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Yujia Jiang

University of the Fraser Valley, Canada

 

Abstract

There has been a relative lack of research on lived experiences of minority immigrant teachers in Canada, particularly on identity issues of immigrant Chinese teachers in Canadian universities. Drawing upon identity theories, this paper presents a case study conducted with five immigrant Chinese teachers of Mandarin at a public university in Greater Vancouver. It investigates whether and how these teachers introduce Chinese cultural information in their Mandarin classrooms and how such teaching practices intertwine with their identity construction and negotiation in response to multiple cultures. Qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews and classroom observations. The research findings suggest that the teachers strategically integrated cultural knowledge with language teaching based on students’ linguistic backgrounds and Chinese proficiency, and that the moments of their culture teaching foregrounded their cultural identity, ethnic identity, and professional identity as well as their 'third space' as a privilege to help students negotiate cultural differences. Further studies are encouraged to compare different groups of Chinese teachers teaching Chinese as a second language and to deepen our understandings of the richness of immigrant teachers’ identities.

 

Keywords

Mandarin teaching in Canada, culture teaching and language teaching, immigrant Chinese teacher, teacher identity

 

教师身份认同与国际汉语课堂上的文化教学：对加拿大大学中国移民汉语教师的个案研究

蒋宇佳

菲莎河谷大学，加拿大

 

摘要

目前加拿大对少数族裔移民教师生活经历的研究屈指可数，对加拿大大学中国移民教师身份认同问题的研究更是寥寥无几。作者结合‘身份认同’的诸多理论，对大温地区一所公立大学的五位中国移民汉语教师进行了个案研究，旨在调查这些教师是否以及如何在汉语课堂上介绍中国文化，如何在这样的教学实践中对受多国文化影响的自我身份进行定位和协调。通过对五位教师的半结构式访谈和课堂观察，作者发现他们均根据所教学生的语言背景和汉语水平有策略地将文化知识融入到语言教学当中；他们介绍中国文化的时刻凸显了他们的文化身份、族裔身份和职业身份，展示了他们充分利用自己‘第三空间’的优势来帮助学生调和文化差异。作者建议对不同类型的国际汉语教师进行更多的对比研究，以便加深我们对移民教师身份认同问题多方面的认知。

 

关键词

加拿大汉语教学，文化教学与语言教学，中国移民教师，教师身份认同