Teaching Literary Chinese to Adolescent Ethnic Minority Learners through “Reading to Learn” Pedagogy in the First Language Classroom: Possibilities and Issues

Abstract

Over the past few decades, there has been much scholarly discussion on resolving ethnic minority adolescents’ learning difficulties in second language (L2) reading and writing for smooth integration into their host societies. In the Sinophone world, previous studies tend to focus on the teaching and learning of Standard Modern Chinese (Xiandai Hanyu), regardless of the crucial role played by Literary Chinese (wenyan) in formal Chinese Language curricula across different Chinese-speaking communities. This paper presents the challenging case of Hong Kong, in which high-performing ethnic minority (EM) secondary students with relatively low Chinese proficiency are often placed in first language (L1) Chinese classrooms in local elite schools. Given the mandatory teaching of Literary Chinese in the mainstream L1 Chinese curriculum, and the absence of any strictly-defined L2 counterparts, Literary Chinese has become a roadblock to successful teaching and EM academic advancement. The current paper aims to provide a preliminary review of the issues involved, as well as a novel perspective that proposes the use of a genre-based, highly collaborative “Reading to Learn” pedagogy (Rose, 2006; Martin & Rose, 2012) in ethnically and academically diverse Chinese Language classrooms for accommodating the needs of both the EM students and their teachers.