Out of School Support in Bilingual for Chinese Families on North Shore, Auckland

Abstract

In the time of increasing globalization and migration, cultural and linguistic diversity has become a remarkable feature of our society which has also changed our learning environment to a large extent. New Zealand is no exception, ranking third among OECD countries for the highest proportion of overseas born residents, particularly in Auckland, where there is a large proportion of migrants who speak Mandarin as their first language. As a result, there is now an urgent need to support these cultural and linguistically diverse (CLD) learners who do not speak English as their first language. However, the school programs cannot fully cater for these students, and not all the CLD learners are eligible for ESOL support, resulting in most Chinese parents turning to private supplementary tuitions or private tutors. While research supports the use of bilingual instruction for these students, little is known about what out of school support is available in two languages. Therefore, my research questions are "What out of school support is available in bilingual English/Mandarin for Chinese families on the North Shore Auckland? The focus will be on the following out of school support options: private tuition by individuals, coaching school or tuition centres; what is the educational focus of these out of school support?" In this research, the setting of focus will be located in North Shore, Auckland which is reported to be one of the most populous area of Chinese people. This is qualitative study involving thematic analysis of publically available data from advertisements on websites or newspapers on Mandarin and English with followed-up conversations if the information is not clear enough. There are three key findings in the study: 1) out of school support in English and Mandarin is fairly widely advertised in both English and Mandarin; 2) support in English and Mandarin is only provided in a limited range of curriculum areas.; and 3) not all tutors are qualified teachers, and even fewer are qualified to teach in two languages by having a TESOL qualification. Keywords: globalization, out of school support, bilingual learning, Chinese family, private tuition by individuals, and tuition centers.