Vietnamese Australian children’s voice on community language schools

Abstract

This qualitative study reports Vietnamese Australian children’s perspectives on their learning experiences at their community language schools. The study draws on interview data with three mothers and their four children (aged 10–12), who used to attend or are currently attending community language schools in the state of Victoria, Australia. Against the backdrop of the current limited research on children’s experiences at community language schools, this study is a contribution to the existing literature in two ways. First, it contributes a children’s voice into research on these so-called marginalised educational sites. Second, it provides a nuanced exploration of the children’s experiences through the lens of

constructs of habitus, capital, and field by discussing how their perspectives towards their community language schools are shaped by their lived experiences in the fields they participate in. The findings reveal a mismatch between the children’s habitus, their linguistic capital and the field of community language schools that they participate in, which explains the children’s unfavorable feedback towards their community language schools.