Bilingual Education in China

This volume brings together research on bilingual or trilingual education for the majority and minority nationality groups in China and explores the relationship between them. Papers range from reports of bilingual or trilingual education projects in remote minority regions to discussions about Chinese-English bilingual education in major cities.

Dr Anwei Feng has teaching and research experience in tertiary institutions in many countries and regions including China, Hong Kong, Singapore as well as the UK. He is currently Reader in Education and directs Graduate Programmes in the School of Education at Bangor University, UK. His main research interests are in the areas of bi/trilingualism and bi/trilingual education and intercultural studies in education. His recent publications include Becoming Interculturally Competent through Education and Training (2009, with M. Byram and M. Fleming) and Bilingual Education in China: Practices, Policies and Concepts (2007). He also regularly publishes articles in these areas in peer-reviewed journals.

Anwei Feng lectures and supervises education doctoral students at Durham University mainly in the areas of bilingualism, bilingual education and intercultural studies. He has researched the experience of minority students studying the second and third language in universities in China and the experience of students from Confucian Heritage Cultures on UK campuses. His latest publications include the article ‘An evaluative analysis of parallel conceptions of bilingualism in China’ in IJBEB in 2005 and the book ‘Living and Studying Abroad’ (co-edited with M. Byram, 2006).

This work is one of the first to discuss the practices, policies, and concepts of bilingual education in China. It includes two types of bilingual education largely unknown to the West. One is bilingual education for the minority of Chinese, which is the teaching of Mandarin Chinese (Pu Tong Hua) and an ethnic minority language (e.g., Tibetan, Mongolian, Yao, Bai). The other is bilingual English and Chinese education (mostly for the Chinese majority, Han), which has become an important national education issue in recent years. Overall, this is an informative work and a must-read for anyone interested in language education in general and bilingual education in particular.

Joseph Lo Bianco, University of Melbourne:

This is a substantial and impressive work, which makes a valuable contribution to understandings of Chinese education, specifically of the immensely complex twin character of its bilingual practices. The able editor, Dr Anwei Feng of Durham University UK, ‘tops and tails’ the volume with a ground-setting introduction and an excellent reflective conclusion, in which he proposes re-interpretations of key guiding ideas in majority and minority bilingual education. Both the top and the tail lend the volume a commendable degree of cohesion. This book provides a comprehensive and generally excellent treatment of a wide range of issues that are always tied to the central theme of the volume. The issues and settings are intrinsically interesting and important as well as serving as a point of reference for the specifically Chinese nature of bilingualism and bilingual education.

Colin Baker, University of Bangor, Wales:

This eagerly awaited book shares Eastern viewpoints and understandings that are sometimes varied from the dominant Western writings on bilingual education.

Professor Mike Byram, University of Durham.:

This will be a significant sourcebook for all in Bilingual Education, not only Chinese specialists. It offers new perspectives by juxtaposing different forms of bilingual education and explaining bilingualism in China to readers worldwide.