27.2879, Review: Applied Ling; Lang Acq; Socioling: Mu (2015)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-27-2879. Wed Jul 06 2016. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 27.2879, Review: Applied Ling; Lang Acq; Socioling: Mu (2015)

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Date: Wed, 06 Jul 2016 12:37:11
From: Nicholas Figueroa [Nfigueroa at albany.edu]
Subject: Learning Chinese as a Heritage Language

 
Discuss this message:
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/reviews/get-review.cfm?subid=36145777


Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/26/26-4503.html

AUTHOR: Guanglun Michael Mu
TITLE: Learning Chinese as a Heritage Language
SUBTITLE: An Australian Perspective
PUBLISHER: Multilingual Matters
YEAR: 2015

REVIEWER: Nicholas James Figueroa, University at Albany - SUNY

Reviews Editor: Helen Aristar-Dry

SUMMARY

This book contributes to the study of the production of Chinese by Chinese
heritage speakers in English-speaking communities in Australia.  The author
reveals that this is a key for both the constant reformation of their cultural
identities, or “Chineseness,” and the development of their traditional
language.  In the constructions of their identities, related to their cultural
values, practices, habits and beliefs, the author discusses different social
structures and issues of affiliation, alienation and the capitalization of
resources faced by Chinese heritage speakers through their strategies of
language choice and use throughout their learning process.  With consistent
references to the social framework of Pierre Bourdieu, and incorporating a
“pluralist approach,” the author uses the key points of habitus, capital and
field to explain the sociological perspectives and self-identifications by
Chinese Heritage Language Learners’ (CHLL) as they continually reconstruct
their ethnic identity and language proficiency.  This book highlights not only
the opportunities and challenges faced by Chinese-Australians, due to their
degree of ethnic and linguistic acceptance within a Western society, but it is
designed as a tool to assist future scholars, Chinese language instructors,
graduate students, language policy makers and interested readers.  It enhances
the academic field of not only Chinese research but also Heritage Language
research as well.  The book seeks to answer the following questions: How and
why do I learn Chinese?  What does this language mean to me?  What does it
tell me about where I came from and where I belong?  A brief summary of each
of the five chapters follows.

Chapter 1: From the White Australia Policy to Multiculturalism: Chinese
immigrants and Chinese language in Australia

This chapter sets the cultural and social stage for understanding the
situations that Chinese-Australians confront as they negotiate their
“Chineseness” and capitalize on the social resources available to them in
Australia.  It highlights how previous and current linguistic communities
within Australia play a role in altering the needs, aspirations, opportunities
and challenges faced in different social fields.  The chapter focuses on the
historical influence of 19th-20th century, anti-Chinese legislation such as
the “White Australia Policy,” which promoted “whiteness” over “Chineseness”
and other ethnicities, and which has been challenged and disassembled with the
arrival of multiculturalism.  As Chinese immigrants and Chinese-Australians
journeyed through political trials and social/historical discrimination in
Australia, the value of the Chinese language and cultural identity began to
intensify and form a foundational basis.  The concept of “Chineseness”
evolved, inclusive of language, cultural history, habits, beliefs, customs and
traditions.  The author provides examples of Chinese-Australians, and their
personal struggle, not only concerning their self-identification with being a
Chinese Heritage Language (CHL) speaker, but additionally concerning the
relationship and roles that they have with their formal language learning,
community interaction, and the national/cultural acceptance of the Chinese
communities in Australia.  

Chapter 2: Chinese Heritage Language and its Learners in the West: Empirical
Knowledge, Theoretical Framework and Research Method

This chapter focuses on the challenge of deconstructing the persona of a
Chinese heritage language speaker in regard to their language development and
their resourcefulness towards their heritage language.  The author proposes a
framework to describe a Chinese Heritage Speaker’s linguistic identity and
commitment to Chinese heritage learning (CHL) through several
social-psychological and individualistic preference factors, such as
motivation, investment and ethnic identity of the speaker. Also used in the
framework is Pierre Bourdieu’s social framework of a speaker’s utilization of
the following resources: capital, habitus and field.  The challenges of the
formation of a linguistic and personal identity begin to develop within the
author’s discussion.  With a comparison of the Chinese-Australians’ cultural
and community language to the challenges of their language maintenance within
the societal dominance of English, the degrees of bilingualism, cultural
connection, and the commitment of the heritage speaker towards the learning of
their cultural language varies and shifts depending upon their drive, their
investments and their relationship with their culture, family and friends. 
Poststructuralist approaches highlight that social self-identification is
constantly reconstructed, reorganized and linked to language learning. As
such, heritage speakers align themselves according to differing feedback
within Australian society.  An individual is represented by their features,
language knowledge, relationships and cultural involvement within different
social domains.  The author concludes that through an investigation of the
CHLL’s commitment and identity to their learning, analyzed through a
Bourdieusian social framework, they are able to construct their own
“Chineseness” through their various available resources.

