Chinese as a Foreign Language

Chinese as a foreign language Programs:

Parental Motivation By Ethnic Group

FACULTY RESEARCH COMMITTEE:

The growth of CFL program

Learners in CFL programs11

Parental views on education15

Participants

Instrumentation/Materials

WHAT PARENTS WANT FROM a cfl PROGRAM

lETTER of CONSENT

The rapid economic growth in China has drawn international attention around the world (Congressional Research Service, 2007). It is noted that China is now playing a prominent role on the world stage. Thus, many governments and people outside of China have realized the significance of education in Chinese language and culture. Understanding Chinese culture and language is essential in business affairs and international communication across many countries in recent decades. Cornberg (2000) claimed that the effects of internationalization influence the power of language. As economic force has shifted to China, Chinese is now a new international language that can compete with English language for importance in many foreign countries.

Chinese language generally refers to Mandarin which is the official dialect in mainland China since the mid twentieth century. Learning Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) has become a popular program from kindergarten to colleges in the U.S. As reported in the New York Times (2005), up to 50,000 students are in Chinese language programs in elementary and secondary schools in the U.S. Chmelynski (2006), also stated that CFL is a trend in foreign language programs across the U.S. And is continually growing. In the fall of 2006, the College Board added the Advanced Placement (AP) Chinese language and culture course and examination as one of the four new world language courses. This significant step began in 2003: the first AP Chinese language and culture courses nation wide were offered in 2006 followed by the exam in 2007 (the College Board, 2006).

Parents have significant impacts on children's learning. It is important to involve parents in early childhood education. As Cheng and Stark (2002) reported, parental views and attitudes play an essential role in students' academic achievement. Parental perspective towards language and culture programs is influential on students' learning. It is interesting to note that parents' cultural background or interests in the language tend to have certain degrees of impact on the students. Generally, students' family background in CFL programs can be distinguished into Chinese heritage families (CHF) and non-Chinese heritage families (NCHF). CHF are those who use Chinese as the main language at home and are culturally related. This group of people is mostly immigrants. On the other hand, the NCHF are non-Chinese speakers or have no Chinese cultural background. The Chinese programs offered in the U.S. have shifted its majority participation from heritage families to non-heritage families in recent years (Chao, 1997). More and more people choose to learn Chinese as a foreign language because of China's high influences in global economic. Moreover, in 2007, the U.S. had the largest number of adopted Chinese children since the Chinese government approved the international adoption law in 1992. Most of the children were adopted before one year of age by American families through the China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA) (Adopted Families, 2008). The increasing number of Chinese adopted children by American families has changed the student type enrolled in CFL programs and parents' focus regarding language skills.

However, the majority of current research has been directed at learning English as a second/foreign language (ESL/EFL) when speaking of foreign language education. Thus, this study is to explore the external learning motivation among K-5 learners enrolled in a CFL program in the U.S. with insight into parental views on the CFL program. This study was designed to gain an insight into the parental views on the CFL program at one school in Portland, Oregon, which has a successful CFL program. With insight into parents from diverse ethnicities, regarding their attitudes and expectations toward the CFL program, we can improve school's curriculum and offer professional advice to other schools and educational communities.

Statement of the problem:

The purpose of this study is to examine the motivation related to CFL for parents of students in a successful program. This research will also compare parental attitudes and objectives between diverse ethnic groups. The research will focus on investigating two dimensions: (a) motivation for sending their children to the program; and (b) long-term goals for their children's language learning and careers. The objective of the research is to gain greater understanding of parental preferences and goals for CFL programs as exhibited by CHF and NCHF in order to continually improve CFL program at the study school and other school communities.

Research questions

As discussed above, the present study is seeking to answer the following research questions:

Research Question #1:

Do CHF vs. NCHF parents have different reasons for sending their children to CFL programs?

Research Question #2:

Do CHF vs. NCHF parents have different goals for their children regarding Chinese language learning and careers?

