EDUC5180 Learning and Additional Language Assignment 1- Case study JIN Man 110158709

Learning Chinese as second language in Australian secondary school

In recent years, issues of second language education have been broadly debated in
Australia. Because of the complex Australian context, a growing concern about second
language education in Australian schools has arisen. Therefore, an interview has been
conducted to document the learning experience of a second language learner, specialised
in Chinese language, in Australian secondary school for further analysis and discussion.
This essay will firstly describe the learning experience of a student who is learning Chinese
as second language in an Australian secondary school. Then, the data will be analysed and
the finding will be presented in terms of some factors that have influenced the learners
progress and achievement in learning Chinese in Australian secondary school. Finally, the
essay will provide some possible suggestions with regard to the improvement of teachers'
initiatives in class.

Student interview data

The participant of the interview is a year 10 student in an Australian secondary school, who
has a ten-year experience of learning Chinese in classroom settings. According to her
answers to the interview questions (see Appendix 1), the most enjoyable part of learning
Chinese is the culture of China. She enjoys watching Chinese movies and TV shows which
were provided by the teacher in class as language learning resources. She still can
remember some interesting plots in the movies although she can not recall even one single
phrase or sentence in the movies. However, she has least enjoyed learning Chinese
characters and vocabulary and she finds it challenging for her to use the vocabulary in
speaking and writing tasks even after she has memorised them. In order to improve
Chinese language skills with regard to listening, speaking, reading and writing, she watches
some Chinese TV shows and listens to some Chinese songs to practice listening skills.
Role play tasks are used for students to work in groups and practise speaking skills. The
main reading materials and writing tasks are from the textbook (see Appendix 2). Generally,
the participant is satisfied with her achievements on Chinese because she says she can
complete the learning tasks in class, differentiate the tones of different characters and has
basic knowledge of writing Chinese characters. However, when she was asked to use
Chinese to say something, such as a simple self introduction, the only sentences she can
say are 'My name is .... ' and 'I like swimming.'. What's more, she can't understand and
answer the question related to the sentences she gave just now, such as 'What's your
name?', 'What is your hobby?', 'Do you like ...?' and 'Where have you been to?' which was

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EDUC5180 Learning and Additional Language Assignment 1- Case study JIN Man 110158709

written on the whiteboard in her classroom at that time (The sentences in the quotation
marks above were presented in Chinese during the interview). Moreover, she shows the
willing of continuing to learn Chinese in year 11. However, she plans to drop Chinese in
year 12 because she is afraid that she will not get high marks on Chinese and she prefers
other subjects which are more important and useful for her future study.

Data analysis
It can be seen from the interview data that the participant has interests in learning Chinese
culture and has learnt Chinese as her second language for ten years. This implies that she
is motivated and engaged in learning Chinese formally for a long time to some extent.
However, she will not continue to learn Chinese because the motivation of interests is not
strong enough when facing the reality that she need to get high marks and prepare for the
further study in year 12 and learning Chinese will not help her to achieve either of them.
This means that she rarely has opportunities to use the language outside classroom, in her
future study and career. The student's achievements, which she is quite satisfactory about
recently, are based on completing tasks in class and in the textbook. In contrast, even
though there are some learning tasks and activities provided in class for the students to
improve Chinese language skills in terms of listening, speaking, reading and writing, such
as watching Chinese movies and presenting role play, she faces difficulties in memorising
Chinese characters and vocabulary as well as using the language, either to listen to or to
speak, in a real communicative circumstance. It can be seen that the student's learning
experience of Chinese in class is enjoyable for her but the achievements and outcomes are
relatively poor.

Factors that have influenced the learner's progress

There are some factors that has shown in the interview data and analysis which may cause
negative outcomes of the student's Chinese learning experiences. Firstly, there are huge
differences between Chinese language and English in terms of component and constitution
of characters, grammatical structures, pronunciation system and so on. However, there are
no explanation and comparison of the two language can be seen either in language
function part in textbook (see Appendix 2) or in the learner's note (see Appendix 3). If the
student do not realise the differences between two languages and have basic knowledge of
Chinese language system, it may result in difficulties in Chinese language acquisition.
Lightbown and Spada (2013, p. 36) claim that the second language learner may make

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EDUC5180 Learning and Additional Language Assignment 1- Case study JIN Man 110158709

some mistakes due to the influence of existing knowledge of the first language. Examples
can be seen in the writing tasks (see Appendix 3) that sometimes the student tends to use
English sentence order when writing sentences in Chinese. Moreover, errors may be
generated because the learner do not have basic concept of constitution of Chinese
characters and hardly understand the components of Chinese characters (Liu & LoBianco
2007, p. 102). For instance, the character such as '' in the hand writing tasks (see
Appendix 3) are separated into two characters as '' and ''. Another example of
practising components of Chinese characters can be seen in the activity of spot the
similarities (see Appendix 3). This grouping task may be completed without understanding
the concept of Chinese characters even by students who do not know Chinese at all, see
the characters as 'pictures' and group the character with similarity parts. It seems that
lacking knowledge of Chinese language and differences from learners' first language may
result in obstacles in learning Chinese characters, vocabulary and developing Chinese
writing skills.

