A Comparative Study Of Language Educational Policies Between China And USA In The Context Of Globalization

The former UN secretary-general Ghali declared in the 1990s that the world had entered a globalization era. Globalization, which is a fresh proposition in the 21th century, exerts more or less impacts on every sphere of every country. In the field of language, for instance, language contact and language competition between countries are fortified on account of the globalization, and language views are expanded because of the globalization. Thus, language education appears to be of greater importance in the globalization era than before. And every country is making a research with respect to the establishment of sound language educational policies which can be conducive to political stability, national union, economic growth and international image in the new era. No doubt, it's a frequently-used and effective approach for every country to obtain implications by comparing with other countries for the analysis and enhancement of one's own educational policies, which is the significance of the research of comparative education. Owing to the facts that America is globalized on a larger scale, and that America has been making in-depth researches on language educational policy, and that US and China share a similar language educational ecology--polyethnic, multilingual, pluralculrual and populous, this dissertation is to conduct a comparative study of language educational policies between China and US in the scenario of globalization. Comparative research approach, archival research approach and empirical research approach will together be used in this dissertation in that it is an interdisciplinary study between educational policy and social linguistics.This dissertation is to illustrate the definitions and traits of globalization as well as its impacts on education, language education and language educational policy in every country in the world, to delineate the genre of language views and the theoretical system of language education policy in the globalization era, and to analyze the factors influencing language educational policy which are sociolinguistic situation, globalization and English imperialism, language views, and the people's awareness regarding linguistic rights. Seeing that school is the key location in which language educational policy can be implimented, the contents of language educational policies are to deal with the following three issues: language diffusion home and abroad, option of instructional medium, and foreign language education. The three issues are concerned with educational policies of dominant language, minority language and foreign language, respectively. So this dissertation is to probe from chapter five to chapter seven into the educational policies of dominant language, minority language and foreign language in China and US. Finally, this dissertation points out the necessity and importance of harmonious language educational policy in the context of globalization. The research result will be of great use for language educational policy makers and language educational policy researcher as well.This dissertation is composed of eight chapters, which can be categorized into four parts. Part one is chapter one only. Part two consists of chapter two, chapter three and chapter four in all. Part three is comprised of chapter five, chapter six and chapter seven. And part four is the last chapter—chapter eight.Chapter one is an introduction, which gives an account of the impetus to select this topic, the issues to be studied, the purposes and significance of the research, review of academic literature home and abroad, research methodology and characteristics, research originality, the sources of data collection, and the framework of the dissertation.Part two is the theoretical section in the dissertation. Chapter two addresses the theory of globalization and its influence on education, language education and language educational policy around the world. Chapter three sheds light on the difinition, evolution and function of language views, but in this chapter priority is given to the illumination of four language views in the globalization setting and their impacts on language educational policy, which are language as identity, language as human right, language as resources and language as soft power, respectively. Chapter four probes into the correlationship among educational policy, language policy and language educational policy, and puts its emphasis on language educational policy, to be more exact, the definition, contents, subjects and objects of language educational policy, the factors affecting language educational policy and the significance of language educational policy.Part three is the practical section in the dissertation which makes an comparative analysis of the educational policies of dominant language, minority language and foreign language in China and USA. Each chapter addresses the importance and the status quo of the educational policies of dominant language, minority language and foreign language in China and USA, respectively. Furthermore, implications for the improvement of language educational policies in China are offered at the end of the three chapters.Chapter eight is the conclusion, which analyses the overall characteristics of language educational policies in USA, and points out the implications for China. Finally, this dissertation raises a suggestion that China should establish a harmonious language educational policy, which will pave the way for the construction of harmonious society in China and harmonious world in the scenario of globalization.