Language is live, it is
a tool used to express
themselves. So it must
reflect the people’s ideas
and thoughts.
K
eystone Academy was fortunate to welcome Dr.
Li Jin to the very first semester of school. She
shared her time, insights and experience with the
Keystone staff on what it means to be a bilingual
school with a unique and compelling curriculum,
how to teach in a bilingual environment, and what
it means for students to learn to be bicultural
and biliterate. In conversation with Dr. Li, we
discovered that learning traditions fall along
a spectrum. There are similarities, differences
and challenges. All of these aspects must be
taken into consideration, especially in a bilingual
environment such as at Keystone. This article
explains her research findings and draws on
her inferences and conversational insights to
demonstrate how and why Keystone is on the
path to a successful education model.
The Learning Spectrum
Dr. Li’s research is a wake-up call to the
unavoidable significance of understanding
culturally oriented learning beliefs. Her extensively
comparative and impressive research over several
years of European-American and Chinese children
gives a peek into the minds of children and how
they learn. The western learning approach looks
for objective truths through inquiry and scientific
discovery because the human mind is supreme
and enjoys such intrinsic inquiry that will be
put to ethical use. The eastern way approaches
learning as a lifelong process to learn about
the self and continually improve the self; this
approach to learning enables and legitimizes
powerless individuals and encourages a love for
learning. “Of course there are similarities,” says
Dr. Li, adding, “It is not true that western students
do not work hard to study, they do. It is also not
true that all that East Asian students do is study
hard; they are very bright, they can think, they
have intellectual breakthroughs, artistic works,
etc. no doubt… everyone wants a good education;
that is universal – not just in Asia or the West,
but everywhere. It is a common parental, child
and societal desire.” But this simple, universal
and common desire is culturally rooted and
embedded in the language we use to describe
learning. The words used to describe learning
reflect the cultural approach a child takes or is
socialized to take towards learning. According to
Dr. Li, “If language carries any weight in shaping
people’s thinking and daily lives, then it is not just
the language itself; the language is live, it is a tool
used to express themselves. So it must reflect the
people’s ideas and thoughts.”
The cultural transmission of language takes place
in parent-child conversations; thus it starts at an
early age, much before the child begins any form
of schooling. As noted in Dr. Li’s book Cultural
Foundations of Learning: East and West, “…home
as anthropologists have long discovered…serves
as the most fertile ground for the transmission,
maintenance, and renewal of culture, any
culture.” Her research has captured this cultural
transmission, consistent socialization, and
analyzed the cultural divide – east and west –
along the learning spectrum. For instance, Dr.
Li noted that, “Taiwanese mothers don’t use th