Reading between the lines a PhD in Archaeology

							Negotiating an identity in English:
   the discursive construction and
 reconstruction of Chinese students

           Dr. Trevor Grimshaw
     Centre for the Study of Education in an
              International Context



   University Life Uncovered, Manchester, 9th Nov 2007
         Preliminary findings from:


British Academy funded project HD081X

    „Chinese learners‟ perceptions &
constructions of British academic culture’



       1st Sept 2006 – 31st Dec 2007

                                             2
                  Outline


1. „The Chinese learner‟ as a „reduced Other‟
2. Chinese learners as complex subjects
3. The research
4. The data: some emergent categories
5. Conclusions & implications
6. A question/caveat



                                                3
           1.

The Chinese learner as a
    „reduced Other‟




                           4
5
Otherization




               6
(Hofstede,
  1980)
             7
(Mullins,
1996:19)
            8
„Cultural thought patterns‟
       (Kaplan, 1972)




                              9
Critique of:

    The stereotyping of non-Western students as:

                   • passive;
                   • reticent;
                   • rote learning;
                   • teacher dependent;
                   • lacking critical thinking skills;
                   etc.

   (Kember & Gow, 1991; Spack, 1997; Kubota, 1999;
   Kumaravadivelu, 2003; Phan, 2004; Clark & Gieve,
       2006; Morrison, 2006; Grimshaw, 2007b)
                                                         10
                 Native-speakerism
       (Holliday, 2005; Grimshaw, 2007a; 2007b)



Creates „a negatively reduced image of the foreign
Other of “non-native speaker” students and educators.‟
(Holliday, 2005:16)



      A modernist discourse which aims at
      „correcting people because they are the Other‟
      (ibid:78)


                                                         11
      „Colonial dichotomies‟
    („constructs of Self and Other‟)
1. Western modernity vs. non-Western
   backwardness
2. Racial difference as cultural
   inferiority
3. The full vs. the empty
4. The cultured vs. the natural
5. The industrious vs. the indolent
6. The adult vs. the child
7. The masculine vs. the feminine
8. The clean vs. the dirty

               (Pennycook, 1998:47-66)
                                         12
     Orientalism
(Said, 1978; Sardar, 1999)




                             13
14
         2.

Chinese learners as a
  complex subjects




                        15
                  Middle aged


Northerner
              Linguist




   Lecturer
               British



        Univ of Bath

                                16
„All communication is intercultural‟
               (Holliday et al, 2004:xv)




          „The creation and negotiation of cultural
          and personal identity are the same thing‟
                                           (ibid:20)



                                                   17
Culture as a resource




                                           18
               (Holliday et al, 2004:13)
Playing a particular identity card




                (cf. Holliday et al, 2004:18)
                                                19
(Holliday et al, 2004:19)   20
                   Identity



„the way in which we all bring with us our own
discourses and feelings of culture and negotiate
these in communication‟


                        (Holliday et al, 2004:xv)




                                                    21
     Communities of Practice
 (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998)

„legitimate peripheral participation‟

     „Old hands‟ & „newcomers‟




                   „Funds of knowledge‟
          (Moll & Greenberg, 1990; Moll et al, 1992;
         Gonzalez et al, 2004; Hughes & Pollard, 2006)


                                                         22
23
      Study Abroad & Second Language Use
                     (Pellegrino, 2005)



strategies of self-presentation



                threats to previously established identities




    „real self‟ vs. „ideal self‟


                                                               24
       English as an International Language
                       (EIL)


… has become
„de-nationalized‟, „deracinated‟
(McKay, 2002:83)




                … is both a site and a medium of struggle
                                    (Pennycook, 1995:53)



                                                            25
     3.

The research




               26
Case studies of 23 students

       from Mainland China & Taiwan


Following 1-year, FT masters programmes


Ethnographic interviews,

       conducted mostly in Putonghua

                      (some code-switching)

                                              27
 Daily lives
                       Non-instructional
                            settings



                     the
                  students


Respondent
                                   Progressive
validation
                                    focusing

               Thick Description
                                             28
    Wang Qi,
research assistant




                 29
„While respecting whatever people say about their
own culture, take what they say as evidence of what
they wish to project rather than as information
about where they come from.‟
                            (Holliday et al, 2004:15)




                                                        30
           4.

       The data:
some emergent categories




                           31
                    Reconstruction of the self

Through acquisition of:

A qualification     „which I can use to beat on doors to
                    (qiao men zhuan) find a good job in China‟ (H-1)


Linguistic skills    „British English has high status‟ (O-4)



Cultural experience        „to open up my views‟ (W-5)



Face     „My father saw his friends‟ kids study abroad, and so …‟
         (L-1)
                                                                32
Despite themselves…

                  Academic staff
                   … are sometimes complicit in the
                   processes of Otherization & reduction.


   e.g. They accept the „packaged realities‟ that are fed to
   them by international students,


Because these appeal to their taste for exoticized
accounts of the „Other‟.


