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<p>While prior research examines medium-of-instruction (MOI) policy evolution and teacher agency, it often overlooks the nuanced, contested, and localized processes of policy enactment, potentially leading to over-simplified views of translanguaging and insufficient guidance for practitioners. Employing nexus analysis within a linguistic ethnography framework, this study investigates the appropriation of MOI policies at a Chinese language school in Macau. Data were collected through interviews with teachers, teaching assistants, and students, coupled with extensive ethnographic observations and analysis of institutional documents. Findings reveal that despite a clear mandate of Mandarin instruction, institutional discourses, stakeholders’ lived experiences, and classroom interactions collaboratively shaped a de facto equivocal policy. The “Simple Chinese is better than broken English” principle, a crucial instance of grassroots policymaking, suggests an emergent mechanism for locally effective instruction by educational stakeholders. The study advocates for context-sensitive MOI guidelines and policy support that acknowledge practitioners’ agency and address the practical demands of teaching and learning.</p>

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“Simple Chinese is better than broken English”: a nexus analysis of appropriation of medium-of-instruction policy in Chinese as an additional language classrooms

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年1月24日

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  • Wendong Li

摘要

While prior research examines medium-of-instruction (MOI) policy evolution and teacher agency, it often overlooks the nuanced, contested, and localized processes of policy enactment, potentially leading to over-simplified views of translanguaging and insufficient guidance for practitioners. Employing nexus analysis within a linguistic ethnography framework, this study investigates the appropriation of MOI policies at a Chinese language school in Macau. Data were collected through interviews with teachers, teaching assistants, and students, coupled with extensive ethnographic observations and analysis of institutional documents. Findings reveal that despite a clear mandate of Mandarin instruction, institutional discourses, stakeholders’ lived experiences, and classroom interactions collaboratively shaped a de facto equivocal policy. The “Simple Chinese is better than broken English” principle, a crucial instance of grassroots policymaking, suggests an emergent mechanism for locally effective instruction by educational stakeholders. The study advocates for context-sensitive MOI guidelines and policy support that acknowledge practitioners’ agency and address the practical demands of teaching and learning.