data consist of semistructured interviews conducted before and during the program along with motivation graphs drawn by the students. The interviews were transcribed, coded, and categorized. The L2 motivational self system and the concept of the ideal multilingual self are used as frameworks to capture the complex experience of learning multiple languages simultaneously. To capture the dynamic and complex nature of motivation, this article also applies three different timescales (microgenetic, mesogenetic, and ontogenetic) to analyze learners’ experiences. The results show how ideal and ought‐to second‐ and third‐language selves emerged along with an ideal multilingual self in 1 of the students while abroad. The interviews also revealed multiple learning experiences and struggles in maintaining balance, with both languages competing for limited cognitive resources and study time.
Drawing upon current theories related to sociocultural identity, situated practice, and language and literacy socialization (e.g., Duff, 2019; He, 2010), this study investigates the relationship between Chinese students’ heritage-language (HL) learning and identity. It also considers learners’ investment in their cultural and national roots, life trajectories, economic prospects, and development of new literacies and ways of speaking for transnational as well as local purposes (Darvin and Norton, 2015; Duff et al., 2017; Li and Duff, 2008; 2014; 2018). The research site is one of the largest and most heterogeneous university Mandarin Chinese programs in North America. Longitudinal case studies of four Chinese HL learners were selected from a larger survey. The participants were ethnically Chinese but from distinct Chinese-speaking regions of the world, representing different preferred varieties of oral Mandarin, written orthographies, and geopolitical and cultural affinities. The results yielded insights into the socialization of language, literacy, and identity among contemporary Chinese HL learners in Canada, who are multilingual transnationals. The study contributes to the growing research literature on the experiences and outcomes of language learning for postsecondary HL students, which has implications for Chinese HL program development and pedagogy.
Using perspectives on language and language learning in Second Language Acquisition (SLA), including the traditional cognitive orientation, sociocultural theory orientation, and critical theoretical orientation as theoretical frameworks, this study critically analyzes 78 papers published from 2014 to 2020 in Chinese as a Second Language—The Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association, USA (CSL), a leading journal that is devoted exclusively to the study of Chinese language, culture, and pedagogy. This study investigates how the teaching and learning of Chinese language and culture has been conceptualized and enacted in the field of SLA and explores factors that contributed to frustration, dissatisfaction, or criticisms in this field (e.g., Lantolf and Genung, 2002; Li and Duff, 2008, 2018; Thorne, 2005). Additionally, this study raises awareness of the value of sociocultural and critical perspectives on language teaching and learning (e.g., Douglas Fir Group, 2016; Fairclough, 1992; Halliday and Hasan, 1985; New London Group, 1996; Vygotsky, 1978), suggesting more critical and sociocultural-oriented research to support learning Chinese as a world language in the context of globalization.
Language contact - the linguistic and social outcomes of two or more languages coming into contact with each other - has been pervasive in human history. However, where histories of language contact are comparable, experiences of migrant populations have been only similar, not identical. Given this, how does language contact work? With contributions from an international team of scholars, this Handbook - the first in a two-volume set - delves into this question from multiple perspectives and provides state-of-the-art research on population movement and language contact and change. It begins with an overview of how language contact as a research area has evolved since the late 19th century. The chapters then cover various processes and theoretical issues associated with population movement and language contact worldwide. It is essential reading for anybody interested in the dynamics of social interactions in diverse contact settings and how the changing ecologies influence the linguistic outcomes.
The Chinese diaspora comprises sizeable ethnic Chinese populations spread across the globe. Although Chinese diasporic communities share a common heritage and, by definition, a common heritage language, their sociolinguistic backgrounds and identities are diverse, complex, and multifaceted. Members of the diaspora speak one or more, or indeed none, of several mutually unintelligible Chinese varieties and dialects. Recent changes in the demographics of the overseas Chinese communities have, moreover, led to new patterns of multilingualism. This chapter discusses key sociolinguistic aspects of language contact relevant to this group at large, including language maintenance versus language loss, the trends and challenges of heritage language learning, the role of Chinese community schools, differences in attitudes towards Chinese dialects, and the dynamics of multilingual identities and multilingual practices such as translanguaging and language brokering. The review focuses on the diasporic communities in Anglophone and other Western settings, as it is mainly the rising numbers of ethnic Chinese in those parts of the world that have fuelled the growing interest in Chinese heritage language learning and research in recent decades.
