Investigation and Revelation on the Phenomenon of Microaggression and Chinese Culture Aphasia of Chinese Students in English Language Program

Xi’an Shiyou University,Xi’an,China Email:942905396@qq.com

[Abstract]English Language Programs(ELP)have gained international popularity in recent years.In addition to classroom learning,the language program is characterized by a large number of American cultural experiences.Through participating in two phases of sino-us ELP projects of Winona State University.the author found two prominent problems:First,Chinese students participating in the project encountered varying degrees of micro-aggression in foreign countries.Second,Chinese students,especially those from Taiwan,often feel powerless and overburdened when they use English to express content with Chinese local cultural characteristics or traditional culture,resulting in communication barriers and a lack of national cultural pride,the phenomenon known as Chinese cultural aphasia.Then predicting problems in advance and intervening active and effective measures have very obvious effect and significance for students who suffer from micro-aggression.As for Chinese cultural aphasia,it can be prevented and strengthened by strengthening and cultivating the consciousness and ability of re-transmission of native culture,and cross-cultural ability.

[Keywords]ELP;Chinese students;micro-aggression;Chinese culture aphasia;cross-culture ability

Introduction

Sino-us Language Program

English Language Programs(ELP),a program of English Language learning,have gained international popularity in recent years.By providing learners(international students)with a large number of real English cultural experience activities,combined with language learning teaching of the courses,the project enables learners to improve their English level in a short or relatively long time(4 weeks to 2 years)and quickly establish the English language knowledge and skills needed for future career development or university study.ELP is both for college students and personalized programs tailored to learners’needs,such as English teacher ELP,medical professional ELP,government staff ELP,technical staff ELP,etc.

This kind of language curriculum is very flexible.There are short-term summer and winter programs,usually 4-8 weeks,and there are longer programs that are synchronized with the semester and the academic year.In addition to the practice and development of listening,speaking,reading and writing basic language skills,the content setting is also very diversified and personalized.Hierarchical teaching,small class teaching and even one-on-one tutoring are common.In addition to general English content,English for Specific Purpose(ESP)corpus and teaching have been adopted in more ELP projects in recent years.In addition to classroom learning,a large number of American cultural experience activities are the main features.Some of them account for more than 50% of the class hours and are very popular among international learners.

English Language Programme in Winona State University

The Winona State English Language Program(ELP)provides English language training for international students who wish to meet Winona State’s English entry requirements and/or improve their English language skills while experiencing American culture.The center offers targeted,personalized intensive English courses,offering English instruction and courses at four different levels of difficulty,providing students and other learners with the language knowledge and skills necessary for academic success and future career development.

ELP at Winona State University serves the following types of students:

1.Prospective undergraduate students who have not obtained TOEFL or IELTS scores,or whose scores are lower than the admission requirements of American colleges and universities;

2.International students who are seeking conditional admission to Winona State University;

3.Students who have been admitted to American universities but wish to further improve their English;

4.Students who wish to develop professional English skills；

5.Native American students whose native language is not English.

Features of ELP include:

1.Small classes,one-on-one tutoring;

2.D2L and other online technical supports and online environment;

3.Community support and participation;

4.Diverse undergraduate and graduate study options for the future;

5.The Regionalized culture of the Mississippi;

6.ESP(English for Specific Purpose)courses are offered.

Retrieved May,2019,from winona.edu.cn)

Based on the research and development information of ELP projects in some European and American countries collected at the United States TESOL Conference for two consecutive years(2018;2019),it can be seen that language training programs and courses offered by various colleges and community education institutions basically have the above characteristics with similar differences(TESOL Program Book,2019;Minne-TESOL Program Book,2018).

Why There was the Investigation

In the fall semester of 2018 and the summer semester of 2019,the author,as a teaching assistant,followed the ELP program of Winona State University twice in its entirety.Seventy percent of the international students participating in the 2018 fall semester training program are Chinese students,including students from the Chinese mainland and Taiwan.Ninety-eight percent of the students in the 2019 summer program are from China.Therefore,the training content of ELP is more inclined to arrange the introduction,sharing and exchange of Chinese and American cultures and the comparative study of Chinese and American cultures.During the project,the author not only tracked most of the course learning in class,but also had a lot of direct contact and exchange of ideas with students in daily life after class.This gives the author a good opportunity to observe and understand the real state of students in such an international language program,including their language learning foundation,thought changes,emotional state and so on.For example,many times the author encountered Chinese students with poor mental health and emotional problems(i.e.,micro aggression,which will be discussed in the following article).On the other hand,it is also observed that in class or in many learning activities,Chinese students do not understand or do not know much about the general knowledge and content of their own country’s culture,hometown stories,characters and other information,or it is difficult for them to express clearly.The author was very surprised by the manifestation of cultural aphasia in the mother tongue and the lack of ability talking about the culture(i.e.,the problem of cultural aphasia in the mother tongue to be discussed later),as well as the lack of patriotic education and moral education.Therefore,the idea of investigating these two phenomena and problems arose.

