| Description |
Figured world theory and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) provided the theoretical lens and methodological tools to critically examine the experiences of Chinese international students in First-Year Composition (FYC) courses in this qualitative study. Through in-depth interviews and an online survey, I focused on ways in which students were positioned by the figured world of FYC and how they positioned themselves, how students used spaces of authoring, and how students created new worlds from these spaces. The findings show that the students felt marginalized as they struggled against the dominant discourses of academic writing and English-only policies in the figured world of FYC. Students were forced to take on English names instead of being able to use their Chinese names, contributing to the deficit-laden positioning they experienced. The Chinese students were positioned within that world by the stereotypes of Chinese students as passive and silent with low-level language abilities, as well as by the English-only policies and racism within that world. While Chinese international students remained silent in the world of FYC, their silence was their choice and they used silence to resist the dominant discourses. The study's insights into the figured world of FYC and the international Chinese students' experiences in that world provide important theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical implications. The study adds to the research using figured world theory, extending its use to the field of composition studies, and it combines that theoretical lens iv with the CDA methodological tools to examine the power dynamics of figured worlds. Insights gained into Chinese international students' experience in FYC adds to the understanding of how such students are being positioned in FYC in deficit ways and how such positioning is often based on stereotypes and labeling. Chinese international students often remain silent within the figured world of FYC, but such silence is matter of choice resistance, not merely the result of conditioning or training. Chinese students resisted their positioning and the requirements of an English-only policy and utilized spaces of authoring to engage in world making. |
