Keywords
identity
AsianCrit theory
dual language bilingual education
spatiality
temporality
relationality
How to Cite
Number of views: 438
Number of downloads: 407
Abstract
This article presents a narrative inquiry of a Chinese heritage mother to theorize and explicate how historical, relational, and spatial processes impacted her negotiation with power and agency in relation to her own heritage language (HL) identity development. A narrative approach enables us to draw on participant counter-stories against master narratives that erase experiences of marginalization of Asians in Asian language education in the United States. We do this through a model of HL identity development (Zhou & Liu, 2022) supplemented by an AsianCrit lens (Iftikar & Museus, 2018). We show the importance of normalizing Chinese as a HL outside of the home in terms of language maintenance as well as the impact such normalization has on the development of an affirmative Chinese HL identity. We add that spaces for such identity development are deeply associated with language programs like dual language bilingual education (DLBE), especially as the number of DLBE opportunities grow in number and in popularity. Thus, language programs, including DLBE, have a responsibility to ensure that the language education they provide address the interests and investments of families with respect to their HL in order to decenter a primary focus on the interests of ethnolinguistic majoritized families.
References
Barkhuizen, G. (2016). A short story approach to analyzing teacher (imagined) identities over time. TESOL Quarterly, 50(3), 655-683. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.311
Chang, S. (2022). Chinese bilingual preservice teachers’ reflections on translanguaging pedagogy: The need for critical language curricularization. Foreign Language Annals, 55(4). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/flan.12654
García, O., Flores, N., Seltzer, K., Wei, L., Otheguy, R., & Rosa, J. (2021). Rejecting abyssal thinking in the language and education of racialized bilinguals: A manifesto. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 18(3), 203-228. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15427587.2021.1935957
Gov.UK. (2021). Writing about ethnicity. Race disparity unit. https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/style-guide/writing-about-ethnicity
He, A. W. (2014). Heritage language development and identity construction throughout the life cycle. In T. Wiley, J. Peyton, D. Christian, S. Moore, & N. Liu (Eds.), Handbook of heritage, community, and Native American languages in the United States: Research, policy, and educational practice (pp. 324-332). Routledge.
Hornberger, N. H., & Wang, S. C. (2017). Who are our heritage language learners?: Identity and biliteracy in heritage language education in the United States. In D. Brinton, O. Kagan, & S. Bauckus (Eds.), Heritage language education (pp. 3-36). Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315092997-2
Iftikar, J. S., & Museus, S. D. (2018). On the utility of Asian critical (AsianCrit) theory in the field of education. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 31(10), 935-949. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2018.1522008
Lawton, B. L., & Logio, K. A. (2009). Teaching the Chinese language to heritage versus non-heritage learners: Parents’ perceptions of a community weekend school in the United States. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 22(2), 137-155. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/07908310903067610
Lee, V. W. Y. (2022, March 19-22). Problematizing neoliberalism as the primary driving force of Chinese DLI participation policies [Paper presentation]. American Association for Applied Linguistics 2022 Conference, Pittsburg, PA, United States.
Leeman, J. (2015). Heritage language education and identity in the United States. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 35, 100-119. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0267190514000245
Lee, J., & Sheng, D. (2023). The Asian American assimilation paradox. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2023.2183965
Mu, G. M., & Dooley, K. (2015). Coming into an inheritance: Family support and Chinese heritage language learning. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 18(4), 501-515. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2014.928258
Qin, K., Colomer, S. E., Yu, L., & Cole, C. (2022). Negotiating racialized discourses and navigating racism in US schools: Understanding Chinese immigrants’ parenting identities and practices through an AsianCrit lens. Ur-ban Education. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00420859221089551
Saldaña, J. (2021). The coding manual for qualitative researchers. Sage.
