Mainland Chinese students' multilingual experiences during cross-border studies in a Hong Kong university: from a language ideological perspective

This paper reports the findings of a qualitative study on a group of mainland Chinese students' multilingual experiences during their cross-border studies in a Hong Kong university from a language ideological perspective. Drawing on in-depth interviews as the primary dataset, the study investig...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of multilingual and multicultural development Vol. 43; no. 8; pp. 715 - 730
Main Author Sung, Chit Cheung Matthew
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Routledge 14.09.2022
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Asian students
Bilingualism
Cantonese
Chinese languages
College students
Colleges & universities
Ecolinguistics
Ecology
Educational Experience
English (Second Language)
English language
Foreign Countries
Foreign Students
Ideology
language and identity
language as commodity
Language Attitudes
Language ideologies
Language ideology
Language Proficiency
Language Role
Linguistic identity
Mandarin
Mandarin Chinese
Multilingualism
Native Language
power relations
Power Structure
Qualitative research
Second Language Learning
Self Concept
Sino Tibetan Languages
Social Integration
Social Status
Student Attitudes
Undergraduate Students
Hong Kong
China
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Summary:This paper reports the findings of a qualitative study on a group of mainland Chinese students' multilingual experiences during their cross-border studies in a Hong Kong university from a language ideological perspective. Drawing on in-depth interviews as the primary dataset, the study investigated the language ideologies held by the participants about Cantonese, Putonghua and English. Findings indicated that while the participants espoused a distinct set of language ideologies about Cantonese, Putonghua and English underlying their multilingual experiences in the university, the ideology of language as identity and the ideology of language as commodity emerged as the two major language ideologies. It was also revealed that the ideological tensions arising from the co-existence of the multiple and competing language ideologies resulted in the participants' ambivalences in their use of, and/or investment in, particular languages. Findings also point to the role of the participants' language ideologies in maintaining the social hierarchy of languages within the local language ecology and reproducing the group boundaries between local and mainland Chinese students.
ISSN:0143-4632
1747-7557
DOI:10.1080/01434632.2020.1767632