Case Study of a Yi-Han Bilingual School in Liangshan

Abstract

The Yi-Han bilingual schools in the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture are now under great pressure to enforce the language education policies set down by the education authority, whilst meeting the aspirations of their students and parents. Discrepancies have always been found between the top-down policy and implementation at the local level. In this chapter, School X, a typical Yi-Han bilingual school in Liangshan, is taken as a special case to examine its de facto language policy and the Yi-Han bilingual education carried out at the school level. Curriculum implemented in the school, textbooks and learning resources, testing system, teaching practice and staff, etc. are analyzed to reveal a true picture of the bilingual program in the Yi-Han bilingual school in Liangshan.