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Browsing by Subject "Chinese"

Now showing 1 - 13 of 13
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    Anchee Min
    (Voices from the Gaps, 2002) Steeves, Carolyn
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    Comparisons of Chinese and European American college students on individual differences variables hypothesized to predict self-reported interpersonal competency.
    (2008-12) Zhou, Shuangmei (Christine)
    With the increasing economic development, more and more Westerners have opportunities to travel, study and work in China, which raises interesting questions regarding their abilities to establish interpersonal relationships with Chinese nationals. Previous research on cross-cultural adjustment speaks to the importance of effective interpersonal relationship with host nationals on the overall adjustment for expatriates. Efforts have been made to search for useful predictors that contribute to a successful adjustment process but the evidence is far from conclusive. The current study is designed to address some of the gaps in the literature by applying constructs such as naïve dialecticism, sense of self and indigenous Chinese personality traits, such as Interpersonal Relatedness, to investigate cross-cultural differences in establishing effective interpersonal relationships among Chinese and European American College Students. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated individually for both samples. Multiple regression for moderator analysis and Fisher's Z transformation were used to compare the differences in strengths of correlation coefficients for two samples. Results, limitations and directions for future research were discussed.
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    Dynasting across cultures: A grounded theory of Malaysian Chinese family firms.
    (2010-06) Loy, Teik-Cheok Johnben
    The purpose of this study was to develop a substantive grounded theory of Malaysian Chinese family firms. Using classic grounded theory methodology, this study sought to identify the emergent main concern of the participants as well as the latent pattern underlying their behavior in working to resolve or address the main concern. Through constant comparative analysis of data gathered from interviews, participant observations, informal conversations, and relevant literature, I discovered the emergent main concern for Malaysian Chinese family businesses to be dynasting and the pattern of behavior for resolving that concern to be dynasting across cultures. Malaysian Chinese family businesses are theorized as mainly concerned with dynasting, that is, building, maintaining, and growing the power and resources of the business within the family lineage. In their substantive context, traditional Malaysian Chinese founders and westernized successors are hypothesized to be engaged in basic social structural and psychological processes of dynasting across cultures, where they struggle to transition from traditional Chinese to hybrid cultural and modernized forms of family business from one generation to the next. An analysis of extant literature revealed that the emergent theory contributes to family business theorizing in a novel way, and the study itself addresses the lack of literature on rigorous and scholarly theorizing about family businesses outside Western contexts. Implications of the theory and the study for research and practice are discussed.
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    Global Literacy Through Mandarin Immersion and STEM: Year Three Evaluation Report (2011-2012)
    (Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement, 2012-12) Dretzke, Beverly; Miron, Chloe O
    In 2009, a Foreign Language Assistance Program (FLAP) grant was awarded by the U.S. Department of Education to the Minnesota Mandarin Immersion Collaborative (MMIC) for the project Global Literacy Through Mandarin Immersion and STEM. The funding was expected to continue for a total of 5 years contingent upon annual renewal approved by Congress. However, in 2011, Congress voted to discontinue all FLAP funding. The 3 years’ of funding received by the MMIC supported early elementary immersion instruction in Mandarin Chinese that begins at the kindergarten level and the development of a curriculum that has a content focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). The schools in the MMIC have added a grade level each year, with the intent of creating the capacity to continue Chinese immersion to grades 7-12. The MMIC contracted with the Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement (CAREI) at the University of Minnesota to serve as the external evaluator of the project. This report presents CAREI’s evaluation of the third year of the grant-funded project. The report includes enrollment and retention data as well as the results of a parent survey and a survey of English teachers (i.e., instructional staff whose positions were in the regular, non-immersion program).
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    Han Suyin
    (Voices from the Gaps, 2000) Kowalska, Teresa
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    International students' language and culture learning experience in study abroad
    (2014-08) Kong, Kaishan
    This dissertation is a study of Chinese students' language and cultural learning experience through mediational means in a study abroad context. While there is extensive quantitative research to measure linguistic gains or cultural adjustment, there is limited research on study abroad participants' perspectives on their language and cultural learning experience through a sociocultural lens. This dissertation contributes new knowledge in Asian students' sojourn experience. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine, from Chinese students' perspectives, what mediational resources were used and how they used the materials to foster learning in a study abroad context. Data sources included in-depth interviews, ethnographic observations, focus group discussion, social media post and other documents. Sociocultural theory, mediation in particular, was adopted as the theoretical framework for this study because it resonates with my assumption that learning takes place in interaction between individuals and other materials and other people. Study abroad contexts are unique in offering multiple forms of resources that can be similar or different from the students' background. International students' interaction with materials and people in this study abroad community can be a mediational process that leads to learning. It also fits in my purpose of the study to examine the learning process but not the product. This study was not to measure the students' linguistic outcomes or cultural skills; instead, it was to attain more in-depth understanding of their personal experience in learning English and multiple cultures in the United States. Findings show that participants used multiple resources to mediate learning, including tools such as textbooks and on-line technology and semiotic systems such as language, email communication and peer review. Language, including dialogues with other people and private speech, stood out as powerful mediation means. Data also showed that emotions, identities and motivation played a crucial role in mediation. They not only influenced participants' choice of materials but also became mediational means themselves. These findings have significant theoretical and practical implications for study abroad students, instructors and program administrators. Students are encouraged to become reflective learners and to raise awareness of selecting multiple resources to mediate learning through various strategies. For instructors, this study also shows the importance of various pedagogies to address students' need and the significance of understanding students as individuals in a broader sociocultural context. It is also suggested that training, guidance and mentorship should be offered through the entire study abroad journey and beyond.This project confirms findings from many existing papers that study abroad is a complex experience. There are multiple affordances for learning but there is no definite causal relationship with linguistic gains. Students' interaction with mediational means can produce learning. It also extends the discussion of mediational tools and signs, by showing evidence of how emotions, identities and motivations mediated learning. This study exemplifies efforts to break the either-language-or-culture dichotomy that is often seen as the focus of research, and to inspire more future research on both aspects.
