Ideologies about Teaching Chinese in American Public Schools

My topic was to investigate what local ideologies exist about teaching Chinese in American public schools. The Monterey Bay Area has a rich history of culture and language. Japanese farmers inhabited the Salinas Valley for many years, and Chinese fishermen sailed the bay waters in search of sardines until the population of the small fish dwindled and tourism proved to be a better business model. Today, the most recognizable language present in the landscape is Spanish, with the majority of jobs in agriculture held by native Spanish speakers. While situated only two hours south of San Francisco, home to one of the largest Chinese communities in the United States, I was curious what the beliefs are about the Chinese language in Monterey and the surrounding communities. Would proximity to San Francisco and increased visibility of Chinese visitors influence how the local population feels about Chinese language programs in American public schools?

Monterey calls itself the language capital of the world, home to the Defense Language Institute, Middlebury Institute of International Studies, and the Naval Post Graduate School. There is a large population of Chinese students (native and non-native), and the community is aware of how much these two institutions bring to the local economy every year. If more people in the area spoke Chinese, it could create more opportunities for business in the form of education and tourism. According to Street (2015) “in 2014, nearly 2.2 million visitors from China traveled to the U.S.–up more than 21% from the year before, according to the Office of Travel and Tourism Industries. The Chinese spent almost $24 billion last year, outpacing their 2013 spending by 12.6” (p. 1). With MIIS admitting numerous students from China every year, and the DOD increasing their focus on foreign language education, would people feel that local public schools would also benefit from making Chinese language programs available to students? This is important because Chinese is a major world language, and a large number of students with Chinese proficiency as a skillset could create new jobs. This research paper attempts to answer these questions, and gain a general understanding of the attitudes and beliefs in the Central Coast about Chinese.

I gathered data from thirty randomly selected individuals at the Pacific Grove Farmer’s market on February 15, 2016 with a survey. The survey contained seven general questions that aimed to gather information about local ideologies concerning Chinese language programs in American public schools. Background data was not collected for the participants, however they ranged in age from college students to retirees and were of varying ethnicities. I introduced myself to the participants as a graduate student at MIIS working on a research project, and said I was conducting a survey on local ideologies about teaching foreign languages in public schools. I expressed clearly that I had no personal investment in the survey, and would the participants please just answer the questions “how they felt”. In spite of my preface, some of the participants expressed that computer science was more important than language programs, then looked at me and said, “I’m sorry”. Only three or four of the participants did this, and I’m not sure why they believed I was in favor of having language programs represented in the Monterey Bay area considering my neutral introduction. I have an American accent, and believe people felt comfortable completing the questionnaire accurately, not writing what they thought I wanted to hear. However, they may have felt pressured to exaggerate the importance of language programs had I approached them with an accent.

The first question asked the participants to compare which languages and programs they would most like to see funded in local public high schools. People consistently selected Computer Science and Sign Language programs to be added to local curriculum. Sixteen people said they would most like to see Sign Language added to local public schools, computer science was second with nine, and Chinese was third with five. No one wanted a Rugby program added. I found this interesting because while not a spoken language, signing is a language. I did not find it surprising that participants would choose sign language or computer science over Chinese, because Americans typically associate Chinese with corporate culture and big business, which is not prevalent in Monterey. Computer science was not a surprise as Monterey is situated less than two hours south of Silicon Valley, and a more tangible market for jobs.

Only two out of thirty people said they were uncomfortable with American public schools offering Chinese programs. Farmers’ markets are typically supported by a liberal culture, so this was not a surprise. The question, “how important is it to have Chinese language programs in local public schools?” revealed another consistent response. People thought that it was important, with over half saying it was somewhat important. Eleven people thought it was very important, and only three people thought that it was not important at all. All thirty participants thought learning Chinese was very difficult or somewhat difficult, so there is a strong reason to suspect this influenced their response to the other questions on the survey.

