The Impact of Global English in Xinjiang, China: Linguistic Capital and Identity Negotiation among the Ethnic Minority and Han Chinese Students

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-08

Chinese EFL students' response to an assessment policy change

In light of its documented potential for enhancing learning, formative assessment has been adopted across a range of educational contexts to improve the quality of education. The assessment innovation that the Chinese Ministry of Education (CMoE) proposed to College English in 2007 via the College English Curriculum Requirements (CECR) (CMoE, 2007), is an initiative of this kind. Considering the acknowledged influence of assessment on students’ learning, it is instructive to explore the ways in which Chinese university students respond to an assessment policy change of this magnitude, particularly as it positions them as more active learners, having the potential for increased agency and engagement in their English language learning and assessment practices. In order to explore the response of students to this assessment initiative, a case study was conducted in the context of a College English classroom. Data included an interview with a College English teacher and four students from her classes, and classroom observations and a survey of her two classes of 100 students. Analysis of the data reveals that Chinese students’ responses to the assessment policy change are influenced by a variety of sociocultural factors, including their previous English language learning and assessment experience and the extent to which they are willing to play the ‘assessment game’. These findings have implications for policy and practice.

Myopia, spectacle wear, and risk of bicycle accidents among rural Chinese secondary school students: the Xichang Pediatric Refractive Error Study report no. 7.

OBJECTIVE: To study the effect of myopia and spectacle wear on bicycle-related injuries in rural Chinese students. Myopia is common among Chinese students but few studies have examined its effect on daily activities. METHODS: Data on visual acuity, refractive error, current spectacle wear, and history of bicycle use and accidents during the past 3 years were sought from 1891 students undergoing eye examinations in rural Guangdong province. RESULTS: Refractive and accident data were available for 1539 participants (81.3%), among whom the mean age was 14.6 years, 52.5% were girls, 26.8% wore glasses, and 12.9% had myopia of less than -4 diopters in both eyes. More than 90% relied on bicycles to get to school daily. A total of 2931 accidents were reported by 423 participants, with 68 requiring medical attention. Male sex (odds ratio, 1.55; P < .001) and spectacle wear (odds ratio, 1.38; P = .04) were associated with a higher risk of accident, but habitual visual acuity and myopia were unassociated with the crash risk, after adjusting for age, sex, time spent riding, and risky riding behaviors. CONCLUSION: These results may be consistent with data on motor vehicle accidents implicating peripheral vision (potentially compromised by spectacle wear) more strongly than central visual acuity in mediating crash risk.

Out of the ivory tower: the impact of wider social contact on the values, religious beliefs and identities of Chinese postgraduate students in the UK

This article explores the impact of wider social contact on the experience of Chinese postgraduate students of adaptation to life in the UK. Focus group and individual interviews were conducted with a group of 11 Chinese students on an MA programme at a university in southern England and individual interviews with three representatives of a local volunteer group (LVG) offering support to the Chinese students. Although it was perceived that the students’ support needs were not adequately met by the University, the additional support offered outside the University was unanimously valued and considered as enriching their cultural and linguistic experiences and meeting their expectations. However, frequent social contact with the LVG, whose members were mostly Christians, also had an impact on their values, religious beliefs and identities. In a discussion framed within the sociological perspective of proselytization or religious conversion and the broad framework of international education and globalization, the different responses to this contact are described in terms of believers, doubters, empathisers and commentators. Implications are considered for universities, people involved in providing social support for international students, and sponsors of international students.

Coping with linguistic challenges in UK higher education: the use of strategies by Chinese research students

The present study sets out to examine the strategies used by Chinese learners in a predominantly naturalistic environment and how such learner strategy use relates to their proficiency in the second language. Data were collected from four Chinese research students in the UK using semi-structured interviews. Their proficiency in English was assessed with an oral interview and a listening test. The main findings from this study are that the learners used a wide range of strategies overall, including metacognitive, cognitive, social/affective and compensation strategies. The majority of the commonly reported strategies were metacognitive strategies, suggesting that the learners were self-directed and attempting to manage their own learning in an informal context. They also showed idiosyncrasies in their use of learner strategies. Attempts to explain the learners’ strategy use in relation to their levels of proficiency in English and contextual factors, as well as several other factors, are offered. Implications for target-country institutions in terms of the provision of support to Chinese students are discussed.

A multidimensional comparison of discourse organization in English and Chinese university students' argumentative writing

Three methodological limitations in English-Chinese contrastive rhetoric research have been identified in previous research, namely: the failure to control for the quality of L1 data; an inference approach to interpreting the relationship between L1 and L2 writing; and a focus on national cultural factors in interpreting rhetorical differences. Addressing these limitations, the current study examined the presence or absence and placement of thesis statement and topic sentences in four sets of argumentative texts produced by three groups of university students. We found that Chinese students tended to favour a direct/deductive approach in their English and Chinese writing, while native English writers typically adopted an indirect/inductive approach. This study argues for a dynamic and ecological interpretation of rhetorical practices in different languages and cultures.

