An Investigation Of Ethnic Minority Family Language Policy

China is a multi-ethnic country with a complex language system.How to coordinate and deal with the relationship between multilingualism(common language,dialects,and minority languages),and protect and inherit ethnic languages so that multiple languages can co-exist and mutual developed,is one of the main tasks of protecting and maintaining our multicultural resources.How to deal with the harmonious coexistence and common development of a common language and ethnic languages has always been the main problem for governments and academic circles in recent years,and the measures taken at home and abroad to solve this problem are mainly through bilingual or multilingual education.In recent years,foreign scholars(Fishman,1991;Nettle & Romaine,2000;Smith-Christmas,2016)believe that family language use and intergenerational language inheritance are the key factors for the protection and inheritance of ethnic languages.The concept of family language policy is generated in time in the study of the protection of cultural resources of ethnic languages,and it has become a popular research topic.Compared with fully developed family language policy research abroad,as a new research field,domestic family language policy study is still in the developing stage.Moreover,the research related to the inheritance and protection of ethnic languages making use of theories and methods of family language policy is very few.As a result,this study attempts to use the latest results and theoretical methods of foreign family language policy research to explore the multilingual use and mother tongue inheritance of Bai family in the case of a Bai family of four generations in Xizhou Town,Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture,Yunnan Province.With the development of various ethnic groups and the continuous popularization of exchanges among them,the influence of Mandarin as a strong language on ethnic languages has increasingly brought severe challenges to diverse linguistic and cultural ecosystems in China.Dai Qingxia(2013)pointed out that there have been various complicated language relations among Yunnan’s minority languages.However,in the development process of Yunnan,the mainstream of language relations among ethnic groups is harmonious.According to Dai Qingxia and Deng Youling(2001),the Bai language has a certain vitality.Like many other ethnic languages in Yunnan,the Bai language can coexist harmoniously with Mandarin,local dialect and other ethnic languages.Xizhou Town of Dali City in Yunnan Province is a typical Bai ethnic group township,where the Bai people have long practiced bilingualism of the Bai language and Mandarin for daily communication.The language life of bilingual harmonious coexistence of the Bai language and Mandarin at Xizhou Town in Dali,undoubtedly sheds light on the study as well as the protection of linguistic and cultural diversity.In view of this,this study selects a Bai family of four generations living in Xizhou Town of Dali as the research object,in which the author’s sister-in-law is one of the family members,and the family language policy model as the theoretical research framework.Through research methods such as field observation,language-life recording,and interviews,etc.,the Bai family members’ language life,namely the choice and use of the Bai language and multi-languages(dialect,mandarin,English)is studied meticulously from the three dimensions including language ideology(attitude),language management and language practice.By understanding and grasping the language ideology(attitude),language management and language practice of the members of the Bai family towards their mother tongue and other languages,this study attempts to explore the characteristics of the language policy of Bai families,the situation of the use of the Bai language and the factors affecting the vitality of the Bai language.Meanwhile,this study to some extent intends to provide certain data and reference for the study of family language policy and planning in China and the study of the inheritance and protection of ethnic languages.The research achievements are as follows:(1)There are intergenerational differences in language ideology,language management and language practice among the members of the Bai family,and the family language policy of the Bai family has dynamic characteristics and is constantly changing.(2)The intergenerational differences and changing characteristics of language policies among members of the Bai family disclose the phenomenon of the Bai language loss or threats of the Bai language transmission.(3)The factors that lead to intergenerational differences in language policy among the members of the Bai family,as well as the factors affecting the loss of the Bai language,on the one hand,they are the subjective initiative factors of the parents and children of the Bai family on the micro level;on the other hand,they are that the members of the Bai family are influenced by factors such as national language policy,language education policy,and social environments including work and study environments,living cities,peer groups,and educational institutions,etc.on the macro level.