General linguistic environment

All participants studying MFL in China enjoyed a natural language environment within the Chinese community. Not only did they acquire Mandarin but were also introduced to Chinese culture: lifestyle, pastimes, food and customs. This was picked up informally during their day-to-day lives and did not rely on textbook information. All MFL students acquired basic interpersonal communication proficiency (BICS) (Cummins 2012) naturally after class hours. Thai student, Meihua, had already had six months of MFL study in her home country and approximately six months of study at BLCU for non-degree purposes. She related: “I hear the

Chinese language and can see the characters everywhere.” Swedish student, Greta compared

her study of MFL in China and her previous experience of MFL tuition in Sweden: “We get to

know the Chinese national customs in Beijing, but we only studied the characters in Sweden.”

Turkish student, Fatima concluded:

“I am not only studying the Chinese language but also the culture. The people [serving in the

canteen] always ask us, „今天你想吃什么?‟ [translated: „What do you want to eat today? and

using the canteen assistant‟s intonation]. It is very interesting. I have been able to get to know

the names of dishes while using the canteen.” Lisa, an Italian girl who had studied Mandarin

classroom. I had problems with my computer and my camera so I went to a place to repair them. I practised my Chinese with the people working in that place.” A South Korean boy, Jin

expressed his delight in life in Beijing:

The culture is different. It is very hot in the summer so I noticed some men are shirt-less which we do not do in Korea. I was interested in this. I also feel the Chinese are very interested in foreigners, but Koreans generally are not interested in foreigners. I have tasted China‟s rich culture here and it is not from my books but from real lives. I went to Jiangsu province which is the hometown of my friend last year. I was there for four days. It was festival time and I ate very strange food and attended a wedding. It was very interesting. I tasted very delicious food for free and took many photos. There were many beautiful girls!

Japanese student, Yilang, had lived in Tianjin for six years and was finishing his four years‟ B degree at NU at the time of the interview:

All Japanese feel the same. We speak Japanese quietly. Chinese people speak Chinese loudly so we thought they were quarrelling with each other in the beginning! But they were not. I have learned the sense of the language outside the university. For example, we bargain for the prices [when

shopping]. Here we learn the language from real life.

Joe, an American student commenced Mandarin studies in 2007 in his home country. Chinese and linguistics were his majors at his American institution. In 2010 he visited BLCU for summer courses as part of a government project. At the time of the interview, he had attended NU to improve his Mandarin skills for about a year.

He told me his story:

An unforgettable experience did not take place in Tianjin. During spring festival my friend took me to his hometown in Guizhou province. His home was in a village and that was the first time I experienced village life in China. I saw

some people who are not educated and I grasped something of real life in China. I was touched by the local customs. I could never learn this from a textbook.

During data collection I attended a MFL class on the last day of the first semester at NU: a period allocated for students‟ speeches. I was surprised at the insights shown by the American student Joe who demonstrated his familiarity with intimate aspects of Chinese life, for example, women‟s control of family income, issues concerning the one-child policy, the importance of eating in Chinese life, the custom of saving money and elderly folk‟s fondness for dancing in public areas. Certainly he could never have learned about these aspects of Chinese life and customs from a textbook. Similarly, a South African student from Unisa, David who had spent a year in China as an English teacher reported: “Chinese people speak loudly. They just say „服 务员‟ [a colloquialism meaning waiter or waitress] in the restaurant.” His intonation was typical of a native Chinese-speaker yet this intonation is not taught in the formal classroom. The formal phrase in textbooks reads: 你好! 我要吃 … [Hello, may I have… ]; however, this polite form is not frequently used in real life. These experiences are typical of the dominant L2 setting in China (see Table 2.3) in which the L2 is the native language of the majority of the population and is used in all domains in everyday life (Ellis 1994:13). MFL participants were expected to acquire the dominant language, either inside or outside the classroom, in order to take part in mainstream society (Siegel 2007:141).

Furthermore, the logistical arrangements for MFL classroom tuition in China at all selected universities were well-organised and stable. MFL students are taught in a specific classroom which is used only by MFL students and many classrooms are decorated to promote language learning. For example, on my visit to a „high‟ level MFL class at NU (21 June 2012), a brightly coloured notice on the classroom wall read：请说普通话，不要说母语！ Translated this means:

Please speak Mandarin; not your mother tongue! Other notices encouraged students: “美文欣

赏” [Enjoy the beautiful article!] and“我喜欢这些电影” [I like these movies]. The Chinese characters reinforced the students‟ learning and encouraged student discourse on specific topics. In this way, the classroom environment was designed to be part of a natural language environment for MFL students. In addition, the enrolment of students does not fluctuate and a

class representative is appointed to facilitate contact among students and between students and lecturers. Clearly, participants had an optimal opportunity to learn in China (Cooper 1990:159). The classroom environment described here is typical of the „natural approach‟ in which teachers create situations in the classroom that are intrinsically motivating for students (Richards & Rodgers 2001:178). In China, the „natural approach‟ is embedded in society, irrespective of the approach used in the classroom. Living in China is like living in an immense language laboratory: MFL students acquire communicative skills, develop contextual understanding and increase vocabulary. This is a huge benefit and adds to enjoyment of language learning.