Cultural citizenship and its implications for citizenship education: Chinese university students’ civic experience in relation to mass media and the university citizenship curriculum

A growing body of research has argued that university citizenship curricula are inefficient in promoting civic participation, while there is a tendency towards a broader citizenship understanding and new forms of civic engagements and citizenship learning in everyday life. The notion of cultural citizenship in this thesis concentrates on media practices’ relation to civic expression and civic engagement. This research thus argues that not enough attention has been paid to the effects of citizenship education policy on students and students’ active citizenship learning in China. This thesis examines the civic experience of university students in China in the parallel contexts of widespread adoption of mass media and of university citizenship education courses, which have been explicitly mandatory for promoting civic morality education in Chinese universities since 2007. This research project raises significant questions about the meditating influences of these two contexts on students’ perceptions of civic knowledge and civic participation, with particular interest to examine whether and how the notion of cultural citizenship could be applied in the Chinese context and whether it could provide certain implications for citizenship education in China. University students in one university in Beijing contributed to this research by providing both quantitative and qualitative data collected from mixed-methods research. 212 participants contributed to the questionnaire data collection and 12 students took part in interviews. Guided by the theoretical framework of cultural citizenship, a central focus of this study is to explore whether new forms of civic engagement and civic learning and a new direction of citizenship understanding can be identified among university students’ mass media use. The study examines the patterns of students’ mass media use and its relationship to civic participation, and also explores the ways in which mass media shape students and how they interact and perform through the media use. In addition, this study discusses questions about how national context, citizenship tradition and civic education curricula relate to students’ civic perceptions, civic participation and civic motivation in their enactment of cultural citizenship. It thus tries to provide insights and identify problems associated with citizenship courses in Chinese universities. The research finds that Chinese university students can also identify civic issues and engage in civic participation through the influence of mass media, thus indicating the application of cultural citizenship in the wider higher education arena in China. In particular, the findings demonstrate that students’ citizenship knowledge has been influenced by their entertainment experiences with TV programs, social networks and movies. However, the study argues that the full enactment of cultural citizenship in China is conditional with regards to characteristics related to two prerequisites: the quality of participation and the influence of the public sphere in the Chinese context. Most students in the study are found to be inactive civic participants in their everyday lives, especially in political participation. Students express their willingness to take part in civic activities, but they feel constrained by both the current citizenship education curriculum in universities and the strict national policy framework. They mainly choose to accept ideological and political education for the sake of personal development rather than to actively resist it, however, they employ creative ways online to express civic opinions and conduct civic discussion. This can be conceptualised as the cultural dimension of citizenship observed from students who are not passively prescribed by traditional citizenship but who have opportunities to build their own civic understanding in everyday life. These findings lead to the conclusion that the notion of cultural citizenship not only provides a new mode of civic learning for Chinese students but also offers a new direction for configuring citizenship in China. This study enriches the existing global literature on cultural citizenship by providing contemporary evidence from China which is a developing democratic country, as well as offering useful information for Chinese university practitioners, policy makers and citizenship researchers on possible directions for citizenship understanding and citizenship education. In particular, it indicates that it is important for efforts to be made to generate a culture of authentic civic participation for students in the university as well as to promote the development of the public sphere in the community and the country generally.

Jiao Tong: A Grounded Theory of Chinese International Students' Transition to American Tertiary Education

University students are more globally mobile than ever before, increasingly receiving education outside of their home countries. One significant student exchange pattern is between China and the United States; Chinese students are the largest population of international students in the U.S. (Institute of International Education, 2014). Differences between Chinese and American culture in turn influence higher education praxis in both countries, and students are enculturated into the expectations and practices of their home countries. This implies significant changes for students who must navigate cultural differences, academic expectations, and social norms during the process of transition to a system of higher education outside their home country. Despite the trends in students’ global mobility and implications for international students’ transitions, scholarship about international students does not examine students’ experiences with the transition process to a new country and system of higher education. Related models were developed with American organizations and individuals, making it unlikely that they would be culturally transferable to Chinese international students’ transitions. This study used qualitative methods to deepen the understanding of Chinese international students’ transition processes. Grounded theory methods were used to invite the narratives of 18 Chinese international students at a large public American university, analyze the data, and build a theory that reflects Chinese international students’ experiences transitioning to American university life. Findings of the study show that Chinese international students experience a complex process of transition to study in the United States. Students’ pre-departure experiences, including previous exposure to American culture, family expectations, and language preparation, informed their transition. Upon arrival, students navigate resource seeking to fulfill their practical, emotional, social, intellectual, and ideological needs. As students experienced various positive and discouraging events, they developed responses to the pivotal moments. These behaviors formed patterns in which students sought familiarity or challenge subsequent to certain events. The findings and resulting theory provide a framework through which to better understand the experiences of Chinese international students in the context of American higher education.

Does 'habitus' count in Chinese Australians' mathematics achievement?

