On the Discursive Construction of ‘The Chinese Learner’

Characterisations of ‘the Chinese learner’ in education and applied linguistics have frequently taken a ‘large culture’ approach, which involves describing the values, attitudes and learning practices of individuals in terms of fixed, homogeneous, reified national cultures. A shared Confucian cultural heritage is offered by way of explanation for supposedly consistent Chinese behaviours in Western classrooms. This paper examines some features of the deficit model of Chinese learner discourse attributed to Confucian cultural heritage (passive, lacking critical thinking, reliant on simplistic rote memorisation strategies resulting in surface learning, unwilling to participate in classroom talk), and refers to research findings which propose alternative characterisations and alternative explanations rooted in social and contextual factors. An alternative approach based on post-structuralist, critical pedagogy and cultural studies perspectives is considered which focuses on ‘small culture’ explanations for the behaviours of Chinese learners abroad. Situated identity is a key concept in this approach; the influence of national culture on individual values and behaviour through socialisation in shared educational practices is moderated or disrupted as the individual learner is transplanted into a different context. Agency is recognised as learners attempt to negotiate new identities for themselves in a more or less alien environment.