Liangshan Yi Yi Ying, Bilingual Education Research

National education of the Yi ethnic group in Liangshan, Sichuan province is always the focus of educators. With the penetration of the Reform and gradual advancing of the Great Exploration of the West, Yi people get recognition of the importance of English gradually. In order to adapt to the new development of education, people in the Liangshan Yi area put forward the idea of "Yi-English bilingual teaching", which means to study English by the aid of their mother tongue-Yi language. The test of Yi-English bilingual teaching was adopted by the Education Council of Sichuan Province, and was carried out in the junior 2002nd grade of the Xichang Ethnic Groups' Middle School from September 1999 to June 2002. At present, the test has been carried out for over 4 years, and it has gained gratifying achievements.There are many works and papers that analyze and study Yi people's bilingual education now, but almost all of them start out from the educational or anthropological points of view. The pointing out of Yi-English bilingual teaching mode of Liangshan Yi area has a new goal for educators. But the study of Yi-English bilingual teaching stays only at the level of comparing Yi language and English. No article analyses the bilingual teaching mode from whole studying view. So I choose this blank domain-the Yi-English bilingual teaching mode as my target and the content of my thesis, and I believe it is innovation.This thesis takes the Xichang Ethnic Groups' Middle School as a studying case, and with viewpoints of linguistics, anthropology and pedagogy, analyses the necessity for carrying out the Yi-English bilingual teaching mode in Liangshan Yi area, the effect of the Yi-English bilingual teaching at present, the problems it faces and all kinds of factors that affect and restrict its development by linguistic contrasting method, Participant observation, emic and etic methods of Ethnology. At last the thesis reaches a conclusion: (1) The Yi-English bilingual teaching is studying English by the aid of Yi language, and it is aimed at Yi students whose Chinese is not good. So it shows the idea of teaching students according to their aptitude in education. It's necessary to carry out theYi-English bilingual teaching mode in Liangshan Yi communities, especially in places that take Yi language as the only or main language. It does positive effect on the improving of Yi students' English level. (2) Because of the particularity of linguistic and cultural environment and available resources in Liangshan, the development of Yi-English bilingual teaching is influenced and restricted. The teaching mode should be carried out with caution, and the attitudes of being eager for instant success and quick profits should be avoided. (3) As one of the minority groups in the Southwestern China, Yi people's Yi-English bilingual teaching mode is significant reference to other minority groups' English teaching, especially these whose economy is comparatively backward and who live in a compact community.