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Article published In: Language Problems and Language Planning
Vol. 45:1 (2021) ► pp.1–30

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Bilingual students’ attitudes toward the Tibetan language

A structural analysis

ORCiD logo with link | Shantou University
 | Minzu University of China
Published online: 12 July 2021
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/lplp.20005.gan
Abstract
This study investigates bilingual students’ attitudes toward the Tibetan language, examining the structural models of the attitudes of Tibetan students and the differences in attitudes between living communities and as moderated by learning years (comparing Tibet-based and Han-based communities). The participants were 1,118 Tibetan students in the Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, China. The results indicated the following: (i) the data supported the three components of attitude (Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral) in terms of bilingual students’ perception of the Tibetan language; (ii) the five lower-level domains of the attitudes toward the Tibetan language can be grouped into two categories – Cognitive (self-concept of the Tibetan language and social status) and Affective (friendliness, helpfulness, and identification) – and there is a causal relationship between them; and (iii) there are significant differences in attitudes toward the Tibetan language dependent on living community and learning year. Practical suggestions for educators in schools for bilingual students learning the Tibetan language are discussed.
ནང་དོན་གནད་བསྡུས། དཔྱད་རྩོམ་འདིའི་ནང་དུ་བོད་ཀྱི་སྐད་གཉིས་སློབ་མའི་བོད་སྐད་རྣམ་འགྱུར་དང་འབྲེལ་བའི་ཁྱབ་ཁོངས་གཉིས་ལ་དཔྱད་བསྡུར་དང་།
སྒྲིག་གཞི་མཉམ་བྱའི་དཔེ་དབྱིབས་ཐོག་ནས་བོད་ཀྱི་སློབ་མའི་བོད་སྐད་རྣམ་འགྱུར་ལ་བརྟག་དཔྱད་དང་བོད་སྐད་རྣམ་འགྱུར་གྱི་སྤྱི་ཚོགས་ཁྱད་པར(བོད་པ་གཙོ་བོར་བྱེད་པའི་སྤྱི་ཚོག ས་དང་རྒྱ་མི་གཙོ་བོར་བྱེད་པའི་སྤྱི་ཚོགས།) གོ་བསྡུར་བྱེད་ཡོད་ཅིང་། དཔྱད་གཞི་འདིའི་ཞིབ་འཇུག་བྱ་ཡུལ་ནི་ཀྲུང་གོའི་དཀར་མཛེས་བོད་རིགས་རང་སྐྱོང་ཁུལ་གྱི་བོད་རིགས་སློབ་མ1118 པོ་ཡིན།ཞིབ་འཇུག་གི་གྲུབ་དོན་ནི་འདི་ལྟར་ཏེ། (1) ཞིབ་འཇུག་འདིའི་གྲངས་གཞི་ནི་སྐད་གཉིས་སློབ་མའི་བོད་སྐད་རྣམ་འགྱུར་གྱི་གྲུབ་ཆ(ཤེས་པ་དང་བརྩེ་སེམས།སྤྱོད་པ) གསུམ་དང་མཐུན་ཞིང་། (2)བོད་སྐད་རྣམ་འགྱུར་གྱི་རིམ་པ་ཅུང་དམའ་བའི་ཁྱབ་ཁོངས་ལྔ་པོ(བོད་སྐད་ཀྱི་བདག་དོན་དང་སྤྱི་ཚོགས་གོ་གནས། མཛའ་མཐུན་རང་བཞིན་དང་རོགས་སྐྱོར་རང་བཞིན། ཁས་ལེན་པ)ནི་ཤེས་པའི་རྣམ་གཞག་(བོད་སྐད་ཀྱི་བདག་དོན་དང་སྤྱི་ཚོགས་གོ་གནས) དང་བརྩེ་སེམས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་གཞག(མཛའ་མཐུན་རང་བཞིན་དང་རོགས་སྐྱོར་རང་བཞིན།ཁས་ལེན་པ) ཏུ་ཕྱོགས་བསྡོམས་བཟོ་ཆོག་པར་མ་ཟད།དེ་གཉིས་ཕན་ཚུན་བར་དུ་རྒྱུ་འབྲས་ཀྱི་འབྲེལ་བ་མཆིས། (3) བོད་སྐད་རྣམ་འགྱུར་ལ་འཚོ་བའི་སྤྱི་ཚོགས་དང་སློབ་སྦྱོང་ལོ་ཚད་ཐོག་ནས་དངོས་གསལ་གྱི་ཁྱད་པར་ལྡན། མཐར་སློབ་གྲྭའི་སློབ་གསོ་བ་དག་ལ་སྐད་གཉིས་སློབ་མའི་བོད་སྐད་ཆུ་ཚད་མཐོར་འདེགས་ཇི་ལྟར་བྱ་དགོས་མིན་སྐོར་ལ་ལག་ལེན་རུང་བའི་བསམ་འཆར་བཏོན་པ་བཅས་སོ། །
Resumo
La studo ekzamenas la vidpunktojn de dulingvaj studentoj rilate la tibetan, esplorante la strukturajn modelojn de la vidpunktoj de tibetaj studentoj kaj la vidpunktajn diferencojn inter vivokomunumoj laŭ jaroj de lernado (komparante tibete bazitajn kaj hane bazitajn komunumojn). La partoprenantoj estis 1118 tibetaj studentoj en la Tibeta Aŭtonoma Prefektolando Ganzi, de Ĉinio. La rezultoj indikis la jenon: (i) la donitaĵoj subtenis la tri elementojn de vidpunkto (Kogna, Afekta, Behaviora) rilate la perceptojn de dulingvaj studentoj pri la tibeta lingvo; (ii) la kvin pli malaltnivelaj domajnoj de la vidpunktoj al la tibeta lingvo estas grupigeblaj en du kategoriojn – Kogna (memkoncepto de la tibeta lingvo kaj socia statuso) kaj Afekta (amikemo, helpemo, kaj identigo) – kaj ekzistas kaŭza rilato inter ili; kaj (iii) ekzistas signifaj vidpunktaj diferencoj rilate la tibetan depende de vivokomunumo kaj lernojaro. Oni pridiskutas praktikajn sugestojn por edukistoj en lernejoj por dulingvaj studentoj kiuj lernas la tibetan.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1Structure of attitudes toward Tibetan language
    • 2.2Intergroup contact, community differences, and Tibetan students’ attitudes toward their mother tongue
    • 2.3Learning year and its effect on students’ attitudes toward the Tibetan language
  • 3.Research method
    • 3.1Participants
    • 3.2Data collection
    • 3.3Data analysis
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Structural models for students’ attitudes toward Tibetan language
    • 4.2Differences between communities in students’ attitudes toward the Tibetan language
  • 5.Discussion
    • 5.1Structure of attitudes toward the Tibetan language
    • 5.2Community differences influencing Tibetan language attitudes
    • 5.3Chinese-Tibetan students’ attitudes toward the Tibetan language
  • 6.Conclusions
  • References
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