ERIC Number: EJ1196071
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2018
Pages: 20
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-1747-7506
EISSN: N/A
Bilingualism as a Resource: Language Attitudes of Vietnamese Ethnic Minority Students
Current Issues in Language Planning, v19 n4 p343-362 2018
This article examines a group of Vietnamese ethnic minority students' language attitudes towards formal and informal language policies of the domains of school, church and ethnic community and towards their individual bilingualism. Multiple semi-structured interviews with eight college-age minority students are used as the main source of the data. Findings reveal that school language policy contributed to shaping the students' view of "language-as-problem" in valuing Vietnamese, while church and community language policies shaped the "language-as-right" orientation in relation to their first language. Under the mixed influences of language policies of these domains, the students considered their bilingualism as a "resource" that could help them to maintain their ethnic features and join the mainstream flow simultaneously. Being aware of the sample size and other methodological considerations, we suggest that there may not be essential conflicts between bilingual identity and national solidarity in the same minority language speaker in a polity such as Vietnam. Based on these insights, we would like to consider language diversity, bilingualism and cultural heterogeneity as a resource rather than a problem in defining language policies for national development and social inclusion and harmony in Vietnam.
Descriptors: Language Attitudes, Vietnamese, Vietnamese People, Minority Group Students, Churches, Language Usage, Bilingualism, School Policy, Language of Instruction, Student Attitudes, Ethnicity, Self Concept, Social Integration, Language Planning, Foreign Countries, Native Language, Second Language Learning, Language Minorities, Multilingualism
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Vietnam
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A