HUMA MPhil Thesis Presentation - Investment in Chinese Language Learning for Secondary Students of South Asian Backgrounds in Hong Kong

Abstract:

This research is an investigation of three South Asian secondary students’ investment in their Chinese language learning in Hong Kong, drawing upon Darvin and Norton’s model of investment (2015), specifically with respect to its three central key constructs of identity, capital, and ideology. Using an approach of linguistic ethnography in one specific school setting, various data sources include observation in different contexts, field notes, photography, recordings of participants’ language use, in-depth semi-structured interviews, and ad hoc open-ended interviews. Overall, the results provide insight into South Asian background secondary students’ investment in learning Chinese and the factors that could influence their investment. Examination of this range of data demonstrates that Chinese language learning is a social practice embedded in contexts. Findings show that South Asian secondary students’ investment in learning Chinese changes across their Chinese language learning trajectories. They invest less time and effort in learning Chinese now in their secondary school and speak Cantonese less frequently in informal social settings of school and outside of school now, compared to before they entered their secondary school. Their Chinese language learning investment has to be understood with reference to their complex transnational identities, their imagined identities, their ideologies about the role of Chinese in Hong Kong, and their perceptions of the benefits of learning Chinese. In addition, their investment in Chinese language learning in Hong Kong relates in some ways to the inequitable power relations they have experienced in the institution and in broader Hong Kong society. This linguistic ethnographic research also verifies the arguments in previous literature: identity as multiple, a site of struggle, and continually changing over time; the relationship between motivation and investment in the light of the evolution of the concepts in the literature; the tight connection between the three constructs comprising Norton and Darvin’s model of investment. It also validates the application of the model of investment in the Hong Kong context and contributes by discussing the status of English and Chinese in Hong Kong. This thesis concludes by outlining the implications for policy and pedagogy in relation to teaching Chinese as a second language to non-ethnic Chinese students in Hong Kong and by making suggestions for future research.