Preserving Linguistic Diversity through Heritage Language Education --Rethinking Heritage Language Education in China

• In Event: Sustainable quality education: mother tongue and "official" languages

Proposal

China has diverse linguistic resources of around 130 languages in terms of the variations of Chinese (also widely considered as “dialects” in China) and ethnic minority languages (“130 Languages Are Endangered”, 2017). According to Ethnologue, there are 16 languages that are nearly extinct in China (Simons & Charles, 2018). In 2015, the Ministry of Education of China and the State Language Commission of China launched the China Language Resources Protection Project, which included many programs that focused on the evaluation, protection, showcasing, and development of language resources, in particular, the endangered languages and cultures in China (UNESCO, 2018). Compared to the 73% in overall popularizing rate of Putonghua in 2015 and the estimated 100% in the popularizing rate of Putonghua among mid-age, teenagers and children (Liu, 2018), conversely, studies manifest that the use and proficiency of variations and dialects in Chinese and the ethnic minority languages among teenagers to middle-age citizens in China are at a lower level than those of older generations (Lu, 2009; Chen & Lin, 2011, 2013).    

Such variations and dialects of these people mirror the definition of heritage languages— the languages other than the dominant language (Putonghua in this case) in a given social context (the educational system in China in this case) (Kelleher, 2010a). Moreover, if one has low proficiency in his/her variation, dialect or language and is learning it, he/she can be considered as a heritage language learner (Kelleher, 2010b).

Researchers in western countries have suggested the sociopolitical and pedagogical, linguistic and cultural importance of establishing and improving heritage language education (Van Deusen-Scholl, 2009; Brecht & Ingold, 2002; Nunberg, 2001; Peyton & Ranard, 2001). Though the Chinese government pays attention to linguistic diversity in recent years, its main focus is on preserving language variations and dialects through collecting and recording linguistic resources. In the formal schooling system, Putonghua and standardized Hanzi (simplified Chinese) are mainstreamed at schools and educational institutions (Law on the Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language, 2000), while the formal or informal education for one’s variation and dialect as a heritage language are often neglected. Moreover, through my analysis, I found that the misconceptions of “heritage language education” in public and academia result in the lack of appropriate introduction and implementations of heritage language education in China, which further leads to gaps in language policy planning, teaching practices and academic research in this field.

My paper aims at correcting the aforementioned misconceptions and filling the gaps by answering these questions, 1) what is heritage language education and why we need to implement it in China? 2) how can we better understand and apply the concept of “heritage language education” to the preservation of linguistic resources in China? and 3) What are the feasible and sustainable heritage language education programs that contribute to the linguistic diversity in China? To answer these questions, I follow a theoretical framework of language as a resource developed by Ruiz (1984), which examines the policies, practices and outcomes oriented by language as a resource. To investigate how and why the concept of “heritage language education” is misinterpreted in China, I adopt discourse analysis of language policies, online news articles and published journal articles related to “language and culture heritage”. Later, I argue that the appropriate applications of heritage language education should be introduced in China and give examples of how heritage language education programs are carried out in other countries such as the U.S and Canada. Last but not least, I illustrate suggestions on properly improving the policies and regulations on language protection through heritage language education, accurately addressing the importance of heritage language education in China through academic research, and effectively developing feasible and sustainable heritage language education programs through formal and informal learning approaches.

In conclusion, this paper closely inquires into the application of “heritage language education” and implementations of heritage language education programs, which is inappropriately recognized in China. By showing the positive impact of the heritage language education on the protection of linguistic resources and linguistic diversity in China, this paper also reinforces the importance of heritage language education and how it makes contributions to the linguistically and culturally sustainable education in the global communities.

Author

• Yingjia Zhang, OISE, University of Toronto