Secondly, the textbook and resources are insufficient or use inappropriately to support
positive learning outcomes. There are limited readings and practice in the textbook to help
students memorise the new vocabulary. Experts state that the acquisition of basic
vocabulary is essential in the process of learning second language and learners can not
establish a new word in memory and use it in speaking and writing before the frequent
meaningful encounters with it (Lightbown & Spada 2013, p. 64). When looking at the
dialogues in the textbook (see Appendix 2), it can be found that some conversations are not
supposed to happen in the real life and some complex vocabulary are presented in the
short and simple sentences and contexts as new words, which means students can hardly
understand the new words in context and learn how to use them. In this case, students
memorise the meanings, pronunciations and writing of new words according to the
vocabulary list after chapters in groups of topics or at the end of the textbook in alphabetical
order in which way the memorising of the vocabulary is meaningless and may not lead to
positive learning outcomes. Moreover, in the textbook, Chinese culture is presented
separately from language learning tasks during the student's learning experience. For
example, information about Chinese painting is presented in English as the extra reading
attached at the end of the chapter (see Appendix 2). In this way, students may only get
some fragile and vague information of Chinese painting which has no contribution to either

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EDUC5180 Learning and Additional Language Assignment 1- Case study JIN Man 110158709

Chinese vocabulary extension nor Chinese reading skills. Another example can be seen
from using Chinese movies as a learning resource in class. It can be conclude from the
interview data that if the movies and TV shows are used without specific learning purposes
and adequate pedagogical planning (Orton 2008, p. 34), it may not result in positive
outcome in language learning. It implies that using cultural and media materials
inappropriately may lead the students to learn the language and get the cultural information
separately which is not helpful to improve language skills and some problems in textbooks
and learning materials may result in negative learning outcomes.

Thirdly, classroom activities and tasks provided for the learner are limited and inefficient.
Orton (2008, p. 33) agrees that insufficient practice materials for the development of oral,
listening, reading and writing skills is a significant factor in Chinese language education in
Australian schools. An example can be seen from interview data that some listening tasks
such as listening to Chinese TV shows and Chinese songs are not efficient to improve
listening skills. This is because the levels of language used in conversation in the TV show
may hardly match those in the textbook for second language learners and the vocabulary
as well as language styles in songs are different from formal learning materials. In this case,
learners can not acquire useful knowledge and practise vocabulary in learning activities
which may reduce the opportunities for learners to enhance their language skills
(Lightbown & Spada 2013, p. 39). Furthermore, writing tasks seem inefficient as well.
According to the writing task (see Appendix 3), sometimes the learner initially write in
English and then translating into Chinese to complete writing Chinese passages. Similarly,
some activities such as word hunt (see Appendix 3) are based on translating and finding
the characters. There are seldom understanding and using of the language engaged in the
tasks. It implies that even though the learner may complete the tasks in class and feel
happy with these achievements, the ability of using the language is still limited.

Moreover, the learner needs more time and opportunities to develop and practise language
skills. Although the participant in this study have learnt Chinese in school for ten years, it
may still not enough for satisfactory outcomes due to the limited period of class time and
inefficient learning experience. Liddicoat (2001, p. 12) found that Australian schools were
reducing time of second language class for students to develop English literacy. However,
LoBianco (2009, p. 8) claims that in the school-based context, second language acquisition
is cumulatively sequenced and one hour class time per week is obviously in sufficient for

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EDUC5180 Learning and Additional Language Assignment 1- Case study JIN Man 110158709

students to learn Chinese in Australian schools (Orton 2008, p. 14). Allied to this, the
learner has less opportunities to use the language outside the classroom. According to
Lobianco (2009, p. 9), English plays a dominant role in academic research, international
business and other fields in the world. Therefore the learner may find little chances to use
Chinese in the real life and therefore choose other subjects instead of Chinese.

Possible ways forward

It can be seen that the factors discussed above have negative impact on the learner's
learning progress and achievement. Although experts states that learning a second
language will not deter the English literacy achievements but may enhance the
development of English literacy skills (Liddicoat 2001, p. 12; LoBianco 2001, p. 9), there are
few things that second language teachers can do to change the school policies such as
extending second language class time.

