Language attitudes of secondary school students in Guangdong

Abstract

Cantonese is a southern Chinese dialect, spoken mainly in Guangdong Province. Cantonese is occasionally viewed as a stronghold against the popularisation of Mandarin Chinese, which has been promoted as the national language. However, the language does not enjoy the same legal status as the languages spoken by ethnic minorities, who are allowed to use their languages as the primary teaching language. Meanwhile, officials in Guangdong Province have strongly supported the learning of English in schools. This chapter reports on a study that examined the attitudes and perceptions of the students who were confronted with such a trilingual environment. This study finds that the secondary school students in Guangzhou had favourable attitudes towards the three languages, with Cantonese rated as their preferred language. English came in second for its instrumental value, while respondents displayed mixed emotions towards Mandarin Chinese.