Spanish Education and Chinese Immigrants in a New Multicultural Context: Cross-cultural and Interactive Perspectives in the Study of Language Teaching Methods

Abstract

In this paper I analyse aspects of the new multicultural context which has been transforming Spanish society over the last few decades. Current demographic changes in Spain contrast with traditional ideologies and practices which are still prevalent in schools. As a consequence of these contradictions, students from other educational systems and cultures, with different languages and background knowledge that are not valued and legitimated, are having difficulties reaching minimum educational objectives. The present research focuses on Chinese students in the Spanish education system and describes, analyses and explains those difficulties, keeping in mind the different sociopolitical, economic and historical circumstances in both China and Spain, which have led to different relationships between (1) learning–teaching ideologies, (2) social practices in the implementation of language teaching methods and (3) classroom interactions. The nature of the ‘difficulties’ facing Chinese students is deconstructed, resulting perhaps from the devaluation of these differences in the current immigration context of Spain. I argue that if no culture-specific theoretical/methodological tools are used, the children of Chinese origin will suffer from the problem of cultural bias. Finally, some suggestions in terms of multiculturalist standards are offered for improving practice in second-language teaching.