Social equity, language policies and ethnic minorities in China

Language policies, if implemented effectively, can enable marginalized groups to fully engage in the social and political life of mainstream society and enjoy educational and economic benefits. Poorly conceived and ineffectively implemented policies, however, could exacerbate their marginalization and deprivation. This presentation identifies four models of trilingual education (including the minority language, Chinese and English) that have been implemented in different ethnic minority regions of China and the implications they have for social equity.