Chapter 3: Sociological Mechanism for Learning Chinese as a Heritage Language
in Australia: A Quantitative Investigation

This chapter offers quantitative evidence to answer the following questions:
Is CHL proficiency of Chinese Australians influenced by different forms of
capital at their disposal, the strength of their habitus of “Chineseness,” or
both? The author’s proposed social framework is addressed within the previous
chapter. The author’s pilot investigation targeted 38 Chinese-Australian young
adults, producing 230 cases, within urban areas in capital cities. The author
analyzed their responses to online questionnaires that focused on
self-reported answers to questions geared towards establishing the degree of
their “Chineseness,” their attitudes towards their CHL, their social and
personal relationships, numerous variables (economic, cultural, social and
symbolic capitals) and their cultural involvement.  The conclusion of the
author is that CHL proficiency positively correlates to their utilization of
resources (habitus and capital) and to the formation of their personal
interpretation of “Chineseness” and their language choice.  Informants who
self-reported a strong sense of “Chineseness” and had more capital at their
disposal presented higher levels of CHL proficiency.  Language choice and
learning are attributed to both the habitus and the capital that is available.
 

Chapter 4: A Qualitative Exploration of the Profits of Chinese Heritage
Language Learning: You Reap What You Sow!

This chapter presents a qualitative interpretation of the previous chapter’s
investigation, Bourdieu’s social framework, in terms of the relationship with
the returns of CHL learning and the underlying structures and social fields
that are associated with their “Chineseness.”  The chapter looks at 19
informants and how they understand their CHL in relation to their potential
benefits and their experiences and beliefs about their learning process. 
Information on it was collected through an interpersonal and interpretive
method to ascertain the relationship between the CHL’s learning experience and
its relationship to their linguistic benefits.  Examples of a return on a
CHL’s investment include economic (job opportunities in the labor market),
cultural (gaining knowledge of Chinese history, culture, entertainment, etc.),
social (relationships and communications with family, friends and other social
networks) and symbolic (receiving awards, recognition and pride) within the
Chinese-speaking social fields of Australia.  These potential benefits allowed
each CHLL to claim and forge the “Chineseness” that best benefited them.  In
accordance to Bourdieu’s social framework, the habitus and capital resources
positively contribute to the CHL’s proficiency giving exchange value within
different fields and social domains of culture and belonging within Australia.
 

Chapter 5: Learning Chinese as a Heritage Language: A Perplexed Project 

In this final chapter, the author focuses on merging the quantitative and
qualitative findings of the previous two chapters to cultivate an image of
Chinese Australians with regard to their CHL learning within the social fields
and domains in Australia.  In an ongoing, unfixed process, the CHLL is
constantly reformatting their identity to capture resources and capital; this
is done in different social fields.  As cases differ by individual and social
complexities, CHLLs utilize not only resources but cognitive structures that
lead them to specific social practices with CHL learning.  These are
structured experiences affected by cultural history, family upbringing and
educational environments.  “Chineseness,” as a set of culturally learned
features maintained through experiences, is significantly associated with the
CHLL’s past relatable to birthplace, language patterns and language.  The
constant structuring and reconstructing of the CHLL’s identity relies heavily
on their commitment and development within various social fields and domains. 

EVALUATION

This book is an excellent aid in highlighting issues that CHLL undergo as they
constantly construct and reconstruct their ethnic identity and language
learning processes.  It can be beneficial to educators, scholars and language
learners and will help CHLL educators of language courses construct better
courses.  Central is the idea that heritage language development assists and
contributes to ethnic identity formation.  This book can also be utilized by
individuals interested in the Chinese Heritage language, or by teachers and
the growing heritage population of Chinese-Australians.  Through an analysis
of particular stories and the particular situations of Chinese-Australians,
the social framework of Bourdieu is usefully applied.  This targets issues
that heritage students constantly confront concerning identity and language
may be compared with the situation of other heritage language students.  Such
students face the same concerns and questions concerning their role and
allegiance. Any environment may be improved upon by the uncovering of certain
strategies, social frameworks and resources that are presented in this book. 

Heritage language studies is an emerging field and this book adds to our
knowledge and presents data both quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed. 
Also it offers strategies and feedback concerning issues such as the cause of
the heritage student’s difficulties in becoming proficient in their heritage
language.  Heritage language learning for those speakers creates a new, mixed
social and cultural identity.  This book is an important contribution to
heritage language learning, ethnic identity construction and the formation of
cultural solidarity for language minority groups. Bourdieu’s social framework
helps the reader understand the situation of the heritage language speaker
through a “pluralist approach.”  Finally, the author presents an enriched
image of Western societies which can be useful for scholars, graduate
students, Chinese language teachers, language policy makers and interested
readers. 

The author presents a historical background of the linguistic and political
issues faced by Chinese immigrants and of the language learning and
re-identification processes undergone by Chinese-Australians.  The content of
this book can easily be applied to the language learning issues that any
heritage language learner may face in any community and within any society. 
Each chapter’s scenarios and examples are easily relatable and can help us
understand the difficulties faced by such language learners.  Each chapter
ends with a summary of themes and conclusions the author has presented.  As
each chapter focuses on an issue that builds upon the previous one, in a fluid
and efficient manner, this book provides a new perspective upon the academic
field of heritage language learners and the issues they face concerning both
their linguistic proficiency and their cultural identity.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Nicholas James Figueroa is a PhD student at the State University of New York
at Albany in the Hispanic and Italian Studies Program. He is currently
conducting research on the neutralization of Spanish liquid consonants in
syllable final positions in the speeches of U.S.-Born Puerto Rican and
Dominican heritage language Spanish speakers. His primary research interests
are included within Spanish Linguistics with a concentration on Caribbean
dialectology, sociolinguistics, bilingualism, language contact, phonology and
Latin American/Caribbean Studies.





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