The Commodification of Chinese in Thailand’s Linguistic Market: A Case Study of How Language Education Promotes Social Sustainability

Shujian Guo, Hyunjung Shin and Qi Shen
Additional contact information
Shujian Guo: School of Foreign Languages, Tongji University, 1239 Siping Road, Shanghai 200092, China
Hyunjung Shin: Department of Curriculum Studies, College of Education, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 0X1, Canada
Qi Shen: School of Foreign Languages, Tongji University, 1239 Siping Road, Shanghai 200092, China

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 18, 1-15

Abstract: In recent decades, the commodification of the English language has aroused intensive research interest in the sociolinguistics on a global scale, but studies on the commodification of the Chinese language are relatively rare. Most studies take a critical approach in relation to its adverse impacts on minority rights and social justice. This study examined the language landscape in Chiangmai, Thailand, and the linguistic beliefs of local Thai Chinese language learners. Based on their feedback, this study investigated the commodification of Chinese language education in the community of Chinese language learners in Chiangmai. We found that from a less critical perspective, the commodification of a second language provides more accessible and affordable educational opportunities for learners, especially those from low-income families, and at the same time language proficiency can broaden learners’ career choices and provide employees with additional value in industries, such as tourism, commerce, and services. This finding implies that language commodification, rather than typically being associated with linguistic imperialism and unbalanced socio-economic status, can be a contributing factor in promoting higher-education availability and social sustainability in certain circumstances. There may be some mediating factors between the commodification of language and changes in the sustainable balance of language, opening up space for future research to explore.

Keywords: language commodification; language instrumentalism; multilingualism; Chinese education in Thailand (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 complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/18/7344/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/18/7344/ (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:7344-:d:410259

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 ().