Comments on: Will education reform wipe out Mongolian language and culture?

By: Paul+Desailly

Paul+Desailly — Tue, 03 Nov 2020 05:53:25 +0000

For the two million strong diaspora of Esperantists in 100 plus countries an on-theme thread appeared today under this rubric:
“Lingva diverseco en Tibeto kaj Interna Mongolio” (Language diversity in Tibet and Inner Mongolia)

My intro and a link to a 24-page essay composed by two outstanding professors are provided here entirely in English:

https://www.academia.edu/26351333/Tibetan_Chinese_Bilingual_Education?email_work_card=title

Given recent observations (and certain complaints) aired by various mass media organisations re reduced instruction in Inner Mongolian schools in the primary local language, i.e. the Mongolian tongue, it is important that a professional analysis appeared 4 years ago on language diversity in Tibet

Profesors Chunlin Yao and our own Ghil’ad Zuckermann, respectively from (1) The North China University of Science and Technology and (2) The University of Adelaide published in their splendid collaboration a synopsis in Esperanto which I’m happy to provide in English on request.

THE AUTHORS IN QUESTION:

Yao Chunlin School of Foreign Languages North China University of Science and Technology No. 46 Xinhuaxidao Tangshan, Heibei PRC 063009 [email protected]; [email protected]

Ghil‘ad Zuckermann 918 Napier Building Adelaide, SA 5005 Australia [email protected]

Yao Chunlin is an Associate Professor in North China University of Science and Technology and a postdoctoral researcher in Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. His research areas include sociolinguistics and endangered languages.

Ghil ‘ad Zuckermann,

DPhil (Oxon), PhD (Cantab) (titular), is Chair of Linguistics and Endangered Languages, a tenured Full Professor (Level E, the highest rank), at the University of Adelaide. He is a leading expert of (1) revivalistics, a new trans-disciplinary ﬁeld of enquiry surrounding language reclamation (e.g., Barngarla), revitalization (e.g., Adnyamathanha) and reinvigoration (e.g., Irish), (2) multiple causation, cross-fertilization and horizontal gene transfer in languages, (3) sources of lexical expansion and camouﬂaged borrowing, (4) contact linguistics, and (5) the study of language, culture and identity.

By: How China's new language policy sparked rare backlash in Inner Mongolia - GroYourWealth.com How China's new language policy sparked rare backlash in Inner Mongolia

Mon, 02 Nov 2020 03:19:55 +0000

[…] experts have noted that the new education policy is part of a broader, generational shift of ethnic policy in China, […]

By: Minority languages on the rise? - Language on the Move

Minority languages on the rise? - Language on the Move — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 05:12:34 +0000

[…] Baioud, Gegentuul, Will education reform wipe out Mongolian language and culture? […]

By: KINZA ABBASI

KINZA ABBASI — Sat, 10 Oct 2020 22:07:01 +0000

while reading this i realised the subtly transformation of the thought process and culture of the region can be done through language change. If the language gets replaced the whole community gets replaced . The mongol fear of getting extinct with the replacement of language is real and it must be addressed. The situation os somewhat similar to my country . We have one national language Urdu ,which is the spoken by the people of Karachi, one of the cities in Pakistan, while the rest of 5 states have different regional languages , yet there is no space in national curriculum for the mother tongues. So the students from regional areas first learn the national language side by side with English. The complication goes further and further and end up losing both the ends. However, in regional Pakistan, most of the pedagogical practices are done in first languages in some states/provinces. Seeing the situation of Mongolian Language , i believe national curriculum must be linguistically diverse.

By: Contemporary China Centre Blog » China’s Minority Language Rights: No Bulwark Against Upcoming Change

Wed, 07 Oct 2020 10:51:37 +0000

[…] for instruction in the early years – the legal weakness of which is clear from the current, contentious reductions to bilingual schooling in Inner Mongolia – and a legal obligation on schools to popularize […]

By: Gegentuul

Gegentuul — Sat, 03 Oct 2020 23:56:22 +0000

In reply to Banie. Thanks Audrey! Language awareness, institutional support and family language policies are all important in preserving minority/indigenous languages. Actually institutional regulation and implementation are vital to facilitate linguistic justice and equality.

