The representations of Language Practice in China’s School Websites

徐天琴Xu Tianqin（云南大學外國語學院，云南 昆明 650091） (Foreign Language School, Yunnan University，Kunming Yunnan 650091)

I.Introduction

Globalization has fostered rapid and wide-spread of population mobility, both between and within national borders.As such, a growing body of research has examined first language maintenance and identity construction among both international and internal migrants.China is the largest developing country in the global community.Thus it attracts thousands of foreign students who are mainly from southwestern Asia and Middle-East countries.According to Blue Book of Global Talent, there are more than 0.4 million foreign students in China, who mainly in state-owned schools.There are 118 state-founded universities and colleges in China, all of which are closely associated with national cultural, religious and political aspirations.

Theoretically, this study adopts the notions of language ideology (Irvine and Gal 2000; Woolard 1998) and indexicality(Bucholtz and Hall 2005; Silverstein 2003) to critique the rather static and straightforward economic view of language.Professor Xu indicates directly that language as a source of language ideology can change into capital and cultural sources (Xu Xinlu, 2016).Within this framework, identity emerges through indexical processes in which specific linguistic forms and features serve to index a speaker’s social category through‘labeling implicature, stance taking , style marking, and code choice’(Bucholtz and Hall 2005：598).

2.Theoretical framework

Language ideologies are ‘any sets of beliefs about language articulated by the users as rationalization or justification of perceived language structure and use’ (Silverstein 1979, 193).These beliefs include, for example, ideas about the status of specific languages, the appropriateness or inappropriateness of some expressions in particular contexts, and how language should be taught to children.Because the beliefs about language, or language ideologies are ‘constructed from the sociocultural experience of the speaker’ (Kroskrity 2004, 496), language ideologies are multiple and diverse across cultures and individuals.Therefore,language ideologies provide possible frameworks for linguistic practice.The indexical meaning of linguistic forms must derive from language ideologies, at the intersection of speakers’beliefs about a particular linguistic form and their perception of a particular social group.Thus, the indexical meanings and language ideologies are closely related.

3.Methodology

The data are all collected from websites state-owned schools that are aided and founded by the government and thus are partially influenced by the country’s cultural ideologies including language ideology.The research objects are 34 viceministerial level universities, Beijing Foreign Language School,Shanghai Foreign Language School, Minzu University of China,Southwest Minzu University and Yunnan Minzu University.In the course of data collection, the researchers observed and took notes of language identity and practices in the school context.

4.Findings

4.1 Call for Loyalty to the Party in Mandarin Chinese

In the Chinese versions of these schools’ websites, there is a large curriculum of ideological and political education concerning the Party.In the website of Peking University,there are five slights on the homepage, four of which advocates teachers and students to learn the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party.Under the slight, Peking University marks out some spaces for special and featured websites for political publicity.In the introductory page of Peking University, it indicates that “we must uphold the Party’s leadership and adhere to the correct direction.Only if we holdhigh the Party’s leadership, can we start a new journey to a world class university.” Because of China’s policy of setting up world-class universities, universities like Peking University relate construction of global world-class universities to country’s educational policies.In the Chinese version of Fudan’s website, the right colon lined “

It is clear here that Putonghua, although once s regional variety, is now accepted as neutral and inherently ‘better’from within this monoglot language ideology; it is no longer a vernacular, but has been enregistered as a super-local linguistic repertoire (Agha, 2003).The privilege of Mandarin Chinese symbolizes the hegemony of Beijing and the government.The Government promotes Chinese in education system including high learning, and the written form of Mandarin Chinese is manifest in the text book as well as the schools’ websites.

4.2 The privilege of English

The rise of language ideology as a separate field of inquiry in linguistic anthropology facilitates the understanding of speech communities by drawing in key insights from the social-scientific study of ideology.In a language ideology approach, Silverstein distinguishes speech communities from language communities, arguing that language communities are ideological constructs that entails people’s allegiance to a shared denotational code of language.

English is in a position of hegemonic power as a global language that plays an important role in maintaining social,political, and economical order (Pennycook, 1990).The key driver behind the spread of English as medium of instruction and the universalization of English language teaching.The global university rankings find the world’s first prestigious universities are in English spoken countries.In the 2015 Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings, for instance,fifty-eight out of the world’s top one hundred universities were based in just three countries, namely, the USA, the UK,and Australia.Consequently, English has come to associated with academic excellence.English medium education further privilege the hegemony of English.The spread of English medium in high education system links to the spread of English as the global language of science and culture.In the websites 34 vice-ministerial level universities, only Tongji University and Zhejiang Universities has Russian and Dutch versions.Tongji University is well known for its specialty of architecture and civil engineering.

Here lines language ideology that English is equal to academic excellence.English excels all the outcomings of other countries.And most of these schools admit that foreign students who study in China understand English.Our national education systems around the world are actually expanding the role of English in higher Education.At the same time, English is no more than being a curriculum subject to become an important medium of instruction.

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