Recent linguistic landscape (LL) research has witnessed a change in focus to untypical, peripheral and fluid signs. Compared to typical (or permanent, fixed, etc.) signs which tend to be subject to strong policy intervention, language use on untypical signs is often more autonomous, thus could better reflect the "de facto" language…

The qualitative research method is used in this study to investigate ways to transmit Yugu folk song knowledge in Sunan County, Gansu Province, China. The area was selected in Sunan County, Gansu Province, China. The fieldwork method is mainly used for collecting data, together with the information from the document. The study results are as…

Multilingual learners confront challenges not only in mastering new languages but also in forming new identities. Guided by the investment model, we traced the learning of Chinese and English of two Uyghur women who attended a coastal Chinese university and investigated how they navigated the Chinese mainstream education system to university…

To reclaim Indigenous epistemologies and Indigenous ways of producing knowledge (e.g., Shahjahan, 2005b; Smith, 2013), I use a series of vignettes, short biographical reflections, photographic narratives, poetry, journal entries, and memoir to explore what curriculum as embodied lived experiences (e.g., Au et al., 2016; Gonzales, 2015; He, 2003)…

Recent developments in multilingualism and multilingual education in minority-dominated regions in China highlight the importance of policy studies to support the national goals of achieving multilingualism [Feng, A. W., and B. Adamson, eds. 2015. "Trilingualism in Education in China: Models and Challenges." Dordrecht: Springer],…

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2011 and 2018, this article examines how Uyghurs, a Turkic-speaking ethnic minority in China, found ways to excel in English language learning despite efforts by the national education system to focus their training in Chinese, the language of the colonizer. It argues that the alienation that…

Creativity is often explored from a Western-dominant perspective. This means that cultures that do not follow dominant culture or Western principles, such as non-Western or minority ethnic cultures, are often misjudged in creativity research and assessment. Additionally, scholarship that does address Asian creativity does so in a way that presents…

Xinjiang has witnessed constant state attempts to reinforce the status of Mandarin Chinese as 'the Common Language' and to make local Turkic languages -- mainly Uyghur and Kazak -- more 'suitable' to the modern world. Official efforts to transform the linguistic landscape of Xinjiang have engaged in a complex interplay with Turkic speakers' own…

Purpose: The primary purpose of this study was to explore the audiovisual speech perception strategies.80.23.47 adopted by normal-hearing and deaf people in processing familiar and unfamiliar languages. Our primary hypothesis was that they would adopt different perception strategies due to different sensory experiences at an early age, limitations…

This paper examines the translanguaging practice of two EFL teachers in a Xinjiang university, where English and Mandarin Chinese are predominant but Uyghur is minoritised as a medium of instruction. We focus on data in which the teachers translanguage across all three languages and make a case for the conception of pedagogical translanguaging…

This study adopted a social network perspective to explore the academic discourse socialization experiences of eight degree-seeking multilingual international students at a university in eastern China. Based on a triangulation of ethnographic interviews, social network questionnaires, and supplementary sources (e.g., voluntarily submitted…

The medium of instruction (MoI) is regulated in the bilingual education of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in two ways. One requires most school subjects to be taught through Mandarin, whereas the other demands that all subjects be delivered with Mandarin as the MoI. A field trip to the capital city, Urumqi, was conducted in 2017 to investigate…

The 200th year since Jullien published his influential book "Esquisse et vues preliminaries d'un ouvrage sur l'éducation comparée" (Preliminary plan and views of a work of comparative education) is an opportunity to reflect on the field of comparative education and potential new research and theoretical directions. This paper will…

There is a trend towards the shift of the Uyghur language as the language of instruction in schools in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China. This article presents several examples of such a shift first and then it reviews the concept of language rights (LR) and applies them to the current situation of the Uyghur language in education…

One of the most controversial policies in minority education concerns the so-called inland ethnic minority schools or classes in Han-inhabited areas in China. From 2000 onward, the boarding Xinjiang Classes have been established in the eastern cities of China for high school students from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region to educate young…