Professional Documents
Culture Documents
[FREE PDF sample] Bilingual Education and Minority Language Maintenance in China The Role of Schools in Saving the Yi Language Lubei Zhang ebooks
[FREE PDF sample] Bilingual Education and Minority Language Maintenance in China The Role of Schools in Saving the Yi Language Lubei Zhang ebooks
OR CLICK LINK
https://textbookfull.com/product/bilingual-
education-and-minority-language-maintenance-in-
china-the-role-of-schools-in-saving-the-yi-
language-lubei-zhang/
Read with Our Free App Audiobook Free Format PFD EBook, Ebooks dowload PDF
with Andible trial, Real book, online, KINDLE , Download[PDF] and Read and Read
Read book Format PDF Ebook, Dowload online, Read book Format PDF Ebook,
[PDF] and Real ONLINE Dowload [PDF] and Real ONLINE
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...
https://textbookfull.com/product/managing-expatriates-in-china-a-
language-and-identity-perspective-1st-edition-ling-eleanor-zhang/
https://textbookfull.com/product/community-based-research-in-
language-policy-and-planning-the-language-of-instruction-in-
education-in-sint-eustatius-nicholas-faraclas/
https://textbookfull.com/product/language-and-social-change-in-
china-undoing-commonness-through-cosmopolitan-mandarin-1st-
edition-qing-zhang/
https://textbookfull.com/product/governing-corporate-tax-
management-the-role-of-state-ownership-institutions-and-markets-
in-china-chen-zhang/
Japanese Stories for Language Learners: Bilingual
Stories in Japanese and English Anne Mcnulty
https://textbookfull.com/product/japanese-stories-for-language-
learners-bilingual-stories-in-japanese-and-english-anne-mcnulty/
https://textbookfull.com/product/from-transnational-language-
policy-transfer-to-local-appropriation-the-case-of-the-national-
bilingual-program-in-medellin-jaime-usma/
https://textbookfull.com/product/ict-in-education-in-global-
context-the-best-practices-in-k-12-schools-1st-edition-jinbao-
zhang/
https://textbookfull.com/product/the-sociolinguistics-of-higher-
education-language-policy-and-internationalisation-in-catalonia-
josep-soler/
https://textbookfull.com/product/innovation-in-language-learning-
and-teaching-the-case-of-china-1st-edition-hayo-reinders/
Multilingual Education
Lubei Zhang
Linda Tsung
Bilingual Education
and Minority
Language
Maintenance in
China
The Role of Schools in Saving the Yi
Language
Multilingual Education
Volume 31
Series Editors
Andy Kirkpatrick
Department of Humanities, Languages and Social Sciences, Griffith University,
Brisbane, Australia
Bob Adamson
Chair Professor of Curriculum Reform
Department of International Education & Lifelong Learning
The Education University of Hong Kong, Tai Po, Hong Kong SAR
Editorial Board
Jan Blommaert, University of Tilburg, The Netherlands
Kingsley Bolton, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Feng Anwei, The University of Nottingham, Ningbo, China
Ofelia Garcia, The Graduate Centre, City University of New York, USA
Saran Kaur Gill, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia
Mingyue (Michelle) Gu, Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Gu Yueguo, The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
Hartmut Haberland, Roskilde University, Denmark
David C.S. Li, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Li Wei, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK
Low Ee-Ling, National Institute of Education, Singapore
Tony Liddicoat, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia
Ricardo Nolasco, University of the Philippines at Diliman, Manila, The Philippines
Merrill Swain, Ontario Institute of Studies in Education, University of Toronto,
Canada
Virginia Yip Choy Yin, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, NT,
Hong Kong SAR
The book series Multilingual Education publishes top quality monographs and
edited volumes containing empirical research on multilingual language acquisition,
language contact and the respective roles of languages in contexts where the
languages are not cognate and where the scripts are often different, in order to be
able to better understand the processes and issues involved and to inform governments
and language policy makers. The volumes in this series are aimed primarily at
researchers in education, especially multilingual education and other related fields,
and those who are involved in the education of (language) teachers. Others who will
be interested include key stakeholders and policy makers in the field of language
policy and education. The editors welcome proposals and ideas for books that fit the
series. For more information on how you can submit a proposal, please contact the
publishing editor, Jolanda Voogd. E-mail: jolanda.voogd@springer.com
This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Foreword
This brilliant book addresses several major dilemmas. Two of them stand out. One
is the challenges involved in the dichotomy between policy and implementation.
