Mandarin Sunday Classes: Educators’ and Parents’ Perceptions on Literacy Development of Second Generation Chinese-American Children

Abstract

Children acquire literacy from several sources: school, community, family’s funds of knowledge, etc.. Most second generation Chinese-American children are sent to the weekend classes to learn Mandarin, their heritage language (HL), a language that they are culturally or proficiently connected to. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore Chinese heritage language (CHL) school educators’ and parents’ perceptions of the Chinese literacy development of second generation Chinese-American children via Sunday classes in South Texas. The study used multiple data collection strategies including a non-participative observation of Sunday classes, and the interviews with the teachers, the principal, and parents. Responsibility, commitment, enthusiasm, participation, and cultural inherence were some of the finding key terms that summarized participants’ perceptions. Implications for a better venue of the Mandarin maintenance include, but not limited to, the merging to a formal bilingual private school.