Strategy Use by ChineseSpeakers of L2 Mandarin in

Academic SettingsDr. Karen L. Newman, University of Indianapolis

Dr. Martha Nyikos, Indiana University

“Situating Strategy Use: The Interplay of Language Learning Strategies and Individual Characteristics”Alpen-Adria Universität, Klagenfurt

October 17, 2015

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Linguistic Diversity in China

• Complex linguistic situation

• Measurement challenges: language vs. dialect?• Lack of agreement on terminology

• Many dialects unintelligible from each other and Mandarin

• But cultural unity and standard written form

(Christensen, 2013)2

Linguistic Diversity in China

• Han Chinese (90% of the population) speak “as many as 1,500 dialects” (French, 2005)

• “…[m]any of the Han dialects are almost entirely mutually incomprehensible, more distinct than languages from disparate regions of Europe” (French, 2005)

• 56 ethnic minorities numerous languages and dialects 3

Linguistic Diversity in China

Source: http://www.zonu.com/images/0X0/2011-08-08-14266/Linguistic-and-ethnic-diversity-in-China.jpg

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Historical Background

• China:

• “…a nation cobbled together through over 50 centuries of invasion, war, consolidation, and treaty, one that has only really existed in its present form for a brief sliver of time. These regional differences … are truly vestiges of an earlier, less unified era”

(Schiavenza, 2013) 5

Rapid Societal Change

• Mandarin promoted in early 20th century as official language / lingua franca to unify diverse country

• Mass migrations from countryside to cities• Unprecedented urbanization in past 30 years

• Barely half of population speaks Mandarin (French, 2005)

• Reports vary:• “Ministry of Education spokeswoman Xu Mei said that only 70 percent of the

country could speak Mandarin, many of them poorly, and the remaining 30 percent or 400 million people could not speak it at all”

(Blanchard, Reuters/Huffington Post, Oct. 15, 2015)

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Rapid Societal Change

• Linguistic diversity fading

• Study’s participants lamented disappearance of home dialects

• Tom (Focus Group participant): • “To be honest, I think my English is even better

than my dialect!”7

Genesis of Study

• Martha’s strategy research

• Karen’s annual teaching residency in Zhejiang Province

• Zhejiang = one of China’s most linguistically diverse provinces• Majority of students speak dialects

• Survey respondent: “WENZHOU DIALECT IS THE MOST DIFFICULT ONE AMONG ALL OF DIALECTS IN CHINA. Others call my dialect——language of evil”

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Genesis of Study

• Investigation of students’ multilingualism

• Highly competitive academic system

• Language of education = Mandarin• Students’ playful joking: “Bad Chinese!”

• Our study = exploratory 9

Research Questions

• RQ1: How do students linguistically navigate their multilingual home and academic worlds (i.e., using dialect and Mandarin)?

• RQ2: How do Chinese L2 Mandarin speakers perceive their Mandarin abilities?

• RQ3: Which strategies do Chinese L2 Mandarin speakers employ in academic settings in each of the four skills? 10

Literature Review• Paucity of research (in English) on our topic

• Cohen, 1998: “Good learners” recognize strengths and flexible in using strategies for learning needs

• Williams, 1994 & 1996: Translanguaging: fluid, strategic and creative use of multiple languages in multilingual contexts without attention to strict divisions between languages and dialects

• Gu, 2003: Same task can have same successful outcome in different learners employing different strategies; rote learning can serve a purpose• “…flexible and skillful analysis, choice, deployment, execution, and orchestration of all

strategies at their disposal in accordance with their own preferred style of learning” (p. 99)

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Participants• 31 college students, 18-21 years old (N = 31 online survey, N = 5 focus group)

• Medium-sized, middle-tier university located in large city in Zhejiang Province, China

• Recruited through “English Corner” and English classes

• 45% sophomores, 23% juniors, and 32% seniors

• 26% male, 74% female

• Majors:• English: 18• Business English: 2• Finance: 4• E-commerce: 2• International Business: 2• Information Science: 1• Advertising: 1• Law: 1

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Methodology

• Online Survey (N = 31); response rate 38%• SurveyMonkey, 40 items

• Focus Group Interviews (N = 5) • One hour each, transcribed

• Retrospective elicitation (Cohen, 1996, p. 101; 2002)• Disadvantage = insensitivity to details and potential

reinterpretation of past events due to memory deterioration

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Limitations

• Self reports =

• No information on frequency, quality, mechanisms; may not reflect actual behavior• (Bai, Hu, & Gu, 2014, as noted by Cohen,

10/16/2015)

• Language learning vs. actual use (relationship to function)

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Participants’ Language Diversity

• 31 participants; 21 different home dialects/languages:

Ningbonese ShaoxingWenzhou YuyaoJinhuaXiaoshanHangzhouMeichengXiangshanYuhangHuzhou

NinguoJiaxingDongyangDongguanMinnanHuangyanTaizhouCixiWenlingYiwu

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RQ1:Survey Q20: In which situations do you

always use Putonghua (Mandarin)?• Social Strategies (Communication tool in non-family

situations):

• Classroom (teachers, classmates)• Exams, presentations• Online• Daily conversation• Workplace• Formal situations• Communication with people from other provinces• When certain that nobody knows participants’ dialect

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RQ1: Survey Q20: In which situations do you never use

Putonghua (Mandarin)?

