B i l i n g u a li s m m " Chi na Yan Xuequn

China is a unified, multinational and mnltilingual, socialist country. It has fifty-five minority nationalities, accounting for about 6 per cent of the country's total population, and distributed over vast districts of more than 5o per cent of the country's total area. According to preliminary estimates, those fifty-five minority nationalities have eighty-four spoken and twenty-seven written languages. Areas where minority nationalities live in compact communities and areas inhabited by several minority nationalities, in most cases, are adjoining or interlocking. There are other situations where they live in a more dispersed fashion. Thus the use of various spoken and written languages presents a very complicated picture. The Constitution of the People's Republic of China stipulates that all minority nationalities have the full right to use their own spoken and written languages and plans and measures have been adopted for this purpose. Most of the minority nationalities has its own language which is the medium of daily communication. But the Han nationality, with its more developed economy and culture, constitutes the majority of the total population and us spread throughout the country. Therefore, Chinese is used in varying degrees by all the minority nationalities. Generally speaking, monolingualism still predominates at present among the minority nationalities, but bilingual situations, namely, using Chinese in addition to their mother tongues, are developing rapidly among them. These situations are roughly divided into four types.

Y a n X u e q u n (People's Republic of China). South

Central Institute for National Minorities, IVuhan.

Typology of bilingualism The first type includes members of minority nationalities who know both their national languages and Chinese. This is a situation closely related to their localities. In general, use of Chinese is more usual among minority nationalities living in the interior than those living in the border areas. In relation to Zhuang, Dong, Buyi, Bai and Naxi nationalities, for example, not only their cadres and educated people have mastered Chinese in addition to their national languages, but many of their workers and peasants are also able to use Chinese. Comparing areas where a number of minority nationalities live together with those where they live in compact communities, more people know Chinese in the former than in the latter. For example, most of the Yi people who live in compact communities in the Big and Small Liang shan Mountain areas know the Yi language only, while a considerable number of the Yi people in the Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi provinces living together with the Hans have a command of Chinese. As for the Dong people who live together with the Han, many of them known both their national language and Chinese; more of them in the northern areas do so than in the south. Throughout the article, when the author refers to the Chinese language, he is referring to the standard written form employing square characters used chiefly by the Han people and to the spoken form known popularly in theWestern world as r (In China, it is cared either ban yu or language of the Han as w a r as pu tong hua or common language.) (The text is the edited form of a paper presented in a symposium organized by Unesco's regional office for Africa in Dakar, BREDA: Unesco Regional Symposium on Content, Teaching Methods and Teacher Training Programmes in the Use of National Languages and Mother Tongues in Teaching and in Culture, Nairobi, 28 May to x June I985.) Editor's note.

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result of long-standing frequent contacts with the Han, more and more people of certain minority nationalities know both their national languages and Chinese. Bilingualism, for instance, has become very common among young people of the Maonan and Mulao peoples. Another situation prevails among the Gelao people, of which the majority have converted to the use of Chinese, the minority still speak the Gelao language among themselves and use Chinese when dealing with the Han people. The second situation includes some minority nationalities who know both their own national languages and the language of another neighbouring minority nationality. In certain regions of China, some minority nationalities are distributed over large areas and enjoy greater influence then others; therefore their languages are also used by the neighbouring nationalities of smaller populations. For instance, in southern Yunnan the Dai nationality has the biggest population among the minority nationalities in the region and they live in compact communities. Many people of the neighbouring Jingpo, Achang, Lahu, Wa, Banglong and Bulang nationalities also know the Dai language in addition to their own languages. In Xinjiang, the Uighur language is widely used, and therefore many people of the Kazakh, Mongolian, Khalkhas and Xibo nationalities also know the Uighur. Most of the Menba and Luoba people in the Tibetan region also know the Tibetan language which is used for primary education. The third situation includes the Han population in minority nationality regions who use both Chinese and the languages of the minority nationalities. For example, the Han people in the Lixian County of the Aba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan province, have been living among the Tibetan and Qiang people there since before the liberation (1949) and therefore use both Chinese and Tibetan. Many Han inhabitants near Mangshi, Yunnan province, know the Dai language while many Han in Tongbiguan, Yingjiang County know the Jingpo language. The fourth situation includes nationalities that have two or more languages. Some people As a

