Interviews on English Education in Xinjiang

Modern Xinjiang and English learners

ياخشىمۇسىز 你们好

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ThaiTESOL 2020, Bangkok

Presenter: Eric Gondree

Overview:

• Background: Why?
• Xinjiang history to present
• Tensions & Human Rights
• Xinjiang Education

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• Interview Methodology/Participants

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• Interviewee Responses Compared

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• Conclusion/Future Questions/References/Appendix

Background: Why?

• Personal curiosity about the region
• Studied Chinese and Uyghur in Beijing
• Interest in Xinjiang, Chinese history & ethnic minorities

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• “Frontier” province; diverse, rapidly changing society

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• What are experiences of English learners in Xinjiang?
• Chinese minorities socioeconomically trail Han; lack of comparisons in sociology (Wu and Song, 2014; Zang, 2008)

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• Can teachers learn from English learners’ perspectives in Xinjiang? Does the situation in Xinjiang affect English education?

Background: Xinjiang

• Population:
• ≈ 24 million, half+ are Han Chinese (XJTJN, 2018)
• Uyghur, Kazak, Hui, Mongol, other minorities

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• Was majority-Muslim
• Han majority in past decade
• Government development

programs until 1960s

• Major destination for internal

Han migration (Becquelin, 2000;

Howell & Fan, 2011)

• “Settler culture” (Cliff, 2016)

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Background: Xinjiang

• 2019: 70^th anniversary of “Peaceful Liberation of Xinjiang”
• 1955: Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region
• “Autonomy” is nominal (Bovingdon, 2004; Clarke 2008)
• State and military-led urbanization & development: oil, gas, infrastructure (Wiemer, 2004).

Background: Xinjiang

• PRC: Xinjiang is an integral but ethnically distinct part of China (Bovingdon and Tursun, 2004)
• Early PRC: Suspicion of minorities & diminishment of promised CCP minority autonomy (Dillon, 2014; Mullaney, 2011)
• Islam, Pan-Turkism, Soviets, “splittism”(分裂主义), backwardness
• Early Uyghur communists considered too pro-Soviet; Ethnic-based bullying reported in factories in ‘50s (Jacobs, 2016)
• Wang Zhen, first PRC Xinjiang military governor, regarded minorities as “troublemaking” (Cliff, 2016)
• Is Xinjiang an internal colony? (Bovingdon, 2010; Clarke, 2008; Cliff, 2016; Sautman, 2000)

Background: Xinjiang

• Tensions/Human Rights:
• Han migration, economic disparities, discrimination, lack of autonomy (Bovingdon, 2010; Clarke, 2008; Hasmath & Ho, 2015; Wu & Song, 2014)
• Repression as anti-terrorism & crime-control; “7/5 Incident” of 2009 (China 2017/2018, 2018; Cliff, 2016)
• High-tech mass-surveillance, “Re-education centers” and “kindergartens,” (Amnesty International, 2018; Charbonneau, 2019; China: Big data fuels crackdown in minority region, 2018; Ramzy & Buckley, 2019; Sudworth, 2019)
• The “largest mass-internment of an ethnic-religious minority since World War II” (Allen-Ebrahimian, 2019)

Xinjiang Education:

• Education pre-20^th century:
• Madrassas for Muslims, Confucian education for Han; not universal
• Education early 20^th century:
• Turkic merchants returned from abroad; founded secular, western-style schools for science, math and foreign languages
• Influenced by jadidist (reformist; progressive) education of Russian Tatars; pan-Turkist ideology
• Education from 1920s to 1940s:
• Soviet-influenced curriculum & organization

(Millward and Tursun, 2004)

Xinjiang Education:

• Post-1949 Xinjiang:
• 6 yrs primary, 3 yrs lower secondary, 3 yrs upper secondary
• 15 years of free education, 47 universities & colleges
• English education begins in primary school; HS oriented to test-taking; popular private tutoring market (Hao & Otani, 2016)
• Significant gaps between north & south (Gao, 2017)
• Some Han resentment about minority college admissions (Wu & Song, 2014)
• “In practice, “bilingual education” in Xinjiang ... produces a large number of students who are proficient in neither their mother tongues nor in Mandarin…” (Tohti, 2015)

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Sakharov Prize (2019)

Interview Methodology:

• Planned with Interviewing as Qualitative Research (Seidman, 2006)

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• Project goals, interview questions shown beforehand (Appendix 1)

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• Audio-only recordings performed as privately as possible, after getting participant consent.

