疫情時代雙語能力、雙文化認同與資訊素養──加州二代美籍華裔教師之個案研究

Bilingual-Maintenance, Bicultural-Identity, and Information-Literacy Development in the Pandemic Era --- Case Study of Second-Generation Chinese- American Teachers in California

COVID-19空前阻礙了全球各級教育。本社會語言學研究以任職於加州公立小學之第二代美籍華裔教師為例，探討影響其雙語能力與雙文化認同的社會、文化、語言與個人因素。
歷經數十年發展，美國雙語教育仍有許多問題亟待解決。一些被討論的第二代美籍華人選擇了小學雙語教師的職業。本研究檢視在數位時代他們雙文化背景下的中英雙語力，並描述他們在疫情時代如何建構其雙文化認同。
透過對四名教師多年的觀察和交流，研究者取得相關之背景、語言習得經歷、文化認同意識、資訊素養及教學現場問題的質性資料。藉由個案研究，我們可見「個性」、「社會人口結構」、「同化」、「情境壓力」四個變項如何互為因果地影響這些二代美籍華人；並了解他們如何以不同版本的身份來平衡自己雙語教師的角色。本文為有意了解美國英中雙語教育的人提供更多的理解與討論。

COVID-19 brought global chaos and unprecedented interruptions at all levels of education. The purpose of this sociolinguistic study is to explore social, cultural, linguistic, and individual factors that may contribute to the development of bilingual-maintenance and bicultural-identity among second-generation Chinese-American language-teachers in California.
Bilingual education has progressed for decades in the U.S. but many issues remain. Some of the discussed second-generation Chinese Americans chose careers as elementary-school bilingual teachers. This study examines their Chinese-and-English bilingual-maintenance in a bicultural context in the digitalized world, and seeks to describe which influences led these individuals to re-construct their bicultural-identity in the pandemic era.
The researcher developed questionnaires and conducted years of observations and interviews to derive qualitative data from 4 teachers regarding their background, language-acquisition experiences, cultural-identity awareness, information literacy, and teaching issues they faced. Through case studies, we explore how 4 variables --- ‘personality’, ‘socio-demographic’, ‘acculturation’, and ‘contextual-pressures’ causally affect these second-generations, and how they produce versions of identities to support themselves as bilingual teachers. This paper intends to promote understanding and initiate a discussion forum for people interested in the English-V.S.-Chinese bilingual education in the U.S.