Definition of terms

Advanced Placement Program (AP) -- High school courses that are transferable to college level course credits in various subject areas offered by the College Board since 1955.

Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) -- Language programs for teaching Chinese to learners whose first or native language is not Chinese.

English as a Second/Foreign Language (ESL/EFL) -- Programs for teaching English to learners who are non-native English language speakers.

Chinese heritage families (CHF) -- Families' cultural background is ethnic Chinese and they use Chinese as a main language.

Non-Chinese heritage families (NCHF) -- Families' cultural background is not ethnic Chinese and they speak a language or languages other than Chinese at home.

Limitations

The participants selected in this research are from a private school in an urban area. The results may be different than they would be in suburban areas or rural areas.

Another related limitation is that the selected participants in this study are from an immersion language school. As such, the participants may have higher standards and expectations regarding for students' language performance. Therefore, the data collected in this study cannot be used to examine the larger population that has children enrolled in the traditional CFL classes in the U.S. generally.

The data collected from the participants may have a greater number of responses from one gender. While the survey will be distributed to all parents whose child/children are enrolled in Chinese program, the response rate may differ by gender. This could bias findings from the data.

The ratio of the ethnicities of the participants may be unbalanced in the study sample since the school has more parents of Caucasian ethnicity than parents of Asian background.

Delimitations

I will not consider the variables of student gender, country of birth, or ethnic background from the data collected in this study.

CHAPTER 2

Review of the literature

This literature review discusses three dimensions of my research of CFL programs. First, I will review the growing number of CFL learners in recent years that has brought attention to foreign language programs in general. Second, I will distinguish between heritage and non-heritage learners, which will demonstrate different needs in learning. Third, I will explore the effect of cultural background on different views of education. Thus, this paper summarizes the effects of the growing CFL movement, the learners' ethnicities and the families' cultural influences on the learning in the CFL programs.

The growth of CFL program

There are more and more schools eager to offer CFL programs and seeking to receive more support and resources in order to develop the program in the regular curriculum. Government officials and school educators are achieving the outcome of improving Chinese language skills and to understand the cultural competency in their professional skills in the future. It is also important to note that the Department of Defense took the action of supporting total grants of $1.7 million to the flagship program at the University of Oregon on developing the AP Chinese program in K-16 education in Portland, Oregon. (Portland Business Journal, 2006). Both the National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (NOTCFL, or Hanban) and the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China have invested a lot of funds and development to expand the CFL programs in the U.S. In recent years. Also, the Asia Society, a nonprofit educational organization is promoting to expand the Chinese language learning opportunities in American mainstream schools in the U.S. Their goal is to achieve five percent of American high school students enrolled in CFL programs by 2015 (Stewart & Wang, 2005).

At present, CFL programs are offered in three natural dimensions at schools in the U.S. They are generally divided into: (a) Chinese heritage community schools, (b) CFL as foreign language elective in schools and universities, and (c) after school programs.

Chinese heritage community schools are mainly offered for the students who are ethnic Chinese, or use Chinese language as a main language at home. The Chinese language schools across many metro cities in the United States mainly served Chinese immigrants after World War II (Chao, 1997). The mission of these schools is to help Chinese communities to preserve their Chinese language and culture, thus, the class is full immersion based instruction method. The program primarily supports the local Chinese communities to maintain younger generation's heritage background, and spreading Chinese culture in the U.S. The classes are normally held two to three hours on weekends with Chinese language lessons and other traditional cultural and art activities. Most students have high levels of oral proficiency in Chinese, but needed to enhance skills in literacy. Chinese heritage schools are mainly supported by two groups: the National Council of Associations of Chinese Language Schools (NCACLS) which is founded by Taiwan or Hong Kong immigrant and heritage communities, and the Chinese School Association in the United States (CSAUS) that is connected with immigrant and heritage communities from mainland China. According to Scott McGinnis's (2005) compiled statistics, the combined enrollment of NCACLS and CSAUS was around 150,000 in 2003. The number of students in the heritage schools is larger than in other CFL programs across the U.S.