The other concerns the big questions of language survival among China’s ethnic
minorities and especially how the education system can help to keep ethnic lan-
guages alive.
China’s policy toward the languages of the ethnic minorities is to help them sur-
vive. However, the reality is that they are not doing well and most are already no
longer used.
This book concerns the Yi people of southwest China, especially Sichuan and
Yunnan. The Yi people are important among China’s ethnic minorities, because they
have traditionally had very strong feelings about their own language and culture.
There is even a school of Yi historiography that regards the “primitive Daoist cos-
mological ideas about the tiger held by the Yi” as having given rise to Chinese cul-
ture itself (Liu Yaohan, quoted in Stevan Harrell and Yongxiang Li, “The History of
the History of the Yi, Part II,” Modern China, vol. 29, no. 3 (July 2003), p. 368).
What this tells us is that at least a part of the Yi cultural elite are so proud of their
culture that they regard it not only as worth defending for itself but as the origin of
the whole of Chinese culture. This makes the Yi an exceptional minority among
China’s ethnic groups.
The title of the book raises the question whether schools can save the Yi lan-
guage. That brings the issue of the status and effectiveness of schools within society.
It also raises questions about the strength of ethnic cultures in a context where the
dominant Han culture is very powerful and getting more so in the contemporary
world. Even if they are sponsored by government money, can ethnic languages cope
with the realities of inadequate policy implementation?
I admire this book because it combines theory and practical experience. It shows
a deep understanding both of language and ethnic theory and also takes up case
studies of the Yi, showing what life is actually like in selected Yi communities. It
shows how policy is implemented on the ground. I found the interview material
among the Yi extremely interesting, because it shows just what Yi people think
about their livelihood and identity. For example, one teacher is quoted as saying “As
v
vi Foreword
1 Introduction.............................................................................................. 1
1.1 Background....................................................................................... 1
1.2 Language Policy for Minorities........................................................ 4
1.3 Bilingual Education Programs for Minorities in China
Since 1949......................................................................................... 6
1.4 Ecological Framework of Language Policy...................................... 9
1.5 Language Management: Case Study of Yi-Han Bilingual
Schools.............................................................................................. 10
1.6 Language Belief: Ethnic Identity and Language Choice.................. 12
1.7 Language Practice: Symbolic Value of Language
in the Public Space............................................................................ 14
1.8 About This Book............................................................................... 16
1.9 Organization of This Book................................................................ 17
Bibliography.............................................................................................. 19
2 Creating the Yi: History, Society, and Languages................................. 23
2.1 The History of the Yi: A Mysterious Mist......................................... 24
2.1.1 The History of the Yi from an Anthropological
Perspective............................................................................ 24
2.1.2 History of the Yi from a Sociological Perspective................ 26
2.1.3 The History of the Yi from a Cultural Perspective................ 26
2.2 Yi society: A Black Versus White Yi................................................. 28
2.2.1 Modern Subgroups of the Yi................................................. 29
2.3 Language Planning and Policy for the Yi in Modern China............. 32
2.4 Pros and Cons for the Promotion of the Standard Yi Script.............. 34
2.4.1 Pros for a Standard Yi Script................................................. 34
2.4.2 Cons for a Standard Yi Script................................................ 35
2.5 Conclusion........................................................................................ 35
Bibliography.............................................................................................. 36
vii
viii Contents
xi
List of Pictures
Picture 6.1 The school gate of the Xichang City *** Middle school.
(Photograph- authors’ own)
Translation of the nameplate:
1. Right column: the nameplate of the school in Chinese
characters: Sichuan Province, Xichang City ***Middle School
2. Left column: the nameplate of the school in Yi script:
Sichuan Province, Xichang City ***Middle School����������������� 114
Picture 6.2 A stone tablet in *** Primary school.
