The Diversity and Power Dynamics of Chinese Varieties: Mandarin Pre- and In-Service Teachers' Language Ideologies

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 16
  In Roundtable Session: Exploring Linguistic Diversity and Critical Consciousness for Preservice and In-Service Teacher Development

Abstract

We explore the perceptions of beginning and advanced pre-service and in-service Mandarin teachers attending or graduated from an urban university program in language teacher education. Thirty participants were interviewed extensively to probe their evolving views regarding Chinese varieties and their perspective roles in education. Themes identified included: defining language versus dialect, bilingualism and bidialectalism, the perceived power of Chinese varieties (standard and fāngyán), mutual intelligibility, writing systems, socio-political and educational policy, language varieties as a resource, and concerns regarding loss of language and associated subcultures. Findings show that with exposure to sociolinguistic views of language, teachers can clarify their understandings of Chinese language varieties and effectively present them to students, design curricula, and consider policy alternatives.

Authors

• Chencen Cai, New York University

• Miriam Eisenstein Ebsworth, New York University