of those nationalities know one more language of the same nationalities in addition to their own. For example, people of Yugu nationality use either the eastern or the western Yugu language. A small number of them know both. The Jingpo people use both the Jingpo and Zaiwa languages, and in general the Jingpo language is used by the Jingpo subbranch while the Zaiwa language is used by the Zaiwa subbranch. Some people from either subbranch know both. In many families parents are from different subbranches and therefore all members in the family know both languages. Besides, due to different living environments, bilingual situations vary within some nationalities; various different languages are adopted in addition to their own. Both the Dawoer and Ewenke nationalities are based in the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region. Those of the two nationalities who are living in pastoral areas usually use the Mongolian language besides their own while those who live in towns or in the neighbourhood of the Han often use Chinese. Some of the Mongolian people living in the Qinghai province know the Tibetan language while others living in Xinjiang know the Uighur or the Kawakh language. The Gelao people living in the neighbourhood of the Yi people in the Guizhou province use the Yi language, while those in Guangxi and living in the neighbourhood of the Zhuang and He Miao nationalities in Guangxi speak the Zhuang or Miao language. The Constitution of the People's Republic of China states that 'each nationality has the freedom to use and develop its own language'. The government has adopted a series of measures to implement this right. In exercising their power, national autonomous organs at all levels should use one or several of the spoken and written languages widely employed by the local nationalities. In all places where translation is needed, interpreters or translated texts in the languages of minority nationalities should be provided. Surveys of the languages of minority nationalities have been made so as to help them create or reform their written languages.

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Newspapers, periodicals and books have been published in minority nationality languages. Radio programmes in minority nationality languages have been started. Textbooks in minority nationality languages have been used as appropriate in school education or literacy work. Assistance has been given to the cadres of the Han nationality working in minority nationality areas to learn the languages of the local nationalities, and to minority nationalities to learn Chinese.

schools, and certain faculties of the universities, has been established, using Mongolian as the language for instruction. Bilingual education is practised in schools where the language of instruction is the Mongolian language as it is the mother tongue of the pupils. But for the children in the city of Huhhot and the Tumote Banner who speak Chinese only, the Mongolian Autonomous Region has introduced teaching in Mongolian for the first three years of their primary education before they can receive Mongolian-Chinese bilingual education.

Bilingual education

THE TIBETAN PATTERN

At present, language education in China's minority nationality areas is carried out in the following patterns :

The Tibetan language which is the mother tongue of the children is used as the medium of instruction in primary schools and Chinese is taught in grades 4 to 6. Schooling in middle schools is for seven years; the first year is given to preparing pupils in Chinese so that they can receive all instruction in Chinese in the second year, that is the equivalent to the grade x in ordinary middle schools. The Tibetan language course is provided for each grade, transition to bilingual education should be accomplished in the early years and bilingual education is fully implemented in all the later years.

THE YANBIAN PATTERN

A complete national education system, from kindergartens, primary schools, middle schools, up to universities and colleges, has been estabfished in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture. The Korean language which is the mother tongue of the students is used as the medium of instruction. Attention is also paid to the teaching of Chinese in order to carry out 'bilingual education'. When the Autonomous Prefecture was founded in I952, it was explicitly stipulated in the Organizational Rules of the People's Government that the People's Government should take the Korean language as the main medium in exercising its power and at the same time make use of Chinese. Therefore both the Korean language and Chinese are the official languages in the Yanbian Autonomous Prefecture and the bilingual system has been practised since then. THE INNER MONGOLIAN PATTERN

A relatively complete national education system, including primary schools, middle

THE X I N J I A N G P A T T E R N

Many people among the minority nationalities in Urnmqi, Yili, Tacheng and some other areas in Southern Xinjiang use Chinese. The Uighur, Kazakh and other national languages--mother tongues of the pupils--are taken as media of instruction in primary schools, middle schools and part of universities and colleges. At the same time the teaching of Chinese is being strengthened in schools at all levels. Now in addition to the Chinese language courses provided in primary schools in Xinjiang, preparatory Chinese language courses at precollege level have been established at institutions of higher education .to strengthen the Chinese language study of the minority national-

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ity students so as to help effect transition to bilingual education.