By: Gegentuul

Gegentuul — Sat, 03 Oct 2020 23:40:18 +0000

In reply to Audrey. Thank you Enkhzaya for your comments! Yes the language and culture itself is precious, yet I worry more about the people who speak this language than about the language itself. The question of how minority Mongolians is marginalised and how they are excluded from broader social participation due to the loss of bilingual schooling is much more pressing than the continued existence of language, (more accurately the script), itself.

By: Gegentuul

Gegentuul — Sat, 03 Oct 2020 23:30:12 +0000

In reply to Ingrid Piller. Thanks Banie for pointing out the importance of teachers’ personal linguistic pedagogy. So far Mongolian teachers’ mandatory use of particular language in classrooms is not stipulated in official paper. I hope the type of code-switching you mentioned can enhance Mongolian kids’ learning despite some Mongolian translated textbooks’ shift to Chinese ones.

By: Enkhzaya+Regzendorj

Enkhzaya+Regzendorj — Wed, 30 Sep 2020 13:56:38 +0000

Hello Ingrid and everyone,

Thank you Gegentuul bringing this up. As Mongolian, it so heartbreaking to see what is happening in Inner Mongolia. I am truly thankful and proud of Inner Mongolians for keeping our culture alive. Mongolia has such a rich culture and history. Mongolian traditional script is such a unique (top-bottom) and it is definitely a huge part of our history and culture. As outer Mongolia, we use both Cyrillic and traditional script. But these days, Cyrillic has been used mainly. I had a chance to learn our traditional script when I was in high school. Personally, I feel quite sad that our kids will be grown up without knowing this traditional Mongolian script. Also is quite sad knowing that language with its unique script which only used by Inner Mongolians planned to be wiped out by the Chinese government. There are hundreds of people and organizations fighting against this reform in both Mongolia and Inner Mongolia to save our language. Inner Mongolia is such a small ethnic group in China but they are standing strong and some of people took their own precious lives already to let the world know how important for them keep their language and culture.
I really hope this protest against this heartless act will help Chinese official to change their decisions and allow Inner Mongolian children right to have equal education.

By: Audrey

Audrey — Wed, 30 Sep 2020 09:13:40 +0000

Thank you, Ingrid and Gegentuul for sharing this knowledge with us. It is extremely helpful for a minority language to have a space like schools to exist. I’ve read an article on the challenges of preserving minority languages written by Jonty Yamisha. He stated that “understanding what language means to both a person and a culture…to one’s sense of identity…is key to inspiring people to want to step in and save the language”. Therefore, encouraging governments, schools, and neighborhoods to embrace the minority language is vital in any language preservation effort. In addition, family plays a vital role in preserving a minority language. As some scholars said “in fact, the rights of the language use can’t ensure the survival of the language, it ultimately depends on the mother tongue’s user’s decision. It definitely confuses the institution, because it beyond their control.” Today, when society is more and more developed and integrated, many children of ethnic minority groups no longer understand their mother tongues. I have an old classmate who is an ethnic minority student, she once told me that her generation barely writes or even talks in the minority language; only their grandparents talk to each other using their language. If parents do not have a sense of preserving the language and maintaining its daily use, no one can help them to revive their own languages. I hope that Mongol people can find their way to preserve and develop their language so that the death of language will not occur.

By: Ingrid Piller

Ingrid Piller — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 11:03:30 +0000

In reply to Banie. Thanks, Banie, for this informative comment! Clearly lots of advantages when students and teachers share a common language!

By: Ingrid Piller

Ingrid Piller — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 11:01:39 +0000

In reply to Subin. Thanks, Subin! The more languages you know, the better. No doubt about that. But some of the more general claims about the advantages of bilingualism are probably exaggerated and/or taken out of context ...

