Trilingual Education in China’s Korean Communities

Abstract

Korean communities, mostly in the north of China, are usually seen to have a very long and successful tradition of bilingual education in China. This chapter starts with an overview of the history through a detailed account of the policies for bilingualism (usually favourable), research studies, models adopted, and textbooks compiled for Korean schools, particular those in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture. This account continues up to recent years when traditional bilingual education has developed into trilingual or multilingual education. Contextual factors with regard to demography, language vitality and language allocation in the classroom are then presented mostly with statistical data. Findings from case studies conducted in some schools in Korean communities are also reported showing evidence of vastly positive attitudes held by key stakeholders to trilingualism and trilingual education. In this chapter, the authors discuss the concept of double positive transfer and also argue that teaching staff should be trilingual so as to serve as role models.