论文总字数：55848字

摘 要

我国“一带一路”将中国与沿线国家的金融、政治、科技、旅游、贸易等紧密联系在一起。语言作为人类最重要的交流工具，在“一带一路”战略推进过程中，将会发挥着无可替代的作用。加强关于“一带一路”沿线语种的外语规划研究，在各领域中培养大量熟悉各目的国语言与文化的人才，为“走出去”提供语言支持、储备语言人才，是“一带一路”建设战略顺利实施的必要基础。

本研究将在语言规划、外语规划理论指导下，收集我国高校2013年至2015年新增外国语言类专业的数据，调查代表性高校的非通用语种课程设置现状，尝试从地位规划、习得规划角度出发，对我国针对“一带一路”建设战略的外语规划现状进行全方位描述，对其中存在的问题根据专家观点进行分析，并试着提出优化方案。

关键词：语言规划；“一带一路”建设战略；地位规划；习得规划

Tables of Contents

Acknowledgements i

English Abstract ii

Chinese Abstract iii

List of Tables v

List of Figures vi

Chapter One Introduction 1

1.1 Background of the Study 1

1.2 Significance and Purpose of the Study 2

1.3 Organization of the Thesis 3

Chapter Two Literature Review 4

2.1 The Belt and One Road Initiative 4

2.1.1 The Definition of the Belt and Road Initiative 4

2.1.2 Cooperation Priorities of the Belt and Road Initiative 5

2.1.3 Demand for Foreign Language Talents 5

2.2 Language Planning 7

2.2.1 The Definition of Language Planning 7

2.2.2 Types of Language Planning 8

2.3 Foreign Language Planning 9

2.3.1 Definition of Foreign Language Planning 9

2.3.2 Types of Foreign Language Planning 9

2.3.2.1 Status planning 9

2.3.2.2 Acquisition planning 10

2.3.3 Related Studies on Foreign Language Planning 10

Chapter Three Methodology 13

3.1 Research Questions 13

3.2 Subjects 13

3.3 Methods 14

3.3.1 Contrastive analysis 14

3.3.2. Case study 15

Chapter Four Results and Discussion 16

4.1 Status Planning of Foreign Languages 16

4.1.1 Status of new foreign languages 16

4.1.2 Status of existing foreign languages 17

4.2 Acquisition Planning 21

4.2.1 Curriculums 22

4.2.2 Dictionaries 24

4.2.3 Grammar textbooks 25

Chapter Five Conclusions 26

5.1 Major findings 26

5.2 Limitations and Suggestions 27

References 29

List of Tables

Table4- 1The total number of colleges and universities setting up majors of foreign language used in the Belt and Road areas from 2013 to 2015 18

Table4- 2The number of colleges and universities offering new non-lingua-franca language majors and The number of foreign languages regarding newly opened majors in 2013, 2014 and 2015 19

Table4- 3The growth rate of enrollment from 2013 to 2015 20

Table4- 4Enrollment of several language majors in 2013, 2014 and 2015 20

Table4- 5Key areas of China’s outward investment 22

Table4- 6Russian-Chinese Dictionaries published from 2007 to 2016 24

List of Figures

Figure4- 1Average growth rate of enrollment in 13 language majors from 2013 to 2015 21

Chapter One Introduction

• 1. Background of the Study

The Vision and Actions on Jointly Building Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road issued by the Chinese government on March 28, 2015 has officially marked the beginning of the overall construction and implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative. The Belt and Road Initiative aims to promote the connectivity of Asian, European and African continents and their adjacent seas, to establish and strengthen partnerships among the countries along the Belt and Road, set up all-dimensional, multi-tiered and composite connectivity networks, and to realize diversified and sustainable development in these countries.

Languages as a means of communication are a bridge of people from different countries and regions understanding each other. In other words, only on the basis of language interoperability, can policy coordination, facilities connectivity, unimpeded trade, financial integration and people-to-people bonds be promoted. Thus languages play an integral part in promoting the connectivity among countries along the Belt and Road. According to statistics, up to 76 foreign languages are involved in 98 countries and nations along the Belt and Road (He amp; Feng 2016). In this regard, language interoperability is the key to the successful implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative. As the cooperation between these countries and China will be greatly strengthened in key areas including finance, science and technology, tourism, trade, infrastructure construction and emerging industries, the growing demand for language talents is emerging and urgent. How to cultivate foreign language talents who can meet the needs of the Initiative becomes a top priority in China now.