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    Let's Beat the Bed Bug task sheet: Chinese
    (University of Minnesota Extension, 2011) Shindelar, Amelia; Kells, Stephen
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    Participative leadership behavior among business leaders in China
    (2013-06) Chu, Chemin
    Over the past decade, the Chinese economy has grown to become the second largest in the world. In order to survive in rapidly changing global markets, Chinese management teams must adopt an appropriate leadership style to retain talented employees and attract competent applicants to the company. Therefore, in order to understand whether a participative leadership style has been adopted among Chinese companies, this study identified three kinds of corporations in China: (a) branch offices of foreign enterprises or joint-venture corporations (JVEs); (b) Chinese privately owned enterprises doing international business (POEIs); and (c) Chinese privately owned enterprises doing domestic business only (POELs). This study used the Empowering Leadership Questionnaire (Arnold, Arad, Rhoades, & Drasgow, 2000) to assess participants' perceptions of participative leadership behaviors among their supervisors. Of 460 in the sample pool of Chinese employees with at least one year of experience in their current companies who received the survey by email, there were 346 with valid data, and the final response rate was 76.3%. After utilizing factor analyses, frequency table, one-way ANOVA, and Tukey-HSD post hoc test, two significant differences existed in the (a) informing; and (b) participative decision-making and coaching behavior of participative leadership style between POELs and JVEs, and both indicated that POELs produced higher levels of perception than JVEs. Furthermore, three specific behaviors were identified to explain these differences: (a) explains company goals; (b) explains company decisions; and (c) listens to my work group's ideas and suggestions. This research provides HRD professionals with a reference to help supervisors develop participative leadership in China, recognizing the items on which supervisors generally scored the lowest within the Chinese context.
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    Review of The Heart of Hyacinth by Onoto Watanna (Winnifred Eaton)
    (Voices from the Gaps, 2005) Shudy, Marysia; Lindgren, Lindsay
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    Review of The Moon Pearl by Ruthanne Lum McCunn
    (Voices from the Gaps, 2005) Heerwald, Jessica
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    Tale of two teachers: Chinese immigrant teachers’ professional identity in US foreign language classrooms.
    (2010-06) Gao, Yunli
    This study looks at Chinese immigrant teachers' identity through the theoretical framework of the figured worlds, aiming to explore how the Chinese immigrant teachers navigate the cultural and educational practices and negotiate their professional identities in the figured world of foreign language classes in the US public schools, and how the two competing storylines of "Chinese" and "American" teacher interplay in the teachers' identity. Two Chinese immigrant teachers were interviewed and observed in their classrooms over a period of four months. The findings revealed the uncertainty and figuring involved in the inscribed acts and meaning regarding the "American" and "Chinese" pedagogical storylines of teaching, and the situated processes of the figuring, positioning, and choices made by the immigrant teachers. The teachers' professional identities are complex and highly contextualized, reflecting positioning in multiple memberships and orchestration of various discourses in the "space of authoring" in the cultural worlds of the schools. The study contributed to immigrant teacher research at the age of global migration.
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    "To know the system and know the culture is difficult" Understanding the cultural adjustment process of teachers from China working in U.S. K-12 schools
    (2013-05) Hanson, Emily Claire
    This qualitative case study investigates the cross-cultural adaptation that teachers from China and Taiwan encounter during careers as Chinese language teachers in K-12 schools in the United States. The theoretical framework draws on Hall's (1959) integrated theory of culture and Hofstede's (2010) cultural dimensions theory to frame a review of existing literature about the growth of Chinese language instruction in the U.S. and the ways in which teachers from China and Taiwan adapt to U.S. school culture. This research highlights the extent to which cultural difference plays a role in how teachers from China and Taiwan understand and interpret U.S. K-12 school communities. Findings indicate that there are significant cultural differences between the K-12 school cultures in China, Taiwan and the U.S. The study provides recommendations of measures that can help teachers understand and adapt to U.S. K-12 school culture and become highly qualified teachers of Chinese language and culture.