Linguistic schoolscapes of an ethnic minority region in the PRC: a university case study

ABSTRACT

Linguistic schoolscapes (LS), according to Brown ([2012]. The linguistic landscape of educational spaces: Language revitalization and schools in southeastern EEstonia. In D. Gorter, H. F. Marten, & L. Van Mensel (Eds.), Minority languages in the linguistic landscape (pp. 281–298). Palgrave-Macmillan., can represent the identity and image of educational institutions in linguistic landscapes as semi-public contexts which emphasise education and learning. In this article, we explore institutional identity as cultural and educational, looking specifically at LS to represent an image of internationalisation while maintaining a Chinese culture and as space for minority language education. We take a geosemiotic perspective (Scollon & Scollon, 2003) which emphasises the social meaning of the schoolscapes examined. The case study explores the LS of three universities in one ethnic minority region of the PRC – Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The analyses suggest that the universities use LS to present an image of quality education and internationalisation while allowing a smaller, symbolic function to the minority language. Pedagogical opportunities for multilingual education via LS are limited, especially for minority ethnic language education, resulting in a weak environment for Zhuang vitality. As we seek to understand how language is located in the LS of these universities, we also seek to understand the social meanings in the LS and to recommend ways forward in support of the minority language and multilingualism.

KEYWORDS:

• Linguistic schoolscape
• tertiary education
• People’s Republic of China
• minority language
• geosemiotics

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 This regulation is subject to Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Standard Spoken and Written Chinese Language (National People’s Congress, 2000).

2 Minzu is a notoriously contested word that assumes translation of four concepts, namely race, nation, nationality and ethnic group. We follow Grey (2017) who argues that borrowing the concept of minzu rather than translating ‘minzu’ averts prioritizing one meaning over the others.

3 We refer to ‘interviews’ rather than focus group discussions (FGD) because we recognise there can be fundamental differences: FGDs encourage participants to ‘think together, inspire and challenge each other and react to the emerging issues and points’ (Dörnyei, 2007, p. 144). In our data collection, the interviewer did not function so much as a facilitator or moderator, but more as a traditional interviewer with a Q&A structure and individual responses (see Prior, 2018, p. 235).

4 The Book of Changes (易经Yi Jing) is an ancient Chinese divination text, possessing a history of more than two and a half millennia of commentary and interpretation.

5 All names are pseudonyms.

6 This slogan is a pun. Tiandeng (天等), Tian (天) can be transliterated into heaven, and Deng (等) suggested waiting in Chinese. The government uses this slogan to deliver the regional spirit of the people in Tiandeng.

7 For non-Chinese readers, this idiom uses two characters pronounced as ‘Zhuang’: one metaphorically refers to the Zhuang language, the other refers to having strength. Therefore, the idiom uses ‘Zhuang’ metaphorically and lyrically.

8 Project 211 is a project of National Key Universities and Colleges initiated in 1995 by the MOE of China, with the intention to raise the research standards of high-level universities and cultivate strategies for socio-economic development. GXU is the only Project 211 university in the GZAR.

9 http://www.gxu.edu.cn/Category_77/Index.aspx

10 No information on the ethnicity numbers of students is given on GXU website.

11 http://www.gxun.edu.cn/xxgk1/xxgk1.htm

12 http://www.gxtc.edu.cn/xygk/xyjj.html

13 The School of Education in GXU was repealed in 2019, but the main building was retained.