Many middle and high schools offer CFL programs as elective courses of a requirement in the curricula after AP Chinese examination lunched in 2006 by the College Board. The students enrolled in the class are mainly without Chinese background or language proficiency. The purpose of taking the class is mainly learner's personal interest of the language and culture as a selection of learning other foreign language and the student is seeking to pass the AP examination after finishing the program. The enrollment of the student in CFL program is growing more and more schools are offering the program to meet learner's needs as an option of learning other foreign language and culture.

According to the database conducted by University of Minnesota center for advanced research on language acquisition (2005), there are 640 CFL programs offered in universities and colleges. There are not many schools offer for four-year sequence of CFL programs. The ongoing development in higher education is the National Flagship Language Initiative authorized under Title VI of the Higher Education Act to establish CFL pipeline program through K-16. The flagship programs are in place at Brigham Young University, Ohio State University and University of Maryland (Wang, 2005).

There are some K-8 schools that offer CFL programs as after school programs. The students enrolled are primary from NCHF. Mostly, students in the programs are in beginner level. The reason they enrolled in the class is because of personal interest. Their goal is to engage with the target language and able to communicate verbally. The classes usually meet one hour per week. Students enrolled in the class are periodically and mostly for short-term of learning.

Learners in CFL programs

(a) Heritage learners

Between 1987 and 1995, the number of new immigrants from Asian countries to the United States became the majority ethic groups (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1998). The majority of students enrolled in CFL program are Chinese ethic related. In general, the population receives their Chinese language skills at the Chinese heritage schools that are located in most metropolitan areas across the country. The classes are offered 2-3 hours weekly, and students are taught by Chinese native speaker teachers. The class contents are not only focuses on language arts, but also the cultural and history. Parents expect the younger generation to be able to success in both languages academically in all areas of learning. They strongly encourage their children to devote massive time in learning Chinese from early childhood through teenage.

Campbell (1996) stated the heritage language learners are language minority learners who speak other language than English as first language, either because they were born in another country or because their families speak a language other than English at home. The student enrolled in a CFL program is identified as heritage learner (HL) or non-heritage learner (HL). The HL is described to have varied levels of language proficiency in Chinese language based on the cultural background. This group is usually engaged in the heritage language at home or community, and is also fluent in English. Thus, some of the HLs are fluent in speech, but lacking skills of reading and writing in Chinese language academically. The HLs is seeking to extend their language proficiency and cultural understanding to achieve the personal goal in maintaining or strengthen their own identities. They mainly attend the Chinese heritage community schools under NCACLS or CSAUS to develop their skills. The current status of the schools only offers programs from K-12. The HLs do not have equivalent level programs in higher education currently.

(b) Non-heritage learners

Non-heritage learners are non-Chinese ethical related. They are other ethic background and the majority is Caucasian in U.S. currently. Learners enrolled in CFL program are with various reasons including, self-interest in language or cultural, professional development, or school requirements. Individual learners' goals are different regarding to their preferences. They may also have different focus on specific language skill they want to achieve. The learning period for NHLs in CFL programs mostly last a few years. The age rage of the learner is wide spread. This group of learners is described as foreign language learns who enrolled in different levels in CFL program. There are more and more K-16 schools offer CFL programs as a foreign language class. It is usually offered in basic level and drill more on the oral skill in the early childhood age learners. The classes are help 1-6 hours weekly.

(c) Adoptees

Not only is the number of the CFL learners is growing, but moreover, there are an increasing number of students who are Chinese heritage adoptees in Anglo families. Numerous adopted children were brought to U.S. In their early childhood age. This population has brought needs in CFL program. Many families are enthusiastic in helping their adopted child to be able to engage Chinese language and culture regarding the awareness of their ethical background. In particularly, many parents prefer to send their children to CFL programs in early childhood age in order to help them to become bilingual in English and Chinese. Some parents try to keep the learners connected by involving the cultural activities and daily conversation with native speakers to help them keep interested in learning the language. Whereas the adoptee learners may have engaged certain degrees of language skills before they were adopted, most of them are learning Chinese as a target language as NHLs. The focus for the parents to this group tends to focus on the oral skills as essential practices. The learners are mostly enrolled in foreign language programs in different associations or institutes.

