| Language is regarded as an ethnic and social marker, and also an important component of identity and culture for many groups. Sociolinguistics is a science which deals with the relationship between language and society. It studies the living languages by connecting various social factors instead of studying merely the inner structure of languages like traditional linguistics. Therefore, Sociolinguistics has a great significance to guide languages' practice.With around 5,000 languages co-existing in fewer than 200 countries, it is obvious that an enormous amount of language contact must be taking place; and the inevitable result of language contact is bilingualism. Thus over half the world's population is bilingual and many people are multilingual. They acquire a number of languages because they need them for different purposes in their everyday interactions.In the 1960s, Fishman began his campaign to establish the importance of collecting data in the status of non-English languages among the different ethnic and religious groups throughout the United States of America. The terminology here employed-language maintenance and language shift-is derived from Fishman's study of the non-English language resources of American immigrant groups. His case study of bilingualbehavior shows the complementary functioning of two languages in the life of a social group. Fishman's Language Loyalty in the United States was hailed by one eminent reviewer as "a great book, a chapter in the history of the American mind, a milestone in the sociological study of languages and cultures in contact". In Fishman's opinion, from language maintenance and language shift to societal bilingualism as an element of sociocultural change was a logical step. However, within the situation of societal bilingualism conscious active language maintenance has significance in preserving a ' minority nationality's identity and culture in addition to the master of majority language.The merit of a society is significantly dependent on the appropriate maintenance of the most varied pool of languages and cultures. Bilingualism does not exist in a vacuum; it exists in the context of ethnic, religious, and cultural differences. Bilingualism would represent an effort to make cultural and linguistic diversity "normal", by treating it openly, making it visible, and declaring it valuable. As ethnicity has become increasingly unable to support language maintenance, institutions of a society have been pointed out and appealed to on its behalf. Language maintenance will benefit only from explicit and substantial public recognition of its value and its legitimacy and from public support for those willing and able to engage in it.Bilingual education provides tuition in two languages as well as education through them. It could be argued that fullest familiarity with a language requires knowledge of the cultural contexts of that language and bilingual education seeks to provide verification for the pupil of the importance of his mother tongue and the culture of the home. So it assists in confirming the child's cultural identity. Bilingual education can, therefore, play an important part in the development of the self-esteems of the ethnic minorities and their motivation to contribute to diversified society.The successful revival and modernization of Hebrew has encouraged other smaller language communities-the Catatants and the Bretons-to strive to save their mother tongues (or their traditional cultural tongues) from oblivion.In China, there are 56 nationalities which use about 80 different languages. China is described by some linguists as a linguistic bonanza. As Weinreich (1953) points out, the greater the linguistic diversity of a country, the greater the degree of bilingualism, wherethere are many people who speak many different languages, they will learn each other's languages. And Guizhou is one of the typical multinational and multilingual provinces in China. Among the 15 minority nationalities in Guizhou with a long history there are only Mi...
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