Bilingualism for the Minor or the Major? An Evaluative Analysis of Parallel Conceptions in China

Abstract

The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. This paper is an analysis of two conceptions of bilingualism that exist in parallel in China. One is traditional bilingualism referring to the use of a native minority language and standard Chinese by minority groups and the other, seen as bilingualism with modern characteristics, is a modern-day phenomenon in which the majority Han group aspire to produce bilinguals with a strong competence in mother tongue Chinese and a foreign language, primarily English, by using Chinese and the foreign language as mediums of instruction in teaching school subjects. The focus of the analysis is on the latter for the simple reason that current literature on the new phenomenon is mostly available only in Chinese. An equally important aim of this paper is to explore the impact of the new phenomenon on minority education and to examine the reason why this impact is largely ignored in bilingualism discussions, despite obvious consequences with respect to ethnic identity, personality development and academic performance of minority students. Thus, the traditional conception is briefly reviewed at the start.

Globalization and language policies of multilingual societies: some case studies of south east Asia

“…Despite the enacted policies, most minority students do not have the same opportunity to study a foreign language in elementary or secondary schools as Han students in central and developed areas or big cities (FENG, 2005;YANG, 2005). Hu (2003) found that students' proficiency of English among students from the western provinces with large minority communities is lower than that of students in more developed provinces where Han people were dominant.…”

“…Formal bilingual education began at the turn of the 20 th century, when the Qing government opened some bilingual schools that recruited only social elites of the minority groups both in major cities and minority regions (FENG, 2005). The new China founded in 1949 boosted schools for minorities that were self-governed by local leaders.…”

“…It is not difficult to understand why more than two decades ago China adopted the policy "Min-Han Jiantong" (Mastery of both native language and Chinese), which means that individuals should master their native languages and understand their own cultures (Min); but they should also be linguistically competent in Chinese language and understand the dominant Han culture. As Feng (2005) argues, "Min-Han Jiantong" ideology, especially adopted in Xinjiang and Tibet, emphasizes the importance of both high-level Chinese and minority groups' native languages.…”

“…According to Feng (2005), traditional bilingual education refers to minority groups' education in both Chinese and minority languages, but this bilingual education was operated for minorities who had developed their own spoken and written languages. The purpose of this type of bilingual education is "to create a bicultural identity (minority cultural identity and political or citizenship allegiance to the state" (p. 535).…”

“…The new China founded in 1949 boosted schools for minorities that were self-governed by local leaders. Until 1957, the centralized government created written languages for those minority groups that did not have written but spoken language (FENG, 2005;MA, 2007). The political equality of all nationalities was stressed so that ethnic minorities' languages served as a basic political right of minority peoples and maintained equal and legitimate status so that more than 10 minorities invented their written language with the support of linguists.…”