| Ethnic language education has been playing an increasingly important role in national issues, for it can produce profound impacts on political stability and economic development. By developing ethnic language education, governments can improve the overall quality of ethnic minorities, help develop their self-reliance and adapt them to social development.Both Australia and China are multi-ethnic countries, which necessitates ethnic language education. In the past decades, Australian governments of different levels, educators and linguists have been formulating and implementing various policies to promote the language education of ethnic minorities. A good study of what Australia has done in this regard is not only academically significant but also useful for China’s governments of different levels to learn from the successful experience and to develop and implement policies of ethnic language education. However, studies at home focus on language and culture, language policy and language planning concerning language education and case studies of some ethnic regions. Few research articles on the comparison of ethnic language education between Australia and China have been published yet. Thus, the proposed research will make efforts in this regard in hope of gaining insights into and adding fresh blood to ethnic language education study.Based on sociolinguistic theories concerning language planning and language policy, and employing library research, descriptive method and comparative study, the proposed research will examine policies formulated and practical measures taken by Australia’s and China’s governments, analyze the characteristics and problems of Australia’s and China’s language education of ethnic minorities, summarize the successful experience of Australia in this regard and finally make implications, suggesting how our country should proceed from the actual situations to take more practical measures and formulate better policies. |
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