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• Finding interviewees was difficult
• Hard to find willing participants; one suddenly withdrew
• Access to university campuses restricted; August vacation
• Han interviewee specifically wanted to avoid “political” topics
• Other researchers reported similar difficulties (Cliff, 2016)

Interview Methodology:

• Interviewees chose names they wished to use

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• Followed by listening, transcription and analysis of recordings

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• Responses analyzed and compared

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• Experience from West Bank

interviews in March, 2017

(Gondree, 2017)

Interview �Participants

• Interviews took place in Turpan city in August, 2019.

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• Two former English majors: one Han, one Uyghur
• “Anna” (Han, from Urumqi, daughter of Han settlers from 1960s; interpreter; early 50s)
• “Gulkiz” (Uyghur, from Turpan, hotel worker; late 20s)

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• Studied English in and outside Xinjiang

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• Both use English in current employment; both interact with foreign visitors

Anna:

• I think there are many grammars ... and you have to recite many new words

Gulkiz:

• I think I can speak English and I can describe my think but I think it's not very real sentence. It's a wrong sentence... so I think English grammar is so difficult for me

Q 5: What do you think is the most difficult thing about studying English?

• A: Actually, every day I spend some time reading. In the morning. I think that's very important for me, in my experience, you know.
• E: What?
• A: I read aloud, you know, and try to recite the new words.
• E: Okay.
• A: So in the morning, at least half an hour reading-
• E: Really.
• A: -reading all the things we have learned....
• E: So this is, this is a morning review?
• A: Morning review, yes.
• E: So you learned something the day before?
• A: Yes, that’s right.

Anna: Morning Review

Q 8: Where do you practice speaking English? What is the best way to practice?

• G: I think I am norma- normal type to practice English because I have never ever have- have a foreigner teacher and I never have a foreigner friend, so I think I don't have... hmm, normal environment to practice English.

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Gulkiz: “normal environment”

Q 8: Where do you practice speaking English? What is the best way to practice?

• G: Watching movie
• E: Watching movies?
• G: Yes
• E: Oh, okay. All right. All right-
• G: Best way- I think- I think watching TV is best way to me
• E: Watching TV. Okay, what do you watch?
• G: ...Gossip Girl. Do you heard that?
• E: Gossip Girl?
• G: Yeah
• E: Yes, I've heard of that. Okay.

Gulkiz: Movies & TV

Q 8: Where do you practice speaking English? What is the best way to practice?

Q10: What kinds of problems do you have studying English outside of school?

• A: Practice is very, very important, yeah. But as long as you open your mouth and speak-
• E: Mhm
• A: -you -because some students they- they- you know, they didn't want to- to talk with people. But language is- is important to- to- it's a way for communication so that's very important for you to talk. Then, even though you made a mistake, you are not afraid of talking. This will help a lot, I think.
• E: All right.
• A: Yeah.

Anna: Talking a lot is important

Q10: What kinds of problems do you have studying English outside of school?

• G: You- just you want to spend the time to learn. I think it's the- you can learn it.
• E: Mm.
• G: But, how many time is not so lazy.
• E: How many time is not so lazy. What do you mean?
• G: It's not to study and not to hold on and study ... -
• E: So-
• G: -put it down-
• E: -so studying time. Studying enough-
• G: -always in the time to-
• E: So regular studying.
• G: Yes.

Gulkiz: Finding regular study time

Q11: What kind of help would be good for your study of English?

• A: You know, it's very important that we... listen... listen [to] English radios
• E: Mhm.
• A: Uh, yeah... every morning when we go- when we get up, the first thing is that we turn on the- the recorder-
• E: Mhm.
• A: And then you can have some English-
• E: Mm.
• A: programs for you to listen to.
• E: Mm.
• A: And then you brush your teeth, you wash your face, but at- at the same time you have the English radio over there-
• E: Mhm.
• A: so this- this helps a lot.

