Many languages of China’s ethnic minorities belong to different language families and they are distinct from each other in linguistic typology,which hinders the communication and interaction among ethnic groups.With the development of a market economy and growing population mobility,there is a remarkable increase of communication among ethnic groups.Moreover,the requirements of the urban labor market enhance people’s command of the national common language.In order to improve the employment situation for ethnic minorities as well as to promote contact and exchanges among them,the government is actively promoting “Bilingual Education” in border areas.Considering the long-term prospects for China’s development,the government needs to investigate the trend of language learning in and out of schools,and propose plans accordingly.Using a study of language and identity in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and its affi liated Kashgar Prefecture as a case,this article proposes the concepts of an “Ethnic Culture Segment”,a “Daily Use Language Zone”,and a “Learning and Employment Language Zone”.These concepts can be useful in carrying out bilingual education in autonomous and schools in line with local conditions.
How does language reflect and affect identity? How does language construct and maintain identity? And to what extent does language construct and maintain identity? These have been important issues in the field of language identity for a long time.In the past decades,Chinese scholars tried to answer these questions by focusing on the following six aspects:(1)the connotations of language identity,(2) social language and identity,(3) educational language and identity,(4)language and identity of migrant workers,(5)minority language andidentity,(6)overseas Chinese language andidentity.This article is a literature review that provides acomprehensive review of the relevant research on domestic and overseas Chinese,including the research progress and trends,major achievements and fields,the main methods and contributions.In the foreseeable future,the study of these six areas will remain very popular;however,the research in these areas calls for new methods,new paradigms,new approaches,and ethnography emerges as a promising alternative for the analysis of language and identity,which are conducive to examing “mindsets” of language users.A lot remains to be done in this field.
The relations between language and ethnic identity as a research area have a long history and have drawn increasing attention from scholars with different interests and expertise.Having applied a data-driven approach and textual analysis,this study attempts to investigate the international literature (in English) published from 2010 till 2015 with the purpose of informing domestic researchers of the latest development in other languages and cultures.The study shows that the work of international researchers manifests a number of features including logistic cohesion in conceptualization,cognitive orientation,in addition to an interdisciplinary nature and methodological multiplicity.The fi ndings revealed in this study go beyond the interest in relationships between language and identity,language and psychological identity,language and multi-layered identity;their efforts extend to language style innovation and multiple identity as well.I attribute the findings to the following reasons:The awareness of identity compositions,the match of identifi cation and behavior,the integration,transformation and expression of multiple identities,and the formation of a pluralist epistemological view.This study concludes with the suggestion that the local researchers should hold a critical view of what has been achieved abroad,thereby furthering theoretical research through domestic collaboration and resource utilization.