In contrast, the experience of many MFL students in South Africa is a lonely one. The interviews indicated that although students spend more time in intense study of formal course material, they feel isolated. Firstly, this sense of loneliness is felt in the classroom where the relationship among the MFL students is not close. As the students are involved in different study programmes and different subjects, they only gather for Mandarin classes and do not know each other well. Linda and Lisa are in the 1st year Mandarin class at SU yet they were unsure of the class numbers and uncertain of how many students regularly attend the class. Tony is a 3rd year student at SU and his best friend is also in his MFL class: “We are very good

friends but I don‟t really know many other people in the class.” Unisa students participating in

the study do not know each other as tuition is by distance education. Annie who has been studying MFL for two years at Unisa is intensely interested in her course. Her enjoyment of her studies is also evident. However, she said: “I do not know other students. I only see them during

the exam sessions. There were two rows of desks for Mandarin students and I have never had contact with the others.” Thus, the journey towards MFL proficiency is an isolated one. In

South Africa it is very difficult for MFL students to find someone who can converse in Mandarin with them after class. Pease, who has studied Mandarin for two years at SU said:

For me, many South Africans do not know China well. If I tell my friend that I am studying Chinese, they ask, „What is Chinese?‟ They feel there is only one country in the East. They do not distinguish between China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. It is difficult. It‟s like I am studying alone. But I have American friends who study Chinese in America. There are many people studying Chinese in

America. They all have a warm heart for China. This helps them improve their Chinese skills as they are not alone.

Tony, a 3rd year student at SU, said: “I come from Cape Town. For me the greatest difficulty is

that we do not have so many places to study Chinese. We only have the University of Cape Town and the University of Stellenbosch.” Attendance of a summer camp in China for two and

half weeks in China financed by the Confucius Institute made South African students at UCT and SU even more aware of the loneliness of their language learning experience back home. UCT student Nosi compared the learning experiences in Chinese and South African contexts. She said:

The main reason is that we are in South Africa instead of China. We don‟t see a lot of Chinese in South Africa. You have to seek it out. So there isn‟t an environment of learning Chinese. It is much easier in China because you are surrounded by Chinese. It is unlike South Africa - we are like a „foreign country.‟ It is very difficult to learn for Chinese are not around you everywhere. We are only exposed to Chinese in the class and not outside of the class.

Phumi commented on this experience:

Xiamen‟s [the name of the university visited in China] environment is better than here. We can always speak in Chinese. The big difference is we only study Chinese and do not have other subjects. I was a full-time Chinese language student in Xiamen. Chinese is our elective course in Stellenbosch. My Chinese was improved a lot in Xiamen because I studied every day. I am improving slowly here because I have other subjects.

Peter has been studying MFL for more than ten years in South Africa and he has worked diligently at his Mandarin studies. His feelings of loneliness were more intense than that of the other students. He said:

This is what makes me so sad. This eventually made my learning very slow. The journey is very lonely in South Africa. It is very, very lonely! I mean when I took Mandarin at Unisa, I remember going for the exams at the big hall at the show grounds where we write. There were maybe five or six people writing Mandarin with me. But on the second year level, when I wrote MAN-201 or 202, in a hall of 3000 students, they‟re writing maths, accounting and all sorts of other things. I was the only student writing MAN-202. I started the Mandarin because of the challenge. It was the mountain that no one else wants to climb. What I have learned is it is not the mountain I thought it was but it is something that not many people do. And the question is why don‟t people do it? I believe one of the answers which I never thought about in the beginning is that it is lonely. Well, in this environment, if I was in China, I would not be lonely because everyone is Chinese. One of the reason I have not stopped learning is I wanted the privilege of saying that I can connect to that world. Others cannot connect but I can. But unfortunately in South Africa I found that after many years‟ trying, I still struggle to connect to it. I still can‟t make that jump. In spite of maximum inputs, there aren‟t enough resources to take me to that next step.

Due to the isolation, several students lose some of their motivation.

In addition, MFL classrooms in South African institutions are not exclusively designated to MFL courses; lecture halls are multi-purpose venues. Thus, lecturers are not able to put up displays depicting Chinese culture or characters in the classroom. MFL students may be located in different colleges or faculties; they are studying their own subjects and thus have little opportunity to build relationships in the classrooms. Further, they do not have a class representative. Finally, they are not immersed in a Chinese linguistic and cultural environment. According to Table 2.3, the South African students find themselves in an external L1 setting in which a language not generally used for everyday communication in society (i.e. Mandarin) is learned in the classroom by usually monolingual L1 speakers. Mandarin is a language spoken in distant China. UCT student Nosi put it this way:

a lot of Chinese in South Africa. You have to seek it out. So there isn‟t an environment of learning Chinese. It is much easier in China because you are surrounded by Chinese. It is unlike South Africa – we are like a „foreign country.‟ It is very difficult to learn for Chinese are not around you everywhere. We are only exposed to Chinese in the class and not outside of the class.

In this setting, the opportunity to learn Mandarin is very limited. Regarding incentives to learn, there are no bursaries available for students learning MFL; the subject is optional and Mandarin is not a requirement to obtain a matriculation certificate, admission to university or in most cases for a job. The only incentive is individual motivation. In South Africa, it is a challenge to create an authentic language environment for MFL students in the classroom and after class. Mandarin Chinese is a foreign language in South Africa and access to native speakers is minimal.