A Systematic Review of Chinese-English Dual-Language Bilingual Education in North America

• In Event: 34.065 - Opportunities and Challenges in Chinese-English Dual-Language Bilingual Education

Abstract

Objectives

To diversify the language area and respond to the growing interest in Chinese-English DLBE research, this paper provides a systematic synthesis of studies to date to uncover trends in Chinese-English DLBE research in North America.

Perspectives

Linguistic interdependence, proposed by Jim Cummins (1979, 1981), explains that there is a cross-linguistic relationship between a student’s home language and additional language, and both languages bolster each other in the student’s acquisition of language and knowledge. Our systematic review provides multimodal evidence that even in cases where the two languages are not linguistically congruent (i.e., Chinese and English), Chinese-speaking students learning English will benefit academically if they have developed literacy in Chinese.
Moreover, translanguaging, which interrogates the duality of bilingualism and highlights the dynamic process of bilinguals’ strategic and creative selection of linguistic features from one unitary, complex linguistic repertoire to make meaning (García & Li Wei, 2014), provides us with a critical lens in examining if the Chinese-English DLBE programs achieve the goal of educating children bilingually rather than simply in two named languages.

Methods and Data Sources

We conducted a systematic review of literature on ERIC and Google Scholar. Only peer-reviewed articles and book chapters were included. Search terms used included “Chinese-English bilingual program,” “Mandarin-English bilingual program,” “Cantonese-English bilingual program,” and “Chinese immersion program.” This yielded a total of 616 studies, or 89 studies after removing duplicates. Exclusion criteria were then applied if articles were not based in North America, were outside of the K-12 context, or focused on heritage language development rather than DLBE programs. Our final sample consisted of 28 articles, which were then systematically examined by the authors for emergent themes and trends in Chinese-English DLBE research.

Results

Trends from the 28 studies in the sample demonstrate that Chinese is emerging in the DLBE literature with 1-2 studies published each year between 2010-2014, followed by a plethora of studies between 2015-2018, representing 75% of the sample. In terms of language, there were 23 Mandarin studies (82.1%), 3 Cantonese studies (10.7%), and 2 “Chinese” studies. Just over half of the sample adopted quantitative methods while 10 studies (35.7%) and 3 studies (10.7%) adopted qualitative and mixed methods approaches, respectively. Consistent with the DLBE literature, an overwhelming majority of Chinese-English studies were conducted in grades K-2 (41.5%) and 3-5 (36.6%) classrooms, as opposed to middle school (19.5%) or high school (2.4%). Also consistent with the literature, studies in the sample focused primarily on literacy outcomes, and half approached their studies with a critical lens. Specific trends from the sample, including unique contributions about Chinese-English DLBE programs will also be discussed.

Scholarly Significance

This systematic review makes a timely contribution in filling the research gap of the Chinese-English area to “democratize” bilingual education research. By charting the current landscape of research to date, this review sheds light on the affordances and challenges of Chinese-English DLBE in North America and provides future research directions to further unpack the complexity underlying Chinese-English DLBE programs.

Authors

• Zhongfeng Tian, Boston College

• Kevin M. Wong, Pepperdine University