The Impact of Admission Factors on the Identity Construction and Learning Practices of Chinese LOTE-as-L2 High School Students

Abstract

An increasing number of Chinese high school students are choosing to study a language other than English as their first foreign language and opting to use these languages for the higher education entrance exams. However, in Chinese culture, the national college entrance examination (known as Gaokao) is not only a test of academic ability. It also significantly influences the learner’s future social mobility and career development. This study employs Darvin and Norton’s investment model to explore how the exam culture controls the identity construction and learning practices of high school language-other-than-English learners(Darvin & Norton, 2015). This study focuses on 14 high school students from a foreign language school in Shanghai who have chosen Japanese, German, Spanish, and French as their first foreign language. Over the course of a year, using a series of qualitative research methods, this study found that, under the influence of exam culture, learners invest in non-English languages intending to achieve upward social mobility and construct elite identities. This is done by competing for languages with “better resources,” achieving better Gaokao scores through different assessment standards among languages, applying to foreign universities to mitigate the risk of Gaokao, and seeking admission to elite foreign universities and job opportunities abroad through international mobility.