Multilingualism and higher education in Greater China

TLDR

Global concerns about declining modern language learning, especially LOTE, contrast with Greater China’s renewed investment in multilingual education through initiatives such as China’s Belt and Road and Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy. The study aims to investigate how Greater China’s multilingual education policies and practices can be sustained by addressing tensions between global English and LOTE, individual identity and context, and instrumental versus translanguaging values. The special issue compiles empirical studies from insiders involved in language policy shifts, offering diverse perspectives on foreign language curricula, learner motivation, and teacher professional development.

Abstract

There have been widespread concerns over the decline of modern languages and waning interest in learning languages other than English (LOTEs) around the world, thought to be partly due to recent political events including Brexit and Trump's aggressive isolationism in the United States. By contrast, governments in Greater China have energetically renewed their investment in promoting LOTE education, driven by globalisation initiatives such as Mainland China's 'Belt and Road' initiative and Taiwan's 'New Southbound Policy'. Thus, it remains pertinent to explore the policies and practices of multilingual education expansion in this region, as the success or failure of the globalisation initiatives may have profound consequences for the prospects of multilingual and multicultural development at universities in the Greater China region and perhaps around the world. This special issue presents empirical studies in which the authors, as insiders engaged in the new wave of language policy shifts, offer diverse perspectives on issues including foreign language curricula, learners' motivational identities and teachers' professional development. We contend that to sustain the increase in multilingual education, the tensions between global English and LOTEs, between individual identity and contextual variation, and between instrumental orientation and translanguaging/transcultural values of language learning need to be addressed.