|
New book by YiXi LaMuCuo
Congratulations to YiXi LaMuCuo on the publication of her book, Becoming Bilingual in School and Home in Tibetan Areas of China: Stories of Struggle.This book contributes significantly to our understanding of bilingualism and bilingual education as a sociocultural and political process by offering analyses of the stories of five Tibetan individual journeys of becoming bilingual in the Tibetan areas of China at four different points in time from 1950 to the present.
More details can be found here.
Guangxi Symposium
The 11th International Symposium on Multilingualism and Multilingual Education in China, hosted by the Chinese Society for Multilingualism and Multilingual Education (CSMME) & Guangxi University School of Foreign Languages and Literature, was held from 27-29 September. The event was attended by more than 70 participants. The symposium was very well organised and produced some excellent pressentations and fruitful discussions.
New book by Lubei Zhang and Linda Tsung
Congratulations to Dr Lubei Zhang and Professor Linda Tsung on the publication of their new book by Springer, "Bilingual Education and Minority Language Maintenance in China"!
As Professor Colin Mackerras notes in his Foreword: "This brilliant book addresses several major dilemmas. Two of them stand out. One is the challenges involved in the dichotomy between policy and implementation. The other concerns the big questions of language survival among China's ethnic minorities and especially how the education system can help to keep ethnic language alive."
Details of the book can be found here
Meanwhile, Feifei Shan, Prof Liu Chunyu and Bob Adamson have a new book chapter, "Linguistic landscape and social equality in an ethnic tourism village" In the book edited by Jan Gube & Gao Fang, Education, Ethnicity and Inequality in the Multilingual Asian Context, published by Springer.
Guiyang Symposium 2018
The 10th International Symposium on Multilingualism and Multilingual Education in China, hosted by Guizhou Minorities University, Guiyang, Guizhou Province, was held from 19-21 October. The symposium was attended by over 60 participants—academics, research students and policymakers. Topics ranged from multilingual language acquisition, to studies of policy, linguistic landscapes, curriculum and social issues. It was a very successful symposium, with high quality presentations, lively discussions and strong networking. In his report on the symposium presented in the concluding session, Professor Wang Ge praised the participants for their shared values of commitment to education and to supporting the research community.
Our thanks go to Guizhou Minorities University for organising such an excellent event.
Congratulations to Dr Zhu!
Judy Zhu Qiyun recently passed her PhD viva at the University of Hong Kong. Well done, Judy!
Visit to OISE
Bob Adamson visited the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Toronto, Canada, from 25-30 May 2018, and gave a presentation on "Multilingualism in China", based on the findings of our research project. Two leading experts in multilingual education, Prof Jim Cummins and Dr Stephen Bahry, were present and joined in the ensuing discussion.
Symposium 2017
Our Ninth National Symposium on Trilingualism and Trilingual Education for Ethnic Minorities in China was held in Pu’er, Yunnan Province in south-west China on 19-22 October.
More than 60 participants from across the country attended the event. Presentations covered a variety of topics, including policy; issues of equity and access; language maintenance; classroom practices; and linguistics.
An emergent theme of the symposium was the economic opportunities presented for boosting the status of minority languages through trilingual education offered by the Chinese Government’s “Belt and Road” initiative. The proposed overland and maritime routes through Central Asia and Southeast Asia cross areas in which languages spoken by China’s ethnic minorities are major means of communication.
The symposium was hosted by Yunnan Normal University and Pu’er College, and organized by the Chinese Society for Multilingualism and Multilingual Education. Our thanks to Professor Feng Zhiwen and his colleagues for their excellent organisation!
Congratulations to:
Dr Sherry Liu Jie and Dr Candy Zhang Ping on their successful completion of doctoral programmes!
New Resources added to Technical Papers
We have uploaded a new Technical Paper (No.10), The ‘One-Dragon’ Approach to Research in Trilingual Education in China. The paper is designed to assist researchers to assess the nature of multilingual education being provided in a particular context.
