The History And Future Development Of Bilingual Education For China's Ethnic Minorities

The contradiction and conflicts between diversification and integration influence the development of world economy and politics, and also the development of education. Diversification and integration are a dilemma for multiethnic countries. This brings out the complex problem of language education for the multiethnic and multilingual countries. Bilingual education has therefore become a certain choice to achieve the equality among nationalities and to equally develop language and culture of each nationality. With the development of global diversified education, bilingual education has also become the focus for world attentions in education.China has long been a multiethnic and multilingual country. In the society of 21st century, both the country and the ethnic minorities in China are facing the same problems as the other multiethnic countries of the world have. China needs to both maintain the unity of the country and to promote the diversified development of cultures for ethnic minorities. Members of each ethnic minority have to learn the common language (refers to Chinese) to step into the mainstream modem society and also to learn minority language to maintain traditional culture as well. It has resulted in an inevitable trend to develop bilingual education specialized in the common language and a minority language. As a main component of education for minorities, bilingual education also acts as an essential measure to solve the problem in both the unity of the country and the development of minorities. The functions of minorities' bilingual education will be increasingly strengthened with the further development of society.Based on modem research theories of history, linguistics, culture, psychology and pedagogy, the research adopts inductive method, the method of documental analysis and subject-oriented systematic research methods. The thesis consists of eight parts, including the introduction.In the introduction, the thesis presents the general background and situations and expounds the contents, objectives, methods and significances of the research. It points out that anticipated theoretical researches for ethnic minorities' bilingual education are comparatively weak and backward. Therefore it is essential to have researches, which emphasize theoretical innovations and developmental strategies for minorities' bilingual education in the new age.In the first part, the thesis defines bilingualism, bilingual teaching andlearning, and bilingual education for China's ethnic minorities through differentiation and analysis of some basic terms concerned with bilingual education. It maintains that ethnic minorities' bilingual education is a form for minorities' education which takes the existing minorities' bilingualism as the base, and bicultural traditions and knowledge, capacities and values needed in modern society as main educational contents, Chinese and a minority language as educational languages alternately. Bilingual education could be a recognition and reflection of minorities' cultural diversities in education and it aims to realize the integration of minorities' traditional education and modem education organically. The thesis also holds that bilingual education and bilingual teaching and learning are two different concepts that should not be confused or replaced in educational research and practice.In the second part, the thesis expounds the cultural background for emergence and development of ethnic minorities' bilingual education in the educational environmental scopes of unbalanced distributions and diversities of languages and social cultures. It asserts that the unbalanced and complex background results in the diversities and formidableness of minorities' bilingual education and is hence the objective foundations to be considered both in research and practice.In the third part, the thesis briefly expounds the history of emergence and development of minorities' bilingual education in three stages, and also the main characteristics of each developing stage.In the fourth an...