A Survey On Family Planning For Chinese Language Learning Among Chinese Primary And Secondary School Students In Georgia, USA

The Family Language Planning(FLP)from the micro aspect is the beginning and end of language planning,each family is a speech community.The Family Language Planning for Chinese language learning,which the Chinese American parents plan for their children,is important to the inheritance and usage of Chinese children.Investigation of GA’s Chinese American Elementary-Middle School Students’ Family Language Planning for Chinese Language Learning includes an investigation on the social environment and family environment in Chinese learning in Georgia,parents’ Chinese language learning plan for their children,and parents’ expectation for the Chinese language level of children.This study is based on the two-years work and experience at Wesleyan College in the United States.The study consists of questionnaire,interview,observation and other methods to investigate the family language planning of Chinese language learning of Chinese American elementaryMiddle school students in Georgia.Furthermore,this study analyzes the social environment and family environment of Chinese language learning for Chinese American students in GA.The social environment for Chinese language learning is mainly focused on the Chinese language learning routes and the teaching model for Chinese American students,on the purpose of fully understanding the current status of Chinese language teaching in Georgia.The Chinese learning family environment is mainly described and analyzed from the objective conditions of parents’ age,educational background,salary income,etc.Secondly,this study from the three components of FLP according to Spolsky’s research describes the current situation of the Chinese language planning of Chinese American parents to their children in GA.In the Spolsky’s definition,he divided family language policy into Language ideology,Language Management,and Language Practice.After that,we analyze the students’ Chinese language skills,which are listening,speaking,reading and writing,also the satisfaction of parents on the Chinese language level to their children.With observations,came out the following results.There is a contrast between Chinese American parents’ high expectation of their children ’s Chinese level and their low investment in learning practice.Most Chinese American elementary-middle school students will have code switching after going to primary school.The Chinese language abilities to listen and speak are far better than the reading and writing.On the contrary,the factors that influenced the family language planning will be analyzed by correlation analysis between Chinese language planning of parents nad the objective factors,such as student age,parent occupation,length of stay in the United States,salary level.We also interviewed some parents and students to find more factors influencing them.The finding is that the internal factors in the family and the factors in society both have greatly influenced the Chinese language planning of Chinese American parents.Furthermore,the influence of Chinese language planning to the Chinese learning of Chinese American students will be analyzed by the Chinese language planning of parents to their children and the interviewing materials.Gathered research shows that if parents insist on using Chinese as the main language for daily conversion at home,it will help students improve their Chinese level.When parents are not being consistent with which language they choose to use,students’ learned language will decrease over time.The age at which students learn Chinese,the frequency of participating in Chinese organization activities,and parents’ expectations on students’ Chinese proficiency will all affect students’ Chinese language skills.Finally,this study will summarize the current status and the characteristic of family language planning of Chinese American parents in Georgia and the factors will affect the family language planning.Based on this,the research gathered will bring some suggestions from the following aspects: parents,Chinese school and country,to promote the Chinese learning of Chinese American students.