Exploring Sustainable Multilingual Language Policy in Minority Higher Education in China: A Case Study of the Tibetan Language

Lubei Zhang, Linda Tsung and Zhuoma
Additional contact information
Lubei Zhang: School of Foreign Languages, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, China
Linda Tsung: Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, the University of Sydney, Sydney 2006, Australia
Zhuoma: School of Tourism and Foreign Languages, Tibet University, Lhasa 850000, China

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 18, 1-16

Abstract: This paper explores sustainable multilingual education policy for minority languages in one of the higher education institutions (HEI) in the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) in China. Following Spolsky’s theory of language policy ecology, this study conducted a survey of 276 students, examining the language education policy implemented inside and outside the classroom in their campus lives. The data were analyzed from the perspective of policy orientation, management issues and actual linguistic practice. The results showed that Chinese, Tibetan and English were all valued and respected in the current policy; however, the academic function of language was mainly undertaken by Chinese, while the social function was equally shouldered by Chinese and Tibetan. The findings gave us an insight into the present status of language education in this specific HEI in Tibet, and further offered valuable information for the design of sustainable multilingual policies for minority education at the higher education level in China.

Keywords: minority; higher education; multilingual language policy; sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/18/7267/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/18/7267/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:18:p:7267-:d:408993

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().