A Study On Foreign Language Education Policy From The Perspective Of Public Participation

The study of foreign language education policy(FLEP)is of paramount importance in the study of language education policy under the multi-cultural background of the new era.It is also a significant language strategic plan of “international connection”in various countries and regions of the world,the development of which has gradually become the core proposition of foreign language strategy research in many countries.In the new era,as a key means of disseminating culture and values,the export-oriented value orientation in foreign language education has attracted much attention,and has gradually become an important part in reflecting the soft power of the country.The "one-size-fits-all" policy model will inevitably lead to the uneven development of foreign language education.At present,the main agent of policy planning mostly involves government decision-making or expert argumentation,while the micro strand of public participation needs further exploration.FLEP in ethnic minority areas(EMA)is viewed as a branch of our country's language policy and planning(LPP)in the field of education,which belongs to a “special” field of language planning.It concerns the problem of trilingual education,and therefore,it is necessary to take into account the realistic dilemma of ethnic students' cognitive and cultural development in foreign language learning,and the agency of teachers as educators in educational policy planning.Based on the "new era" background of FLEP research and the realistic predicament of basic foreign language education policy planning(BFLEPP)in EMA,this study adopts a mixed-research design which includes quantification and is supplemented by qualitative analysis.Questionnaires,in-depth interviews and policy text analysis are employed to investigates BFLEPP of EMA from the perspective of public participation(i.e.,teachers,students and other stakeholders),with focus on policy content(PC),policy process(PP)and policy value(PV)under the background of the new curriculum standard.How do these characteristics correspond to the relevant educational policy texts? How to plan BFLEP in EMA from the lens of public participation ? This research regards FLEP in EMA as a “dynamic and static combination” system,which includes static policy text and background analysis,as well as dynamic development process of policy formulation,implementation and evaluation,the main findings are as follows:In terms of PC,the vast majority of foreign language teachers believe that the guidance of curriculum implementation scheme will be more conducive to their own teaching work.At present,the content of national culture in foreign language textbooks in EMA is relatively scarce.Most of the aforementioned teachers reveal the aspiration to participate in high-level trainings to enrich their professional knowledge,English teaching in EMA should be integrated with information technology.Some teachers believe that they can make corresponding teaching plans according to the actual situation of students in minority areas.In terms of PP,foreign language teachers with 11 to 20 years' working experience have shown their willingness to participate in policy making actively.At present,the implementation of the national FLEP in the basic stage of education practice in EMA is far away from satisfaction,such as the contradiction and conflict between educational concept and teaching content and examination orientation.More than half of foreign language teachers will incorporate the relevant contents of their own culture into their foreign language teaching activities,but which is not carried out smoothly due to the limitation of class period arrangement and teacher assessment.As to PV,the public value attributes of foreign language education in EMA have been generally recognized.Most teachers believe that much attention should be paid to the different characteristics and individual differences of ethnic students.Foreign language education is regarded as a way and platform to inherit and disseminate their own ethnic cultures.The student-centered concept should be upholded to cultivate students' self-learning consciousness and ability.The main innovations of this study are as follows: At first,the research data are collected through bottom-up field study concerning the quantitative research and qualitative research.In the process of field work,extensive contacts and exchanges are carried out,involving the administrative leaders,English teachers and students at the basic stage.The opinions and suggestions from relevant administrative leaders are also viewed as references to the planning of BFLEP in EMA.Secondly,based on the new era background of FLEP research and the realistic predicament of BFLEPP in minority areas,the dissertation explores the BFLEPP in EMA from the perspectives of public participation,combining pedagogy,public policy and other disciplines,breaking through the limitations of existing literature focusing on government decision-making and expert argumentation.Ranging from curriculum implementation plan,teacher education,policy formulation to public value pursuit in regional BFLE,the study serves policy support and guarantee for students' foreign language education in EMA in the new era.In the third place,this study concerning the planning of FLEP at the basic stage in EMA complements existing research.At present,most of the literature on foreign language education focus on that of Han nationality areas,and much more attention is paid to policy planning in higher education stage.There are few studies on policy planning of basic foreign language education from the perspective of policy discipline.This study holds that multi-stakeholder participation should be advocated in policy process planning.Government decision-making should be combined with public participation,and the teachers' agency as policy makers should be strengthened in policy process planning.As to policy content planning,local and school-based characteristics of FLEP should be highlighted.With regard to policy value planning,educational equity and the overall development of ethnic students should not be ignored.In terms of sampling,this study covers the stages of basic education period in three EMA of Guizhou province,but there are more samples in junior and senior middle schools and fewer in primary schools,so the unbalance of the segments is one of the limitations.In addition,the text analysis of this study is conducted by manual merging and analyzing,the technology of data mining and explaining needs to be further improved and elaborated.Some qualitative analysis instruments such as Nvivo can be utilized in future research to process qualitative data for the sake of the objectivity and scientificity in material analyzing.