COMMUNICATING EMOTIONS IN L2 CHINESE: A MIXED-METHODS MULTIPLE CASE STUDY OF AMERICAN LEARNERS OF CHINESE STUDYING ABROAD IN CHINA
Open Access
- Author:
- Wu, Qian
- Graduate Program:
- Applied Linguistics
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- December 04, 2017
- Committee Members:
- Celeste Kinginger, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Celeste Kinginger, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Robert W. Schrauf, Committee Member
Ning Yu, Committee Member
Mari Haneda, Outside Member - Keywords:
- study abroad
Chinese as a second language
emotion language
Vygotskian sociocultural theory
mixed-methods research
case study - Abstract:
- The dissertation explored American sojourners’ Chinese language development and quality of experience when studying abroad in China. The linguistic focus–communication of emotion–is a key aspect of everyday interaction that has been little researched in L2 studies. With the aim to trace linguistic development along with reconstructing personal stories, the dissertation adopted a mixed-methods multiple case study design and the theoretical framework of Vygotskian sociocultural theory. By assessing 25 students’ abilities to recognize and express emotions in a video retell task across the semester and across housing types, the study quantitatively tested the effect of time and accommodation. Case studies of four students of diverse backgrounds qualitatively investigated the aspects of Chinese emotion expression the students developed by participating in contextualized practices with their Chinese interlocutors, the process of their linguistic development, the quality of their experience abroad as interpreted by all parties involved, and lastly the interplay of personal histories, perception of experience, and linguistic progress. Informed by Vygotskian sociocultural theory, the case studies followed the genetic method in tracing the history of the students’ Chinese emotional repertoire across the semester, thereby elucidating language developmental processes in situated oral interaction and in relation to their perception of the experience. The dissertation found that both group tendencies and individual cases supported the benefit of study abroad for emotion language development. However, the four cases presented variability and diversity regarding the aspects of emotion repertoire highlighted (e.g. fear-related emotion, body part emotion metaphors), contextualized practices involved (e.g. conversational narratives, language play), qualities of mediational means in situated interaction, and ultimately, developmental trajectories. Three aspects were identified as potential mediators of their sojourn experience, respectively the quality of interpersonal relationship with the Chinese roommates or host family, self- and other-positioning of racial and ethnic identities, and personal goals in the naturalistic context vis-à-vis classroom requirement. Overall, the dissertation argues that sojourners’ linguistic learning and quality of experience is a complex interplay among personal goals, dispositions, individual histories, perceptions, participation in linguistic practices, and interpersonal dynamics among all parties concerned. The insights from the dissertation not only shed light on future research design (e.g. the merit of mixed-methods), but also bear significant implications for pedagogical practices and study abroad program design, including curriculum gaps involving language required in naturalistic context but not emphasized in classrooms (e.g. narrative, pragmatics of eating), pedagogical interventions that could facilitate students’ understanding (e.g. concept-based instruction), pedagogical interventions that connect in- and out-of-class learning, and training for Chinese roommates and host families to promote intercultural awareness.