Teaching, learning and maintenance of Chinese as a heritage language in American colleges: A classroom ethnographics study

Heritage language (HL) maintenance is not only an individual but also a social process that involves connections with schools and teachers. This study used a classroom ethnographic method to investigate HL learning and teaching in the college setting from both teachers' and heritage language learners' (HLLs') perspectives and identified discrepancies between instructors' and students' perceptions of HL teaching and learning in heritage and non-heritage Chinese language drill sections. Eight HLLs were selected from the two types of drill section to participate in three-tier, in-depth individual interviews and focus group interviews for a deeper understanding of HLLs' identity, learning motivation, and views of HL maintenance. Pre and post classroom observation interviews were conducted with the teachers to explore their teaching philosophies. The results demonstrated that HLLs associated the advantages and challenges they encountered in the different classroom settings with the pace of the class and the expectations and language input of peers. The majority of the HLLs asserted their dissatisfaction with differences in assessment methods applied to them and to non-HLLs. Most HLLs doubted the necessity of Chinese character-writing skills for HL maintenance. In contrast, teachers firmly stated the necessity of teaching character-writing because it can facilitate learners' reading comprehension through recognition of the structures of the logographic characters. Teachers claimed that they didn't realize the differences between second language and HL teaching until they faced challenges from HLLs in class. They expressed the need for more training relevant to teaching HLLs. This study provides some guidelines for educators to adjust their teaching methodologies to meet the needs of HLLs.