Abstract
Through autoethnography, the author tells her life story as a Chinese female from being a monolingual English student and an English teacher in China, to becoming a bilingual international student and an English teacher at a university in the US. The autoethnographic narrative depicts the most important turning points and influential people in her life over the ebb and flow of her migration journey. By sharing her struggles and successes as a nonnative English-speaking teaching professional in US higher education and reflecting on her personal growth, the author sees her bilingual journey as a blessing with her bilingual and bicultural transformation.
TopIntroduction
French poet Jean Brunet once said “learning a language is not a destination, but a journey.” In this chapter, I shared important turning points and introduced influential people in my life that have shaped me in becoming a Chinese-English bilingual living in the US, a bilingual journey of an Asian female from Beijing, China to Appalachia in the US. It depicted my transformation from a monolingual English learner and an English teacher in China to becoming a bilingual student and an English teacher in the US over time and different situations. As Grosjean (2010; 2019) defines, bilinguals are those who use two or more languages or dialects in their everyday lives. Truly, living with two languages and in two cultures continues to transform me to develop into one self, a person who has experienced the ebb and flow of being bilingual, but sees bilingualism as a gift and beyond (Moate & Rouhotie-Lyhty, 2020).
The stories we tell reflect how we see ourselves (Harrison, 2008), and a narrative is a story telling, a sequence of events that is significant for the narrator and the audience (Moen, 2006). As such, I chose to employ an autoethnographic narrative approach to tell the stories about the most significant moments and influential people in my bilingual journey. The stories are intermixed with reflections on my struggles and successes, and the people to whom I am forever grateful. Through their guidance and my own personal growth, I continue to develop as a bilingual oneself.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Transformation: A process of change and development. When it refers to human transformation, it implies an internal change and growth to one’s highest potential or best oneself, which affects one’s worldview, behaviors, and thought.
Bilingual: Two languages. It often refers to a person who can speak and use two languages fluently.
Autoethnography: A qualitative research method that focuses on social and cultural aspects of one’s personal experience. The term refers to the narration (graphy), culture (ethno), and self (auto).
One Self: More than just the reflexive form of one, or the person speaking, oneself entails the ongoing mental and emotional state of a person, combining multiple and varied adopted and adapted cultures and experiences into a new whole.
Monolingual: One or s ingle language. It often refers to a person who can speak and use only one language, oftentimes, one’s native language.
Code Switching: Language alternation. It refers to the practice of alternating between two languages or dialects based on the social context and/or conversational setting.
Nonnative English-Speaking Teachers: Those teachers whose native language is other than English.
Migration: A physical and geographic movement of people from one place of residence to another. It can imply one’s life and/or identity shifts over time and situation.
Bicultural: Relating to or including two distinct cultures. Bicultural individuals possess or live in both their heritage and receiving cultures and integrate them into one ‘culture’ that is not reducible to either the heritage or receiving culture.