The analysis and understanding of multilingualism, and its relationship to identity in the face of globalization, migration and the increasing dominance of English as a lingua franca, makes it a complex and challenging problem that requires insights from a range of disciplines. With reference to a variety of languages and contexts, this book offers fascinating insights into multilingual identity from a team of world-renowned scholars, working from a range of different theoretical and methodological perspectives. Three overarching themes are explored – situatedness, identity practices, and investment – and detailed case studies from different linguistic and cultural contexts are included throughout. The chapter authors' consideration of 'multilingualism-as-resource' challenges the conception of 'multilingualism-as-problem', which has dogged so much political thinking in late modernity. The studies offer a critical lens on the types of linguistic repertoire that are celebrated and valued, and introduce the policy implications of their findings for education and wider social issues.
Postsecondary institutions in the global north have rapidly internationalized, driven mainly by the proliferation of international students and responses to these changing demographics. This internationalization has captured attention across various platforms, including increased media focus directed toward these students and the primary and ancillary influences of their participation in PSIs and surrounding communities. The project explored in this paper examines this phenomenon by connecting internationalization of higher education research with insights from critical media studies and framing theory to investigate news media representations of international and refugee students’ participation in Canadian universities and colleges. A critical thematic analysis was performed on 391 news media texts published between 2000 and 2017. Findings reveal the Canadian news media’s tendency to construct issues related to international students and internationalization into one or a combination of four broad macrothemes: (1) Canada as benevolent and ideal; (2) international students and internationalization as commodified assets; (3) international students and internationalization as threats; and (4) the strategic neutrality of data.
In recent years, the visibility and importance of the Chinese language (Mandarin) has been rising globally due to its emerging status as a significant global language used by native and non-native speakers and learners. This study looks into how Finland, a small country where English is used as a second language, deals with the growing prominence of the Chinese language. More specifically, we are interested in how Finnish policies and media respond and contribute to the emerging global discourses on the Chinese language. Drawing on critical discourse analysis we examined the discourses on the Chinese language presented in policy documents and two of the main news outlets in Finland—Yleisradio (Yle) and Helsingin Sanomat (HS)—with the aim to reveal what ideologies lie behind the construction of the Chinese language. Four prevailing categories of ideological discourses of the Chinese language emerged from our analysis of the political and media texts: Chinese as a useful language, Chinese as a world/global language, Chinese as an increasingly popular language, and Chinese as a different and/or difficult language. We argue that despite the multiple societal meanings the Chinese language appears to have in the policy documents and news articles, the discourses are related to the economic allure of China and share similar ideological roots that emphasize the symbolic capital of the Chinese language.
As China’s economy continues to grow, making it the largest economy in the world, there’s a noticeable boost in its outbound tourism. As a result, the importance of Mandarin Chinese as a lingua franca is growing in many tourism contexts around the world. The number of and need for multilingual tourism workers who can speak Chinese is growing. In this article, I discuss ideologies of the Chinese language in the context of Nepal’s tourism and related businesses. I present findings from interviews with learners and users of Chinese in Nepal who come from multiple domains of language work such as tour guides, hoteliers, vendors, and business people. I complement the analysis with ethnographic observations of public linguistic signage from major tourist destinations in Kathmandu. I organize the findings into three key themes: (1) the commodity value of Chinese for Nepalis in order to achieve economic gains, (2) the increasing symbolic power of the Chinese language as an international lingua franca, and (3) the value of the Chinese language for intercultural understanding between the people of these two countries. While articulating these complex language ideologies, Nepalis portray Chinese as non-English speakers and, by the same token, position themselves as competent speakers of the English language. The findings as a whole highlight the power, prestige and commodity value of Chinese in Nepal, regimenting another lingua franca alongside English in international tourism contexts.
The majority of recent research on language learning motivation has reportedly focused on English as a target language, typically in relatively homogeneous, secondary and postsecondary ‘foreign language’ settings. How applicable, then, are the theories and findings undergirding that research to our understanding of the contemporary challenges and processes involved in the learning of languages other than English (LOTEs) – whether by non-Anglophones choosing additional or alternative languages, or for Anglophones choosing to learn a different language? And how is motivation theory itself evolving in light of the emerging role of English as a global language and a greater emphasis on sociopolitical, sociocultural, economic, and ideological aspects of language learning in diverse contexts, on the one hand, and a concomitant de-emphasis of deficit-oriented notions of learners’ shortcomings or traits in acquiring or using another language, on the other? What research methods are being used? Finally, how is current motivation research taking into account multilingual experiences (i.e., involving three or more languages), rather than just the learning of one additional (foreign) language? In this commentary piece, I address questions such as these by drawing on insights from the nine articles and other related sources and also offer some of my own perspectives drawing from research on Chinese and other languages.