Large-scale international comparative studies and cross-ethnic studies have revealed that Chinese students, whether living in China or overseas, consistently outperform their counterparts in mathematics achievement. These studies tended to explain this result from psychological, educational, or cultural perspectives. However, there is scant sociological investigation addressing Chinese students’ better mathematics achievement. Drawing on Bourdieu’s sociological theory, this study conceptualises Chinese Australians’ “Chineseness” by the notion of ‘habitus’ and considers this “Chineseness” generating but not determinating mechanism that underpins Chinese Australians’ mathematics learning. Two hundred and thirty complete responses from Chinese Australian participants were collected by an online questionnaire. Simple regression model statistically significantly well predicted mathematics achievement by “Chineseness” (F = 141.90, R = .62, t = 11.91, p < .001). Taking account of “Chineseness” as a sociological mechanism for Chinese Australians’ mathematics learning, this study complements psychological and educational impacts on better mathematics achievement of Chinese students revealed by previous studies. This study also challenges the cultural superiority discourse that attributes better mathematics achievement of Chinese students to cultural factors.

Chinese Australians’ Chineseness and their mathematics achievement : the role of habitus

Large-scale international comparative studies and cross-ethnic studies have revealed that Chinese students, living either in China or overseas, consistently outperform their counterparts in mathematics. Empirical research has discussed psychological, educational, and cultural reasons behind Chinese students’ better mathematics performance. However, there is scant sociological investigation of this phenomenon. The current mixed methods study aims to make a contribution in this regard. The study conceptualises Chineseness through Bourdieu’s sociological notion of habitus and considers this habitus of Chineseness generating, but not determining, mechanism that underpins commitment to mathematics learning. The study firstly analyses the responses of 230 Chinese Australian participants to a set of questionnaire items. Results indicate that the habitus of Chineseness significantly mediates the relationship between participants’ commitment to mathematics learning and their mathematics achievement. The study then reports on the interviews with five participants to add nuances and dynamics to the mediating role of habitus of Chineseness. The study complements the existing literature by providing sociological insight into the better mathematics achievement of Chinese students.

Attitudes towards suicide among Master’s degree students: a cross-cultural comparison between China and Finland

Attitudes towards suicide among Master’s degree students in Chang Sha (China) and Helsinki (Finland) were compared in order to explore possible cross-cultural differences. The sample included 206 Master’s degree students, 101 Chinese and 105 Finnish. Data were collected using the 30-item Multi-Attitudes Suicide Tendency Scale (MAST) and a demographic information form. According to the results, both Chinese and Finnish students held positive attitudes towards life, they held contradictory attitudes towards suicide, with Finnish students having more permissive and liberal attitudes towards suicide than their Chinese counterparts. In addition, three socio-demographic characteristics, namely religion, family structure, and economic status, associated with attitudes towards suicide among the Chinese Master’s degree students; meanwhile, all socio-demographic characteristics, including gender, religion, major subject, family structure, economic status, and received social support related to attitudes towards suicide among the Finnish Master’s degree students. However, after examining the interaction effect between socio-demographics and cultural backgrounds on attitudes towards suicide, the attitudes of Chinese students were more related to gender, marital status, family economic status, and received social support, whereas Finnish students were more influenced by religion. These findings suggest that culture plays an important role in shaping country-specific differences in attitudes towards suicide and their association with socio-demographic characteristics. Understanding individual attitudes towards suicide could help in intervention to prevent the development of suicidal ideation and in providing appropriate psychological counseling to reduce mental problems. Therefore, these cross-cultural differences may provide indications on how to conduct suicide prevention programs while considering culture-specific contexts.

Development of a New Assessment System to Evaluate Students' English Communicative Capacities in China

The purpose of this study was to develop a new English assessment system to evaluate Chinese students' English communicative capacities. Since there is more interaction with people from English-speaking countries, Chinese people attach more importance to English oral skills, and a lot of Western English teaching methods were introduced into China to improve students' English communicative capacities. However, traditional paper-written examinations, like the English test of higher education entry examination, cannot evaluate it effectively. This study explored the perceptions of two Chinese English-language teachers and two Chinese students about English assessment system. A qualitative research method using telephone interviews was conducted in this study. The findings showed that the most possible ways to assess Chinese students' English communicative capacities were paper-written examination and person-machine conversations, although measures should be taken to improve these two models. On the other hand, the model of person-person conversation was the ideal assessment tool but was hard to achieve at the current stage.

Easing transition and promoting a positive student experience within an international partnership scheme for British and Chinese teachers

This article investigates the needs and challenges of a group of Chinese secondary school teachers in their transition to postgraduate studies in the UK in the context of a British-Chinese partnership. The strategies and efforts of the host institution, local community and the Chinese students themselves to help ease the transition and promote a positive student experience are discussed. The article highlights the sociological processes of international postgraduate student transition and contributes to our understanding of issues of student support pertinent to international partnership arrangements.

Chinese Student's Club

Image from publication: Michiganensian, 1981. University of Michigan