Changing Attitude for Bilingual Education in Liangshan, China
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.
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