Confucius Institutes (CIs), modelled on similar European organizations, promote China’s official national language and culture abroad. Unlike their European counterparts, however, the interactions between CIs and Canadian audiences are haunted by complex histories of a racialized “Oriental Other” in Canada and “Western Other” in China. Through ethnographic research on the Confucius Institute in Edmonton and the CI Headquarters in Beijing, this paper explores racialized representations of China and Chinese culture, as well as racialized understandings of the desired Western audience, in both locations. I argue that representations of Chinese culture are caught between two competing logics which I term reorientalism and reorientality. Reorientalism attempts to reclaim definitions of Chineseness and redress misunderstandings about China while simultaneously making China comprehensible and ultimately marketable through reorientality, or a use of familiar Orientalist tropes. Canadians (most often imagined and represented as white) are encouraged to engage with this reorientality through their own performance and embodiment of Chinese culture (a conceptually distinct process I call re-orientality) as a means of understanding the project of reorientalism. However, the spectacle of Chinese culture through CIs resonates with Canadian multiculturalism in ways that may unintentionally reproduce a social landscape that normalizes whiteness and the consumption of ethnicized Otherness.
Research in social psychology has shown that public attitudes towards feminism are mostly based on stereotypical views linking feminism with leftist politics and lesbian orientation. It is claimed that such attitudes are due to the negative and sexualised media construction of feminism. Studies concerned with the media representation of feminism seem to confirm this tendency. While most of this research provides significant insights into the representation of feminism, the findings are often based on a small sample of texts. Also, most of the research was conducted in an Anglo-American setting. This study attempts to address some of the shortcomings of previous work by examining the discourse of feminism in a large corpus of German and British newspaper data. It does so by employing the tools of Corpus Linguistics. By investigating the collocation profiles of the search term feminism, we provide evidence of salient discourse patterns surrounding feminism in two different cultural contexts.
This article extends a taxonomic system initially developed by Kloss to describe constitutional and more broadly legal-political
categories for language policy in the United States to the Chinese situation. The article extends the taxonomy of spheres
of language planning action from sovereignty and jurisdiction to include influence, acquisition, and retention and recovery.
These categories are applied to the wide framework of learning and teaching Chinese that is following in the wake of the vast
expansion of the economic and the emergent geo-political presence of China. The taxonomy is used as the basis for discussion
of the articles comprised in this special issue of Language Policy whose content and key arguments are incorporated in the
present article.
This article examines specific issues encountered in various areas of Chinese teaching in Australia. These issues are linked
to the spheres of language planning as acquisition and as recovery and language planning as retention (Lo Bianco, 10.1007/s10993-006-9042-3). Specifically relevant to Chinese in Australia is its current prominence in formally
declared national language policy, its changing status over time and its similarities and differences with Chinese in the
United States (Wang, 10.1007/s10993-006-9043-2). The internationalization of education, and its commodification, has in recent
years led to a major expansion in the range of offerings in Chinese in Australia, now catering to growing, and in some institutions
to numerically dominant, groupings of native speakers with radically different language and academic needs from the traditional
clientele of tertiary and school Chinese programs.
Aims and Scope: In South Korea, English is a language of utmost importance, sought with an unprecedented zeal as an indispensable commodity in education, business, popular culture, and national policy. This book investigates how the status of English as a hegemonic language in South Korea is constructed through the mediation of language ideologies in local discourse. Adopting the framework of language ideology and its current developments, it is argued that English in Korean society is a subject of deep-rooted ambiguities, with multiple and sometimes conflicting ideologies coexisting within a tension-ridden discursive space. The complex ways in which these ideologies are reproduced, contested, and negotiated through specific metalinguistic practices across diverse sites ultimately contribute to a local realization of the global hegemony of English as an international language. Through its insightful analysis of metalinguistic discourse in language policy debates, cross-linguistic humor, television shows, and face-to-face interaction, The Local Construction of a Global Language makes an original contribution to the study of language and globalization, proposing an innovative analytic approach that bridges the gap between the investigation of large-scale global forces and the study of micro-level discourse practices. © 2009 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, D-10785 Berlin. All rights reserved.