                             cf. „academic tourism‟
                                                               33
                    Autostereotyping
            as a strategy of self-presentation

Participants „play‟ specific „culture cards‟ within local contexts:

         as badges of identity in an unfamiliar environment
         (closing ranks)

         in order to justify actions / make excuses

         in order to obtain leverage or resources

         because it is sometimes the easiest option

                           e.g. the dissertation anecdote

                                                                 34
              Students teaching students



Intv: How about when you have some difficulties in
      your studies? Do you ask your friends or
      classmates?
A:    Mainly I will try to solve it myself first. If I can‟t,
      I will ask the PhD students in the lab. If they
      don‟t know the answer, I will ask my lecturers.
      But I think mainly it is PhD students who help
       me most… Tutors seldom appear in the lab.
                                                        (A-3)



                                                                35
                      On group work



„I just feel it is more tiring to do group work with students
from other countries… We have had some unpleasant
experiences… But when Chinese students get together, we
all have a common understanding about how long we will
take to complete the task, how we should divide up the task,
and so on.‟ (J-4)




                                                                36
„We wait until the Chinese
  assistant is on duty‟
          (T-4)
                             37
                 Informal support networks


(To some extent … )

       A reproduction of the Chinese „classmate‟ /
       „countryman‟ system.


                         guanxi

          lian                           renqing


                                renwen
             mianzi
                                                     38
                 Mutual benefit



„I wanted to know if you could show me one of your
essays. And I could copy from your essay, because
your essay was not published. Do you understand?’
(L-1)




                                                     39
                   Academic elitism



„There are two students in our class, one graduated from
Peking University and the other from Nanjing University
of Aeronautics… When we were doing group work, those
two people said straight to our face: “Your writing is of
no value at all. Forget it. Don‟t bother writing anything.”
Just like that!‟ (E-5)




                                                              40
                     Gender roles


Intv: Why do you think teaching is okay for girls?
F:    I think girls are more suitable for teaching posts.
      It‟s a respectable job.
Intv: Do you think boys won‟t be respected if they are
      teachers?
F:    Not disrespected. But it is better for boys to
      become government officials, especially in small
      towns in China. I mean to be a teacher is good, but
      not great.
                                                     (F-2)


                                                             41
                       Social distance



„There are some British who discriminate against
Chinese people. But most of them are very warm-
hearted and willing to help us.
But the point is that I still feel it is difficult to get closer
to them. I mean, sometimes, I feel I am being left out.‟
(H-2)




                                                                   42
        Relationships with Western students


„all‟




                                  „… or nothing‟


                                                   43
             English language problems


„Maybe every half an hour I could catch one or two
sentences, maybe 20%.‟ (L-1)



       „You see European students in one group and us
       Asian students in another. I mean, sometimes if I
       don‟t talk to my housemate, I don‟t have to speak
       English for the whole day.‟ (W-2)



    Cf. „Appropriation‟, „empowerment‟, „resistance‟
                                                           44
„But I don‟t have any issues …‟
              (P-2)




                                  45
                Chinese as a lingua franca

„Most of our classmates are from Chinese-speaking
countries. Even people from Malaysia can speak Chinese
too. We all speak Chinese… My friend and I decided to
communicate in English. But gradually we gave up,
because we found it weird to speak to our own friends in
English.‟ (F-3)



        „My spoken English became worse rapidly,
        because I speak English even less frequently in the
        UK than when I was in China.‟ (E-5)

                                                              46
      5.

 Conclusions
& implications




                 47
A. Stereotypes
B.   Strategies
C. Sophistication




                    48
Academic - administrative - pastoral provision


   In their induction procedures, British universities
   should provide

   training in intercultural communication
   (in the broad sense)

   for all new students and staff;

   both ‘domestic‟ and ‘international‟.



                                                         49
  Ways of developing intercultural awareness
               (Kramsch, 1993:205-206)


1. Establishing a „sphere of interculturality‟;
   reflection on one‟s own culture in relation to
   another; not just a transfer of info C1 – C2
2. Teaching culture as an interpersonal process; not
   „the presentation/prescription of cultural facts and
   behaviours‟ as „fixed, normative phenomena‟
3. Teaching culture as difference; not just nationality
   but also gender, ethnicity, social class, etc.
4. Crossing disciplinary boundaries; drawing upon
   anthropology, sociolinguistics, semiology, etc.

                                                          50
(Holliday et al,
 2004:48-49)
                   51
       6.

A question/caveat




                    52
            To what extent is

   the „uncovering‟ of „university life‟

           a case of academia

colonizing the personal lives of students ?



           cf. „Scientific imperialism‟

                                              53
                       Ευχαριστώ!
Gracias!


            谢谢 !



   Merci!
                   Cheers!


                                    54
T.Grimshaw@bath.ac.uk



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