Research On Language Policy And Language Education Of Taiwan's Aborigines In The New Era

Austronesian, which is used by Taiwan aborigines, takes a significant academic place in the linguistic and cultural history of the world austronesian family. Meanwhile, due to the development of economy, migration of population, colonial domination, and inappropriate language policy, these languages has been facing the crucial situation of extinction. Then after the martial law was canceled in 1987, Taiwan government enacted a series of new policies to protect and develop aboriginal languages instead of confining them. Such new policies are founding certificating system of aboriginal language abilities, opening language nest and spreading school education of aboriginal languages etc, which contribute a lot to the resuscitation of the aboriginal languages. However, according to some research, levels of the aboriginal languages and their use fail to improve to a large extent and the languages still face the danger of extinction. Thus, to view estimate the implement of the policies and education of aboriginal languages, to analyze the existing problems and solving methods is without any doubt urgent and necessary.This dissertation employs the method of document analysis and questionnaire survey. It sorts out the evolution of Taiwan aboriginal language policies by a researching into the documents, focusing on exploring the historic background when the policies appeared, the process, content, measures employed and the effect of each policy. At the same time, questionnaire survey and telephone interview is used in order to carry out a quantized research on school education of the aboriginal languages.340 students and 64 teachers of primary schools and middle schools from the city of Gaoxiong, Taidong, Hualian etc. were involved in this research.The first chapter is general introduction part, suggesting the reason why this topic is chosen and the research methods. The second chapter is about regarded theories and present studying situation of this topic. The third chapter is a brief introduction about the history of Taiwan language policies and education. The forth chapter analyzes the present particular policies and measures adopted about Taiwan aboriginal languages. The fifth chapter analyzes the education of Taiwan aboriginal languages in this new era. The sixth chapter is about the questionnaire on teaching aboriginal languages. The seventh chapter is the conclusion and the future of the topic.The values of this research lie in the following aspects:Firstly, this research focuses on Taiwan aboriginal ethnic groups and sorts out a system on language policies. Because of the historic, cultural, population, political and economic reasons, monographic studies on language policies of ethnic groups are rare. Most of the regarded information is scattered in general description of Taiwan aborigines. However, this dissertation is focused on Taiwan aborigines, a systemic description on their language policies. For example, most researches about the language policies enacted during Japanese domination is concentrated on the main population, which is Han people immigrated from the mainland and Pingpu ethnic groups. Yet things maybe sheer different for those who speaks austronesian but live in the distant hill districts. Borrowing experience and achievements of the former experts, this dissertation mainly discusses and studies the language policies and education of the aborigines who live in the hilly areas. Another case in point is the language policy after WW?. Mandarin Movement is slightly mentioned in the content but the main focus is on the particular measures of the language policies of the aborigines after the restrictions were broken after 1987.Secondly, it summarizes and reorganizes the most present data and information about the enforcement of the language policy and education. Based on theoretical analysis, this dissertation collects a great number of the newest data and information. On language policies, it documents the aim and plans of the main policies and measures. On language education, it compares and analyzes the syllabus, teaching aims as well as other teaching factors such as teachers'quality, textbooks etc. It reflects the panorama of the enforcement of the language policies and education on the aborigines. Also, the writer further study its effect, existing problem and solving measures, raising some personal comprehension and views. Thirdly, it employs the method of questionnaire survey in order to gain the first-hand materials, providing valuable sources for the future research. Due to the restrictions of history and social facts, scholars of the mainland did little theoretical research on language policies and education of Taiwan aborigines, not to mention the field study. The dissertation will try to make effort in this field and get first-hand materials about education on ethnic languages by means of questionnaire survey and telephone interview, infusing practical meaning to it. Also, it provides supportive materials for the future researches. The author sincerely wishes that this dissertation will be the stone thrown away to get a gem, promoting more and more researches on the language policies and education of Taiwan aborigines.