However, second language teachers should improve actual pedagogical practice and
provide appropriate learning materials to encourage learning efficiency and facilitate
learners' Chinese learning experience. Firstly, it is important for language teachers to help
learners build metalinguistic awareness, which may allow students to talk about and reflect
the nature and concept of a language consciously and help learners transfer the linguistic
knowledge between languages (Lightbown & Spada 2013, p. 38; Liddicoat 2001, p. 13).
This means that Chinese language teachers should teach not only the language but also
language as a concept (Liddicoat 2001, p. 15), involve instructions and explanations of the
nature of the language and make explicit the differences and similarities between Chinese
and English. In this case, the learner may understand what is Chinese and why it looks and
sounds like this. Secondly, language teachers should prepare more readings and other
materials purposely to help student tackle the difficulties in memorising Chinese vocabulary.
Lightbown and Spada (2013, p. 63) claim that several times of encountering a word in a
meaningful context and using it attentively in productive tasks are necessary for learners to
establish it in memory firmly. In this case, extra activities and practice should be selected
carefully and provided to encourage learners to see, hear and understand the new word in
the context. Thirdly, learning resources such as cultural information and media materials
should be incorporated into learning tasks to enhance communicative skills rather than
presented separately. This requires teachers to choose the section of movies or other
resources intentionally which may not only help students get the knowledge of informal

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EDUC5180 Learning and Additional Language Assignment 1- Case study JIN Man 110158709

language used in social setting other than those formal words in textbook but also engage
learners in activities and scaffold chances to use the language

In conclusion, according to the interview and data analysis, although the learner shows the
positive attitude toward the Chinese learning experience in Australian secondary school,
there are some factors, such as a lack of concept knowledge of the language, insufficient
resources and ineffective learning tasks and activities, that have negative impact on
student's learning achievements and outcomes. Therefore, language teachers in Australian
schools should improve their pedagogical practice in terms of involving discussion of the
nature and concept of the language, incorporating various materials to enhance vocabulary
learning and improve language skills and providing more opportunities for learners to use
the language and communicate. However, this essay is based on the interview data of one
individual learner in a particular Australian secondary school. Therefore, there may be
limitations when considering individual differences of learners and further study and
research is needed.

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EDUC5180 Learning and Additional Language Assignment 1- Case study JIN Man 110158709

References

Liddicoat, A 2000, 'Learning a language, learning to be literate', Babel, vol. 35, no. 3, pp.
12-15.

Lightbown, PM & Spada, N 2013, How languages are learned, Oxford University Press,
Oxford.

Liu, GQ & LoBianco, J 2007, 'Teaching Chinese, teaching in Chinese, and teaching the
Chinese', Language Policy, vol. 6, pp. 95-117.

LoBianco, J 2001, 'One literacy or double power?', Babel, vol. 35, no. 3, pp. 4-11.

LoBianco, J 2009, Second Languages and Australian Schooling, Australian Education

Review, Australian Council for Educational Research, viewed 16 April 2016,
<http://research.acer.edu.au/aer/8/>

Orton, J 2008, 'Chinese language education in Australian schools', PhD thesis, Melbourne
Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne.

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EDUC5180 Learning and Additional Language Assignment 1- Case study JIN Man 110158709

Appendix 1: interview questions

1. Tell me about your experience of learning Chinese at secondary school

a. When did you start (if yr10, 11, 12, any changes?differences?)
b. Why did you choose it
c. What were your initial thoughts about studying language at high school?
2. What have you enjoyed most in learning Chinese?

3. What have you least enjoyed about learning Chinese?

4. How would you describe your achievements in learning Chinese?(What are you learning/ did you learn?
How? How do you feel? Why?)
Are you happy with your achievements on Chinese (Listening, speaking, reading, writing)?
Are you making progress? OR holding back?
a. can you share with me a sample of your Chinese exercise book & a sample of a writing task
you have completed? (like? feel personal connection? control of learning?)
b. Can you share with me a sample of assessment?(assessment pieces)(understand? helpful?)
c. Can you say something to me in Chinese?
d. Ill ask you some questions and you can respond in Chinese.

5. What are some of the challenges you have experienced in learning Chinese?

6. How long do you intend to study Chinese ? Why ?

7. Do you think it is important for you to continue to study Chinese?

Why/why not?

8. Do you think your Chinese learning will be important for your future?
If so, in what ways? If not, why not?

9. Is there anything else you would like to share about your experience of learning Chinese?

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EDUC5180 Learning and Additional Language Assignment 1- Case study JIN Man 110158709

Appendix 2: Sample pages in the textbook

Dialoges:

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EDUC5180 Learning and Additional Language Assignment 1- Case study JIN Man 110158709

Reading for culture information:

Reading and writing tasks:

Function part:

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EDUC5180 Learning and Additional Language Assignment 1- Case study JIN Man 110158709

Appendix 3: The student's writing and notes

Writing passages:

Spot the similarities:

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EDUC5180 Learning and Additional Language Assignment 1- Case study JIN Man 110158709

Word hunt:

Student's note:

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