Cálculo de observables

The data collected from the students including both Han and minority students as a whole show that they perceive that they were treated equally in university (78%) and the minority language and culture had been paid much attention to within the university (74.3%). However, it is noticed that Han and minority students held different attitudes towards it. Among those students, most of the Han students believed that enough attention was paid to the minority language and culture (92%) and both Han and minority students were treated equally (93.1%). On the contrary, compared to the Han students, 47.6% of the minority students thought that their language and culture was not paid enough attention on and 40.5% of the students stated they were not treated equally to Han students. The reasons listed included that they have different curriculum, different textbooks compared to Han students, and all the textbooks were in Mandarin Chinese, no minority language. The minority students didn’t have any modules related to the minority language history or culture, but Han students did have, such as Daxue Yuwen, which gave the chance for appreciating the history and culture related to Han language. They had to take one extra year for pre-sessional courses on Mandarin Chinese, but the Han students didn’t need to. They also claimed that the Min kao Min minority students who are not English majors didn’t have English module in TTU since 2012, but all the Han students did have, etc..

Although the minority students listed some differences comparing to Han students during the language study in university, it is still acknowledged in the interviews that some of the measures above were chosen because of no options according to the current situation. One of the female minority students (MS-1) showed her understanding in the interview:

“Because most of the minority students came from Southern Xinjiang, they didn’t know

how to speak English before they enter the university. However, most of the Han students have learned English for a long time. We have totally different levels of English proficiency. Thus, the leaders in TTU and the teachers have no choice but let us use different textbooks comparing to Han students. We want to have the same curriculum and textbooks as the Han students, but according to our level, it is not good for us, so we have no choice”.

For Mandarin Chinese, although the minority students were experiencing difficulties and

pressure in learning and using it, 79.8% of the minority students were interested in learning Mandarin Chinese and 85.7% of them thought that learning Mandarin Chinese will be helpful. The main reasons according to data obtained from the interviews are as following: Mandarin Chinese is the national language; it is the language for teaching and learning, most of the exams were required to be completed in Mandarin Chinese; it is the language for social media and most of the public domain; 85.7% of the minority students thought that it would be

helpful for future jobs in both job hunting and working with Han people in the job. For Han students, as Mandarin Chinese is their mother tongue, they had no pressure of being it as a subject, 72.1% of them did think it is the most important language for both Han and minority students. It was because of two main reasons according to their thoughts: one reason was being a Chinese citizen, they must have the capability of speaking Mandarin Chinese; the other reason was Mandarin Chinese is useful in social and daily life. Two of the Han students mentioned in the interview that letting all the Xinjiangese including all the minority groups acquiring Mandarin Chinese would be helpful for the regional and national unity and stability.

For minority language, most of the Han students believed it was necessary for them to learn

minority language (64%) and the minority language might be helpful for them in future life and work (60.9%). Meanwhile, a significant amount of Han students showed their uncertainty on whether they should learn it or not (27.6%) and they were not sure if they would benefit from learning the minority language or not (25.3%). However, the perception held by minority students towards minority language is different from those by Han students. For minority students, they showed their strong sense of identity towards it as showed in previous interview description. In the questionnaire survey, 90.5% of them thought that acquiring their own language is a must for being a member of a minority group (see Figure 4.5.1). Meanwhile, after they have mastered their mother tongue, they still had open minds towards learning other languages, such as learning Mandarin Chinese and English (85.7%).

Figure 4.5.1 Acquiring their own language is a must for being a member of a minority group

During the interview, a female minority student (MS-1) stated that: “there are some minority

students who cannot speak our own language around me, because they were in Han schools since they were in Kindergarten. I have no prejudice on those minority students, but I know

0 20 40 60 80 Strongly disagree

Disagree Not sure Agree Strongly agree

4 _{2 2 2}

there are some fellows who do have prejudice on those classmates”. Those minority students

who were educated through Mandarin Chinese with Han students in Han schools are what we called Min kao Han minority students. One male minority students (MS-13) expressed his dissatisfaction openly in the interview. He said: “I really don’t like the minority students who

cannot speak Uyghur which is our mother tongue. To be a Uyghur people, they should be ashamed if they cannot speak their own language, I feel terribly sorry for them and they should not be identified as a real Uyghur as well. I feel distant between them and I don’t want to stay or talk more with those kind of students”. It can be concluded that the minority

language has multiple meanings for minority students, the function aspect of the language in communication is important. More essential, keeping using the minority language is the way for them to show their identity, according to students’ statements in the interviews.

For English, both Han and minority students showed their great interest in learning it

(74.4%). However, despite the majority of them who stated English would be useful for their future career (71.2%), one fifth of the students didn’t express clear vision towards English in terms of its usefulness to their future (20.9%). Another point that needs to be identified is that female and male students showed their different attitudes towards English during the interviews. One male student (HS-3) presented that:

“There are 4 male students in my class, and three of us can’t understand the lectures

related to English. And because our English is extremely poor, we need our deskmates to translate the teaching content for us. Gradually, we have no interest in English at all and give up learning it. I know the other male students in my class have the similar situation as me, although one among us has a little bit higher level of English than we three. To be honest, I didn’t choose to learn it as our major and was reallocated into this major without notification in advance”.

Towards language teacher training in TTU, 63.3% of both Han and minority students rated

that minority language course and courses that are related to minority culture should be promoted in university (see Figure 4.5.2).

Figure 4.5.2 Han and minority students’ view on whether minority language should be promoted in university Strongly disagree 6% Disagree 14% Not sure 17% Agree 35% Strongly agree 28%

71.1% of the minority students expressed their strong wishes to have Uyghur language and related modules (see Figure 4.5.3). Both Han and minority students were willing to be a trilingual teacher or an English teacher in XUAR after their graduation (76.3%).

Figure 4.5.3 Minority students’ response to whether they want to learn minority language history and culture

Strongly Disagree 5% _Disagree 10% Not sure 8% Agree 29% Strongly Agree 42% Missing 6%

However, some of the students showed their concerns about if they could be a qualified trilingual teacher or not (26.8%) because of their lack of proficiency of English. This situation was more significant among the minority students than the Han students (34.6%). One of the female minority students (MS-2) expressed her feeling as following: “I didn’t

learn English before I entered this university. It is not because I have no interest in learning English. When I was in my primary school, we felt lucky to have Mandarin Chinese teachers, because not all of the schools had in that area. I still remember that teacher could speak a

little English, she taught us several sentences, we were so happy about it. Thus, learning English was impossible for us. So, I even didn’t dare to think about it, too luxury for me at that moment. But I did enjoy learning English in university now. I taught the kids in my hometown during my vacations, they were eager to learn it and learned it in a serious way. I do want to be an English teacher in future, but I am not sure if I could be good enough to teach them”.