代写Perceptions of Mainland Chinese Students regarding the Relationship between Tranlanguaging and Lit
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Title:
Perceptions of Mainland Chinese Students regarding the Relationship between Translanguaging and Literacies in Foreign Language Learning and Acquisition
Keywords: Translanguaging; Literacies skills; Foreign language learning; Multilingual environment; Mainland Chinese undergraduates; Language acquisition
1. Introduction
1.1 Background and Rationale
Currently, a large number of people worldwide are learning foreign languages, with China being a leading country in foreign language acquisition. In China, most language learners are young people (Zheng, Lu and Ren, 2019). English remains the dominant global language (Crystal, 2003), but it is also the first foreign language that most Chinese individuals encounter in their education. Cultural globalization and diversity have fostered an increased appreciation in languages from different countries, prompting individuals to seek proficiency in languages other than English as their first or second language. This trend is also evident in China. As society progresses, people have come to realize that foreign languages extend beyond English, with growing interest in other national languages (Rao, 2006). In recent years, the enthusiasm for studying abroad in China has magnified, fuelled by the country's increasing openness, economic development, and frequent cultural exchanges. When choosing higher education options, Chinese students are increasingly selecting developed countries to pursue their studies (Henze and Zhu, 2012). In addition to popular study destinations like the United Kingdom and the United States, Hong Kong, and Macao, both special administrative regions of China, have become popular among mainland Chinese students due to their geographic location and unique historical and cultural factors. Notably, Macao has become a favoured destination for foreign language learners interested in Portuguese, given its historical context and the unique status of Chinese-Portuguese bilingualism as the official language (Young, 2009).
As the researcher of this study, I have personally experienced studying in a multilingual environment. I pursued my undergraduate degree in Spanish in Macao, which was my first exposure to a foreign language other than English. This was also the first time I studied in Macao and understood the reasons behind its multilingualism. For instance, road signs in Macao are bilingual, in both Cantonese and Portuguese. Buses also announce the stops in four languages, representing the prominent multilingualism in Macao. The order of these four languages (Cantonese, Portuguese, Mandarin, and English) is intriguing and reflects their current status in Macao. Official documents are also presented in traditional Cantonese and Portuguese characters. Notably, most of my classmates share this same multilingual background.
Reflecting on my own experiences of foreign language learning in Macao, I have noticed that I consciously or unconsciously engage in translanguaging behaviours, which also impact my literacy skills. Translanguaging allows learners to use their knowledge of their first language to clarify ideas and concepts in the second language (Qureshi and Aljanadbah, 2022). For example, by listening to the bus announcements daily, I was able to learn pronunciation and meanings of words in all four languages. The Spanish-speaking instructor in my classroom, who has lived in Macao for many years and is familiar with the similarities between Spanish and Portuguese, often compared Portuguese words with Spanish words using everyday examples. She also incorporated a mixture of Spanish and English in her explanations.
Based on personal experiences and observations of fellow students, this interesting phenomenon of translanguaging is present in the foreign language learning process of many mainland Chinese students. This has motivated me to conduct this study, hoping to address doubts and provide explanations for phenomena in foreign language learning, thereby contributing to future research in related fields.
This research aims to explore how translanguaging is understood from students’ perspectives, especially form. Chinese mainland college students who studied foreign languages in Macao and what are their attitudes towards translanguaging. Also, this study tries to figure out how Chinese mainland college students use translanguaging in their foreign language studies in Macao and what are the perceived influences of translanguaing on their literacy skills.
1.3 Research gaps
Based on existing research in the field of using translanguaging in foreign language learning and literacy, most studies have focused on well-known multilingual environments such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and religiously diverse regions (Rodríguez, Musanti and Cavazos, 2021), but not many of them take China as the research context, and fewer of them take Macau as the background of their studies. Although there is a small body of research on the use of translanguaging in foreign languages in mainland Chinese universities, most of them have chosen to analyse it from the teachers' perspective as an approach of pedagogy (Liu, Lo and Yang, 2023). However, there is still a lack of research on using translanguaging in foreign language learning for mainland Chinese college students in Macau, especially from students’ perspective as a learning skill. Therefore, it is necessary to have a further research to fill this gap.
1. How do mainland Chinese students understand translanguaging?
2. What are their attitudes towards using translanguaging when learning a new foreign language in a multilingual environment?
3. What perceived influences do mainland Chinese college students think learning a new foreign language by using translanguaing in a multilingual environment will have on their literacies?
2. Literature Review
2.1 Translanguaging
Translanguaging does not arise from seeing the designated language as imposed by dictionaries, grammars, and institutions like schools, but rather from valuing the activities of multilingual speakers with their own repertory. (García and Kleifgen, 2020).