THE LITERACY CAMPAIGN PATTERN

This is a form used when a nationality without a common national language plans to make use of a common national written language, or a In the provinces in south and south-west nationality whose dialects vary greatly a n d China, it is a common phenomenon that dif- without a written language intends to create ferent nationalities live together or in inter- and use a regional national dialect and written locking compact communities, and as a result language so as to eliminate illiteracy and popuChinese is widely used in most of the cities and larize education or develop bilingual education. towns and even in rural areas, and local Chinese For example, the Yi language has six dialects dialects are often used by different nationalities and dozens of local dialects ; the Yao nationalas means of communication in their contacts ity has three different languages while each with members of other nationalities in primary language has various dialects plus local varieducation. A gradual transition has taken place ations. All these situations to need further study from stressing the teaching of Chinese to the in order to solve the problems related to teaching of different national languages. In the bilingual education of those nationalities. first year of primary schools only national Educational modes are multifarious while languages are taught and from the second year educational effects are uneven. As a result, on common primary-school textbooks compiled defects or shortcomings appear frequently. in Chinese are used. Middle schools all have Long-standing problems for the minority nationa student body of mixed nationalities and there- ality students in learning Chinese are misprofore all subjects are taught in Chinese, with nunciation, incorrect wording and illogical and the exception of a few national middle schools ungrammatical fanlts in writing. These proor schools for national teacher training in which blems arise chiefly because of linguistic intera particular national language is taught as a ference and the shift of habits from their mother separate subject of study. Breaking with the tongues to Chinese. Each language has its unitary Chinese language teaching system distinctive features, and its three component adopted in primary schools in the past, the elements, namely, pronunciation, grammar and educational administration in the Guangxi vocabulary. They are all part of a coherent Zhuang Autonomous Region and the Bureau system whose unique rhetoric skills and social of Education in the Liangshan Prefecture, habits can hardly be transplanted. Generally Sichuan province, have devoted major efforts speaking, mispronunciation gives rise to misto developing national languages and estab- takes such as substitution, overlapping, conlished a new bilingual teaching system. It is fusion, alteration in pronunciation. now planned that the Zhuang language will be For example, in the Uighur language there used in teaching in all the primary schools is no differentiation of tones, but it has word in Zhuang nationality areas of Guangxi by I99O, stress. As a result, the former is often replaced while the Bureau of Education in Liang shun by the latter. In the Mongolian language, there has started drawing up the Yi language teaching is no differentiation of tones either, so when plans for primary schools and junior middle the Mongolian students learn Chinese, they Schools. A 'Dai language teaching programme read the Chinese guild (meaning, skeleton) as for nationality primary schools' has been im- gitji~ (meaning, evaluation); jieshi (meaning, plemented on trial basis in the Dehong Dai and explain) as jieshi (meaning, solid); and mai Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan (meaning, buy) as m~i (meaning, sell). Also when the Jiarong people read Chinese characprovince. ters, they pronounce a simple consonant as a THE SOUTH-WEST PATTERN

Bilingualism in China

compound consonant, such as ch~ngdu (provincial capital of Sichuan) as chdng ndu, or add a consonant ending to a vowel ending such as bh'rau (meaning the bulb of fritillary) rendering it as b~imuk. Moreover, there is no terminal nasal consonant in the Yi language of Guizhou, so when the Yi students learn Chinese, no distinction is made between gonggong (meaning husband's father) and gugu (meaning father's sister). There is no aspirated sound in the Buyi language, so no distinction is made between bizi (meaning nose) and pizi (meaning leather). One could give many other examples in respect of word order, when the Zhuang and Tong students learn to speak Chinese, they all pronounce honghua (meaning red flower) as huahong (meuning Chinese pear-leaved crab apple), while the Mongolian students say zoo chi f~n (meaning I eat meals) as vo f~n chi (meaning I meals eat). The Qiang nationality in the Aba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan province, and the Jiarong people, in the habit of their mother tongues, often speak Chinese in a strange and abnormal way. All the examples cited above illustrate that in real life minority nationalities are prone to transplant the characteristics in pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary of their mother tongues to Chinese. It is, of course, inevitable that minority nationalities experience linguistic interference from their mother tongues when they learn Chinese. Oar task is try to reduce and eliminate it, by analysing its origin and finding ways and means for remedy and correction. Generally speaking, linguistic interference with the learning of Chinese seems to be mainly in pronunciation for the lower grades, granunar for middle grades and semantics and stylistics for higher grades.

Further research Differences in phonetic system, syntax, vocabulary, morphology, rhetoric and word order exist between Chinese and all the languages of minority nationalities. It is necessary to make a comparative study of them so as to bring to

