Teaching Chinese in a U.S. elementary school: identity issues and social cultural challenges

Learning Chinese as a foreign language is becoming popular in the United States with the growing Chinese economy and influence. In this qualitative case study I have followed a native Chinese teacher who took up citizenship in the United States, Dr. Lin, and the Mandarin Chinese language program she created in a Midwestern elementary school. Three research questions guided the investigation: (1) How were Dr. Lin’s identities constructed, re-formed and evolve, and how did the power structures within the school influence her identities? (2) How did Dr. Lin’s identity influence her teaching and shape her students’ perceptions of Chinese language learning? (3) How did Dr. Lin engage student thinking and facilitate student understanding of Chinese text, expression, and narrative in the activities she used in the classroom, and what computer and internet resources were used in the classroom and at children’s homes after school?

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Secondary & Continuing Educ

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Hsiao, Hui-Lien

Contributors dc:contributor

• Osborne, Margery
• Stake, Robert E.
• Johnston-Parsons, Marilyn A.
• Huang, Wen-Hao

• identity
• postcolonial theory
• sociocultural theory

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2014 Hui-Lien Hsiao

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/50537

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/50537