The dynamics of Chinese learning journeys: a longitudinal study of adult learners of Mandarin in Australia

Abstract

This thesis concerns the nature and development of adult learners' involvement with learning and using Mandarin Chinese in the long term. It examines the interweaving and layering of different settings and different kinds of learning activity in the course of individual learning journeys. The enquiry looks beyond the relatively homogeneous student groups in the Chinese classrooms and lecture halls of large metropolitan universities, and instead gives a voice to the experience of people learning Chinese who are based in country areas, who choose distance learning, who are older, and who study part-time or independently for many years. In conceptualising the dynamics of the language learning journey, the study draws upon aspects of complexity theory, which seeks to understand processes of change in complex adaptive systems by emphasising non-linearity, heterochrony, dynamic relationships and patterning. A 5-year multi-layered longitudinal qualitative case study was conducted with participants who had previous experience of Chinese learning, and of distance learning. Surveys provided extensive reflective data from the larger groups of 41 and 26 participants. To complement this, more frequent in-depth interviews and other activities were conducted with a group of 7 participants, yielding richly contextualised learner stories. In presenting, comparing and analysing the findings, extensive use is made of graphic and narrative techniques. Novel methods of multiple timeline analysis are presented, and the concept of dynamic activity patterns, which link past activity and future plans in respect to particular practices is introduced. The role of individual agency and of desire in identifying opportunities for learning and using Chinese is noted, and the significance of fallow periods within individual learning trajectories is explored from an identity perspective. The influence and effects of long-term Chinese learning in current times, both on individual learners, and through them upon the various contexts and communities which they inhabit, is considered. This research contributes to current scholarly discussion of the language learning which occurs beyond the classroom and in increasingly hybrid settings. Furthermore, within the rapidly expanding disciplinary field of Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL), it contributes a better understanding of the efforts, feelings, practices and contexts of individual long-term learners.