A Study Of American Chinese Communication

From a macroscopic view of various aspects of the Chinese language spread in the United States of America and based on the entire United States language ecology system, this study reviewed United States language policy, the history of Chinese language spread in United States, and the Chinese language teaching status at all levels from K-12 to graduate and post-graduate schools. In addition, the institutional support to the Chinese language spread ranging from Sino-US Government of Chinese spread policies and corresponding promotional programs and projects to the communication media and pop culture in Chinese language has been investigated and examined. The causes and factors of Chinese language spread and their mutual relationship, mutual effects and the roles were analyzed and discussed.By applying ecology of language theory, theories of language vitality and theories of language spread framework as the theoretical foundations, the dissertation adopted variety of research methodologies and approaches in this study, such as literature and document study, comparative quantitative analysis. factor analysis method, mathematical statistics and field study. According to Cooper’s language spread research framework, the language spread is the process of language to win more users, which is a social phenomenon that occurs in a particular time and space. The research of language spread is to answer the questions-- "who, what, when, where, why, and how." The scope of this dissertation involved every aspect of the framework. But the focus is on the "who", the "why" and the "how". The "Who" is to answer questions about demographic factors. The "why" question concerns the reason of Chinese language spread. While the "how" is about the way and the means to make the language spread.In the world of economic globalization and political multi-polarization and cultural diversity, a language, such as Chinese, spreads dramatically fast in the United States in the past twenty years. From a macro point of view, the major and the most important factors affecting the spread of Chinese language are:A. The hard and soft power of rising China. B. The total population in learning and using the Chinese language. C. language institutional system to support the Chinese language, D. the value and attraction of Chinese language itself. The strength and power of China in the international community is the fundamental corner stone for the language to spread; The population of native language speaker and the language learner lays the basis for the language spread. Language value for international politics, global labor markets and business activities influences the mainstream language ideology and language choices. The institutional support propels the language spread. The four factors discussed above are decisive to the vitality of the language in the process of the language spread. Thus those factors are defined as "language vitality factors" in the dissertation. Any language that predominates in the above four language vitality factors must be relatively stronger and more vital in language spread.This study found that Chinese language in the United States are dominant in the four language vitality factors. The dissertation concluded that Chinese language in the United States has powerful vitality and dynamism of international spread. The Chinese language spread in United States is on the rise.Based on the research on Chinese language spread in the United States, the dissertation constructed a paradigm of vitality of Chinse language globalization, which consists of the following factors that affect the vitality of the Chinese language spread in the United states:1. The hard and soft power of China.2. The values of Chinse Language.1) Chinse Language status in the international community.2) The value of Chinse Language in the global arena.3. Demographic factors.1) The population of native Chinese language speakers in the United States.2) The population of the Chinse language learners in the United States.3) The total population speaking the Chinese language.4. Institution support system for Chinese language.1) The Chinse language policy of United States.2) Teaching institutions and teaching resources for Chinese language.3) Institutions and organizations that use the language.4) Mass media in Chinese Language.5) Books, government documents and publications in Chinese language.In addition to the paradigm, a new view of Chinese globalization has been initiated in the dissertation:Chinese language globalization should be based on locale conditions of the country. Promote Chinese language only for the needs of the country. So the Chinese language spread can go in harmonious way and can mutually benefit both China and the country that accepts Chinese language.This study provides a case on Chinese spread in the United States. But the paradigm can be applied to the study of Chinese language spread in other English-speaking countries. Thus this dissertation enriches the theory of language spread across countries. In addition, this study can serve as reference for the Chinese Government and the United States to make Chinese language policy and strategic planning.