Languages, Vol. 10, Pages 303: A Survey of Family Language Planning in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in the Context of New Language Education Policies

Languages doi: 10.3390/languages10120303

Authors:
Zhaoyu Wang
Chengyu Liu

The family serves as a critical domain for ethnic minority children to acquire their ethnic language. It plays a vital role in fostering multilingual competence and sustaining language diversity. Therefore, the family language planning (FLP) of ethnic minorities in China has attracted scholarly attention in recent years. However, there is relatively little research on the FLP of the Yi ethnic group. The present study investigated the FLP of the Yi (Nuosu) families in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture (Liangshan) through questionnaires, interviews, and ethnographic observations. The aim was to elucidate the language life within Nuosu families in the context of recent policy modifications regarding the instruction of Putonghua, the Nuosu language, and English. The results indicate that Nuosu families pay greater attention to Putonghua and English, and the Nuosu language practice in the family domain is decreasing across generations. There are signs of language shift from the Sichuan dialect to Putonghua in urban Nuosu families and from the Nuosu language to Putonghua in rural Nuosu families. The Nuosu parents adopt divergent language management strategies in response to the new language education policies. The findings contribute to our understanding of the FLP of a less-discussed ethnic group, as well as the interaction between FLP and school education policies. This study also provides a unique case in the field of multilingual studies, both domestically and internationally.

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Zhaoyu Wang www.mdpi.com