Micro language planning in Mandarin-dominated Chinese language education: voices from dialect-background heritage learners in New Zealand

ABSTRACT

The field of language policy and planning has seen increasing scholarly attention that explores social actors’ micro language planning towards a given language policy situation at the grassroots level. In educational contexts, teachers and educators are often considered pivotal locals whose agency, when enacted in micro language planning, can contribute to educational language policymaking. However, little attention has been given to learners – those on the receiving end of educational language policy. Situated in the current discourse concerning Mandarin-dominated Chinese language education, within the context of China’s promotion of Mandarin language learning, this study examines dialect-background heritage learners in a tertiary-level Mandarin Chinese language programme in New Zealand. By adopting the concept of micro language planning, this study explores how dialect-background heritage learners perceive and react in a Mandarin-dominated Chinese programme. The findings show that dialect-background learners exercise agency to interpret, implement, reject, and negotiate language policy according to their self-identified language needs. However, their ability to enact agency is also constrained by a series of social realities including socio-economic discourse, language ideology, language proficiency, and technology development. This study offers implications for language policy makers involved with different levels of Chinese language policy.

KEYWORDS:

• Micro language planning
• heritage learner
• propagation of Putonghua
• Mandarin Chinese
• Chinese dialect

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lin Chen

Lin Chen is a PhD candidate at the University of Auckland. Her research focuses on Chinese language acquisition, with particular research interests in language planning, identity, and Mandarin learning of Chinese diaspora that speak non-Mandarin Chinese varieties.

Danping Wang

Danping Wang is Senior Lecturer of Chinese at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She is currently leading a Marsden Fund project supported by the Royal Society of New Zealand to explore new theoretical directions for Chinese language education.