More and more studies explore the needs of HLs and NHLs in foreign language programs to establish valuable language programs in order to enhance learner's linguistic competence and move forward to professional development in applying the language (Yeh, 2008). NHLs are primary source of the enrollment in CFL under the mainstream schools. NHLs have limited or none language skills when they enrolled in the program. Their goal is to build up their language proficiency to meet their personal goals. The motivation and needs of these two groups is different toward the program based on their ethnic and cultural background and prior knowledge of the language. CFL program learners are seeking programs and curriculum that matches their needs. Educators are proposing to divide the CFL program to serve different group of learners rather than teaching the language only (Lawton & Logio, 2007).

Parental views on education

(a) Collectivist

Societies in most Asian countries are identified as collectivist where individuals are taught to be responsible for their families and also extended families are as life long personal goal. The achievement for social harmony is the cultural ideal of collectivism (Heine, 2001; Kim, Atkinson, & Yang, 1999). In collective cultures, people tend to emphasize pursuing the needs and complying with social norms of their in-group (Triandis, 1995). In particularly, Asian people are more interdependent within their in-group than their counterpart in the west. Typical societies of China, Taiwan, Japan, and Pakistan are distinguished as collectivism (Aaron & Byrne, 1997) which has influenced people's perspectives in many aspects.

Chinese culture is defined to be distinctively collectivist because of the significant impact of the philosophy of Confucius, which advocates for education as a cultivation of moral sense conduct more than delivering the knowledge only (Lu, 1997). Chinese was found to be the highest rank in society-centered orientation among American, Indian and Chinese (Singh et al., 1962). The atmosphere in the classroom is group - oriented and stresses conformity with the educators in Chinese culture. It is important to note that the lecturers hold absolute authority. Thus, based on the Confucian ideas and attitudes, the students are required to respect educators as an ethical criterion and not allowed to raise questions during the class (Scollon & Scollon, 1994).

An outstanding situation in collective cultures is that families and extended families dominate their children's education and act as mediators between students and teachers. Compared with other ethnic groups, Chinese parents tend to have high aspiration for their children's academic achievement and are highly engaged in their children's education after school (Peng & Wright, 1994; Zhang & Carrasquillo, 1995). Chinese students are highly motivated simply by their families rather than themselves, hence the students are under great pressure to excel in academic study. Chao's (1994) comparative study explored Chinese and European-American parenting styles. The study found Chinese immigrant parents are stricter and more rigorous in teaching through high standard disciplines. The traditional, formal, and structured teaching and learning style which is skill-based approach is considered the best way to drill students' literacy skills, according to Chinese parents (Li, 2006; Anderson, 1995; Zhang, Ollila, & Harvey, 1998). The parents preferred to have more assignments for students to develop their literacy skills through serial practices and patterns. Literacy success is a significant goal to achieve in many Asian societies (Dien, 1998). Whereas literacy is valued as access to success in Chinese cultural perspective, Chinese parents are more likely than Anglo-American parents to devote their time to children's literacy practices at home (Chao, 1996; Siu, 1998).