• Social Strategies (Communication tool in family and local situations):• Family• Older relatives• Older villagers • “Very very very very old relatives who cannot understand Mandarin”• Hometown marketplace and shopkeepers• Hometown taxi

Focus group interview, 9/16/15: • Tom: “So they will think you are not friendly and other things when

you speak Mandarin” • Catherine: “Not a part of us!”• Robert: “You may feel very close if you speak dialect to your native

friends.”17

Participants (+ more insights into RQ1)

• Only 25% mothers and 26% fathers = high school graduates

• Only 7% mothers and 11% fathers = university graduates

• 68% = first in their immediate family to attend college

• Higher education valued; pressure for success

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RQ2:Survey Q19: Do you consider yourself a native

speaker of Putonghua (Mandarin)?

• Participants learned Mandarin at an early age, most when they entered school for the first time

• 63% consider themselves Mandarin native speakers

• 15% said they were not native speakers

• 22% uncertain19

RQ2: Participants’ Self-Rated Skills in Mandarin

Very Weak Weak Neutral Strong Very Strong

Speaking 0 0 8% 73% 19%

Listening 0 0 4% 38% 58%

Reading 0 0 4% 62% 35%

Writing 0 4% 23% 58% 15%

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RQ2: Participants’ Self-Rated Skills in Mandarin

• Q24: Do you have difficulties finding the "right" words to use in Putonghua (Mandarin)?

• Q25: Do you have difficulties with pronunciation in Putonghua (Mandarin)?

Always Sometimes Neutral Rarely Never

8% 24% 8% 60% 0%

Always Sometimes Neutral Rarely Never

4% 16% 24% 52% 4%21

RQ2: Accent

• 50% reported speaking with an accent, while 50% reported not

• 81% reported that they were not embarrassed about their accent in Mandarin; 19% sometimes embarrassed

• Two survey respondents:• “No, I'm proud of it. It's demonstrate where I come from.”• “…I think my primary dialect is as beautiful as Putonghua.”

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Q8: Do you feel that your primary (first) dialect or language has a high status or a low status at your

university?  Please explain.

• Emergent factors:

• Low status:• “At our university, students come from different places, most of

them can't understand my primary dialect.”

• “Maybe a low status if I have to choose one. Because Jinhua dialect is not very special, not some language (like Cantonese) people want to learn.”

• High status:• “I feel that my primary dialect has a high status at my university,

because our university is very close to my hometown and many students from there.”

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RQ3: Social Strategies

• Codeswitching strategies are socially driven and reflect necessity, collaboration, respect, and solidarity

• Use of Mandarin in academic settings = requirement• Lingua franca among students with different L1s/dialects

• Hometown use of Mandarin could mark them as “outsiders” in service circumstances, incurring higher charges in marketplaces (where prices are negotiated)

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RQ3: Social Strategies

• Given that many participants don’t share a common home language, the data reveal tolerance for accents and patience with interlocutors

• Survey participant: “I do not think it's an embarrassing thing. [It’s] not your fault.”

• However:• Robert: “We wouldn’t play with a girl [socialize], even if

she was really beautiful, if she had a strong accent.” 25

RQ3: Strategies for the Four Skills

• See Four Skills Strategies list

• Productive vs. receptive strategies

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RQ3: Strategies for the Four Skills

• For highly proficient speakers of L2 Mandarin, it’s less an issue of learning (given their high level of mastery) and more an actual strategic use of language for communicative and academic purposes

• Cognitive, compensation and social strategies most prominent in the survey data

• Fewer memory, metagconitive or affective strategies limited to lower level language learning?

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Conclusions

• Participants = highly successful L2 learners

• Strategies employed strategically and purposefully

• “Strategic learning is triggered and defined by task demands, and is thus not a task-independent learner trait or capacity” (Gu, 2012, p. 319)

• Strong sense of self-efficacy (Bandura, 1993) in use of Mandarin, supported by cognitive, compensation, and social strategies

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Conclusions• Self-efficacy: ability to code-switch into dialects for very specific

purposes (social solidarity, humor, service situations), showing metacognitive control over circumstances

• Some strategies unique to Chinese and sociocultural context

• Use of compensatory strategies (electronic dictionary)

• Interpersonal and academic communication manageable, showing positive attributional beliefs about managing learning

• When does this emerge in transitioning from dialect to Mandarin?

• More research needed in English on China’s highly complex linguistic phenomena

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Comments?

Insights?

Thanks for attending our talk!30