As an important guide to the language development, the theory of language planning has been explored for over sixty years. Scholars have endeavored to give a universal definition and classification of language planning by exploring the nature and function of it. Foreign language planning is part of language planning, since a foreign language is a language indigenous to another country and the expression “a foreign language” is used to distinguish itself from the native language. Many Chinese scholars have developed the theory of foreign language planning from the perspective of linguistics and language economics. Besides, scholars have applied foreign language theories into serving the needs generated by the Initiative. Nevertheless, researches on China’s foreign language planning in colleges and universities for the Belt and Road Initiative are rare. From the perspective of foreign language planning, a better understanding of the present situation of fostering foreign language talents in colleges and universities can be developed, which is crucial in accelerating the building of the Belt and Road. Thus a study of China’s foreign language planning for the Belt and Road Initiative is highly necessary for the moment.

• 1. Significance and Purpose of the Study

As noted above, the cultivation of foreign language talents is of great importance to building the Belt and Road, while this cannot do without the indispensible support of China’s foreign language planning. This study aims to carry out a comprehensive study of China’s foreign language planning for the Belt and Road Initiative.

The primary purpose of this study is to review and reflect upon the foreign language planning for the Belt and Road Initiative in colleges and universities in China from 2013 to 2015, by referring to the languages needed in the Belt and Road countries and regions, statistics of new foreign language and literature programs in documents introduced by the Ministry of Education, the information about curriculums, dictionaries and grammar textbooks for the non-lingua-franca languages in colleges and universities.

The study is also designed to probe into the problems in China’s foreign language planning. Suggestions and an optimized plan will be put forward based on the analysis of experts’ views. To be more specific, this study will address the following questions:

1. How is the status planning of foreign languages in China after the year of 2013?
2. How is the acquisition planning of non-lingua-franca languages in China?

The significance of this study is as follows:

1. This study will contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of China’s foreign language planning for the Belt and Road Initiative in colleges and universities since 2013. It can remind educational institutions of the necessity to develop more language talents to meet the demand for language talent pools in implementing the Belt and Road Initiative.
2. The results of this study can be used as a reference for future research-making in China’s foreign language planning and the suggestions in this study will contribute to the improvement of our foreign language education. Hopefully this study could provide some pedagogic implications for the cultivation of foreign language talents.
   1. Organization of the Thesis

This thesis consists of five chapters:

Chapter one presents the background, the significance and the purpose of the study. Following the introduction in chapter one, chapter two gives a detailed description of the Belt and Road Initiative, and reviews the theoretical framework employed in this thesis – language planning and foreign language planning. In chapter three, the outline of methodology, including research questions, subjects and methods, is introduced. Chapter four focuses on the analysis of status planning and acquisition planning in China. In the last chapter, conclusions are drawn, including major findings, limitation of the study and some suggestions.

Chapter Two Literature Review

2.1 The Belt and Road Initiative

2.1.1 The Definition of the Belt and Road Initiative

Chinese President Xi Jinping raised the initiative of jointly building the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road (hereinafter referred to as the Belt and Road) in September and October of 2013 when he visited Central Asia and Southeast Asia, which have attracted great attention throughout the world. The Chinese government has published the Vision and Actions on Jointly Building Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road on May of 2015 to promote the implementation of the Initiative, to instill vigor and vitality into the ancient Silk Road that the diligent and courageous people of Eurasia have explored to connect Asian, European and African countries more closely, and to promote mutually beneficial cooperation to a new high and in new forms. To be more specific, the Silk Road Economic Belt focuses on bringing together China, Central Asia, Russia and Europe (the Baltic); linking China with the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea through Central Asia and West Asia; and connecting China with Southeast Asia, South Asia and the Indian Ocean. The 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road is designed to go from China’s coast to Europe through the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean in one route, and from China’s coast through the South China Sea to the South Pacific in the other. In this regard, the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative can help promote the economic prosperity of the countries along the Belt and Road and regional economic cooperation, strengthen exchanges and mutual learning between different civilizations, and promote world peace and development. Thus it is a great undertaking that will be beneficial to people around the world.

2.1.2 Cooperation Priorities of the Belt and Road Initiative

With the great potential and space for cooperation between countries along the Belt and Road and China, policy coordination, facilities connectivity, unimpeded trade, financial integration and people-to-people bonds as five major goals are proposed to be promoted. Specifically, the cooperation includes intergovernmental cooperation, transport infrastructure construction, energy infrastructure, free trade areas, customs cooperation, investment areas, emerging industries, financial systems, cultural and academic exchanges, tourism, and science and technology. The deepened cooperation between countries along the Belt and Road and China undoubtedly generates enormous demand for language talents.

