A Survey Report on Trilingualism and Trilingual Education in Yunnan

Abstract

Yunnan is the province with the most diverse population in terms of ethnicity. The 25 ethnic minority groups live side by side in mixed communities or in compact communities where one or two groups dominate(s). Primarily through questionnaire surveys, this investigation focuses on language use and language teaching and on perceptions of and attitudes towards the three languages, the minority language(s), Mandarin Chinese and English, in primary and secondary school classrooms where Bai, Yi and Zhuang students are present or dominant. It was found that, first, except for occasional use of the minority language to explain teaching contents orally in some primary school classrooms, the pupils’ mother tongues are largely ignored in primary and secondary education. Despite the glooming situation of the mother tongue in compulsory education, the survey found that the teachers and students had fairly positive views about their mother tongues with regard to their identity and self-esteem. The surveyed respondents showed doubt about linguistic assimilation and they tended to agree that trilingualism or multilingualism is the way forward.