A U.S. CHINESE LANGUAGE SCHOOL’S MANAGERIAL ADAPTATIONS UNDER INTERNATIONAL IMPACT

This study explores the international impact of Chinese language learning on the management policy of a community Chinese language school in the United States. Chinese language schools in the U.S. used to teach Mandarin to Mandarin-speaking students who are highly homogeneous in their linguistic and cultural backgrounds. However, as the impact of China's recent economic development has become more international, so has the influence of Chinese language learning? This international impact of Chinese language learning is reflected in the increasingly heterogeneous student population in many Chinese language schools in the United States. These schools have to adapt their management policy to accommodate these new students, who may have a multicultural, multilingual background and do not speak Mandarin at home. This study examines one such school. This study is a case study of a Chinese language school's adaptations in its management policy when it faces the international impact of Chinese language learning. The school, located in New York City, had one teacher, two students, two parents of these two selected students, and three administrators as participants. Data were collected through interviews and document collection. This study found that: 1. the school believed in the importance of learning Chinese and thus the necessity of well-accommodating new students of different cultural and linguistic backgrounds; and 2. the linguistic heterogeneity in the school was initiated by China's rising economy and would continue to be impacted by such an economic force in the future.