Learning Chinese in a Multilingual Space (eBook)

This book examines the benefits of an Australian in-country study (ICS) in China programme and explores ways to maximise the short-term ICS experience in a multilingual space. The book employs an ecological perspective which has seldom been used to examine the study abroad context. It emphasises the importance of the space itself as an arena of interaction, belonging and power, where conduct and modes of communication are often regulated by political authorities and societal expectations. Specifically, the book focuses on the following:

•  the extent to which the ICS facilitated interaction in different settings

•  the way in which interaction during ICS contributed to language learning

•  the degree in which the interaction during ICS contributed to culture learning and

•  the role of identity in the learning process in the ICS.

The main argument of the book is that while the ICS promoted multilingual learning space for in-class and out-of-class interactions, which further facilitated language and culture learning to a great extent, Australian students' identities and self-concepts also played a core mediating role throughout individual learning trajectories.

Peiru Tong is a lecturer in the Institute of Education Sciences, Wuhan University. She completed her Ph.D. in the Department of Chinese Studies, School of Languages and Cultures, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, the University of Sydney. She has been teaching Chinese language and culture units for many years. Her research interests include teaching Chinese as a second/foreign language, ecological perspective on language education, intercultural and international education, computer-assisted language learning, and multilingual education.

Linda Tsung is Professor of Multilingual Education and Associate Dean in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, the University of Sydney. Her research expertise is on teaching Chinese as a second/foreign language, multilingualism, multilingual education and indigenous and minority education, topics on which she has published extensively. She has undertaken much research on the acquisition of Chinese, multilingualism and multilingual education in China, Hong Kong and Australia over many years.