Cover not available

In:World Englishes in their Local Multilingual Ecologies
Edited by Peter Siemund, Gardy Stein and Manuela Vida-Mannl
[Hamburg Studies on Linguistic Diversity 9] 2025
► pp. 143–165

Get fulltext
PDF logo with download linkDownload Chapter PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload Chapter EPUB

Chapter 7
Multilingualism in Shanghai

A comparative perspective on university students’ language profiles and attitudes

 | Fudan UniversityShanghai
 | University of Hamburg
Open Access logo
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Published online: 24 April 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/hsld.9.07zhe
Abstract
Building on previous research on the multilingual global cities of Hong Kong, Singapore, and Dubai (Leimgruber, Siemund & Terassa 2018; Siemund & Leimgruber 2020), the present study looks into the multilingual/multidialectal texture of Shanghai, a recently emerged global city in China. To understand the societal multilingualism of Shanghai from the perspective of individuals’ linguistic repertoires, this study implements a mixed-method approach, using questionnaire surveys and semi-structured interviews as the data collection instruments. The questionnaires were distributed to 398 students from one comprehensive university and one polytechnic university in Shanghai and follow-up interviews were conducted with 34 students from both universities. The analysis of the data indicates that Shanghai university students uniformly possess a Chinese-English bilingual profile, while a small number of individuals develop trilingual profiles of Chinese, English, and a language other than English. It also suggests that different language varieties are assigned hierarchical values and, in particular, regional dialects continue to be marginalized due to their limited pragmatic values. The findings reveal the far-reaching impacts of government-level foreign language education planning on individuals’ multilingual profiles. Similar to other global cities such as Singapore and Dubai, students in Shanghai tend to develop English-centered bilingual language profiles, typically in combination with the national lingua franca. These bilingual profiles may be further enriched by heritage languages or world languages that are deemed economically useful.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Language ecology and multilingual global cities
    • 2.1Societal multilingualism vs. individual multilingualism
    • 2.2Previous studies on Singapore and Dubai
  • 3.Foreign language education policy and multilingualism in Chinese universities
  • 4.The study
    • 4.1Research sites
    • 4.2Research design and instrument
    • 4.3Participants
    • 4.4Data analysis
  • 5.Findings
    • 5.1Multilingual profiles
      • 5.1.1Language profiles and foreign language repertoires
      • 5.1.2The mediating role of language proficiency
    • 5.2Sociolinguistic use and attitudes towards different languages/dialects
      • 5.2.1Domains of use
      • 5.2.2Sociolinguistic attitudes
        • 5.2.2.1Attitudes towards Putonghua
        • 5.2.2.2Attitudes to English
        • 5.2.2.3Attitudes towards Sinitic dialects
        • 5.2.2.4Attitudes to LOTEs
  • 6.Discussion
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (37)
References
Aronin, Larissa. 2017. Conceptualizations of multilingualism: An affordances perspective. Critical Multilingualism Studies 5(1): 174–207.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Aronin, Larissa & David Singleton. 2012. Multilingualism. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baker, Will. 2016. English as an academic lingua franca and intercultural awareness: Student mobility in the transcultural university. Language and intercultural Communication 16(3): 437–451. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blackledge, Adrian. 2008. Language ecology and language ideology. In Nancy H. Hornberger (ed.), Encyclopedia of Language and Education, pp. 2923–2936. Boston, MA: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bolton, Kingsley & Maria Kuteeva. 2012. English as an academic language at a Swedish university: Parallel language use and the ‘threat’ of English. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 33(5): 429–447. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bolton, Kingsley & Siu-lun Lee. 2021. A socio-historical approach to multilingualism in Hong Kong. In Peter Siemund & Jacob R. E. Leimgruber (eds.), Multilingual Global Cities: Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, pp. 38–62. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Calvet, Louis Jean. 1999. Pour une écologie des langues du monde. Paris: Plon.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Creese, Angela & Peter Martin. 2008. Classroom ecologies: A case study from a Gujarati complementary school in England. In Angela Creese, Peter Martin & Nancy H. Hornberger (eds.), Encyclopedia of Language and Education (Ecology of Language 9), 2nd edn, pp. 263–272. New York, NY: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Darvin, Ron & Bonnie Norton. 2015. Identity and a model of investment in applied linguistics. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 35: 36–56. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