China’s investment in U.S. higher education has raised considerable debate, but little research has been directed to the manner in which this investment unfolds and takes shape on the ground in local contexts. Confucius and Crisis in American Universities fills this gap by closely investigating how Chinese-funded U.S. programs are understood and configured in the modern American university. Drawing on interviews with Chinese teachers and their American students, as well as conversations with university administrators, this book argues that Chinese investment in American higher education serves as a broad form of global policy, harnessing the power of intercultural exchange as a means of managing international diplomatic relations through the experiences of university students. A transnational study, Confucius and Crisis in American Universities questions and reframes conventional notions of economic globalization and flexible citizenship, demonstrating how Chinese investment in U.S. education advances the lives of the already-privileged by creating access to overseas labor and markets, but to the exclusion of middle- and working-class students. A valuable and timely resource for scholars of education and anthropology, this book will also be useful to anyone interested in education policy or international affairs.
The global spread of English both reproduces and reinforces oppressive structures of inequality. But such structures can no longer be seen as imposed from an imperial center, as English is now actively adopted and appropriated in local contexts around the world. This book argues that such conditions call for a new critique of global English, one that is sensitive to both the political economic conditions of globalization and speakers' local practices. Linking Bourdieu's theory of the linguistic market and his practice-based perspective with recent advances in sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology, this book offers a fresh new critique of global English. The authors highlight the material, discursive, and semiotic processes through which the value of English in the linguistic market is constructed, and suggest possible policy interventions that may be adopted to address the problems of global English. Through its serious engagement with current sociolinguistic theory and insightful analysis of the multiple dimensions of English in the world, this book challenges the readers to think about what we need to do to confront the social inequalities that are perpetuated by the global spread of English.
David Crystal's informative account of the rise of English as a global language explores the history, current status and potential of English as the international language of communication. This new edition of his classic work includes additional sections on the future of English as a world language, English on the Internet, and the possibility of an English “family” of languages. Footnotes, new tables, and a comprehensive bibliography reflect the expanded scope of the revised edition. An internationally renowned scholar in the field of language and linguistics, David Crystal received an Order of the British Empire in 1995 for his services to the English language. He is the author of several books with Cambridge, including Language and the Internet (2001), Language Death (2000), English as a Global Language (1997), Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language (1997), and Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (1995) as well as Words on Words (University of Chicago, 2000). First edition Hb (1997): 0-521-59247-X First edition Pb (1998): 0-521-62994-2. © David Crystal 1997, 2003 and Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Chinese has been the fastest growing modern foreign language in British schools and universities in the last decade, due largely to the perceived growing importance of mainland China as a global economic and political power and the substantial investment in Confucius Institutes (CIs) and Classrooms (CCs) by the Chinese government. This article focuses on how China's geopolitical strategy of promoting Chinese as a global language has been received and implemented in the UK and how different groups of learners of Chinese have been differentially affected by the implementation of the policies of the Chinese National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language, commonly referred to as Hanban. Based on conversations with key stakeholders of the Confucius Institutes and Classrooms, including managers, teachers, and students, as well as observations in these settings, we investigate the different motivations and ideologies of the different interest groups. We also examine the cultural elements that are being taught in the CIs and CCs. A particular focus is on how ethnic Chinese learners in the CIs and CCs react to the teaching of Chinese culture. The effect of promoting Putonghua on ethnic Chinese students who speak other varieties of Chinese and how ‘foreignness’ is constructed in the CIs and CCs are specific concerns of the present study. The study contributes to the wider discussions of language ideology, language attitudes, motivations for language learning, and learner identity vis‐à‐vis modern foreign language education.
This paper spotlights one of Singapore's most enduring, well-known, and controversial campaigns, the ‘Speak Mandarin’ campaign. It traces the campaign's history and evolution from the time it was first launched in 1979 to 2004, with a view to critically examine the ideologies embedded within the discursive structures of the slogans used. Broadly adhering to the principles and orientations of critical linguistics and using Halliday's systemic-functional grammar as a framework of analysis, this study uncovers ideologies pointing to an asymmetrical power structure between the government and the people of Singapore, possible traces of linguistic chauvinism, and a political leadership that is generally distant and aloof, imposing the burden of speaking Mandarin unilaterally on the people instead of constructing it as a shared responsibility. The paper concludes with a critical appraisal of the ‘Speak Mandarin’ campaign, focusing on its social, political, and cultural ramifications.
