An Economic Approach To The Language Life Of High School Students Along The Guangxi-vietnam Minority Border

Language life is the various activities of using,learning and researching language,language knowledge and language technology.The study of the connotation of language life and its influencing factors is of great significance to linguistics,ethnology,anthropology and history.The Guangxi-Vietnam border area is an important settlement area for ethnic minorities and one of the areas with the most complicated ethnic relations in China.With the continuous development of society and economy,the exchanges between people of all ethnic groups have become closer and closer.The language life of all ethnic groups,especially ethnic minorities,has undergone tremendous changes,which have profoundly changed the status quo of local language life.However,there is currently a lack of empirical research on language life in border ethnic minority areas in China.Therefore,the research purpose of this study is that,from the perspective of language economics,this research takes high school students,teachers and government staff in Pingxiang City and Napo County of Baise City in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region as the survey subjects.The survey was conducted from the four dimensions of language life: language use,language attitude,language choice,and language value.Through a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods,the research examines the language life,analyzes the economic reasons behind it,and makes some suggestions for local education departments and schools to adjust language policies,language teaching and learning.By analyzing both the qualitative and quantitative data,it is found that:(1)In terms of language use,high school students in the Guangxi-Vietnam minority border areas tend to use Mandarin in public places and their ethnic minority languages at home.There are intergenerational differences in the use of ethnic minority languages.In terms of language attitude,they have a high emotional evaluation of their ethnic minority languages and Mandarin,as well as the effectiveness and functions of Mandarin and English.In terms of language choice,high school students in the region hope that the schools can provide more different foreign languages.In terms of language value,they clearly recognize the different values of different languages.(2)In terms of language learning and language teaching,the subjects believe that both Mandarin and their ethnic minority languages should be developed.As for the choice of foreign languages learning,they are more inclined to learn Vietnamese.In terms of language policy,they hope other foreign languages such as Vietnamese are provided so that students will have more choices in foreign language learning based on their regional economic and personal needs.(3)Under the influence of costs and benefits,supply and demand,the language life in this region shows a trend of diversification.The results of this study show that the language learning and teaching in these areas are not compatible with the current situation of local language life.In view of the status quo of language life in these regions,efforts of the local government,teachers,and students still need to be brought into play.First of all,while vigorously promoting Mandarin,efforts should be made to develop and inherit their ethnic minority languages.Secondly,according to the local economic needs and needs of the local students,the government should reform its foreign language education and increase other foreign languages such as Vietnamese,which is conducive to the cultivation of multilingual talents and also to the future development of students.This research not only helps people understand the social role of each language studied and the importance of language maintenance,but also provides inspiration for local education departments and language teaching research and an empirical basis for language education and language policy formulation as well.