It is important to note that, unlike individualist parents, collectivist parents use more direct commands (Schieffelin & Ochs, 1986) and tend to perform authentic conversation with their child (Heath, 1986). According to the social norms among diverse ethic groups, parents cope with their children's education performance differently and are also dissimilar with responses. In a study of European-American and Chinese parent's responses to children's success and failure, Florrie, Pomerantz, and Lam (1978) reported that Chinese mothers have more involvement in their children's academic learning than American mothers, but their affect was similar. The researchers also explored and Chinese and American 5th grade students' parents' response to their academic performance revealed that Chinese parents de-emphasized children's academic success whereas American parents emphasized their academic success rather than failure. Many studies indicated that Asian parents dominate and are in heavily involved in their children's education development and have a higher expectation of children's academic success than Anglo parents. This influences children's learning attitude and academic achievement in certain degrees. One of the factors for the student's enrollment in the foreign language program is the parental preferences. According to Gardner (1985), parents' involvement in and attitudes toward language learning are two important factors in second language development especially in learner's early childhood. The examination results from Sung and Padilla's (1998) study on examining student motivation, parental attitudes, and parental involvement in the learning of Asian languages revealed that elementary school parents had more involvement in the child's language study than the parents of high school students.

(b) Iindividualist

In general, Western cultures were defined as individualistic. The United States, Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands are typical countries of individualism (Hofstede, 2001). The major ethical group among the cultures is Anglo. People value each individual as a single unit which is unique in the world setting. The societies stress individual goal and achievement pursuing, give high value on individual decision making and encourage expressing personal thoughts. In an individualistic culture, people emphasize individual freedom for self achievement (Schwartz, 1994). The notion of individualism primarily stresses self-motivation, independence, autonomy and equality. The idiosyncratic culture tends to be individual centered particularly when concerning self satisfaction within a group (Ellis, Lee, & Peterson, 1978). In particular, Americans strongly believe that it is important for one to demonstrate individualism in life. Each one has his or her own separate identity that is reinforced and recognized in a society and is judged on own merit. The equality of human right is also emphasized in America which proclaims everyone has the right to succeed in life in social relationships. This revealed that people in individualistic cultures tend to have more freedom regarding their personal life.

Western culture believes that creativity is an essential element in one's character that increases development and lead to success in a group setting. To understand the world through learning is the primary goal that is highly emphasized in the Western educational tradition (Russell 1975; Scheffler, 1965). In the educational system, creativity is an important component of giftedness programs and teaching method (Cropley, 1994). In America, individuals tend to focus on exploring, expressing their own thinking, and on discovering the differences. A primary aspect of western education is seeking to develop learners' individual potentials (Cheng, 1998). The educators have the responsibility to provide a safe and educational environment in order to develop basic skills knowledge for the students in school or classroom setting. The lessons are mainly offered in content based instructions which are focused on various topics and themes according to different subjects. Indeed, the Western tradition is to foster learners to develop their characteristics in pursing learning tasks of their own (Gardner, 1989). Parents usually are opened and appreciate all different kinds of skills that an individual can perform through learning. It is admissible that if one only excels in a certain subject, it is unnecessary to be excellent in all fields which typically represent the concept of individualism.

In individualistic cultures, parents tend to give more explanations of behaviors and physical events (Aukrust & Snow, 1998) and encourage children to elaborate responses and initiate conversation (Harkins & Ray, 2004). Parents' cultural orientation influences children's leaning patterns in very young age by the way they communicate in language. Bornstein et al., (1992) investigated the speech patterns between the mother and the infant among diverse cultures and has found that U.S. mothers provide a practice which is to foster a sense of choice and self-directedness of their children by asking more questions. Individualistic cultural oriented parents emphasize on helping children to develop their own, understanding independent goals, and self-awareness starting in early childhood. Children are encouraged to tell their needs and opinions in explicit ways. It is important to note that individualistic parents expect their children to learn through more meaningful interactions and requires children to think and solve their own problems in different situations. The characteristic of being independent, creative and self-confident has impacted the children in learning by their family's cultural orientation directly from the parents.

It is important to note that the differences between diverse ethical learners toward education are highly related to leaner's cultural background. Learners' believe in teaching and learning methods, achievements, ways of assessments and communication are formed differently according to their cultural background. The cultural influence dominates an essential link especially in language learning which strongly connects its culture and believe. The educators need to have cultural awareness to lead successful instruction to multi-cultural group learners. It is needed for educators to understand individual learner's family and cultural background to avoid conflicts in communication between learns and parents.