Language Revitalization:A Study On Naxi Language Education In Four Primary Schools In Lijiang

Language revitalization is a hot issue in the field of ethnolinguistics. With the economic development and globalization, ethnic languages have been increasingly threatened. In the late 20 th century, the promotion of official language as a lingua franca has caused the fact that ethnic groups gradually cease to use their own language and shift to use dominant language in order to have better communication and more opportunities. However, language and culture are closely linked, so the loss of every single language will cause a loss of the culture which is carried by the certain language. Much effort has been done to deal with the loss of languages. Ethnic language education in school has been viewed as an important approach to language revitalization.Naxi language is the heritage language of Naxi ethnic group in Lijiang, Yunnan Province. However, the young generation of Naxi ethnic group starts to shift to use Mandarin. In order to avoid the possibility of the loss of Naxi language, Naxi language education in primary schools in the Old Town and Yunlong County has become a crucial project of Naxi language revitalization. Nevertheless, there has inadequate research which mainly focus on Naxi language education and Naxi language revitalization. To fill this gap, the study aimed to investigate the Naxi language use, language attitude and the attitude towards Naxi language education of pupils from the four primary schools. Besides, the study also intended to explore the attitudes towards Naxi language education of Naxi language teachers and a school headmaster, and attempted to analyze the relationship between Naxi language education and Naxi language revitalization.The study was done in four primary schools in Lijiang which are Fangguoyu Primary School, Xingwen Primary School, Shuhe Primary School, and Baisha Primary School. Research data were collected by means of questionnaire and interview. 246 valid questionnaires were retrieved, and 10 pupils, 4 Naxi language teachers and a headmaster were interviewed.By the questionnaire and interviews, five main findings were made: firstly, primary school pupils in Lijiang tend to use Naxi language in family while they prefer to use Mandarin in schools and public places; secondly, primary school pupils in Lijiang hold a relatively positive attitude towards Naxi language and Naxi language education; thirdly, both pupils from Naxi ethnic group and other groups are willing to go on attending Naxi language education; fourthly, Naxi language teachers and the headmaster affirm the effectiveness and prospect of Naxi language education; finally, Naxi language education do promote Naxi language revitalization whereas it can not take the full responsibility. The problems existing in the process of Naxi language education can not be ignored: teaching plan at the school level is deficient and Naxi language teachers themselves have to make their own plans; different schools value the education differently and the qualities of the education vary widely; faculty of Naxi language education is inadequate and text books are far from being satisfactory.The study is a tentative one for language revitalization and ethnic language education. Therefore, it needs to be confirmed and complemented by further research. The suggestions of the study were offered, hoping that the research on language revitalization and ethnic language education can be improved.