(Photograph- authors’ own)
Translation of the script engraved on the stone tablet:
1. The top line in Chinese characters: Shilin Yizu
Autonomous County Guishan Town
2. The second line in Yi characters: Shilin Yizu Autonomous
County Guishan Town
3. The four bold characters in center in Chinese: *** Primary
School
4. The line beside them in Yi characters: *** Primary School
5. The line at the bottom in Chinese: Shilin Haoshi
Industry and Commercial Company Donation,
2015, New Year�������������������������������������������������������������������������� 115
Picture 6.3 Classroom building. (Photograph- authors’ own)
Translation:
1. The bottom line: nameplate of the building in gold Chinese
characters: Classroom Building
2. Second from bottom line: nameplate of the building
in red Yi script: House for learning
3. The line in the middle: school motto in red Chinese
characters: Unity, Diligence, Seeking Truth and Enterprising
4. The top line: school motto in red Yi script: Unity,
Diligence, be Realistic and Enterprising������������������������������������ 116
xiii
xiv List of Pictures
xvii
Chapter 1
Introduction
This book is an attempt to drill down on the disconnect between China’s stated
policy of bilingual education for its ethnic minorities and the implementation of that
policy on the ground. The results indicate that due to many situational and opera-
tional factors the policy has failed to be implemented effectively at the school level.
It looks at ongoing attempts to implement policy aims in these bilingual schools and
concludes that without social, political and economic support these attempts will
not succeed. What actually happens in the schools is a focus for our study. The
authors undertook a detailed study of schooling available to the Yi people in Yunnan
and Sichuan in southwestern China and then explored the factors hindering the
implementation of the stated bilingual policy. This was a follow-up of previous
research (Tsung 2014a; Ding and Yu 2013) which sought to examine whether the
system was delivering its stated aim to provide bilingual education to all China’s
minorities.
1.1 Background
created a centralized government system to consolidate his new empire and manage
his territorial expansion. He used a centralized administration system and intro-
duced a standardized system of measurement. One of the consequences of central-
ization was script unification (wenzi tongyi), which emerged directly from Qin’s
linguistic policy. Emperor Qin dictated that the use of the Qin script be mandatory
throughout the empire. As a result, various local scripts that had been in use up to
that time fell into disuse (Norman 1988). At this time, too, linguistic diversity was
seen as unfavorable to the goal of centralization. Local language diversity and diver-
sity in written scripts were seen as barriers which had to be overcome for Emperor
Qin to enforce his laws across a large territory. After unification Qin’s power is
reflected in the growth in importance of a standardized language and in the numer-
ous modifications of individual scripts based on both Xia or non-Han in the eastern,
southeastern, and northeastern parts of China (Norman 1988).
The impact of this standardized written language was felt for 2000 years until the
1950s, when a policy to simplify Chinese characters was put in place by the People’s
Republic of China. Two different varieties of script now exist: traditional Chinese
characters used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and simplified characters used in the
People’s Republic of China and Singapore.
China’s large territory and multilingual landscape was initially created by the
Mongols, the first non-Han group to conquer China. They also had other indepen-
dent non-Han kingdoms under their regime, including Nan-zhao in the southwest,
Tubo (Tibet) and Xiyu (Xinjiang) in the west. The Mongols controlled China from
1271 to 1368. During this period, many changes were introduced which had direct
and ongoing influence on the status of language and the educational system.
The first multilingual policy set up in the Yuan Dynasty reflected an individual’s
political and social status. Mongol society consisted of four social classes:
1. The Mongols, who were the leading people and controlled the Imperial Court.
2. The Semu people (Huihui Muslim, Uygurs and Tibetans), who were the Mongol’s
literate helpers, administrative assistants and tax collectors.
3. The Han people (which referred to the Han who lived in the north), who were
local officials.
4. Nan people (southerners) (which included Chinese and non-Han people in the
south) who held the lowest social status and were controlled by local native
chiefs.
The use of languages reflected these social strata. The Chinese (Han) language
was placed at the lower rank of the language hierarchy. The Mongolian language
had the highest status in the Yuan court. The Arabic and Persian languages also
received some attention for political and trade reasons. While the Han language lost
its superiority it had an instrumental value. The languages of the south and south-
west had no status in the education system, but they were not suppressed by the
Yuan court.