Twenty-one thought that the main benefit of learning Chinese is introducing students to a new culture. Eight thought that learning Chinese would make students more competitive in the global market, and only one thought there would be no benefit to learning Chinese. I was surprised to discover that more participants did not consider how learning Chinese could make someone more competitive in the global economy. The need for quality Chinese programs is understood at the highest levels of power in this country, as voiced by Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-CT). Chmelynski (2006) stated “the rise of China comes with a whole set of challenges. But the ability to talk to and understand each other should not be among them”. Lieberman said at a press event announcing the U.S.-China Cultural Engagement Act. “Providing our children with the opportunity to understand the Chinese language and culture will help ensure they have a better chance of succeeding in the global economy” (p 60-61). While not everyone was thinking about the global economy, it was clear that all of the participants perceived that there was value in learning Chinese. Seven thought that the main benefit would be to make students more competitive during the college application process.

One of the questions asked participants to “rank the importance of the following language programs in public schools”. Twenty-one participants considered Spanish the most important language program in

the U.S. Eight considered Chinese the most important language to teach, however nineteen of those who chose Spanish chose Chinese as the

second most important language program.

Despite considering Chinese the second most important language to teach in public schools, twenty-nine participants considered Chinese to be somewhat or very difficult. Would participants not want to add a new Chinese program because they believed it was too difficult to learn? Do people want Spanish programs in school because of lexical and orthographic similarities to English, or is it because of the Hispanic culture and language is a more tangible part of life in the U.S.? We know that Chinese is more difficult to learn than Spanish, but how much more difficult? Corcoran (2007) explained that “Chinese is identified as one of a handful of Category IV languages, the most difficult for English speakers to learn. In brief, it takes about three times as long for an English speaker to reach the same level of proficiency in Chinese as it would in Spanish or French” (p. 108).

The study revealed interesting data about whether or not people would support budget cuts from other programs such as the arts or sports to fund Chinese programs. The scores were almost evenly split between somewhat likely, somewhat unlikely, and very unlikely. Nineteen percent were in one of the unlikely categories, showing that Chinese is not important enough to redirect funds from existing high school programs. Some participants expressed that they wouldn’t support any budget cuts because schools were financially insecure and they didn’t want to see the quality of education decrease. The wording of this question may have created strong feelings, and interfered with it’s true intent which was not to decrease the budget of schools, but rather reallocate funds. People believe that Chinese is important, even though they think computer science and sign language are more important. On the topic of spoken language programs, Spanish was considered most important, and this is logical considering the growing population of Spanish speakers in the U.S.

The problems that I encountered included not having a large population sample, the environment in which the data was collected, and ambiguous language on two of the questions. To gain more insight about attitudes toward Chinese, a larger population would need to be sampled over more time. For this project, thirty surveys were collected in one evening. It would be helpful to have more responses to make a broader assertion about these ideologies. Also, the data collection method needs to be revised. I approached people at a Farmer’s Market, and perceived that many participants were disinterested, not taking time to consider each question carefully. People naturally wanted to enjoy food, buy groceries, and be with their families. They did not plan to answer seven questions about language programs in schools. This may have strongly influenced the data that I received. There was an ambiguous question that asked participants to rank language importance from one to six for Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, German, Korean, and French. Multiple participants filled it out incorrectly, however I had to explain that each language received one score, and no two languages could receive the same score. Many of the participants were reluctant to engage me when I approached, and it was obvious they did not give their full time and attention to the survey.

Undoubtedly, the influence of China in U.S. secondary education will continue to grow. According to Corcoran (2007) “the meteoric rise of China as a political and economic power in recent years, the related emphasis on Chinese from the U.S. government through such programs as the National Flagship Language Initiative, and the U.S. designation of Chinese as a critical language have all influenced the growing interest in studying Chinese. A particular important factor for schools was the decision by the College Board in 2004 to offer a Chinese AP test” (p. 107).

References

Street, C. (2015, August). Chinese Tourism, Hit by Crash, Could Affect Tourism. Breitbart.

Chmelynski, C. (2006, February). Teaching Chinese as Tomorrow’s Language. School Board News, 71(6), 59-63.

Corcoran, A. (2007, Fall). China Fever, Sustaining Chinese Language Programs in U.S. Independent Schools. School Matters, 67(1), 107-121.