Beijing Residents' Perceptions Of Language Situation And Their Language Attitudes: A Survey

As bilingualism and diglossia are becoming the main features of the language life of China(Li 2014),it is of great urgency to further delve into Chinese people's language life and language attitudes.An investigation into people's language situation and attitudes can provide reasonable and reliable basis for the formulation of national language policies and language education policies.This study is dedicated to exploring Beijing residents' language situation and attitudes with an attempt to answer the following three questions:What is Beijing residents' language situation?What are their attitudes towards Putonghua,English,Chinese dialects and ethnic minority languages?What are the factors influencing their language attitudes?In the present study,an online questionnaire was distributed and 205 valid responses were returned.Based on the analysis of these responses,our findings are:First,the majority of Beijing residents are bilingual and diglossic speakers,and the importance of being multilingual is highly valued.Second,Bei.jing residents show strong integrative and instrumental attitudes towards Putonghua,an instrumental attitude towards English and an integrative attitude towards Chinese dialects and ethnic minority languages.Third,gender,age and education background are the factors influencing Beijing residents' language attitudes.The implications of the research are as follows:First,the over sixty-year promotion of Putonghua have made it the most prestigious language variety in Beijing.Second,aware of importance of English and the overemphasis on it in the Chinese context,people hold a contradictory attitude towards it.Third,people's increasing integration into urban life places a limit on the domains in which dialects and ethnic minority languages can be used and some of their low-prestige varieties are on the edge of extinction.Therefore,a balance between the language integration and multiplicity should be maintained in order to build a harmonious national language life.