TY - JOUR
T1 - Multilingual education in minority-dominated regions in Xinjiang, People’s Republic of China
AU - Zhang, Ping
AU - Adamson, Bob
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2020/12/2
Y1 - 2020/12/2
N2 - Recent developments in multilingualism and multilingual education in minority-dominated regions in China highlight the importance of policy studies to support the national goals of achieving multilingualism [Feng, A. W., and B. Adamson, eds. 2015. Trilingualism in Education in China: Models and Challenges. Dordrecht: Springer], especially in remote western regions such as Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR) that pose geographical, socio-political, and educational challenges. This study investigates the effectiveness of language policies and the implementation of multilingual education for minority dominated regions in XUAR, and of the extent to which those policies support multilingual education. The data mainly comprise policy documents issued at the national, regional and institutional level, supplemented by interviews with policy makers at regional and local levels. The study finds that, while the policies at both national and regional levels regarding language education in China are generally supportive of multilingualism, in reality, some of the implemented practices at local school levels in XUAR are not totally consistent with the policy goals, while weak local capacity also hinders the implementation of multilingual education.
AB - Recent developments in multilingualism and multilingual education in minority-dominated regions in China highlight the importance of policy studies to support the national goals of achieving multilingualism [Feng, A. W., and B. Adamson, eds. 2015. Trilingualism in Education in China: Models and Challenges. Dordrecht: Springer], especially in remote western regions such as Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR) that pose geographical, socio-political, and educational challenges. This study investigates the effectiveness of language policies and the implementation of multilingual education for minority dominated regions in XUAR, and of the extent to which those policies support multilingual education. The data mainly comprise policy documents issued at the national, regional and institutional level, supplemented by interviews with policy makers at regional and local levels. The study finds that, while the policies at both national and regional levels regarding language education in China are generally supportive of multilingualism, in reality, some of the implemented practices at local school levels in XUAR are not totally consistent with the policy goals, while weak local capacity also hinders the implementation of multilingual education.
KW - Language education
KW - Xinjiang
KW - bilingualism
KW - ethnic minorities
KW - language policy
KW - multilingualism
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85097099725&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/01434632.2020.1850744
DO - 10.1080/01434632.2020.1850744
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85097099725
SN - 0143-4632
JO - Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development
JF - Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development
ER -