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light similarities and differences between them, including common characteristics of different languages as well as distinctive features of each individual language. Therefore attention should be paid to analyses and comparative studies on languages, and the following research items should be carried out: A description of the communication function of various languages should be carried out by expert linguists, to encourage more precise, systematic and complete descriptions in bilingual textbooks and to have them popularized. Studies in psycho-linguistics should bring out basic characteristics of first and second language acquisition of children, and particularly of the spontaneous language learning of migrant children. Psycho-sociological investigations should examine acculturation, enculturation and decultaration phenomena, especially in the case of contact or conflict between written languages and oral languages. Socio-linguistic investigation on principal languages should be undertaken in relation to secondary and dependent languages or languages tending to disappear. Research should examine the cultural prerequisites of various languages, geographical and social variations in languages, and language development of different age levels in various language systems. Research should inquire into the effects of different models used in the bilingual teaching programmes, and encouraging crosscultural research in contrastive linguistics. An effort should be made to improve bilingual teaching methods, and studies should be undertaken on the use of technical language in multilingual teaching and on the process of transfer of reading skiUs from one language to another. A general description of the language to be taught should be available as well as textbooks, dictionaries, and a set of suitable teaching methods. A complicated situation exists with regard to China's minority nationalities; not only does

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the size of their population vary greatly, but there are also gaps in their socio-economic development. For example, the Mongolian, Uighur, Tibetan and Korean nationalities all have fairly big populations and have been using their own national languages for centuries. Approaches and methods for solving the problems relating to bilingualism among these nationalities must be very different from those for nationalities of smaller populations such as the Achang, Benglong and Dulong nationalities, who have no written languages of their own. The situation of the Dai, Jingpo, Lisu, Lahu, W'a, H a n i and Yi nationalities are different fromthat of the Zhuang, Tong, Miao and Yso nationalities. Nationalities that have a spoken language only and do not know Chinese should be given special consideration, and it seems as a first step, an alphabet or phonetic symbols should be formulated for them to be used for literacy education or language teaching at an early stage of primary education, preparatory to further studies on the problem of popularizing bilingualism. In China the Constitution guarantees the use of mother tongues by different minority nationalities. Policies have been formulated and measures adopted to settle the conflicts caused by language differences and avoid forced national assimilation, safeguarding equality and cordial coexistence of all nationalities in the country. But a single national language is not sufficient at the present stage of development for any country or nationality in the world. It is important to give full play to the functions of the national languages, but bilingualism is the tendency in the world today. China has a good many nationalities distributed over large areas in the country. In most of those areas a number of nationalities live together, while in certain areas, people of the nationality live in compact communities. As a result, the historically formed bilingual situations present an intricate and complex picture. In order to develop national education, improve the standard of science and culture and carry on the reconstruction for realizing the four modernizations, it is necessary to give play to the use of both nationality

languages and Chinese. In China the diversity and plurality of languages are regarded as a treasure. Bilingualism may result from political or social causes such as war and exploration, opening up wasteland, migration or exile, or may be the result of national migration caused by natural calamities such as earthquake, epidemic disease and famine, or may be conditioned geographically in areas of extreme cold which are therefore sparsely populated. However, we need ~unity in diversity'. Our aim is to propose that the state adopt legislation on the question of bilingual education so as to ensure the rapid development of education among minority nationalities through vigorous promotion of bilingual education to put an end to the limitations of the present national education system as quickly as possible through effective legislation. We hope that the legislation will jointly be formulated by the Commission on Nationalities and the Commission on Legislation of the National People's Congress and submitted to the Standing Committee of the Congress for consideration, adoption, promulgation and implementation. Now that bilingual situations exist extensively in China, using both nationality languages and Chinese in communication and educational activities, it is necessary to make contrastive studies of the national languages and Chinese to ascertain what is common in their means of expression as well as the peculiarities of each. This will lead to the further development of contrastive linguistics in China. We should also understand that China's contrastive linguistics is a discipline dealing with similarities and differences in the pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar and rhetoric between different languages, and theories and methods to compare different languages. At present, research should be carded out on the contemporary forms of nationality languages and Chinese, as well as their relations of exchange, interference and reciprocity. Of course, analyses and studies can also be carried out on the contrast between China's nationality languages and foreign languages. Currently, information communication between different language groups has

Bilingualism in China

become an essential factor in the development of the social productive force. Language is also a social resource. The use of languages has become more intensive. The relation between linguistics and social life as well as science and technology is becoming increasingly closer. Thus it is imperative for us to further develop China's contrastive linguistics.

Bibliography MA XUELIANG, DAI QINGSHA. Several Problems in the

Bilingual Research of China' s Nationality Regions. SOCIETY OF CHINESE TEACHINO~ IN THE INSTITUTES MINORITY NATIONALITIES. Symposium of the Fourth Academic Conference. UNESCO. Symposium of Meeting of Experts on Language

Teaching in a Bi- or Plurilingual and Multicultural Environment. I977. YAN XuEQtn,~. An Introduction to China's Contrastive Linguistics.

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