Understanding ethnic minority students’ language identities and how these affect their Chinese as a second language learning

Abstract

The development of language identity during childhood and adolescence is crucial to successful second language learning, particularly for learners living in the target language environment. It affects their learning styles, motivation and investment on SLA (Norton, 2013), as well as the negotiation, integrativeness and/or resistance to diverse position in the multilingual and multicultural contexts. Previous research findings indicate that L2 learners’ language identity formation is struggling, multi-faceted, and very much depending on how they perceive their relationship with the target language community, their ethnic group, the world, and the possibilities for the future (Chou, 2016; Dörnyei, 2010; Lau, 2015). Due to the globalization trend, more and more L2 learners need to learn a target language with native speakers in a foreign country. It is interesting and practically important to understand how these learners are able to successfully strive and overcome their learning difficulties, and negotiate their identities in the multilingual context of their schooling and living. It is also important to find out what socio-cultural and psychological factors have contributed to the shaping of their learning experiences. The authors report part of the findings from a large-scale longitudinal study started since 2008, which supports the teaching and learning of Chinese as a second language (CSL) in HK. 300 CSL learners are recruited from 8 secondary schools by target sampling. Pre- and post-tests, student questionnaire and focus group interviews are used for data collection. Preliminary findings indicate that CSL learners go through the negotiation of identity among their own ethnic groups and different language groups inside the dominant community. Support from parents and siblings in the family, as well as teachers and peers in the school affect the identity formation process. A clear but flexible identity among various groups is essential for successful CSL learning. Findings of the present study will lend a hand to CSL teachers to create an ideal imagined communities (Anderson, 1991) which support their students’ identity formation, so that they are more willing to engage and invest on their L2 learning.