The Acquisition of Literacy in Chinese with Special Reference to the Case of Adults of Chinese Origin in Italy

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The Acquisition of Literacy in Chinese with Special Reference to the Case of Adults of Chinese Origin in Italy THE ACQUISITION OF LITERACY IN CHINESE WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE CASE OF ADULTS OF CHINESE ORIGIN IN ITALY Sabina Zocchi Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of London Department of the Languages and Cultures of East Asia School of Oriental and African Studies ProQuest Number: 10672722 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10672722 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to thank all the people and institutions who have participated in the accomplishment of this work with their help, through the sharing of information, and the disposal of patience and time. First of all I wish to thank Professor H. D. R. Baker, who was the first to take effective interest into my research project. He actively encouraged me throughout each step of the work, provided me with priceless advice, relevant comments and useful contacts, and made of each meeting an interesting and enjoyable occasion for discussion. My sincere thanks extend to Dr. Michel Hockx who, as a member of my research committee, was always ready to read my work “one more time”; each time he managed to draw my attention on its difficult passages, and suggested me pertinent ways to progress in my research. I am grateful to the School of Oriental and African Studies for the Additional Award for Fieldwork that I received in March 1999, which enabled me to carry out a relevant part of my research work in China. To all the teachers of Chinese language that I have met and interviewed in London, Italy and China, I wish to extend all my gratitude for their patience, their answers as well as their unexpected but always welcome comments. I would like to express my gratitude for the help and information I received from the staff of the several organizations that work with and for the Chinese communities in Italy as well as elsewhere in Europe, from the researchers, from the editors and contributors of the Chinese community newspapers, from the Chinese school administrators, and from the friends and informants from the community. This thesis owes its completion to several kinds of contribution, academic as well as intimate and personal. Therefore my thanks go to all the wonderful people I met 2 in China: to the friends who offered me a shelter and who opened the way for me towards places and organizations I did not know. People have been building webs in the world much earlier than computers in the Internet, and I had the chance to acknowledge and take full advantage of that during my fieldwork. My wannest thanks go to my family: to Paola and Luigino for their moral and their financial support, to Nicola, Davide, Byung Soo and Marilu, for they were always there when there was some ways they could help. And no less warm thanks to the adopted family I had abroad: to Sara Bigatti and Bikash Dawahoo, who unceasingly encouraged me with their love and care, endured my bad moods, and welcomed the pros and cons of hectic work., and to Francesca Tarocco, Maria Cristina FumagalH and Jonathan Dean, who understood the aims of my project from the very beginning, and helped me making my way through in a less Italianized English. I am also greatly indebted to Stefania Enea for the effort she made in order to give my work a nice and proper shape, intending to make it enjoyable also to the eyes of its readers. To Clara Bulfoni, Laura Cassanelli, Antonella Ceccagno, Stephanie Chauvel, Iris Manca, Caterina Geromino, Amaud Levau, Luciano Marino, Davide Quadrio, Leonardo Sala, Edward Shaughnessy, Barbara Strobl, Luigi Tomba, Elena Valussi, Paola Vanzo, Karine Verriere, Natalie Warum, Yeh Feng ze, Yu Youlan, Zheng Aihua, Zhang Yuan, Zhou Lin, Zhou Xun, and to all the friends who have contributed, each one in his or her own way, to make things easier for me, go my sincere and warm gratitude. Finally I wish to thank Angelo Marotta. No matter how far I went, I could always feel his love, friendship and care. No matter how close, he never lost interest in my work, shared the burden of decisions, and discussed them with me over and over again. 3 ABSTRACT The number of Chinese people who live in Europe has been rising constantly during the past 30 years. The large majority of them come from Southern China, and their adjustment to life in the European countries has engendered research questions on their settlement, on their relationship with the local people, habits, and rules, as well as on the education of their children. My thesis focuses on the issue of the teaching of Chinese written language to adult learners of Chinese origin settled in Italy. It points to the devising of a viable teaching method through the analysis of the answers to three relevant questions: 1. Who are the learners to whom the Chinese written language teaching methodology is addressed? 2. Why would they need and benefit from such a teaching methodology? 3. How is the teaching of Chinese written language to be made viable and effective to adult learners of Chinese origin who live in Italy? The first two questions are dealt with in the first part of the research. In Chapter 1,1 outline the history of Chinese migration movements towards Europe, and describe the circumstances and features of Chinese settlement in the UK and in Italy. Chapter 2 explores language use within the communities. It takes into account language as a marker of identity and language proficiency as an asset, by referring to the position of Mandarin within the community as well as at a transnational level. Chapter 3 focuses on literacy, on its definition, and on the way different definitions may apply to languages with different writing systems, with a focus on Chinese written language and the features which mostly affect literacy acquisition in Chinese. The second part centers on the third question and is articulated into two chapters. In Chapter 4 ,1 analyse the methods in use in four different teaching contexts: Chinese primary schools, Western universities, week-end classes for Chinese children in the UK and in Italy, and adult education in China, I substantiate my analysis with the results of the fieldwork I carried out in China, Great Britain and Italy. The four contexts are taken as a reference for selecting among the teaching devices and discussing their effectiveness as related to the features of each context. In Chapter 5,1 describe the case of adult learners of Chinese origin in Italy. I choose among the selected devices those which better apply to the study case, and discuss the principles according to which these devices suit the study case features. The final part of Chapter 5 consists of a sample of a teaching approach that is likely to work for the study case. I select content and illustrate how to teach it according to the principles derived from my previous analysis. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................................. 2 ABSTRACT..................................................................................................................... 4 INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................8 Rationale .......................................................................................................................8 Structure of the work ..................................................................................................10 Research methods .......................................................................................................11 LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................ 14 Migration .....................................................................................................................14 Overseas Chinese........................................................................................................16 Identity and transnationality .......................................................................................17 Language as a marker of identity ............................................................................... 21 Literacy ...................................................................................................................... 25 Multilingualism and community literacy practices .....................................................29 Heritage language education.......................................................................................31 Chinese language and writing ......................................................... 32 Chinese language teaching methods ....................................... 34 Adult learners and second language learning .............................................................35 Concluding note about the use of the sources .............................................................36 PART ONE .............................................................................................................. 37 CHAPTER
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