Parents and the Shaping of Chinese As a Heritage Language in Canada
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MEMORIES OF LANGUAGE LOST AND LEARNED: PARENTS AND THE SHAPING OF CHINESE AS A HERITAGE LANGUAGE IN CANADA by Ai Mizuta B.A., Keio University, 2001 M.A., University of Toronto, 2003 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Language and Literacy Education) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) March 2017 Ó Ai Mizuta, 2017 Abstract Within the complex context of English language dominance and multiculturalism policy, Chinese language education is at a remarkable moment in Vancouver where history, politics and the economy are intertwined with demographic changes. This dissertation seeks to understand Chinese as a heritage language (CHL) in Canada through the stories of Chinese Canadian parents’ struggles and choices regarding their own heritage language. This study takes a life history research approach, which understands individuals’ life stories through a historical lens (Goodson & Sikes, 2001). The study consists of 10 parents from two groups of self-identified Chinese Canadians who reside in Metro Vancouver. The first group (Group 1) consists of parents who were either born in Canada or immigrated before the age of 4, had limited exposure to their heritage language, and predominantly speak English. The second group (Group 2) consists of parents who immigrated to Canada in their adulthood from Mainland China, Taiwan or Hong Kong, speak one or more of a variety of Chinese languages, and learned to speak English as an additional language. Beginning with the theoretical framework that perceives language practice as the outcome of the interrelation between socio-historical distributions of capital and the dispositions of individuals that are shaped and reshaped in their situated field (Bourdieu, 1991), this study captures CHL along multiple timescales (Braudel, 1958/2009) to understand the long term historical continuities of Chinese language education in a city shaped by colonial language hierarchies. The parents’ narratives show that despite the increasing popularity of learning Chinese and the rise of the Chinese economy, the challenges of CHL education have largely remained the same over decades. This study argues that English monolingualism as a foundational property in Canada is the root of the problem for CHL education and Chinese language programs in public schools, not the “increasing” presence of Chinese. As long as the unmarkedness of English today is (mis)recognized as natural and neutral, the markedness of Chinese as social other will still remain. ii Preface This thesis is the intellectual property of its author, Ai Mizuta. The research was approved by UBC’s Research Ethics Board, certificate H12-01239, project name “Bilingualism for all? Language policies, ideologies and Chinese language education in Metro Vancouver.” iii Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................. ii Preface ...............................................................................................................................iii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................. iv List of Tables................................................................................................................... vii List of Figures ................................................................................................................. viii Acknowledgements.............................................................................................................ix Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Background and Motivation ......................................................................................................... 2 1.3 About this Study ................................................................................................................................. 5 1.4 What is Chinese as a Heritage Language (CHL)? ............................................................. 7 1.5 Research Questions ........................................................................................................................... 9 1.6 Potential Significance ........................................................................................ 9 1.7 Structure of the Thesis ................................................................................................................... 11 Chapter 2: Sociohistorical Contexts of Chinese Canadians ......................................... 14 2.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 14 2.2 The “Othering” of Chinese in British Columbia .............................................................. 14 2.3 Multiculturalism Within a Bilingual Framework ............................................................. 21 2.4 Debates over Chinese Bilingual Education in Metro Vancouver ............................ 28 2.5 Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 44 Chapter 3: Conceptual Lens of Habitus and Field ........................................................ 45 3.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 45 3.2 Understanding My Experience of Bilingual Parenting through Bourdieu .......... 45 3.3 Habitus and Field ............................................................................................................................. 48 3.4 Language Ideology and Symbolic Violence ....................................................................... 52 3.5 Heritage Language Education through Bourdieu’s Lens ............................................. 55 3.6 Identity in Chinese as a Heritage Language (CHL) ........................................................ 58 Chapter 4: Methodology .................................................................................................. 63 4.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 63 4.2 Defining Life History Research ................................................................................................ 64 iv 4.3 Bourdieu and Personal Narrative/Life History Interview ............................................ 67 4.4 Collecting Life Stories ................................................................................................................... 69 4.5 How I Understand Life History Interviews ......................................................................... 76 4.6 From Life History Interviews to Life History Research ............................................... 82 Chapter 5: Being Chinese as being Othered: Lily, Emily and Jack ............................ 88 5.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 88 5.2 Lily .......................................................................................................................................................... 89 5.3 Analysis of Lily’s Story: Chinese Face and Shame ........................................................ 96 5.4 Emily ................................................................................................................................................... 101 5.5 Analysis of Emily’s Story: Teased for being Chinese ................................................ 107 5.6 Jack ....................................................................................................................................................... 109 5.7 Analysis of Jack’s Story: Embarrassment, Fitting In, and Identity Crisis ........ 121 5.8 Summary and Discussion .......................................................................................................... 124 Chapter 6: Distancing Oneself from Other Chinese: Harry and Joyce .................... 129 6.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 129 6.2 Harry .................................................................................................................................................... 129 6.3 Analysis of Harry’s Story: Chinese as the Social Other ............................................ 135 6.4 Joyce .................................................................................................................................................... 138 6.5 Analysis of Joyce’s Story: From Othering Mandarin to Learning Mandarin . 144 6.6 Summary and Discussion .......................................................................................................... 147 Chapter 7: Stories of Chinese Immigrant Parents: Mia, Oliver, Isabelle, Thomas and Sophia...................................................................................................................... 152 7.1 Introduction