China’s earliest bilingual education practice can be traced to the Yuan period.
The Mongolian Imperial College, established in 1271, taught exclusively in the
Mongolian language and Chinese. The college aimed to preserve the Mongolian
1.1 Background 3
language, culture and education. Its students were mainly the sons of Mongolian
nobles and officials. In 1315, out of every 100 students, there were 50 Mongol stu-
dents, 20 Semu students and 30 Han students. This period also marked a high point
in Mongolian literature, history, classics and linguistic works. Many literary works
in the Han language were translated into Mongolian language (Shenamujila. 1995).
The Mongolian Hanlin Academy was established in 1271 and was in charge of
translating the imperial edicts from Mongolian into the Han script. In addition, it
prepared final copies for the lower level administrators, dominated by the Han, who
were unfamiliar with the Mongolian language.
Another language policy was to promote Arabic and Persian languages as well as
the study of Muslim culture, medicine, architecture. The National College for the
Study of Muslim Culture (Huihui Guozi Xue) was established in 1289, and five
Mongol officials were enrolled in the inaugural class (Shenamujila 1995). The aim
of the National College for the Study of Muslim Culture was to train Mongol trans-
lators in the Arabic and Persian languages because the Persian language was used in
Xiyu (Xinjiang today) and central Asia. It is regarded as the first foreign language
college in China.
The Manchu were the second non-Han group to conquer China, which they did
in 1644 from their base in Manchuria in the northeast. They established the Qing
dynasty, which established a non-Chinese language policy in its early years. The
Manchu language had the highest status and was referred to as the national language
(or the Qing language). At the same time three other languages had an official status
granted them by the Qing court: Han, Mongolian and Tibetan. Most Qing official
documents were written in these four languages. The autobiographies of the Manchu
emperors were also written in the four languages (Tian 1993: 248).
From this historical background it can be understood that multilingual policy is
deeply rooted in China’s historical legacy and power struggles. Similar to the Yuan
and Qing dynasty, modern China was built on solid multinational and multilingual
foundations. On its establishment in 1949, the PRC government announced that
China was a multi-ethnic country with 55 ethnic minority groups, acknowledging
the diversity of its population while insisting on its national unity. Its diverse minor-
ities with many different languages and cultures have much experience with the
push and pull of homogenizing forces and indigenous cultures (Gao 2010). Fei
(1999) put forward the notion of “duoyuan yiti”, which maintained that China is a
state of ethnic diversity within national unity. The term “Zhonghua minzu” Chinese
nation has been adopted to capture the complex relationships between the Han
majority and the other 55 officially identified ethnic minority groups. As Fei (1999)
articulated, despite their linguistic, cultural and religious differences, they are none-
theless bound to each other in the form of a supra-identity, the Zhonghua minzu.
Duoyuan Yiti (ethnic diversity within national unity) has been taken as a political
framework for dealing with ethnic relations in modern China and is believed to be
the cornerstone of ethnic development and personal advancement (Wang 2016).
Under this framework, Fei (2003) argues that diversity within unity is a combination
of “gemei qimei” (to understand yourself and discover your own form of beauty)
and “meirenzhimei” (to befriend others and appreciate radiance of different people).
4 1 Introduction
Many scholars have investigated modern language policy for minorities in China, in
which 55 minority groups comprising a population of 130 million speak more than
400 languages (Bruhn 2008; Feng 2007; Adamson and Feng 2014; Gao 2008; He
2005, 2014; Ma 1985; Ma 2006; Mackerras 2003; Naran 2014; Postiglione et al. 2007;
Stites 1999; Tsung 2009, 2014a, b; Wang and Zhou 2003; Zhu 2007; Zhou 2004).
Baogang He (2014) believes that throughout history China’s language policy has
always followed a linguistic imperialism orientation, and this trend continues into
contemporary China. As He maintains “Han script was consolidated through a
series of long-lived empires and still enjoys imperial status today” (2014: 57).
