Class scheduling and tutor support

All participants studying MFL in China attended about 20-24 formal hours of MFL tuition per week. Classes were held in the mornings from Monday to Friday. All participants were full-time students devoted to MFL as their main subject in China. The MFL courses were presented according to four basic components which match the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and composition. Each of these was presented in different classes (or parts of classes). In addition, a comprehensive class was presented. It is in this class that grammar is taught and the class is usually presented by a senior (best qualified and experienced) lecturer. This teaching model commenced in the 1980s at BLCU and is characterised by the separate classes dedicated to the four language skills respectively. The model has been followed by most other institutions (Lu & Zhao 2011:125-126).

Turkish student Fatima was a 3rd year student in her home country. Turkish and Mandarin were her majors and she had attended BLCU for a semester at the time of the interview. She commented: “I have noticed something. Some new words appear in comprehensive course;

these words are also arranged in the spoken course and the listening course but in different order. If I forget them, I can pick it up in other lessons. It is very good way, I think.” This

reinforcement of new vocabulary through repetition in different parts of the MFL course is a common teaching strategy used in MFL in China and was also confirmed by my experience as

lecturer of MFL in China (see 1.4). The listening, speaking, reading and composition classes all form part of an intensive study programme for MFL students.

In contrast, this model of teaching for MFL is not used in South Africa. In South Africa, all four universities offer MFL only as elective courses which means that students choose and study Mandarin as one of several subjects. Thus, the dedicated focus on MFL is lacking. Tuition time ranges between 3 and 5 hours per week plus 1 or 2 hours of practice. Classes are not scheduled strictly in the mornings; they can be scheduled as late as 16:00-17:00h in the afternoon which may mean that students are tired and less able to engage in strenuous foreign language study. SU has 3 hours of class time and 2 hours of practical classes per week. UCT has 5 hours of class time class and 2 hours of practical class per week. RU has 3 lectures, 1 tutorial and 1 practical session per week. Unisa is a distance teaching institution and so class hours are not applicable. South African students enrolled at UCT (Jill, Catherine and Nosi) had visited China for a summer camp for two and half weeks and they shared similar sentiments about the course structure at the home institution and at the summer camp. Catherine, a 1st year MFL student at UCT based her comparison of her experience on the summer camp. She explained: “The main

difference between the two country‟s Mandarin courses for me is that we had listening, speaking and reading courses in China. We were very nervous at first. This is main difference.”

However, hours allocated to MFL classes in South Africa are very similar to the allocation of class time for MFL at other institutions in countries outside of China. Participants interviewed in China who had studied MFL in their own countries before studying abroad in China confirmed this as follows:

“I had six hours MFL per week in Italy.”

“The Chinese class in Turkey also is good but the class times are very few.” “I had four hours per week MFL in Indonesia.”

“We go to MFL classes five days per week in America. We had seven hours per week class in total in America.”

“My MFL class hours in Israel were six to eight hours per week.”

“I had five lessons per week in Russia. One and half an hour is for each lesson.”

outside of China had + 10 hours of class time per week but this time allocation is far less than the 20 hours per week of MFL tuition in China.

In South Africa, courses are comprehensive or integrated and separate classes are not offered to develop oral, listening, reading and composition skills, the four main language skills. This experience echoes MFL practice in other countries as corroborated by participants currently studying in China. Illustrative comments on their reflections of MFL tuition received in their home countries follow:

“Most of the courses are comprehensive; we had oral courses but it was very few

in Turkey.”

“I had only one Chinese course called a Chinese lesson in my country (Thailand)

which is as same as comprehensive here (in China).”

“We did not have a composition course in Russia.”

“I did not have oral course in America, I did not know the difference between

spoken language and formal language in America.”

“We did not have many language courses in Israel. We only had reading course

and speaking, listening course. We did not have a composition course.”

Thus, the curriculum for MFL in China is very different from that of MFL provided in students‟ home countries including South Africa. Chinese institutions provide for the full-time or dedicated study of MFL with 20-24 hours of class time in the morning period per week; South Africa (and also institutions in other countries as described by the study-abroad participants) offer MFL as an elective course with 5-7 hours of tuition, often during the afternoon. Therefore, learning MFL in China is much more intense and rigorous. The four-skill curriculum in China also has an advantage over the single comprehensive curriculum followed in South Africa (and other countries). In particular, Chinese tones are unique among the languages and differ especially from European languages, including English. Therefore, speaking and listening requires special training and practice to learn the pronunciation and exercise the muscles of the mouth in new ways. Intensive study of Chinese characters is required for the improvement of reading and writing. From this perspective, China focuses on the communicative language teaching approach to develop communicative competence. In addition to the core curriculum, many Chinese language programmes at universities and

colleges have also designed various kinds of extra-curricular activities to strengthen the skills acquired in regular classroom settings.

In terms of tutor assistance, BLCU and TUST organise a social function at the beginning of every semester for MFL students and local Chinese students. The aim is to build relationships and connect foreign students with local students who can act as language tutors. Participants studying in China referred to the benefits of the tutor system. Mingyue is a 3rd year student from Thailand studying MFL for degree purposes at BLCU. He explained: “My University

[BLCU] has organised language partners for us. Some Chinese students want to study and practise Thai so we became friends.” This system of language partners gave him the

opportunity to use Mandarin outside of class in a social context. Indonesian students, Ajiao, Ahua and Luohao, confirmed this arrangement at TUST. Ajiao described the tutor relationship: “We have a tutor. The time is not the same every day, it depends. We do not need to pay; the

university helps us to study with tutors after class. At least one hour per day.” Luohao had a

similar experience at TUST: “I have two tutors. I do not need to pay because the university

organises it.” Other participants studying in China did not mention a peer tutor assigned by the

university, however, to find a suitable tutor in the community was not difficult. “I can find

Chinese friends easily to chat with on our campus and help me with homework,” Swedish

student Greta commented. A Russian girl, Anna, related: “I have Chinese friends and I like

talking with them. They help me a lot. They told me where I can buy clothes and where I can buy food.” Thus, tutoring within the Chinese context is not limited to formal university

arrangements but includes the dimension of friendship. The tutors, whether formal or informal, are Chinese nationals proficient in the language who are positively inclined to chat with their new foreign friends and share their lives within both the social and university contexts.

Each institution teaching MFL in South Africa besides Unisa has at least one tutor to assist or supervise students‟ practice of Chinese in addition to the lecturer. However, in the South African case, the tutor is also a lecturer or a volunteer, not a fellow student as in China. Another key difference is that tutoring takes place during a formal tutorial class held for one to two hours per week for all MFL students. For instance, SU has a Chinese tutorial for two hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays. UCT and RU present a one hour tutorial class with a lecturer or volunteer in charge each week; it focuses specifically on conversations. Students in South Africa may be unable to make the tutorial time due to other academic commitments and then

find it very difficult to identify a Chinese friend who can help them. Jill at UCT mentioned: “It

is difficult to find someone who can speak Mandarin. No Chinese friends.” Her classmate

shared her frustration: “It is quite difficult to find someone who can practise with us in Chinese.

It is very hard.” Even those students with Chinese-speaking friends find it challenging to

practise Mandarin in South Africa. Joy, a 1st year MFL student at UCT commented:

I do struggle. I do have few Chinese friends and Taiwanese [born] friends but most of them do not really speak Chinese or Taiwanese [proficiently]. If I speak Chinese, they will say, “Why do you speak this? You can speak English.”

Tutoring time is thus shorter, limited to a formal class and the time is shared by several students in South Africa unlike in China where students have a one-on-one relationship with tutors and this relationship is not limited to a formal class.