Bingxiao Jiang: ‘I learn something every day,’ teacher says

By Lina Shoumarova

When Bingxiao Jiang arrived in Canada from her native China three years ago, she had difficulty with English. It took her a week to read an article for a class presentation. Once, she sat at her desk a whole night to write a single paragraph for her first assignment.

Now Bingxiao has a master’s in education, and both a personal and theoretical understanding of the wonderful possibilities opened up by learning a foreign language.

For her master’s degree, she wrote a comprehensive paper, a literature review titled “The Transformative Learning Approach in ESL Acquisition of Adult Immigrants in Canada.” In adult education, transformative learning theory holds that personal experience, discourse and critical thinking help learners evaluate their experiences and change their perspectives.

Bingxiao believes this is “an ideal theory” to explain her own path. In Montreal she made friends who were also ESL (English as a second-language) learners. Sharing her thoughts and experience with them gave her the motivation to delve further into the topic.

In her paper, Bingxiao theorized that the transformative learning approach can help immigrants learn English more efficiently and develop a stronger sense of self. It can even “help the whole society become more democratic.”

Bingxiao wants to apply her theory. Currently, she is looking for a job as a Chinese tutor. Last semester she worked as a teaching assistant for the first course at Concordia in Mandarin. Called Modern Chinese, it was offered through the Department of Classics, Modern Languages and Linguistics.

She loved the experience, although it frightened her at first. Slowly, she became more and more interested in teaching, and thereby examining the teaching side of the theoretical framework she was developing. “I tried to practice my own theory.”

One of the main conclusions of her paper is rooted in this reflective practice.

“Without the educators’ own persistent and intentioned learning,” her paper concludes, “capacity for critical thinking and ongoing changes in personal perspectives, their efforts to help and empower the students will go to waste.

“Therefore, educators’ professional development, which is an ongoing process rooted in their daily teaching experiences, must aim at the educators’ personal transformation.”

Bingxiao also holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the Central China Normal University, in Hubei province. After graduation, she worked briefly for a TV station, but she didn’t like it. Her parents encouraged her to continue her studies, and that is how she found herself in graduate school in Montreal.

Bingxiao said that her time here has affected her profoundly. Her English-language skills have considerably improved, but most importantly, her point of view has shifted.

“I learn something every day,” she said pensively.