2.1.3 Demand for Foreign Language Talents

According to Zheng’s amp; Liu’s (2015) survey, China’s outward investment towards 64 countries along the Belt and Road has been amounted to $ 72 billion by 2013, comprising about 11% of the total China’s outward investment. With the Initiative being implemented, China’s outward investment will be increasing greatly in the foreseeable future because of the mutually complementary resource advantages and economics between these countries and China. The win-win cooperation cannot be made without satisfying the demand for language support and a galaxy of talents, including specialized foreign language talents and interdisciplinary talents.

According to Zhao (2015), various language needs can be anticipated in the implementation of the Initiative, among which three of them are addressed:

1. Language demand in cultural fusion. Language interoperability is the foundation for promoting policy coordination, facilities connectivity, unimpeded trade, financial integration and people-to-people bonds, as reflected upon both languages as a means of communication and the role languages play in cultural fusion. Only through effective communication can people from countries along the Belt and Road understand, trust and respect each other, making it possible to enhance people-to-people and cultural exchanges, and mutual learning between different civilizations. Then by strengthening the cultural exchanges and mutual learning among people of different countries, public support can be won for deepening the bilateral and multilateral cooperation.
2. Demand for language talents. Language talents who master the languages in the Belt and Road countries and regions are in great demand. First, specialized language talents are needed. Not only should they be familiar with the cultures, local customs, systems, geography in these countries and regions, they are also competent in cross-cultural communication with an international outlook. Translators, interpreters, language teachers, language technicians and language researchers are all examples. Second, interdisciplinary talents, who are not only experts in one particular field but also adept at the language of working countries and regions, are in great demand as well. Wang Jiexian (Su 2015), the vice principal of Suzhou Universities, points out that for Chinese enterprises going global, they will have trouble in opting for local talents who speak the language and know the culture, since such talents are one in a million and far too rare to satisfy the enormous demand. Thus education should be developed to cultivate talents with professional knowledge and language competence. They will definitely be the backbone of enterprises. This is a typical example of the great demand for language talents.
3. Requirements for language products. Language demand brings about requirements for language products. These include products for learning languages such as textbooks, dictionaries and language-learning software, applications for language learning such as input methods in different languages and multilingual translators, and products for cultural exchanges such as literary works in non-lingua-franca languages, games in foreign languages, and films and television dramas in foreign languages that are suitable for cross-language exchanges.

Sun Lei, Chairman of the Lao-China Chamber of Commerce, emphasizes the significance of talents for the enterprises (Zhao 2015). More than 200 Chinese-funded enterprises have been established in Laos until 2015, leading to the rapidly emerging demand for those who are proficient in the culture and languages both of Laos and of China, and who are specialists in one specific field. He claims that talents are considered the primary productive force for enterprises, whereas the lack of talents is one of the toughest problems over 200 enterprises are facing now.

Therefore, by studying China’s foreign language planning for the Belt and Road Initiative in colleges and universities, hopefully more talents can be cultivated to contribute to the cooperation between countries along the Belt and Road and China and promote the implementation of the Initiative.

2.2 Language Planning

2.2.1 The Definition of Language Planning

The term language planning was firstly introduced by American sociolinguist Haugen (1959). From then on, plenty of scholars have stepped into this field and have made innumerable achievement in developing the theory of language planning. However, the definition of language planning varies from different perspectives. Ruiz (1984) takes an orientation perspective to categorize language planning into three groups: language-as-problems, language-as-right and language-as-resources. Kaplan amp; Baldauf define language planning as “an attempt by someone to modify the linguistic behavior of some community for some reason” (1997: 3). Spolsky takes a management perspective to define language planning as cases of direct efforts to manipulate the language situation by a person or a group (2004: 8). Copper states clearly that there is no single, universally accepted definition of language planning (1989: 29).

In this paper, the author follows the most widely accepted definition of language planning as activities that attempt to bring about changes in function (status), the structure (corpus) and the acquisition of languages or language varieties, using sociolinguistic concepts and information to make policy decisions and to implement them, in order to deal with linguistic or extra-linguistic problems at the national, international or community level (Cooper 1989: 30-31). It is most visibly undertaken by the government (Kaplan amp; Baldauf: 1997). It can also be carried out by agents such as local community groups, language academies, or even individuals who can decide the language use in certain domains.

2.2.2 Types of Language Planning

Status planning and corpus planning are widely accepted types of language planning.

Status planning is a societal undertaking that focuses on the allocation of functions to varieties of language via authoritative policy making. It concerns itself with decisions regarding which language will be assigned for which purposes in a society. Selection and use of official languages are examples of status planning (Haugen 1983: 275).

Corpus planning refers to efforts by linguists over the code itself, prompting changes in the linguistic structure, the script, the lexicon, styles and the like, thus seeking to achieve standardization and elaboration of the terminologies and styles (Fishman 1979).