October 2016: New Resources added to Briefing Papers
The MTB MLE RESOURCE KIT – "Including the Excluded: Promoting Multilingual Education" – has been added to the Briefing Papers.
June 2016: Symposium in Xi'an
The 8th International Symposium on Trilingualism and Trilingual Education in China was held from 10th to 13th June 2016 at the School of Foreign Language, Shaanxi Normal University and Research Center for EFL Education, Shaanxi Normal University. More than 60 academics and policymakers attended. Our thanks to Professor Liu Quanguo and his team for their wonderful organisation and hospitality!
The symposium focused upon the following themes:
1. Theories and practices of trilingual education in China
2. Trilingual teacher education and teacher training
3. The development and implementation of trilingual education
4. Third language acquisition
5. Research projects relevant to trilingualism and trilingual education
A full report will follow shortly.
December 2015:
Congratulations to Mamty Sunuodula on submitting his doctoral thesis!
June 2015: Symposium
The sixth International Symposium on Multilingualism and Multilingual Education in China was held successfully from 4th to 6th June 2015 at Qinghai University for Nationalities. The report of the symposium is here.
January 2015: Opening of CSMME Office
The new research office for the Chinese Society for Multilingualism and Multilingual Education at Yunnan Normal University was opened on 8 January 2015. Congratulations to Prof Yuan Yichuan and his team on this important development.
Click here for the good news about the opening ceremony.
The Society website can be found here.
13th Annual Hawaii International Conference on Education
Bob Adamson attended the 13th Annual Hawaii International Conference on Education in Honolulu from 5th- 8th January 2015. The conference attracted more than 1300 participants from 34 countries. The conference brought together a diverse range of educators and researchers. Prof Adamson presented a paper entitled “Social Equity, Language Policies and Ethnic Minorities in China”. The presentation discussed how language policies, if implemented effectively, can enable marginalised groups to engage fully in the social and political life of mainstream society and enjoy educational and economic benefits. Drawing upon research conducted as part of our project, Prof Adamson identified four distinct models of trilingual education found in different regions of China and outlined some of the implications of each model for social equity.
December 2014: Symposium
The International Symposium on Multilingualism and Multilingual Education in China was successfully held at the School of Education, University of Nottingham Ningbo, China, on 28-30 November 2014. Click here for more information.
October 2014: "Trilingualism in Education in China: Models and Challenges" published!
The project book has been published!!! Congratulations to everyone who contributed!
Congratulations
Congratulations to Helen Yi Yayuan on successfully completing her doctoral degree. Her thesis focuses on models of trilingualism in education in three schools in Inner Mongolia.
Bob Adamson has been promoted to Chair Professor of Curriculum Reform by Hong Kong Institute of Education.
February 2014: Promotion for Liu Quanguo
Congratulations to Liu Quanguo on his recent promotion to professor in the College of Foreign Languages and Literature, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou!
January 2014: New appointment
Professor Bob Adamson has been elected to the Standing Committee on Foreign Language Teacher Education and Development, in the National Foreign Language Teaching and Research Association of the People’s Republic of China. He is the first international scholar to be elected to this post, following his nomination by leading professors from Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing. The Standing Committee oversees the formulation of strategies and programmes for teacher professional development in foreign language teaching throughout the whole of China.
November 2013: Bangkok Conference
Prof Anwei Feng was invited to give a plenary speech at the International Conference on Mother Tongue Multilingual Education held in Bangkok on 6-9 November 2013. He used the research findings from the trilingualism-in-China project to illustrate how models for additive multilingualism could be developed and promoted and how tensions in policy making could be reduced through high-quality research. His speech was very positively received by an audience of more than 300 from many countries and by UNESCO and other NGOs’ officials and ministry-level officials mostly from East and Southeast Asian countries.
The most impactive event was ‘the High-Level Multilingual Policy Forum’ held on the last day where he was invited to converse directly with education policy makers some of whom, such as those from Thailand, Cambodia, Nepal and Laos, are Ministry of Education level officials. This is clear evidence of the impact of the trilingualism-in-China research project on policy making and in turn on multilingual education practice in the region.
