Many English-medium instruction (EMI) classrooms in non-Anglophone countries adopt a multilingual stance, using English alongside the host country's local language(s). However, the perceptions of such multilingual practices held by students remain under-researched. Given many Asian countries' current drives to internationalize and diversify their…

Recently there has been an increase in the number of students learning Mandarin Chinese (in mainland China and internationally). This increase has led to speculation that Mandarin Chinese is becoming a mainstream global language to the point of becoming a "lingua franca." This paper utilizes research findings from different regions and…

Universities worldwide, in placing a greater emphasis on global mobility, have recently seen a growing number of in- and outbound students. Parallel to this development has been the need to internationalize individual campuses, an important aspect of which is to have a common language (or languages) used for communication. The language policies in…

In this article, we apply Ruiz's language-as-resource orientation to three international settings: Taiwan, Pakistan, and mainland China. Our guiding question was how different languages (indigenous languages, Chinese, and English) were positioned differently as resources in these contexts. For our analysis, we used Lo Bianco's (2001) elaboration…

Taiwan began its political reform of languages in the 1990s. At this time, "Mandarin Plus" (Official Language Plus) became the core of Taiwanese language policy to deal with the aftermath of forced national linguistic assimilation under Chiang's administration (1945-1988). Mandarin Plus, defined as teaching vernacular languages other…

This article addresses the importance of language underlying the stratification process in Taiwan within the context of globalization. Specifically, I ask if one's language skills may serve as a key to getting ahead. The Taiwanese government has imposed Mandarin as the official language since 1945 and introduced English courses into compulsory…

The article reviews the linguistic situation in Taiwan, discussing the use of Mandarin Chinese as a means to improve interethnic relations between the various populations inhabiting the island. The situation is looked at from a sociolinguistic point of view and the historical background is reviewed. Available from Humanities Press, Inc., Atlantic…

Surveys administered to 823 Chinese in Taiwan to measure the extent of language maintenance of mother dialects and shift toward use of Mandarin revealed a substantial shift toward the use of Mandarin. Successive family generations increasingly used Mandarin, and Mandarin was generally recognized as a common language for intergroup communication.…

The author summarizes some of the spoken language policies of the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China of Taiwan, including some statistics on dialect speakers in the population, methods for promoting Mandarin in the schools, and attitudes toward the maintenance of minority languages. (SJL)

Analyzes the official (Kuomintang) language policy in Taiwan, which had exalted Mandarin and suppressed other local languages, and the efforts during the last decade to revive Tai-yu, a major language in the post-war period. The dynamics of the Tai-yu language movement reveal a pressing problem facing Taiwan: how to balance national cohesion with…

Analyzes the major linguistic and sociopolitical factors responsible for the underdevelopment of written languages based on non-Mandarin dialects. Explores language planning efforts in Taiwan to standardize a written language based upon the local dominant dialect. Argues that the social and political costs of the success of dialect writings may be…