By: Banie

Banie — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 13:01:29 +0000

Hi Ingrid!
This blog post and the book chapter have reminded me of code-switching (CS), the use of the students’ mother tongue (L1) in English language teaching. While some researchers advocate the exclusive use of English in the classroom, others consider switching to L1 as a crucial tool facilitating the teaching and learning of English. In the Vietnamese context, there has been no official national policy on classroom language use. Therefore, Vietnamese teachers are likely to be using Vietnamese in their teaching in a multitude of ways for both pedagogical and affective purposes. The results of the studies conducted by Grant and Nguyen (2017) and Nguyen and Vu (2019) showed that the teachers switched to L1 to clarify, cover and emphasize the teaching content, build rapport, save time and manage the classroom. In these studies, the teachers stated that the amount of L1 use was dependent on the students’ English proficiency, which is somehow in line with the Statutory Framework’s four foundational principles mentioned in the reading. In my point of view, apart from the pedagogical benefits, CS is emotionally beneficial to the students as they can be more open to their teachers who have the same identity. They do not feel lost or lonely in the learning process. More importantly, the students can learn to value their mother tongue that is also helpful in the English acquisition and get “the best of both worlds” (Piller, 2016, p. 125).
References
Grant, L. E., & Nguyen, T. H. (2017). Code-switching in Vietnamese university EFL teachers’ classroom instruction: a pedagogical focus. Language Awareness, 26(3), 244-259.
Nguyen, N. C., & Vu, D. V. (2019). An exploratory study on perspectives of Vietnamese experienced teachers and student teachers toward teachers’ code-switching. Cambridge Open-Review Educational Research e-Journal, 6, 66-79.

By: Subin

Subin — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 11:56:41 +0000

Hi Ingrid, thank you for providing a fascinating theme for the happening in Inner Mongolia in this week’s posting. Actually, it’s quite an interesting topic for me because I didn’t know about the educational issues in Inner Mongolia. I read an article about bilingual education in the past, and it said bilingual education fosters important cognitive abilities such as critical thinking and problem-solving to learners. This is because it trains learners’ brains and makes them think about how to express and effectively communicate their thoughts with the vocabulary they have in each language. I only remembered its advantages through that article, but I could get new knowledge thanks to your posting. It was very interesting that minority languages, including the case of Inner Mongolia, were under pressure from the government. It was also good to get to know many other cases through comments from other peers. I hope the people of Inner Mongolia will find an effective point of contact with the government and resolve this difficult situation as soon as possible.

By: Ingrid Piller

Ingrid Piller — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 22:34:07 +0000

In reply to Tazin Abdullah.

Thanks, Tazin! You make a very important point: it’s easy to forget that multilingual literacies – like your grandfather’s ability to read and write fluently and academically in three languages – need not be as exceptional as we have made them to be in our English-centric monolingual world …

By: Tazin Abdullah

Tazin Abdullah — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 03:36:53 +0000

Thank you, Gegentuul, for this insight into changes coming to the education system in Inner Mongolia. In addition to disadvantaging bi-lingual students, the implementation of these methods tends to compel families to choose ‘whatever works’ to give their next generations the best opportunities.

I am reminded of my parents and in fact, my grandparents ensuring that English featured prominently in education and other aspects of life, so that we all have greater opportunities to succeed. This was, of course, influenced by the aftereffects of colonial rule in countries like Bangladesh and more recently, globalisation that resulted in a lot of cultural references being Western and in English. My parents submerged their children in English in every way they could because that was painted as the path to success. They imposed a strict reading and writing regime on us from a young age but I never engaged in any of those literacy practices in Bengali. I disengaged from a lot of Bengali cultural practices because I was not good at them.

I find a little sad that my great grandfather could read and write fluently and academically in three languages and I can make that claim for only one. I feel the poorer for it. It highlights for me that the destruction of cultural knowledge through linguistic imperialism is just as pernicious as geographical conquests of old.