Some studies have also examined some tensions and conflicts that exist between students' uses of language in academic settings and their views about translanguaging (Andrei et al., 2020; Canagarajah, 2013; Rivera and Mazak, 2019; Zhang-Wu, 2022). Even in a translanguaging-friendly setting, students may occasionally be reluctant to merge many languages due to the monolingual ideals that are prevalent in language teaching. For instance, research conducted in 2019 by Rivera and Mazak at a university in Puerto Rico found that while students in a psychology class were permitted to use both Spanish and English in their homework assignments and were encouraged to do so, the majority of them expressed a preference to keep the two languages apart. Zhang-Wu (2022) discovered that, although exhibiting unfavourable opinions about translingual activities in academic settings, Chinese overseas students attending US colleges tended to rely on their native tongue and other semiotic resources in social situations. Despite the fact that they may use resources from their native tongue while writing, they saw translingual practice in writing as "Chinglish," labelling it "lazy," "silly," and "unprofessional" (p. 17). However, it is still unknown how students who receive more detailed guidance on translanguaging in the classroom may or may not see changes in the way they construct translanguaging techniques for their academic communication. So, this existing unclear gap will be further explored in this research.
Translanguaging can be used in a variety of contexts to practice speaking, writing, reading, and listening as well as other language abilities. By removing the need to conform. to the standard of an idealized, native-like speaker, translanguaging approaches attempt to enable language learners to make the most use of their linguistic abilities. Pacheco (2016) provides instances of translanguaging in the classroom, where Spanish is used in a variety of speech actions in addition to English. He draws attention to the use of translanguaging techniques by both the instructor and the students for a variety of objectives, including asking for clarification or further information, offering or confirming a certain response, showcasing knowledge, and so on.
Translanguaging strategies can be used in a variety of contexts that involve speaking, listening, reading, and writing in addition to speaking in order to facilitate or promote the use of other languages in addition to the target language (L2). Examples of translanguaging activities include reading a text in one language and summarizing it in another, conducting research in one language and reporting on it in another, permitting the use of L1 in group projects, providing clarification in L1 when the L2 explanation fails, translating vocabulary from L2 into L1, and so on. In terms of my research, these strategies will be very helpful and mainly used. For example, mainland Chinese students use Putonghua (Chinese) daily as L1 and in foreign language learning process, they will take English, Spanish or Portuguese as L2. It will be analysed more deeply in my research about this strategy.
2.3 Macao
Three written languages—Chinese, Portuguese, and English—as well as four spoken languages—Cantonese, Putonghua, Portuguese, and English—coexist in Macao's sociolinguistic environment. The educated population of Macao is bilingual or multilingual, similar to the majority of individuals in bilingual nations or regions (Grosjean, 1982), however their proficiency in each language varies. Although they are not equally spoken, Macao's official languages are Portuguese and Chinese.
All four spoken and all three written languages are utilized at the tertiary level, with English being the primary language of teaching in the majority of institutions. For instance, the government-run University of Macau offers teaching mostly in English, with the exception of programs offered in Portuguese, Putonghua, or Cantonese in the faculties of education and law. The largest private post-colonial university, Macau University of Science and Technology, employs Putonghua as the primary language of instruction in Traditional Chinese Medicine, although English is used in all other departments. In the classroom, Cantonese is also utilized as an additional language for education.
3.Methodology
3.1 Research design
As a qualitative study, this research will primarily use semi-structured interviews to collect data and aim to explore the application of translanguaging in foreign language learning and acquisition, and how students use literacy skills throughout all learning process.
The target participants for this study will include 5 senior students major in foreign language in Macau, China. They are all from mainland China.
3.3 Data collection
Semi-structured interviews will be used in this study to collect data. The following factors guided this decision: a. Focus groups may not be as effective at preventing respondents from becoming side-tracked by the remarks and viewpoints of others as interviews; b. Interviews will give the researcher the chance to have more in-depth conversations with respondents. Semi-structured interviews will support respondents' freedom of expression and enable them to participate more in the study (Ruslin et al., 2022). Five undergraduate Chinese students from the mainland who were chosen at random will be interviewed, and the majority of the data will be gathered from a renowned university in Macao, in southern China. Zoom will be used to conduct online interviews.
3.4 Data Analysis
The collected data will be using qualitative analysis. Qualitative data will be subjected to thematic analysis, categorizing participants' responses and observations into key themes related to translanguaging, foreign language learning and literacy skills. The qualitative findings will provide a comprehensive understanding of the research questions.
3.5 Ethical issues
The researcher will avoid asking sensitive questions and instead provide the interviewers with a prepared question guide to ensure participants' understanding of the study's subject matter. Feedback from the interviewers will be solicited and participants are free to leave at any time. The researcher will keep participants' personal information confidential when assembling it into a transcript. from audio files. In data processing and reporting, numbers or pseudonyms will replace respondents' real names based on participant preferences. The researcher will use a specialized audio recorder to record interviews and store the audio files in an encrypted format on their computer, ensuring that only they and informants can access the original files. All data will be deleted once the research is completed. To reduce pressure on students, the research will be conducted in a private, non-involved third-party environment entirely.
4. Conclusion and Limitations
By analysing the data as well as discussing them, the results of this study will be based on answering the research questions. It is hoped that this study will inform. as much research as possible in the fields of education, literacy, multilingual environments, and foreign language learning. However, there may be some limitations and problems exist. 1. The scope of the study is very limited in terms of sample size, extent and time; only 5 students will be selected for interview in this study, therefore, the research may not be able to cover general views of Chinese mainland undergraduates. 2. As long as relevant terms are not familiar for those students who are not in Education major, it will take much time and effort for the researcher to help participants understand these terms’ meanings. 3. Interviewees may be unconsciously led by the interviewer’s views and explanation, so they may not give the truest answers and ideas.