| Language is an important means of cultural heritage, communication and consultation affairs. Nowadays, with the development of global economy there are more than100countries all over the world using English as first their foreign language.Teaching English is getting more and more important because it has become a tool of international communication.This article is a case study on English education in an ethnic region of China. It aims to study the middle school English education, with a focus on trilingual teaching in minority nationality areas in J.W Ethnic middle school of HuaYuan, West Hunan. As a remote place, West Hunan is inconvenient in transportation, which resulted in a backward economy in Miao nationality region.J.W Ethnic middle school is in the miao community. Students are not good in Chinese Mandarin which causes the teachers to use Miao language to help the students with their English learning. Fortunately, using Miao is close to student’s daily life, and it shortens the communication distance between the students and their teachers. The students’ interests in English learning are aroused and they become actively taking part in classroom learning. Also it has changed the status of teaching quality in Miao. The article has analyzed the J.W national middle school’s trilingual teaching in order to provide the reference data for furthering the Miao students’language ability in the three language structure environment. Literature reviewing method, interviewing method, classroom observation, and questionnaire method have been used in this study.There are seven parts in the article. In foreword part, the background, the significance of the project, goal and content are introduced The second part is a review to the previous studies which from language and culture, language and cognition, language and intelligence, the recognition of the language, foreign bilingual development and cognitive development to lists the similarity theory of cognitive development, and language thinking in developed countries such as European and American. It also presents the status of bilingual education and trilingual teaching in China. The third part is based on the theory of language and culture, language and cognition. In the fourth part, to investigate the characteristics of English language learning among Miao students in J.W Ethnic middle school.The fifth part and the sixth part are analysis the usage of Miao and Chinese language as a medium of auxiliary in English lessons for Miao students. The last part aims to give some suggestions on trilingual teaching in students’English studying of J.W Ethnic middle school.The major characteristics of English studying in the trilingual context investigated in this study include:1) Using Miao language as auxiliary means in English teaching is not only facilitating social development, but also conducive to students’ learning and the teaching quality in Miao areas. The degree of how students mastering English in a long run depends on how well they master both Chinese and Miao language.2) In the three language environment, the teacher’s classroom languages form diversification. Instruction language is crucial to students’ English learning. The trilingual teaching culture directly affects the teaching effect. The students three language level is uneven. However, they study English by means of their native first language, Miao,A diverse language environment makes Miao students not only to inherit their Miao national culture, but also use Chinese, the mainstream language, when they study English, the foreign language.3) Miao students’ academic achievement regarding English learning is directly jeopardized by the lack of qualified teachers, impeded by shortage of teaching resources, such as teaching materials. Miao students’ English learning is affected by the use of teaching language, the age they were taught in trilinguals, and other factors related to students’ language knowledge and their cognitive development. |
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