Anna: “Try to listen”

Q11: What kind of help would be good for your study of English?

• G: I think, uh, just make a friend and, uh, makes- you make a- environment, language environment, to practice. Practice your English.
• E: Okay. That's a good answer.

Gulkiz: Friends and environment

Q13: Do you think English education is important for people in Xinjiang? Why?

• A: ...still it's important for all the students to study English.
• E: Hm.
• A: I think maybe this will teach them, uh, more abilities. So that although, you know, that when they study English, maybe, uh, it's a kind of ability for them. Yeah.
• E: Hm.
• A: ...it's not really that you can- will use English in your future but, uh, maybe this will teach you a kind of ability to- to study languages.
• E: Hm.
• A: Yeah. So, I think it’s- it’s as important as when you study mathematics-
• E: Hm.
• A: -Chinese. So it's not that maybe you’ll use math- mathematics in future life but, anyway, this will teach you ability…

Anna: “it’s a kind of ability”

Q13: Do you think English education is important for people in Xinjiang? Why?

• G: If you want more language, you can travel and you can speak other people is come from…
• E: Okay.
• G: …and you can know more language and you can know more the world.
• E: Mhm.

Gulkiz: “know more the world”

Off script question: Not a lot of Uyghurs speaking English?

• E: I have a question. So I have been going around Xinjiang for a few days. I haven't met very many, like, Uyghur people who speak English... Right? Why do you think that is?

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• G: 嗯- 可能是没发展吧. (Hm. Possibly it’s not developed.)

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• E: 没发展.是吗? (Not developed. That’s so?)

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Gulkiz: “Possibly it’s not developed”

Conclusion:

• Interviews of two Xinjiang-based former English majors
• Agreement on the need for practice and learner agency
• Ambiguity about significance of English in Xinjiang

Future Questions:

• Questions for further research about English education in Xinjiang:
• What role does English education play in Xinjiang?
• How do learners feel about it?
• Is English relevant to people in Xinjiang? To whom? Why?
• Would it be more or less relevant to Han than to Uyghurs?
• If not, would other foreign languages be considered more relevant and to whom? Which ones? Why?
• Central Asian languages? Russian? Others?
• Is English education “not developed” in Xinjiang? If so, for whom and how?
• Analogous to other inland provinces? Implications for teaching opportunities and teaching materials?

References:

• Allen-Ebrahimian, B. (2019, November 24). Exposed: China's Operating Manuals for Mass Internment and Arrest by Algorithm. International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Retrieved from https://www.icij.org/investigations/china-cables/exposed- chinas-operating-manuals-for-mass-internment-and-arrest-by-algorithm/

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• Amnesty International (2018, September 24). Up to one million detained in China's mass "re- education" drive. Retrieved from https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/09/

china-up-to-one-million-detained/

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• Becquelin, N. (2000). Xinjiang in the nineties. The China Journal, 44, 65−90.

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• Bovingdon, G. (2004). Autonomy in Xinjiang: Han Nationalist Imperatives and Uyghur Discontent, Policy Studies, East-West Center Washington.

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• Bovingdon, G. (2010). The not-so-silent majority: Uyghur resistance to Han rule in Xinjiang. Modern China, 28(1), 39-78.

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• Bovingdon, G. and Tursun, N. (2004). Contested histories. In Starr, S. F. (Ed.). Xinjiang: China’s Muslim Borderland (353-374), Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.

References:

• Charbonneau, L. (2019, October 30). Countries Blast China at UN Over Xinjiang Abuses. Human Rights Watch. Retrieved from https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/10/30/countries-blast-china-un-over-xinjiang- abuses.

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• China 2017/2018. (2018, February 22). Amnesty International. Retrieved June 14, 2018, from https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/asia-and-the-pacific/china/report-china/

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• China: Big data fuels crackdown in minority region. (2018, March 6). Human Rights Watch. Retrieved June 14, 2018, from https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/02/26/china-big- data-fuels-crackdown-minority-region

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• Clarke, M. (2008). China's 'war on terror' in Xinjiang: Human security and the causes of violent Uighur separatism. Terrorism and Political Violence, 20(2), 271-301.

