This study investigates the patterns of language use among a selected group of Chinese students in a Chinese Heritage Language school in urban Montreal, Quebec. Observation and interview are used as tools for the inquiry. Language socialization and social identity theories provide a framework for the data interpretation. Classroom interactions are examined in terms of the patterns of language use between teachers and students, students to teachers, and students to students. The emergent findings in the study suggest that teachers use mainly Chinese when addressing students and students use mainly Chinese when addressing their teachers. However, the patterns change when students are addressing each other. French and English are preferred in their peer to peer social interactions. As 'Chinese language' is a broad term, covering several different regionalects and dialects, it is taken into consideration that the students' home language may be very different from the standard language, Mandarin, which is taught at the school. In addition, the age of arrival to Canada, the desire for peer recognition and identification with the mainstream culture, and the forces of socialization as factors which affect the children's language use and their maintenance of their mother tongue are examined. Finally, the concept of speech community, a sociolinguistic concept, is applied to the discussion of how the patterns of those Chinese children's language use are shaped and may be interpreted.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.29801 |
| Date | January 1999 |
| Creators | Curdt-Christiansen, Xiao Lan. |
| Contributors | Maguire, Mary (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Department of Second Language Education.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001672231, proquestno: MQ54221, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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