Language Policy and Mandarin Investment of Tertiary Chinese Heritage Language Learners from Dialect Backgrounds in New Zealand

Chinese language encompasses Mandarin and many other dialects that are mutually unintelligible with Mandarin in their spoken forms. Under China’s growing influence and its Mandarin promotion language policy, today’s overseas Chinese language programmes are mainly Mandarin-dominated and enjoy increasing numbers of learners, including Chinese heritage language (CHL) learners. While CHL learners have attracted research attention in Chinese language education, most studies neglect the diversity among CHL learners in terms of their sociocultural and linguistic backgrounds. Focusing on a particular CHL learner group – the dialect-background CHL learners, the present study aims to understand who this group of learners are and what they hope to achieve in their Chinese language development involving both Mandarin and dialects. This study is a two-stage design. Stage 1 collected questionnaires from 56 dialect-background CHL learners from a university Mandarin programme. It depicted a quantitative image of this student body regarding their demographic backgrounds, language proficiency, and language use. Stage 2 focused on nine participants. Through interviews and written narratives, this stage examined participants’ responses to Mandarin promotion language policy and its influences and their Mandarin investment as dialect speakers. It demonstrated a qualitative analysis guided by theories related to the sociocultural approach of language policy and the concept of language investment. The results of this study imply that dialect-background CHL learners would be more appropriately described as “community language” learners of Mandarin instead of “heritage language” learners. These learners have changing and growing trajectories in their identity enaction and perception of language policy. Under the age of Mandarin promotion, dialect-background CHL learners hope to develop multicompetence in their Chinese language repertoires. More specifically, they prefer to learn Mandarin in a school setting with an inclusive curricular design that still pays attention to student diversity. In contrast, they perceive dialect learning should be home based and taught earlier and deeper by parents. In the context of the Mandarin promotion era, this study has contributed new knowledge about CHL learners from the perspective of dialect-background learners. Understanding dialect-background CHL learners’ responses to language policy and their Mandarin investment can shed light on language policymaking, Chinese language programme design, and pedagogy development.

Name thesis:degree_name

PhD

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Asian Studies

Grantor dc:publisher

ResearchSpace@Auckland

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Chen, Lin

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Wang, Danping
• Email: From: Research Space <researchspace@auckland.ac.nz> Sent: Wednesday, 23 August 2023 9:12 am To: Lin Chen <lin.chen@auckland.ac.nz> Subject: Re: Digital thesis online – PhD (Open Access) : Thank you for your deposit (lche507-1721732170) Good morning Lin I am well on this cold morning and I hope you are too. It can take up to six months for your thesis to appear in the library catalogue - please search again maybe once a month and if it is still not there by the end of January 2024, please contact us again. Regards Moira Moira Niven Scholarly Content Coordinator Te Tumu Herenga | Libraries and Learning Services Waipapa Taumata Rau | The University of Auckland Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand http://www.library.auckland.ac.nz/ From: Lin Chen <lin.chen@auckland.ac.nz> Sent: Tuesday, 22 August 2023 5:00 pm To: Research Space <researchspace@auckland.ac.nz> Subject: Re: Digital thesis online – PhD (Open Access) : Thank you for your deposit (lche507-1721732170) Hello Moira, I hope this email finds you well. I am just wondering why I still couldn't find my thesis in the university library Catalogue? Kindest, Lin

Statement dc:rights

• Items in ResearchSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htm

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/2292/64850

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:researchspace.auckland.ac.nz:2292/64850