5th International Symposium, Yanbian University, Yanji
We are happy to announce that the 5th International Symposium on Trilingual Phenomenon and Trilingual Education in China was successfully held at Yanbian University, Yanji, China on 31st Oct-2nd Nov.
The symposium, attended by forty scholars and government officials from throughout China, discussed the latest findings of research on trilingual education in ethnic minority regions of the country. All the senior researchers also conducted field observations in a trilingual primary school in Yanji. The focus was on how schools teach three languages—the ethnic minority language, the national language (Chinese/Putonghua) and an international language (usually English). The symposium also considered ways to enhance the development of talented trilingual speakers so as to empower minority groups to preserve their cultural identity and language while accessing the social and economic benefits of engaging in mainstream society in a globalised context.
September 2013: Project completed
We are pleased to announce that the social science provincial project conducted by the research team from QujingNormal University, Yunnan and Professor Bob Adamson, namely, " A Comparative Study on Trilingual Education in Yunnan Minority Areas" (Serial No. GG09057) has been successfully completed.
April 2013" Luxembourg Symposium
Prof Liu Chengyu has been invited to be a plenary speaker at the International Symposium on Multilingualism, Identity, Education – European and East Asia Perspectives to be held on 4th-5th November 2013 at Luxembourg University, Luxembourg. Prof Anwei Feng and Prof Bob Adamson have also been invited to the same symposium.
Prof Anwei Feng has been invited to be a plenary speaker at the International Conference on Language and Education – Multilingual Education for All in Asia and the Pacific: Policies, Practices and Processes, sponsored by a consortium of organizations from the Asia Multilingual Education Working Group (MLE WG), including: UNESCO, UNICEF, SEAMEO, Mahidol University, SIL International, Plan International, Room to Read, CARE, Asia Institute of Technology, DVV International, Linguistic Society of the Philippines, 170+ Talaytayan, TAP and the Royal Thai Institute. The conference will be held on 6th-8th November 2013 in Bangkok, Thailand, and is anticipated to provide a forum for academics, development practitioners and partners from around the world to dialogue about the importance of expanding access to effective MLE and strengthen momentum for MLE in the Asia-Pacific region.
Prof Bob Adamson presented a keynote speech, Models of trilingual education in China—signposts for the future of English in Asia?, at the “Future of English in Asia: Perspectives on Language and Literature" conference, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 19-21 April 2013.
March 2013: Sichuan Symposium
The Fourth Symposium was held in Chengdu and Shuimo. It was a great success. Our thanks to Prof Kong Lingcui and his colleagues at Sichuan Normal University for their hospitality and organisation, and A Ba Normal College for hosting the second day of the symposium. Read the report here.
December 2012: Foreign Language Education Association of West China
In the past two years, Prof. Wen Xu, Dean of the School of Foreign Languages, Southwest University, and Prof. Liu Chengyu have collaboratively organized a series of academic conferences under the name of the Foreign Language Education Association of West China, with Prof. Wen as the chairman and Professor Liu as secretary general. During these conferences and symposiums, trilingual education has always been a heated topic.
The school is contributing to two academic journals. One is Cognitive Linguistic Studies, published by John Benjamins Publishing Company, with Prof. Wen Xu as one of the co-editors-in-chief. The first issue will come out in 2013. The other one is Foreign Language Education Studies in China, which will be published by China Foreign Language Press, with Prof. Wen Xu as editor-in-chief and Prof. Liu as the executive editor. The first issue of this journal will come out around the end of 2012.
June 2012: Trilingual Education in China project wins Hong Kong General Research Fund award
Our project has received funding of over HK$800,000 from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council for Phase II of the project, starting 1 January 2013. In this phase, we shall investigate factors that support the different models of trilingual education that we discovered in Phase I. We also plan to evaluate some pilot studies. The first meeting of the research teams for Phase II will be held in Guizhou in March 2-13.
June 2012: Congratulations to Dr Wang Ge on his doctorate! | 
