Born into a poor, low-literacy family originally from Cambodia, Diem witnessed the difficulties that her parents and extended family experienced in their lives and schooling. This microsystemic background contributed to sharpening her
Chapter Five: Diem
perspectives on the role of education in reaching her personal goals. The motivational affordances from her family, including her desire to respond to her parents’ efforts and emotional investment in her, provided a constant driver for Diem to persevere in learning English (see Figure 5.2, p. 129).
5.2.1 Diem’s family background
Diem’s parents are Cambodian-Vietnamese who fled their home country to Vietnam due to poverty and political instability. At the time I started my data collection, her weather-beaten cottage was being transformed into a firmer concrete house under the sponsorship of the local charity organisation for the poor. Diem’s parents, far older than was usually the case for those with children at her age, had only a very small circle of relatives living in the rural neighbourhood. Her father usually left home very early in the morning for work and came back late in the afternoon while her mother assumed all household responsibilities, including taking care of the children. Diem had an elder brother specialising in engineering at a college in Ho Chi Minh City.
Parental educational backgrounds are a salient element in determining their approaches to child education and persistence (Chevalier, Harmon, Sullivan, & Walker, 2013; Lamb, 2013b). Given their relatively low literacy levels, Diem’s parents did not put any academic pressure on her, but regularly reminded her of the importance of schooling with a common Vietnamese saying: “khôn thì con nhờ, dại thì con chịu” (on your own head, be it). Her mother elaborated on her family situation and child-rearing viewpoints:
Interviewer: What do you think about the role of education?
Diem’s mother: We left Cambodia in 1975 and started to go to school at a much later age than our classmates. We had to switch from Khmer language to Vietnamese, which was a real challenge for us. We were teenagers but had to sit in classes for kids. We quit when we were in Year Two or Three. We had no idea about education and its
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importance at that time. We are pre-literate but our children can’t be so.
Interviewer: Do you expect anything from your children?
Diem’s mother: I have no idea. We are too poor to support their study the way other families do, but the further they can go in their study, the better. It’s all up to them. If they want to continue going to school, we will try our best to help. If not, the decision is theirs to make. (IPDiem)
The mother’s stance was that schooling was important but not necessarily obligatory. She gave Diem the freedom to decide whether she should continue to a higher academic level or quit school because “that’s my daughter who is studying, not me” (IPDiem). Her easy-going manner came from an understanding that Diem would develop her full potential by learning something she liked; parental imposition of education options might be counterproductive. However, her mother’s sharing of life experience helped Diem to see more clearly the value of education to her academic and economic future.
5.2.2 Higher education for life changes and fulfilment of filial duty
Family socioeconomic statuses have been found to have a key role in shaping children’s L2 motivation and the amount of effort they expend in their studies (Butler, 2015; Lamb, 2012; Sadiman, 2004; Shim, 2013). Having been living in a financially challenged situation since childhood, Diem had a strong desire to make her way up the academic and professional ladder, indicating her self- appraisal of the limited language affordances within her microsystems and her agentive commitment to her language studies as a means of upward social mobility. Unlike her cousins and relatives, who came to terms with their low- paid manual work, she was committed to pursuing higher education:
Interviewer: Do you have any relatives living around here? Diem: Yes, most of them.
Interviewer: Do they study well?
Chapter Five: Diem
Interviewer: Do your aunts, uncles, and parents usually talk about children’s education?
Diem: Not much. They do not pay much attention to it. Most of them are peasants so they don’t care much about our study. My cousins have taken up different jobs like factory workers, bricklayers, drivers, or mechanics since they graduated from high school. None of them have gone to university.
Interviewer: So you are among the few who want to go to university?
Diem: Yes.
Interviewer: How do you feel about this?
Diem: I think I am luckier than them. I am proud of myself and so are my parents. (ISDiem030613)
By referring to her relatives as “peasants”, Diem did not mean to denigrate them but wanted to show that most people in her extended family and neighbourhood cared more about day-to-day money making than their children’s schooling. Their limited social knowledge and immediate household concerns blurred their perspectives on the importance of education. Diem cherished her “luck” at being able to pursue her desired study, in contrast to her cousins who had to quit school early due to lack of parental encouragement or for financial reasons. She also had a firm belief in the rewards of education. In response to my interview questions about what she would do for her parents in the future, she said:
Diem: I can earn a lot of money to help my family and achieve my ambitions.
Interviewer: Your mom told me she didn’t expect any return from her children. Do you think helping your family is your duty or your desire?
Diem: Both. My parents have brought me up and taken care of me, so I should do the same to them when they get old. If I have good living conditions, they must have the same. That is my biggest wish because now we are poor and my parents have to work hard. I really want my family to be
Chapter Five: Diem
better in the future so that they won’t have to live in difficult financial situations.
Interviewer: What is the link between your present study and your wishes?
Diem: My study is very important because I can only realise my dreams through higher education.
Interviewer: So what is the biggest motivation to you?
Diem: Because of my family circumstances. My parents are poor, so I have experienced more disadvantages than my classmates in many aspects of life. I have to study hard to escape poverty and help my family. (ISDiem140713) Indeed, Diem’s ideal self, namely being able to alleviate her family’s financial difficulties, was one of the factors that fortified her decision to pursue her language learning interest.