First I present the table of factors, and then I present myself filling in this table as an exercise in my own home.
Analysis: The theories of MT acquisition and maintenance versus the reality of our situation
Theory
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Reality – Chinese
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Reality – Dutch
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Child
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Age (start as early as possible with formal MT education)
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Both started Chinese immersion in Grade 1 (age 6)
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Son started formal Dutch in Grade 5 (age 10)
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Prior & current formal exposure to MT
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1 hour per day class in International School
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None
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Prior & current informal exposure to MT
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Not much – Hong Kong is Cantonese not Mandarin speaking. Daughter did learn characters through observation on the street.
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Dutch spoken at home, exposure through paternal grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.
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Interest / Motivation
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Daughter – High;
Son – Low |
Daughter not particularly interested, speaks on holiday and to family
Son – High
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Aptitude
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Daughter – excellent memory which is necessary for amount of memorization necessary
Son – difficulties with working memory due to ADHD doesn’t rely on memory for learning
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Son – very good ear and pronunciation, has taken well to spelling and grammar as it’s taught in a formal structured way (unlike English)
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Available time
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In HK had ample time (27/28 hours a week in class plus a lot of homework)
Daughter: in SG 5x 40 minutes a week class time, 90 minutes a week tutoring, 100 minutes a week required homework plus whatever time she has for self-motivated study and reading
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5 x 40 minutes a week class time (1x of which is self-study)
1 x 120 minutes after school tutoring.
Homework around 60 minutes
Daily reading expected 15-20 minutes (doesn’t always happen)
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Access to language role models
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Limited to school and tutor and one family friend who we see irregularly
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Parents speak Dutch at home to each other, Father speaks Dutch to him, Mother speaks English unless in Dutch context
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Personality / resilience
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Very determined, sees events as challenges rather than setbacks, competitive, responds well to reward systems, perfectionist, introverted and shy
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Very sociable, extroverted, not scared of making mistakes. Quite emotional, inclined to give up when things get difficult, or need help to keep going
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Family
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Anticipated period of time abroad
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Indefinite
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Indefinite
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Plans for tertiary education
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Undecided, probably English medium
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Considering studying film or photography in Netherlands (early thoughts)
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Availability of language role models / support at home
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Mother studied Chinese but level is not sufficient to support high level language and literacy needs practically, only in abstract
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Both Mother and father speak Dutch in the home
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Language level of parent(s)
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Mother – Low level
Father – none
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Mother – Fluent speaking reading, listening, written poor
Father – Fluent speaking, reading, listening, writing
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Willingness / ability to finance choice
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Yes
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Yes
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Culture of reading at home
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Yes – but needs prompting and encouragement as slow difficult process and access to the right leveled material is difficult.
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Yes – when father is home do co-reading as well
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Help from extended family
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None, only moral support
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Yes – regular phone calls / FaceTime, visits during vacation and go to school with cousins for a few days
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School
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Language offered at MT level
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Yes in theory. However in practice the amount of time and level is not adequate, plus not enough leveled reading resources and mentoring
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None in curriculum until G9. In G7 & G8 offered after school. His Dutch classes are an exception and privately arranged and funded
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Language community in the school
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Yes, however she is not particularly a part of it.
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Yes
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MT support after school or other proviso
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Yes, 90 minutes private tutoring after school, school provides walk in clinics 2x a week
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Only from G7, however he’s not at the level required yet
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Accommodations for MT (reading or writing in MT, creating identity texts)
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Yes, in school (since middle school only) and tutor supplements
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Yes, but still limited due to level
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Sufficient BML teachers and administrators as role models
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Administration & non-language teachers traditionally English / mono-lingual with some exceptions. This is changing a bit.
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Administration & non-language teachers traditionally English / mono-lingual with some exceptions. This is changing a bit.
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Access to parents and older children as role models
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In principal – but need to tap into this more. No formal structures.
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Yes, cultural events organized by Dutch Teacher.
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Community
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Existence of language community in country
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Yes, large Chinese speaking population, however local families are not part of school
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Yes, Dutch club and fair sized community with events
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Accessible MT community on-line or through home visits
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Possibly – not investigated yet
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Yes
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Community based formal language classes
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Many tutoring schools that cater to the Chinese curriculum of local schools
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Yes
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Community based fun and cultural activities
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Not as many as in Hong Kong
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Yes through Dutch club and school
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Community pride in the MT
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Many classmates in MT group are not very motivated to learn Chinese, within SG community Mandarin is the formal standard Chinese while most families speak a dialect at home
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Generally yes, however many Dutch people speak English well and will switch in mixed groups
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This work by Nadine Bailey is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
[…] In setting goals, we should ensure we have the necessary knowledge and support network to support those goals and that the goals are realistic (I’ve written more on this here in theory, and as it relates to my family situation). […]
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