Department of Foreign Languages

This article explores the discursive processes of migrant identity construction through multilingual practices in the context of China’s linguistic diversity and population movement. Drawing on the data from ethnographic observation, interview and document collection, the article demonstrates how small discursive features become emblematic of individual and group identities, and how such identities are negotiated and ratified at various scale levels, particularly in the public and institutional spheres. Using a theoretical framework revolving around indexicality, this article starts with a discussion on the notions – abnormality and modernity – that are essential for data analysis, and presents three examples to demonstrate the discursive processes of migrant identity construction. The article concludes that people invoke general social norms and administrative notions when producing discourses from the public and institutional spheres, and that the identity categories defined and m...

This paper presents an ethnographic study on the global learning practice of teachers and students in a Chinese internal migrant school. Rural children have relocated to urban centers with their parents on a massive scale over the past decades, as China undergoes rapid economic changes. Many migrant children have to attend privately run migrant schools which often function within limited budgets. Drawing on various types of data, this study investigates informal learning in a global context. In particular, the research focuses on a Scout program that is modeled on world Scouting movements and that is tailored for the migrant pupils’ educational demands. The data collection tools include participant observation, in-depth interview and document collection. The research finds that, with limited educational resources, the informants learn globally to improve the sustainable development of the migrant pupils, to fight against educational inequality, and to facilitate mutual understanding...