In South Korea, English as a symbolic resource frequently mediates relations of class, privilege, and authority, and the Korean media play a significant role in the negotiation of the place and meaning of English in the country. This paper identifies interdiscursivity (Agha and Wortham 2005) as an important semiotic mechanism for this process, and illustrates this through texts of the conservative print media which rationalize the privileges of Korean elites by representing them as successful learners of English. This paper identifies three distinct yet interrelated processes of interdiscursivity that accomplish this work. First, the process of
spatiotemporal extension
links geographically and temporally distant communicative events with the here-and-now, setting up the relevance of the English language within local social context. Second, the process of
recursivity
(Irvine and Gal 2000) reapplies global oppositional relations locally so that the linguistic legitimacy of native speakers of English comes to serve as a basis for local elites’ authority. Third, the process of
mediatization
(Johnson and Ensslin 2007) allows the media institution to selectively highlight the achievements of elite learners while erasing the problems of unequal opportunities for English language learning in Korea. Together, the three interdiscursive processes in the texts naturalize the linguistic legitimacy of elite learners of English, thereby justifying and reproducing the structure of the linguistic market in which the global language of English indexes local relations of power and privilege.
This article reports research findings on the representations of youth crime and of young lawbreakers in Canadian print media. The examination of a subset of the sample of news items shows that several themes emerge in the historical discussion of youthful offending in the news. Firstly, the prevailing portrayal of youth crime is that it is to be feared. Newspapers describe youth crime as increasing in quantity and youth violence as increasing in severity. The involvement of younger offenders and female offenders is also highlighted in the coverage. Secondly, there is a shift in the image of the youthful lawbreaker between the earlier and later part of the study period. The prevailing image of young people who break the law morphs over the course of the twentieth century from naughty kids who need guidance to evil young men and women who are to be held accountable for their misbehaviour. In addition to the mounting responsibilization of youth in the coverage, young people are depicted as ‘others’ through racialization and the use of offence-related terminology as well as the term ‘recidivist’.
This article analyzes “success stories” of English language learning in the Korean conservative press as tales of neoliberal personhood, locating the stories within South Korea's neoliberal transformation and its concomitant “English frenzy.” In these texts, the semiotic process of leveling—the simultaneous work of erasure and highlighting—naturalizes the successful learner's competence in English by grounding that competence in the subjective, human qualities of the speaker. By obscuring class-based constraints on access to English that determine the structure of the Korean linguistic market, this process ultimately rationalizes and justifies the neoliberal logic of human capital development. [English, South Korea, language ideology, competence, neoliberalism, media]
This paper uses Gartner Group’s Hype Cycle as a basis to analyze research issues and opportunities in information systems. The findings include, “where” we find a technology is in the hype cycle can influence the kinds of research questions we can ask, the information available about that technology and the research methods that can be employed on the technology at that stage.
The notion of 'hype' is widely used and represents a tempting way to characterize developments in technological fields. The term appears in business as well as in academic domains. Consultancy firms offer technological hype cycle models to determine the state of development of technological fields in order to facilitate strategic investment decisions. In Science, Technology and Innovation Studies the concept of hype is considered in studies on the dynamics of expectations in innovation processes, which focuses on the performative force of expectations. What is still lacking is a theory of hype patterns that is able to explain the different shapes of hype cycles in different contexts. In this paper we take a first step towards closing this gap by studying and comparing the results of case studies on three hypes in three different empirical domains: voice over interne protocol (VoIP), gene therapy and high-temperature superconductivity. The cases differ in terms of the type of technology and the characteristics of the application environment. We conclude that hype patterns indeed vary a lot, and that the interplay of expectations at different levels affects the ability of a field to cope with hype and disappointment
Libro a propósito de las estrategias para el estudio del inglés implementadas por profesores y estudiantes de países subdesarrollados, con el fin de que el idioma esté al servicio de sus necesidades e identidad, y no en beneficio del imperialismo y las estructuras coloniales que perviven en esas naciones.
The world's language system is undergoing rapid change because of demographic trends, new technology, and international communication.
These changes will affect both written and spoken communication. English may not be the dominant language of the future, and
the need to be multilingual will be enhanced. Although many languages are going extinct, new ones are emerging in cities and
extended social groups.
Learning Chinese, turning Chinese: Challenges to becoming Sinophone in a globalised world
- E Mcdonald
Teaching and learning Chinese in global contexts: Multimodality and literacy in the new media age
- L T H Tsung
- K Cruickshank
Media-hype: Self-reinforcing news waves, journalistic standards and the construction of social problems
- Park
- Duff
Mandarinizing Singapore: A critical discourse analysis of slogans in Singapore’s “Speak Mandarin” Campaign
- Richardson
The emergence of Chinese. [Special issue]
- Lo Bianco
Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages Foreign language enrollments in public schools : Are students prepared for a global society ? Retrieved fromhttp www actfl org sites default files pdfs ReportSummary
- ACTFL