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• Cliff, T. (2016). Oil and water: Being Han in Xinjiang. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.

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• Dillon, M. (2014). Xinjiang and the expansion of Chinese communist power: Kashgar in the early twentieth century. London, Routledge.

References:

• Gao, X. (2017, November 30). Education in Xinjiang. Borgen Magazine. Retrieved from https://www.borgenmagazine.com/education-in-xinjiang/

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• Gondree, E. (2017, November 19). Voices from Palestinian English teachers. Presentation at JALT 2017, 43rd Annual International Conference on Language Teaching and Learning, Tsukuba, Japan.

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• Hasmath, R. and Ho, B. (2015). Job acquisition, retention, and outcomes for ethnic minorities in urban China, Eurasian Geography and Economics, DOI:10.1080/15387216.2015.1049637

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• Hao, J. and Otani, M. (2016). English education in high schools in China: its current status and problems. Shimanedaigaku kyōiku gakubu kiyō. Shimane: Shimanedaigaku kyōiku gakubu, 50, 65-73.

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• Howell, A. and Fan, C. (2011). Migration and inequality in Xinjiang: A survey of Han and Uyghur migrants in Urumqi. Eurasian Geography and Economics 52(1), 119-139.

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• Jacobs, J. M. (2016). Xinjiang and the modern Chinese state. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press.

References:

• Millward, J. and Tursun, N. (2004). Political history and strategies of control, 1884-1978. In Starr, S. F. (Ed.). Xinjiang: China’s Muslim Borderland (63-98), Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.

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• Mullaney, T. (2011). Coming to terms with the nation: Ethnic classification in modern China. Berkley, CA: University of California Press.

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• Ramzy, A., and Buckley, C. (2019, November 16). 'Absolutely No Mercy': Leaked Files Expose How China Organized Mass Detentions of Muslims. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/16/world/asia/china-xinjiang- documents.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes

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• Sakharov Prize: Jailed Uighur academic Ilham Tohti wins award. (2019, October 24). BBC News. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-50166713.

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• Sautman, B. (2000). Is Xinjiang an internal colony? Inner Asia 2(2). p. 239-271.

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• Sudworth, J. (2019, July 04). China Muslims: Xinjiang schools used to separate children from families. BBC News. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china- 48825090

References:

• Tohti, I. (2015, April). Present-Day Ethnic Problems in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region: Overview and Recommendations (2) – Bilingual Education. (C. Carter, Trans.) China Change. Retrieved from https://chinachange.org/2015/04/22/present-day-ethnic- problems-in-xinjiang-uighur-autonomous-region-overviewand-recommendations-2

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• Wiemer, C. (2004). The economy of Xinjiang. In Starr, S. F. (Ed.). Xinjiang: China’s Muslim Borderland (163-189), Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe.

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• Wu, X. and Song, X. (2014). Ethnic stratification amid China’s economic transition: Evidence from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Social Science Research 44(March), 158-172, 2014.

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• XJTJN (2018). Xinjiang tongji nianjian 2018 (Xinjiang Statistical Yearbook 2018). China Statistics Press: Beijing.

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• Zang, X. (2008). Market reforms and Han-Muslim variation in employment in the Chinese state sector. World Development 36(11), 2341-2352.

Thank you for attending

• Questions/Comments?

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• This PPT (without audio) available for download at:

http://eric.gondree.com

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Appendix 1: Question List

• 1. Please tell me your preferred name and where you are from?

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• 2. Can you tell me about your education and work experience?

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• 3. When and why did you start learning English?

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• 4. Where did you study English? Can you tell me about this place?

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• 5. What do you think is the most difficult thing about studying English?

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• 6. What kinds of materials or books did you use in your classes?

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• 7. How much time did you spend on homework for English class each week?

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• 8. Where do you practice speaking English? What do you think is the best way to practice English?

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• 9. Did you enjoy your English classes? Why or why not?

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• 10. What kinds of problems did you have studying English outside of school?

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• 11. What kind of help would be good for your study of English?

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• 12. How do you hope to use English in the future?

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• 13. Do you think English education is important for people in Xinjiang? Why or why not?

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• 14. Tell me about an interesting or an important experience that you had in English? Why was it interesting to you.