Microaggression and cultural Aphasia of Chinese Students'Mother Tongue in ELP project

Microaggression

Microaggression or microdiscrimination refers to subtle ACTS of discrimination that are not easily perceived.Micro-discrimination is different from ordinary discrimination,which has no explicit meaning of attack on the surface.It is mostly manifested in daily language,body language or other circumstances in which specific objects(such as ethnic minorities,people of color,people with disabilities,women)are intentionally or unintentionally belittling,neglecting,denigrating and insulting(Kramsch,1993).Due to unconscious bias,it is possible that sometimes we are not aware of the effects of our words and actions on others(Baidu Encyclopedia).Psychologists divide people’s attitudes into explicit and implicit:explicit people will confess to their actions,and implicit people will act without saying anything(Liu,2003).microaggression is the subtle and almost imperceptible discrimination of such implicit attitudes,such as groundless assumptions,puns,and indiscriminate exclusion of those who are alien or undesirable.As a result,microaggression is difficult to measure,difficult to resolve,and even difficult to attract the attention of some or most people.

In daily life,micro-discrimination inadvertently excludes or belittles people of different RACES,genders or vulnerable groups through language or body movements.Sometimes a word or a small action we don’t even realize we’re doing can be deeply hurtful,making the other person feel strange,out of touch,self-doubt and other negative feelings.Research shows that micro-discrimination accumulates in the mind of the person concerned,like a snowball,and then leads to some psychological problems such as low self-esteem and social isolation.

The term“microaggression,”was first coined in 1970 by the psychiatrist and Harvard professor Chester M.Pierce to describe the humiliating and firing of African-Americans by non-black Americans that he regularly witnessed.Eventually the term“microaggression”evolved to encompass any dismissive behaviour or attitude towards marginalized groups.

In the process of participating in ELP project counseling and activities,the author has encountered many times Chinese students pouring out and complaining about the“discomfort”in study and life,and even the psychology of weariness and resistance to study.Through careful listening and communicating,the author found that these students actually encountered micro-discrimination in foreign countries.For example,the teacher repeatedly confused him with two other Asian boys and mistook his name for Korean or Japanese.In the process of ELP learning,the appearance of micro-discrimination is mainly reflected in some“discomfort”in getting along with classmates,such as feeling sarcastic language,laughing at eyes,disrespecting body language,being treated differently,etc.Such microaggression often leads to low self-esteem,depression and negative attitude towards students.In the following learning activities,withdrawing,resisting or even giving up,such as not eliminating in time,will greatly affect the training and learning effect to a certain extent.During the course of the lecture,the author witnessed two obvious micro-discrimination phenomena in the classroom.As a result,the students were angry and left the classroom,and were unwilling to return to the classroom for a week or even longer.

Mother tongue cultural aphasia

Due to too much emphasis on the study of target language culture,neglecting the study of native language culture and patriotic traditional ideological education,students only can express the culture of the target language in English,but have low English competence to express native language culture,lack of proper understanding and cultural pride of their mother tongue culture,and even lose“cultural confidence”.Some scholars call this phenomenon“Chinese cultural aphasia”or“the attrition effect of mother tongue”(Pan,2015).The main feature of this phenomenon is that when English is used to express the content with Chinese local cultural characteristics or traditional culture,it often appears to be powerless and overstretched,resulting in communication barriers and a lack of national cultural pride(Pan,2018).

The term aphasia is derived from medical field and refers to the loss of some or all of the ability to express thoughts and understand spoken and written languages as a result of brain damage caused by injury or disease.In the 1990s,Chinese literary critics,facing the invasion of western literary thoughts and the loss of ancient Chinese literary thoughts,put forward“Chinese literary aphasia”(Zhang,&Zhu,2002).Cong Cong(2000)published an article entitled“Chinese Cultural aphasia:The Defects of English Teaching in China”in Guangming Daily,proposing for the first time the phenomenon of Chinese cultural aphasia in English education in China(Cong,2000).

In the learning process of ELP,the phenomenon of“aphasia”of mother tongue culture is mainly manifested by Chinese students,for example,the lack of common knowledge of basic mother tongue culture,the confusion of cultural terms,and the lack of essential knowledge of mother tongue culture.Secondly,my ability to tell stories about my hometown and country in English is not good.For example,it is difficult to describe famous scenic spots,historical figures and traditional festivals in my hometown in English to varying degrees,and it is even impossible to express them completely and coherently in English.

