1. Language Variation at a Region in China and Its Implications for Teaching Chinese as a World Language
Florida Foreign Language Association (FFLA)
Orlando, FL (October 18-20, 2018)
Mengyao Liu, M.S Hilal Peker, Ph.D.
Jupiter Middle School of Technology Bilkent University

2. Statement of the Problem

4. Why we did the study?
Number of studies on English language variation vs. Chinese language variation.
Classroom implication (Chinese as a foreign language)

5. LITERATURE REVIEW
Sociolinguistics: the relationships between language and society
The goal being a better understanding of the structure of language and of how languages function in communication (Wardaugh, 2007).
Sociolinguistics is intended for achieving a better understanding of the nature of human language by studying language in its social context and/or to achieve a better understanding of the nature of the relationship and interaction between language and society (Chambers, 2002, 2003; Downes, 1998).
Regional vs. social language variation (Wardaugh, 2007; Labov, 1972)
Social structure is reflected in the linguistic behavior of the speech community and social variation can produce linguistic variation (Trudgill, 1974).

6. Theoretical Background

7. Theoretical Framework
Sociocultural Theory (Vygotsky, 1978).
Human learning is described as a social process.
Social interaction plays a fundamental role in the development of cognition & communication.

8. Purpose of the Study
To examine Chinese language variation among different society levels in Tianjin, China.
To provide pedagogical implications for teaching Chinese as a foreign language in U.S schools.

9. Research Questions

10. Research Questions
Is there an association between store classification in terms of SES and
body language use;
greeting amount;
employee’s greeting in dialect;
bargaining;
employees’ use of dialectal interaction;
customers’ use of dialectal interaction?

11. Methodology

12. Participants: 244 customers & 56 employees
Setting: 5 different types of stores in Tianjin, China (according to SES)
Data Collection: Observation & Field Notes
Data Analysis: SPSS (Chi-Square Test of Independence) & Thematic Coding
Xiaohaidi Vetgetable market
CR Vanguard (Nanlou St)
Yuetan Deparment Store
S.deer (Binjiang Rd.)
The Galaxy shopping mall

17. Data Analysis and Results

18. Quantitative Data Results

19. Data Result Table 1. Chi-Square Test of Independence Store Types
Body language use
Greeting amount
Employee’s greeting in dialect
Bargaining
Employees’ use of dialectal interaction
Customers’ use of dialectal interaction
Store Types
Pearson Chi-Sq.
16.36
70.00
21.00
30.00
49.00
60.00
Sig.
.003
.000
df. 4 12 3 8

20. FINDINGS
Chi-Square Test of Independence Analyses indicated that there are statistically significant relationship between the store types and the following factors:
body language use, greeting amount, employee’s greeting in dialect, bargaining between costumers and employees as well as the proportion of employees’ use of dialectal interaction.

21. Qualitative Data Results

22. Qualitative Data Results
Four main themes that emerged from the qualitative analysis:
a) directness,
b) short greeting,
c) long greeting,
d) deep greeting.

24. Discussion & Conclusions

25. DISCUSSION Lower level store  less body language to greet costumers
Higher level store  enthusiastically as soon as the customers walked in. These greetings did not include any dialectal lexical items.
Lower level stores  small greeting amount and sometimes costumers could not find the employee when they tried to ask some questions.
Higher level stores  high greeting amount.
Lower level stores  a variety of dialectal language
Higher level stores standard Mandarin Chinese
Lexical items used in the registers of individuals bargaining were not found in the everyday speech of the higher class individuals (Koka, 2014).
The proportion of employees’ use of dialectal interaction varied depending on the store types that were distributed according to income levels, which explains SES status factor in individuals’ choice of lexical items.

26. IMPLICATIONS, LIMITATIONS FUTURE RESEARCH
Small sample size
Not enough literature review on Chinese language variation
Case study
* Creating awareness of language variation studies
* Daily language that may be included in Chinese curriculum used in the U.S.
* Teacher qualifications (Standard vs. Dialects)
* Practical skills for people traveling to China

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28. Questions
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