Seals, C. A. (2018). Positive and negative identity practices in heritage language education. International Journal of Multilingualism, 15(4), 329-348. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2017.1306065
Shen, C., & Jiang, W. (2021). Heritage language maintenance and identity among the second-generation Chinese-Australian children. Bilingual Research Journal, 44(1), 6-22. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15235882.2021.1890650
Shin, S. J. (2010). “What about me? I’m not like Chinese but I’m not like American”: Heritage-language learning and identity of mixed-heritage adults. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 9(3), 203-219. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2010.486277
Smith, S. A., & Li, Z. (2022). Closing the enjoyment gap: Heritage language maintenance motivation and reading attitudes among Chinese-American children. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 25, 1070-1087. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2020.1742653
Tseng, A. (2021). “Qué barbaridad, son latinos y deberían saber español primero”: Language ideology, agency, and heritage language insecurity across immigrant generations. Applied Linguistics, 42(1), 113-135. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amaa004
US Census Bureau. (2023). Race. US Department of Commerce. https://www.census.gov/topics/population/race.html
Zhang, D., & Slaughter-Defoe, D. T. (2009). Language attitudes and heritage language maintenance among Chinese immigrant families in the USA. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 22(2), 77-93. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/07908310902935940
Zhou, Y., & Liu, Y. (2022). Theorising the dynamics of heritage language identity development: A narrative inquiry of the life histories of three Chinese heritage speakers. Language and Education, 1-18. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2022.2068351
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
1.1 The Author hereby warrants that he/she is the owner of all the copyright and other intellectual property rights in the Work and that, within the scope of the present Agreement, the paper does not infringe the legal rights of another person. The owner of the copyright work also warrants that he/she is the sole and original creator thereof and that is not bound by any legal constraints in regard to the use or sale of the work.
1.2. The Publisher warrants that is the owner of the PRESSto platform for open access journals, hereinafter referred to as the PRESSto Platform.
2. The Author grants the Publisher non-exclusive and free of charge license to unlimited use worldwide over an unspecified period of time in the following areas of exploitation:
2.1. production of multiple copies of the Work produced according to the specific application of a given technology, including printing, reproduction of graphics through mechanical or electrical means (reprography) and digital technology;
2.2. marketing authorisation, loan or lease of the original or copies thereof;
2.3. public performance, public performance in the broadcast, video screening, media enhancements as well as broadcasting and rebroadcasting, made available to the public in such a way that members of the public may access the Work from a place and at a time individually chosen by them;
2.4. inclusion of the Work into a collective work (i.e. with a number of contributions);
2.5. inclusion of the Work in the electronic version to be offered on an electronic platform, or any other conceivable introduction of the Work in its electronic version to the Internet;
2.6. dissemination of electronic versions of the Work in its electronic version online, in a collective work or independently;
2.7. making the Work in the electronic version available to the public in such a way that members of the public may access the Work from a place and at a time individually chosen by them, in particular by making it accessible via the Internet, Intranet, Extranet;
2.8. making the Work available according to appropriate license pattern Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) as well as another language version of this license or any later version published by Creative Commons.
3. The Author grants the Publisher permission to reproduce a single copy (print or download) and royalty-free use and disposal of rights to compilations of the Work and these compilations.
4. The Author grants the Publisher permission to send metadata files related to the Work, including to commercial and non-commercial journal-indexing databases.
5. The Author represents that, on the basis of the license granted in the present Agreement, the Publisher is entitled and obliged to:
5.1. allow third parties to obtain further licenses (sublicenses) to the Work and to other materials, including derivatives thereof or compilations made, based on or including the Work, whereas the provisions of such sub-licenses will be the same as with the Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) Creative Commons sub-license or another language version of this license, or any later version of this license published by Creative Commons;
5.2. make the Work available to the public in such a way that members of the public may access the Work from a place and at a time individually chosen by them, without any technological constraints;
5.3. appropriately inform members of the public to whom the Work is to be made available about sublicenses in such a way as to ensure that all parties are properly informed (appropriate informing messages).
6. Because of the royalty-free provision of services of the Author (resulting from the scope of obligations stipulated in the present Agreement), the Author shall not be entitled to any author’s fee due and payable on the part of the Publisher (no fee or royalty is payable by the Publisher to the Author).
7.1. In the case of third party claims or actions for indemnity against the Publisher owing to any infractions related to any form of infringement of intellectual property rights protection, including copyright infringements, the Author is obliged to take all possible measures necessary to protect against these claims and, when as a result of legal action, the Publisher, or any third party licensed by the Publisher to use the Work, will have to abandon using the Work in its entirety or in part or, following a court ruling in a legal challenge, to pay damages to a third party, whatever the legal basis
7.2. The Author will immediately inform the Publisher about any damage claims related to intellectual property infringements, including the author’s proprietary rights pertaining to a copyrighted work, filed against the Author. of liability, the Author is obliged to redress the damage resulting from claims made by third party, including costs and expenditures incurred in the process.
7.3. To all matters not settled herein provisions of the Polish Civil Code and the Polish Copyright and Related Rights Act shall apply.