English in the language ecology of a community of indigenous Derung people in Northwest Yunnan

Abstract

AbstractWith the rapid sociopolitical and economic progress taking place over the past decade in the remote multi‐ethnic and multilingual Derung community in Dulongjiang Township, in the northwest of Yunnan Province, China, the local Derung people, one of the less populous ethnic groups in China, have been experiencing noticeable changes to their language ecology. This paper sets out to explore in particular the status and functions of English in its interaction with other languages in the Derung's language ecology, through investigating the local linguistic landscape and carrying out a survey of language instruction in the local elementary and secondary schools. The study reveals that English has become the second most frequent language after Mandarin Chinese (Putonghua) and further explores the reasons leading to this rise in the status and the functions of English as part of the changing language ecology in the Dulong River valley.