Survey and Interview

Objectives:Objectively and comprehensively understand the micro-discrimination suffered by Chinese students in this project and the situation of cultural aphasia of the mother tongue in learning,investigate the influence and correlation on life and learning,analysis and try to find out the causes and effective ways to avoid.

Subjects:56 Chinese students in Winona State’s ELP program in 2018 and 2019.

Method:Questionnaire,interview,observation.

Survey content:First,micro-discrimination experience that affects life and study;second,the mother tongue cultural expression ability,mother tongue cultural aphasia causes.

Result analysis:statistical analysis.

After the completion of the first phase of the survey,the author and ELP teachers discussed the above two survey questions together,and made some targeted adjustments to the management and teaching of students in the coming next phase from methods to contents.For example,regarding the communication and learning involving the mother tongue culture,students are assigned in advance,allowing students to prepare and learn in advance.Invite Chinese teachers to participate in the project,timely deal with micro-discrimination encountered by students,reasonably and effectively guide students to understand cultural differences and other objective situations,enhance their own mother tongue cultural accumulation,cultivation and cultural confidence,and enhance personal confidence.Therefore,the data of the second phase of the survey is much more ideal than that of the last phase.The specific performance is shown in the table below:

Table 1 Microaggression status data comparison form

Tables 2 Microaggression Type Survey comparison form

From the comparison of the above data,it can be seen that there is no significant change in the results given by the students in the two stages of microaggression,which is mainly due to the unconscious language microaggression.What has changed a lot is that students’cognition and solving ability of micro-discrimination have changed a lot,which fully shows that predicting problems in advance and intervening positive and effective measures have a very obvious effect on students who suffer from micro-discrimination(Zhao,2016).

Table 3 Manifestations of native language cultural aphasia

From survey data about mother tongue culture and the Aphasia accident,it’s obvious that there are two groups of data that highlight Chinese students.To be more accurate,students from Taiwan,China are highlighted.Data shows their ability in recognizing and expressing Chinese culture in English is relatively weak.At the same time,their interest and initiative in learning mother tongue culture is weak as well.On top of that,more than 83% of Taiwanese students think that professional knowledge and language knowledge are more important than Chinese culture knowledge.Some students can’t describe the famous tourist attractions in their hometown in simple English,and some students in Taiwan don’t know what the Qin,Huang,Han,Wu,The Four Books and the Five Classics are,because they have never been exposed to them.

Implications and Conclusion

Cultural teaching shall be incorporated into the curriculum system and implemented in stages.

The lack of traditional Chinese culture and moral education is not only the deficiency or fault in college English teaching.Necessary guidance should be provided in university compulsory and elective courses,as well as high school courses.At the same time,the ideological education of Chinese culture and moral education should also be included in the curriculum system,which should not only have full-time teachers,textbooks and outlines,but also corresponding assessment system and requirements.

At what stage is the best time for students to receive the core content education of their mother tongue culture?Middle school? The orientation(not exam-oriented)course setting of this kind of cultural and ideological course is more important.Make sure that students have“stories in mind”first,and then practice the ability to express and tell these cultures and stories in a foreign language in high school or college,and even to discuss,communicate,and communicate culture and core values.

Strengthen the ideological and political education of foreign language teaching,and cultivate the consciousness and ability of re-transmission of native culture.

College English courses should strengthen students’ability to express the culture of the motherland and tell the stories of their hometown in English,set credits,and make strict assessment.

Cultural promotion and exchange and sharing are not equal to cultural intrusion,which is not only essential for language course program learning,but also necessary for understanding and communication among ethnic groups.The traditional ideas and teaching in the past have not so much a conservative attitude as that most of us educators are not strong enough in the sense of cultural re-transmission of mother tongue.

Intercultural communication competence is required and cultivated throughout foreign language teaching.

Based on the diversity and bidirectional nature of the causes of micro-discrimination,it is true that cross-cultural communication knowledge cannot solve all micro-discrimination,but it is a good start and basis for solving micro-discrimination.Knowing yourself and others is also a necessary condition for reducing conflicts and discrimination.

Whether it is blatant or subtle,discrimination has existed since ancient times and will not disappear in the future.Unfortunately,when I become the object of discrimination,in addition to the necessary resistance,it is more important to get rid of the“discriminated mentality”,blame the world,not to give up on myself.On the other hand,habitually imposing personal stereotypes and attitudes on others,or openly expressing them,may bring troubles to others.“Do not do to others what you do not want others to do to you”,just as Sartre said“others are hell”,so don’t let yourself become others’cage.