“I’m not an ESL teacher and I’m not trained to do it”

Abstract

This article discusses how teaching faculty in a western Canadian university respond to the growing number of Chinese international students in their classrooms. Interviews (n=21) and survey data (n=60) reveal that professors struggle to communicate academic expectations across language and cultural barriers; develop cross-cultural content; engage students in active learning in the classroom; and provide effective feedback on written work. This in-depth account shows how faculty negotiate demands to both adapt to and create an “internationalized classroom” in the absence of institutional supports. Unsurprisingly, we confirm that adaptation is a struggle. Faculty rely on a combination of personal experience, disciplinary grounding, and stereotyping to inform their efforts. We conclude with a discussion of the limited utility of “Confucian Heritage Culture” (chc) as a path to meaningful change. Though frequently invoked to describe the preferences and behaviors of Chinese students, the homogenizing and misleading assumptions of the chc framework prevent faculty from recognizing the contemporary reality of these students’ country of origin and leads them to neglect individual student learning styles and needs.

More Than Language: The Learning Experience of Chinese International English Language Learners (ELLs) at a Canadian University

“…In fear of being disruptive, Chinese ELL students might hold off on asking their instructors for help with questions they have. Studies have suggested that instructors and peers sometimes interpret the 'passiveness' of Chinese international students as signs of disinterest in engaging with others and learning (Jiang & Altinyelken, 2022;Yochim & Servage, 2017). This is despite findings in surveys conducted on the experience of Chinese international students studying abroad that overwhelmingly support the notion that most of these students want to improve their English, make new friends, and gain international experiences (Jiang & Altinyelken, 2022;Xiao, in press).…”

Creating ZPDs for emergent bilingual children to engage in literacy learning in a virtual Chinese heritage language classroom

“…Data show that the number of Chinese immigrants moving to the United States has increased in recent decades (Camarota & Zeigler, 2017; Echeverria-Estrada & Batalova, 2020). While becoming familiar with the culture and education system in the adopted land, Chinese families are finding it difficult to sustain Chinese heritage language, culture, and identity (Cui, 2017; Li & Wen, 2015; Yochim & Servage, 2017). Li and Wen (2015) state that “major responsibilities to maintain Asian HL (Heritage Language) have been left to immigrant families and community language schools” (p. 276).…”