Mandarin maintenance among immigrant children from the People's Republic of China: an examination of individual networks of linguistic contact

Learning Chinese as a heritage language in Australia and beyond: the role of capital

“…Although existing literature did not explicitly use Bourdieu's concept of capital in CHL contexts, the current study helps to make sense of the existing empirical evidence regarding how children of Chinese immigrant families put symbolic, material, and other resources into the enterprise of their CHL learning based on a cost-benefit Language and Education 487 assessment. For these children, CHL proficiency was found to be 'symbolic capital' À an additional language skill praised by teachers or prizes awarded at Chinese speech contests (Zhang 2009), the lack of which, on the contrary, was considered to be 'embarrassing' and to make these children feel 'ashamed' (Francis, Archer, and Mau 2009, 529). In addition, Chinese language was found to be 'social capital' À strengthened friendship among Chinese-speaking peers (Zhang 2009) or better communication with family members (Lao 2004;Francis, Archer, and Mau 2009).…”

Home Literacy Environment and English Language Learners’ Literacy Development: What Can We Learn from the Literature?

“…In this paper, I expand the idea of literacy behaviour beyond reading and writing to include all interactions happening in the home where either parent models literacy behaviours, or parents interact with children, or children independently carry out activities that will contribute to their literacy development. In this instance, literacy behaviour could include cultural activities such as parents and children watching a Chinese movie together (Zhang, 2009). …”

“…In a phenomenological study of three immigrant children's individual networks of linguistic contact, Zhang (2009) concludes that it is important for parents to provide literacy opportunities for children to develop heritage language. One participant in the study was in an early elementary grade; his parents took the role of language teacher and spent 30 minutes to one hour per day tutoring him.…”

“…For example, while the child watched TV, his parents explained or discussed the program. Moreover, the mother read simple rhythms and poems to the child every day until he committed them to memory (Zhang, 2009). Each day, the children copied one poem several times to remember the characters.…”

“…As one participant mentioned, his favourite social studies teacher often praised him for his bilingual skills and had him write Mandarin characters on the blackboard to show to his classmates (Zhang, 2009). Educators could seek opportunities to connect students' ways of being with literacy learning into school literacy activities.…”