A Study Of Language Socialization In The Bilingual Education Classroom Of Shansu-yi People In Yunnan

Language socialization paradigm, a study method in second language acquisitionarea, is currently receiving an increasing amount of attention in the world. Languagesocialization pioneers summarized that language socialization is a process affected bya number of external and internal factors. The present study has continued that focusby investigating the language socialization process in Shansu-Yi, a small ethnic groupin Yunnan, ethnic bilingual education classes.The study aimed to look at how theShansu-Yi students were socialized by Chinese and their own Shansu-Yi language.Different from the common language socialization studies which mainly focused onthe bilingual class socialization in the western societies, the study focused onbilingual class socialization of the native ethnic students in southwest China Yunnanprovince.Ethnographic approach was adopted to explore the study from differentperspectives. The approach included the class observation, participant interviews andfield note records so that a detailed analysis for the micro changes of participantsunder the macro background of bilingual education could be obtained. Classobservation of three classes (8hours) served as the primary tool to collect data.Follow-up interviews were then conducted with the participants. The participantsincluded students, parents, and teachers (9persons). The field note records and classobservation were carried out at the same time. The study followed how the Shansu-Yistudents were socialized by Chinese and Shansu-Yi language in classes, tried to findwhat the changes are in the Shansu-Yi students’ language ideologies and languagebeliefs regarding the languages present in the classroom and concluded the key factorsinfluenced them.Findings from the study revealed that the Shansu-Yi students’ languagesocialization process was dynamic. In grade one, students were curious about Chinese and eager to learn it, then they changed their language attitudes in grade three. Theybegan to resist learning Chinese and were intend to speak more Shansu-Yi language intheir schooldays. For higher grade students, they treated Chinese more objectively andbegan to learn it as their second language. All these changes are related to theirincreasing knowledge, identities, ideologies, class activities and social interactions.Meanwhile, based on the observation of their language socialization process, anumber of factors that appeared to influence students’ language socialization processwere identified as: the government language policy, the public medias, the teachers’behaviours in class (both explicit and implicit behaviours), the language of classmatesand friends, and the language attitudes of parents. The study had three key findings.The first is that Shansu-Yi students’ language attitudes and beliefs changed over timeand the older students had more objective language attitudes and beliefs for their firstand second languages. The second is on the fact that their language socialization wasnot only decided by themselves but influenced by their surroundings. The third is thatstudents’ language socialization degrees were different even though they were in thesame class.Based on these findings, the study suggested that the Shansu-Yi schools shouldadopt more specific bilingual textbooks and provide more Chinese-speakingenvironments. At the same time, the protection of the Shansu-Yi language cannot beignored. The results of the study may offer some implications for a betterunderstanding to an understanding of the language socialization process of ethnicstudents in Yunnan and be helpful for the development of bilingual education and theethnic language protecting areas.