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UBC Theses and Dissertations
Studying Mandarin Chinese : Canadian students’ experiences Mah, Donna E.
Abstract
Experiences of studying Mandarin Chinese as a language program at the elementary school level are explored to find out what it means for Canadian students to study Chinese. Five students, two who were of Chinese heritage, and three who were not, were invited to talk about their experiences in the language class by engaging in conversation with their former teacher, as researcher. Themes believed to be already present within the students' words were uncovered first. Following that, the themes were re-visited and re-constituted to produce new ways to understand the familiar concepts of language, culture, and curriculum that the students had come to accept as valid and believable. In re-constituting the substance of the conversations, the following realizations emerged. Language and cultural studies are often viewed as a set of concrete skills and knowledge that can be acquired, hence, language as a commodity is viewed as the dominant objective. However, engaging in a study of language and culture is more than the mere acquisition of skills; it provides learners with opportunities to explore and develop new ways to re-understand themselves and their own cultures as their new understandings help them to reconstitute themselves. Another propensity of the language curriculum is that of unlocking the target culture by using mostly voyeuristic, museum approaches. Challenging the commonly-accepted and culturally-constructed beliefs that have come to be associated with learning a new language, gives us the chance to rethink what it means to study Mandarin Chinese in British Columbia in the1990's. The objectives that have been allowed to dominate language education must be challenged for they are somewhat limited and narrow in scope. This thesis endeavours to show that by continuing to validate the limited and narrowly conceived meta-narratives, it only promotes more binary thinking and resists the creation of new spaces for developing more rich and varied language opportunities for our students. It is in the space between languages and cultures, that something new can be created by the students themselves, as they are encouraged to develop their intra-cultural and inter-cultural relations with others.
Item Metadata
Title |
Studying Mandarin Chinese : Canadian students’ experiences
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Creator | |
Publisher |
University of British Columbia
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Date Issued |
1996
|
Description |
Experiences of studying Mandarin Chinese as a language program at the
elementary school level are explored to find out what it means for Canadian
students to study Chinese. Five students, two who were of Chinese heritage, and
three who were not, were invited to talk about their experiences in the language
class by engaging in conversation with their former teacher, as researcher.
Themes believed to be already present within the students' words were uncovered
first. Following that, the themes were re-visited and re-constituted to produce
new ways to understand the familiar concepts of language, culture, and
curriculum that the students had come to accept as valid and believable.
In re-constituting the substance of the conversations, the following
realizations emerged. Language and cultural studies are often viewed as a set of
concrete skills and knowledge that can be acquired, hence, language as a
commodity is viewed as the dominant objective. However, engaging in a study of
language and culture is more than the mere acquisition of skills; it provides
learners with opportunities to explore and develop new ways to re-understand
themselves and their own cultures as their new understandings help them to reconstitute
themselves. Another propensity of the language curriculum is that of
unlocking the target culture by using mostly voyeuristic, museum approaches.
Challenging the commonly-accepted and culturally-constructed beliefs that have
come to be associated with learning a new language, gives us the chance to rethink
what it means to study Mandarin Chinese in British Columbia in the1990's. The objectives that have been allowed to dominate language education
must be challenged for they are somewhat limited and narrow in scope. This
thesis endeavours to show that by continuing to validate the limited and narrowly conceived
meta-narratives, it only promotes more binary thinking and resists the
creation of new spaces for developing more rich and varied language
opportunities for our students. It is in the space between languages and cultures,
that something new can be created by the students themselves, as they are
encouraged to develop their intra-cultural and inter-cultural relations with
others.
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Extent |
4865844 bytes
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Genre | |
Type | |
File Format |
application/pdf
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Language |
eng
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Date Available |
2009-02-11
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Provider |
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
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Rights |
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.
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DOI |
10.14288/1.0078348
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URI | |
Degree | |
Program | |
Affiliation | |
Degree Grantor |
University of British Columbia
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Graduation Date |
1996-05
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Campus | |
Scholarly Level |
Graduate
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Aggregated Source Repository |
DSpace
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Item Media
Item Citations and Data
Rights
For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.