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Bilingual Education System in China Essay

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It is generally claimed in today’s world that bilingual education is becoming one of the most significant issues in the sphere of global education. In comparison with the status of bilingual education (BE) in China, a great deal more is known about its development in countries of Europe and North America (Feng 2007, vii). However, BE in China has a lot of varieties determined with the educational context of students and the diversity of languages spoken in regions. But what is bilingual education in the context of China of 21st century?
The established model of BE in China, called “language maintenance” or “heritage language” bilingual education, represents the using of mother tongue by language minority students as a main language of …show more content…

And this trend is observed in different academic institutions and is able to improve the entire Chinese education system (Feng, 2007, ii).
When we consider personal advantages of Chinese-English BE in the PRC, one of the most influential ones is English proficiency which implies communicatory, occupation and cultural benefits for bilingual students in the future. For example, it is acknowledged that English language has become the essential instrument of assimilation of foreign technologies since the announcement of “open door” policy in the country. Thus, in terms of getting a job in the industrial sphere at the state level it would be obviously beneficial for bilingual employers in comparison with monolingual candidates, who are competent to perform their duties only in native language medium (Xiong, 2009, 35-36). Furthermore, Xiong (2009, 35) states that there is a direct relationship between educational background and earning capability of individual. To clarify, he gives an example of the survey carried out in Swiss labour market, which indicated a substantial direct correlation between English language proficiency and the average amount of revenue. Therefore, it means that English speaking workers who acquired bilingual education are more expected to get a high-paid job. In other words, it is a “passport

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