Learning Chinese in a Multilingual Space

Book excerpt: This book examines the benefits of an Australian in-country study (ICS) in China programme and explores ways to maximise the short-term ICS experience in a multilingual space. The book employs an ecological perspective which has seldom been used to examine the study abroad context. It emphasises the importance of the space itself as an arena of interaction, belonging and power, where conduct and modes of communication are often regulated by political authorities and societal expectations. Specifically, the book focuses on the following: • the extent to which the ICS facilitated interaction in different settings • the way in which interaction during ICS contributed to language learning • the degree in which the interaction during ICS contributed to culture learning and • the role of identity in the learning process in the ICS. The main argument of the book is that while the ICS promoted multilingual learning space for in-class and out-of-class interactions, which further facilitated language and culture learning to a great extent, Australian students’ identities and self-concepts also played a core mediating role throughout individual learning trajectories.