Although in the early days of the PRC the Chinese government demonstrated an
intention to enhance language diversity and multilingualism in China, the unex-
pected rapid take up and spread of Putonghua prevented it from achieving any true
linguistic pluralism. The past decades have witnessed “a pendulum swing between
the promotion of linguistic and cultural assimilation and of bilingualism, depending
1.2 Language Policy for Minorities 5
on the socio-political situation in the country” (Feng and Adamson 2015: 4). Whilst
the spread of Putonghua has been fueled by the forces of modern economic develop-
ment, the minority languages have been subjected to legislative neglect (Bruhn
2008). From the political point of view, little real autonomy was actually practiced
in minority areas (Lundberg 2009). The Han Chinese soon gained a dominant posi-
tion and an assimilation policy was then adopted (He 2014). Governments at vari-
ous levels have taken strong measures to promote Putonghua, the standard Chinese,
in schools and in society (Feng and Adamson 2015). Under this assimilation policy
is an apparent monoglossic ideology, which reinforced the long historical tradition
of the unification of language as the foundation of Great Unity. An assimilationist
approach has been taken to minorities (Naran 2014). Language and culture have
been homogenized for the sake of stability and efficiency. “Minority school curri-
cula have predominantly reflected Ronghe Zhuyi (assimilationist beliefs)” (Feng
2007: 271).
Zhou (2000, 2004) summarizes language policies for minorities since the estab-
lishment of the PRC in 1949 into three stages. They are: the first pluralistic stage
(support for minority languages in the early to mid-1950s); the monopolistic stage
(the suppression of minority languages during the late 1950s and the Cultural
Revolution); and the second pluralistic stage (tolerance of minority languages start-
ing from the late 1970s). Zhou argues that minorities’ use of language was directly
subject to governmental planning for the purpose of national identity.
Some researchers point out that in the post 1980s the constitution provides an
assurance that ethnic minorities within the 148 autonomous areas of China can use
their own languages (Ma 1985; Mackerras 2003). The bilingual education policy for
minority groups is set for the protection of minority languages. “It aims to produce
competence in both their ethnic language and Hanyu or standard Chinese”
(Postiglione et al. 2007: 51). The Chinese government has gone to great lengths to
accommodate minority languages (Stites 1999). But as the educational gap between
minority areas and Han areas becomes more and more glaring, much attention has
been given to the language policies and practices in minority areas.
Large discrepancies between the policy and practice have been found when these
laws and policies are interpreted (Zhou 2004; He 2005). For example, Zhou (2004)
points out that the PRC’s practice of its policy goes against its own laws in the fol-
lowing three areas: legal status of minority languages, opportunities for minority
language use/development, and government service in minority languages in minor-
ity communities. In recent years, many researchers have found that the emphasis
seems to shift away from ethnic minority languages (He 2014; Tsung 2014b; Gao
2010). In 2001, the Chinese National People’s Congress passed the revised PRC
Laws on Autonomy for Minority Regions. Among the revisions made, three articles
are related to language use. Although it still promotes both minority languages and
Chinese, it benefits Chinese more than minority languages as a whole (Zhou 2004).
Chinese instruction has since been promoted to the early years of primary educa-
tion. He’s study (2014) in Tibet reveals that Tibetan, once the most commonly used
language in Tibet, is now second to Putonghua in many counties. In her study on
Uygurs in Xinjiang, Tsung (2014a) found that the use of Uygur in education has
6 1 Introduction
declined as a result of the position that Chinese has occupied as the region’s domi-
nant language. A similar trend has also been observed by Gao (2010) on Koreans’
bilingual education in Liaoning. While preserving Korean language and culture has
been encouraged in education, the vision of modernization advocates the impor-
tance of Chinese language studies for all Korean children. With the power of the
market expanding into every corner of China, Putonghua has enjoyed a dramatic
spread over the whole country, while the prominence of minority languages has
been slowly diluted (He 2014). There is now a tendency towards the strengthening
of Putonghua. The policy discourse shifts to a “let the market decide” mentality (Ma
2006).