de Swaan, Abram. 2001. The World Language System: A Political Sociology and Political Economy of Language. Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gao, Xuesong & Yongyan Zheng. 2019. Multilingualism and higher education in Greater China. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 40(7): 555–561. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haugen, Einar. 1972. The ecology of language. In Anwar S. Dil (ed.), The Ecology of Language: Essays by Einar Haugen, pp. 325–339. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heller, Monica. 2010. The commodification of language. Annual Review of Anthropology 39(1): 101–114. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kaplan, Robert B. & Richard B. Baldauf (eds.). 2008. Language Planning and Policy in Asia, Volume 1: Japan, Nepal and Taiwan and Chinese Characters. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Klöter, Henning. 2020. One legacy, two legislations. Language policies on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. In Henning Klöter & Mårten Söderblom Saarela (eds.), Language Diversity in the Sinophone World, pp. 101–121. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Leimgruber, Jakob R. E. 2013. Singapore English: Structure, Variation, and Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Leimgruber, Jakob R. E. & Peter Siemund. 2021. The multilingual ecologies of Singapore, Hong Kong, and Dubai. In Peter Siemund & Jakob R. E. Leimgruber (eds.), Multilingual Global Cities: Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, pp. 1–15. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Leimgruber, Jakob R. E., Peter Siemund & Laura Terassa. 2018. Singaporean students’ language repertoires and attitudes revisited. World Englishes 37(2): 282–306. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lo Bianco, Joe & Larissa Aronin. 2018. Dominant Language Constellations: A New Perspective on Multilingualism. Springer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ludwig, Ralph, Peter Mühlhäusler, & Steve Pagel. 2019. Linguistic ecology and language contact. In Ralph Ludwig, Peter Mühlhäusler & Steve Pagel (eds.), Linguistic Ecology and Language Contact, pp. 3–42. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mauranen, Anna, Niina Hynninen & Elina Ranta. 2010. English as an academic lingua franca: The ELFA project. English for Specific Purposes 29(3): 183–190. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Merriam, Sharan. 1998. Qualitative Research and Case Study Applications in Education, 2nd edn. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ministry of Education of China. 2021. Overview of Chinese Language and Characters [Zhongguo Yuyan Wenzi Gaikuang]. Beijing: Ministry of Education of China.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mufwene, Salikoko S. 2001. The Ecology of Language Evolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Park, Joseph S. 2011. The promise of English: Linguistic capital and the neoliberal worker in the South Korean job market. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 14(4): 443–455. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Piller, Ingrid. 2016. Monolingual ways of seeing multilingualism. Journal of Multicultural Discourses 11(1): 25–33. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sebba, Mark. 2011. Societal bilingualism. In Ruth Wodak, Barbara Johnstone & Paul Kerswill (eds.), The Sage Handbook of Sociolinguistics, pp. 445–459. London: Sage. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shanghai Statistics Bureau. 2021. Shanghai Statistics Yearbook. Shanghai: China Statistics Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Siemund, Peter, & Jakob R. E. Leimgruber (eds.). 2020. Multilingual Global Cities: Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Siemund, Peter & Lijun Li. 2020. Multilingualism and language policy in Singapore. In Henning Klöter & Marten Söderblom Saarela (eds.), Language Diversity in the Sinophone World, pp. 205–228. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Siemund, Peter, Ahmad Al-Issa & Jakob R. E. Leimgruber. 2021. Multilingualism and the role of English in the United Arab Emirates. World Englishes 40(2): 191–204. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Siemund, Peter, Monika E. Schulz & Martin Schweinberger. 2014. Studying the linguistic ecology of Singapore: A comparison of college and university students. World Englishes 33(3): 340–362. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Singapore Department of Statistics. 2021. [URL] (24 August 2021).
Ushioda, Ema & Zoltán Dörnyei. 2017. Beyond global English: Motivation to learn languages in a multicultural world: Introduction to the special issue. The Modern Language Journal 101(3): 469–482. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wei, Rining, & Jinzhi Su. 2012. The statistics of English in China: An analysis of the best available data from government sources. English Today 28(3): 10–14. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zheng, Yongyan, Xiuchuan Lu & Wei Ren. 2019. Profiling Chinese university students’ motivation to learn multiple languages. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 40(7): 590–604. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2020. Tracking the evolution of Chinese learners’ multilingual motivation through a longitudinal Q methodology. The Modern Language Journal 104(4): 781–803. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue