China's Assimilationist Language Policy

10    Chinese—English bilingualeducation in the PRC

Implications for language education forautochthonous ethnic minorities

Guangwei Hu

Introduction

One of the much discussed consequences of globalization is the intensified spread of English as a global language (Crystal, 2003; Rubdy, 2009), especially in what Kachru (1986) refers to as Expanding Circle countries, where English is studied as a foreign language (Guo & Beckett, 2007; McKay & Bokhorst-Heng, 2008). Because of the popular belief that English provides access to knowledge, development, power and well-being, various top-down and bottom-up initiatives have been staged at an increasing pace to expand English instruction and improve the effectiveness of such instruction in the school systems ...