Language attitudes of ethnic minority secondary school students in Urumqi, China

Purpose: This paper investigates the language attitudes of ethnic minority junior secondary school students in a complex language ecology in Urumqi, in the People’s Republic of China. It focuses on the attitudes of these students towards Uyghur, Mandarin Chinese and English. Design/methodology/approach: Methods comprise a questionnaire survey and interviews. The survey of 294 students in three schools catering for ethnic minority students asked about their attitudes towards the three languages. Using a Likert scale and open-ended questions, it covers social and affective aspects. Semi-structured group interviews and individual student interviews were conducted with a stratified random sampling of 12 students to explore issues raised in the questionnaire survey. Findings: Most students demonstrate positive affective attitudes towards Uyghur and social attitudes towards Mandarin Chinese. Their attitudes towards English are ambivalent. They are generally supportive of multilingualism and multilingual education. Practical implications: Policy action that respects the complexity of the language ecology could enhance the pathways. Different models of trilingual education in the PRC are available for policymakers to support these students to achieve their aspirations as well as local, regional and national goals. Originality/value: There is little research in China into this topic. Language attitudes of this age group can influence their choice of pathway into an examination-oriented senior secondary school or vocational education, and are important factors in their motivation and capacity to build multilingual competences. Although the claims that can be made on the basis of findings from a relatively small-scale study are limited, the findings are valuable in understanding the dynamics of a complex language ecology. Policy action that respects the complexity of the language ecology could enhance the educational options available to the students. There are models of trilingual education in the PRC that policymakers could select to support these students to achieve their aspirations as well as local, regional and national goals.