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Part of
Contemporary Chinese Discourse and Social Practice in China
Edited by Linda Tsung and Wei Wang
[Studies in Chinese Language and Discourse 4] 2015
► pp. 103–124

Changing Attitude for Bilingual Education in Liangshan, China

ORCID logo | The University of Sydney
| Southwest Jiaotong University

This study examines the changing attitude of Yi students as well as that of their parents and teachers in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan. It also explores its relevance to the implementation of language education policy in a typical bilingual school in Liangshan. Questionnaire surveys were conducted among 98 Yi students in Grade 6 of a bilingual primary school followed by in-depth interviews with 20 parents and 10 teachers. The findings indicate that Yi students, their parents, and the teachers all hold a positive attitude towards the Chinese language, considering it a key to success in education and future careers. Their positive attitudes greatly promote Chinese language education in the school while the development of Yi language literacy has been neglected in spite of an explicit policy of Yi language education. The conflict between the top-down favourable policy and the language attitudes at the grass-roots level makes Yi-Han bilingual education hard to implement.

Published online: 9 October 2015
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/scld.4.07tsu
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