In 2010, the State Ethnic Affairs Commission issued State Ethnic Affairs
Commission’s Suggestions for Managing Ethnic Minority Languages, putting for-
ward the general principles for language management in minority areas in the new
era. Based on the suggestions, the Chinese Ministry of Education and State
Language Commission set the Outline of Reform and Development Plan for
Languages and Words in Medium and Long Run (2012–2020) in 2012. The Outline
states explicitly that language management in minority areas involves the following
five aspects: accelerating the popularization and promotion of the national common
language and script in minority areas; protecting minority languages and scripts
scientifically; facilitating normalization, standardization, and digitalization of
minority languages; conducting a national survey in minority languages; and keep-
ing a scientific record of minority languages. Putonghua and the standardized
Chinese characters have been set as the national common language to be promoted
not only in Han areas but also in ethnic minority areas. Chinese has been selected as
the lingua franca even for minority groups in China. Further accelerated by the fast
development of the internet and information technology, the status of many minor-
ity languages has become endangered.
Many previous researchers have studied the language policy and the manifesta-
tion of this monolingual ideology in minority groups such as Tibetan, Uygur, and
Mongolian (Postiglione et al. 2007; Naran 2014; Tsung 2014a). They all maintained
that the foundation of mainstream educational thinking in contemporary China is
monocultural centrism, which emphasizes “one nation, one state, one culture, and
one language” (Naran 2014).
phenomenon (Cazden and Snow 1990: 9). Most research conducted into bilingual
education has been focused on school programs.
Bilingual education policy has fluctuated with the political climate for 60 years.
Similar to the three stages Zhou (2000, 2004) identified of language policies for
minorities since the establishment of the PRC in 1949, bilingual education pro-
grams were strongly promoted during the first pluralistic stage (support for minority
languages in the early to mid-1950s); these bilingual education programs were sup-
pressed during the monopolistic stage (the suppression of minority languages dur-
ing the late 1950s and the Cultural Revolution); and bilingual education programs
returned to favor in the second pluralistic stage (tolerance of minority languages
starting from the late 1970s).
One of the objective of bilingual education policy is to prepare minority students
with bilingual proficiency in their mother tongue and Chinese, but the way it is put
into practice strongly favors the Chinese language. Another objective of bilingual
education policy is the protection of minority languages. “It aims to produce com-
petence in both their ethnic language and Hanyu or standard Chinese” (Postiglione
et al. 2007: 51). The Chinese government has gone to great lengths to accommodate
minority languages (Stites 1999), at both legal and policy levels, but as the educa-
tional gap between minority areas and Han areas has become more and more pro-
nounced, it has been found that large discrepancies between the policy and practice
have existed when these laws and policies are interpreted (Zhou 2004; He 2005).
Policy on bilingual education when the new government was established was
both a political and practical issue. The aim of the national language policy was to
offer legal equality to the 55 ethnic minority peoples in order to promote national
unity and social harmony. It was also a very practical solution to use the mother
tongue of minorities to develop basic education since the majority of these groups
did not know Chinese at that time. There are many types or models of bilingual
education (Dai and Cheng’s classification 2007) including structured immersion,
transition, and maintenance, corresponding to the forms of bilingual education for
minority groups in Baker’s typology (2006: 194–201). Bilingual education policies
vary region by region. The last 60 years have seen some strong, as well as some
symbolic (and essentially ineffective), models of mother-tongue bilingual education
with the term “bilingual” often being equated with the use of mother tongue or use
of Putonghua to teach all subjects, except those subjects related to minority litera-
ture or literacy. (For a typology of bilingual education for Chinese minorities, see
Dai and Cheng 2007).
China should be regarded as a world leader in developing methods of bilingual
education for minority nationalities. Mother-tongue bilingual education models
have been identified by many researchers. Those minorities with big populations
occupying large territories such as Uygurs and Kazaks in Xinjiang and Inner
Mongolia, Tibetans in Qinghai, Sichuan and Tibetan Autonomous region and
Koreans in Yanbian prefecture have successfully developed mother-tongue bilingual
education schools and examination systems. The achievements of these bilingual
education systems are tremendous and are reflected in the numbers of schools and
the populations of students who have benefited from these programs.
8 1 Introduction