Studying Mandarin Chinese in the London education: language desire and learning illusion in a Working-Class Secondary School

Abstract

At a time in which the Council of Europe is shifting its traditional focus on learning European languages across its member states, towards emphasizing the importance of speaking other languages of the wider world, an increasing number of schools are offering Mandarin as part of their official curriculum in the United Kingdom. This is being economically supported by transnational/inter-institutional networks which are headed by Confucius Institutes and linked to the Hanban in the People’s Republic of China. In addition, the bringing of this language is legitimated through the appealing to discourses of “social cohesion” and “internationalism”. This article draws from a sociolinguistic ethnography carried out in a London secondary school located in a working-class area which had initiated a conversion to a Language Specialist School teaching Mandarin, in response to its difficulties in recruiting the institutionally required minimum number of students to keep the public educational funding. In the framework of a partnership with Confucius Institute which requires its affiliated schools to meet a given ratio of success in standardized tests, among students learning Mandarin, this paper takes a closer look at the resulting local uncertainties, with a focus on the everyday discursive practices of “collusion” (McDermott & Tylbor 1986) through which teachers and students created a sense of a smooth language learning environment even when the majority of the students had difficulties in fulfilling the official goals or rather affirmed not to be interested in Chinese language beyond aesthetic concerns.