Cooper adds acquisition planning as a third focus of language planning, defining it as increasing the number of users of a language, through promoting its learning by giving people the opportunity and the incentive to learn it (1989: 33).

Haarmann (1990) advocates prestige planning as well. It is the planning concerning the imagic nature of languages. He holds that there must be positive value in language planning, namely the prestigious language planning activities so as to win the support of language planners and someone who might use one language.

2.3 Foreign Language Planning

2.3.1 Definition of Foreign Language Planning

Foreign language planning theory has been continually prompted and perfected from the traditional researches that focus on language policy and planning to the nowadays prevailing interdisciplinary study between linguistics and language economics. Besides foreign language planning theory is closely related to language planning theory concerning its definition and typological framework, since foreign language planning is part of language planning.

Foreign language planning can vary from one another with different emphasis. Borrowing from the definition of language planning, Mark (2006) defines foreign language planning as the consideration of those aspects of language planning that reflect social, pedagogical and linguistic issues with a particular emphasis on foreign language choice in relation to foreign language learning.

In this study, foreign language planning refers to measures taken by the government, social groups and even an individual to influence the use of foreign languages with respect to their structure, functional allocation and the acquisition of languages, making them more suitable to use (Lu 2005).

2.3.2 Types of Foreign Language Planning

2.3.2.1 Status planning

Foreign language status planning refers to the undertaking of planning the due and appropriate status of foreign languages in the society, of coordinating foreign languages with the native language, and of harmonizing the relationships among foreign languages so as to meet the need of these languages in societal development (Lu 2005). From the definition, the language varieties are a significant part in status planning. As mentioned before, foreign languages are languages indigenous to other countries, thus the standardization and elaboration of the language are undertaken by the country of origin (Zhao 2010). Therefore, the standardization of a foreign language is not taken into consideration in foreign language planning. Nevertheless the selection of a particular foreign language employed through education and mass media should be addressed in foreign language planning, which is linked to the demand of foreign language skills in the society. It is not hard to find that status planning and corpus planning are interdependent, for languages that attain new functions via status planning are unprepared in terms of their corpora to fulfill those functions and need to be modified and elaborated via corpus planning (Nancy 1997). Therefore the selection of foreign languages is closely related to status planning, since the status of a foreign language mainly relies on the requirement of human resources in that people acquire one or more foreign languages.

2.3.2.2 Acquisition planning

Acquisition planning is largely pertinent to the field of education through which people have access to and learn a specific language, since the development of foreign languages in other countries rather than countries of origin mainly depends on education promoted by educational institutions and the like (Zhao 2010). Foreign language acquisition planning is also called language in education planning, which deals with language issues linked to language education in schools. Kaplan amp; Baldauf (1997) regard the materials used in class and the ways to use them as one of the objectives in acquisition planning. To put it another way, the curriculums in the syllabus, dictionaries and grammar textbooks are crucial parts in acquisition planning to achieve educational objectives.

2.3.3 Related Studies on Foreign Language Planning

Scholars and researchers both at home and abroad have been keen on foreign language planning. Early studies of foreign language planning were mostly carried out by scholars abroad and these studies mainly focus on the theoretical framework, including its definition, objectives and classification, while others combine the theory of foreign language theory with many disciplines, such as politics, economics, sociology, anthropology and pedagogy. Another important direction of foreign language planning study is cross-country studies and the comparison of foreign language planning among countries from various perspectives.

Chinese scholars have also shown great interest in exploring and perfecting the theory. Many scholars have contributed to introducing the theory into China combined with China’s situation in language usage. Lu (2005) gave the definition and the application of foreign language planning in different fields. Kang (2010) added more categories by referring to Lu’s theoretical framework to enrich our understanding of the theory.

Meanwhile, with the increasing attention on foreign language planning as a matter that has effect on economics, politics, national defense, many scholars have undertaken to analyze China’s foreign language planning from the perspective of economics and national security. Lu (2005) advocated the significance and necessity of planning foreign languages to strengthen national security. Zhao (2012) introduced language planning from the comparative perspective of linguistics and economics. Shi amp; Shen (2014) provided a new perspective in language education from the perspective of foreign language planning in education --- language economics.

As the Belt and Road Initiative has been into the implementation stage, many scholars have begun to discuss the ways to satisfy the emerging demand for language talents brought about by the Initiative and suggestions are given accordingly. Gao (2014) suggested the critical languages used in countries and regions along the Belt and Road and relevant foreign language education policy which can enhance our national language capability. Wei (2015) also explored the relationship between language interoperability and the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative. With the background of the Belt and Road Initiative, the significance of foreign language planning has been gradually highlighted, and more and more importance has been attached to conducting more studies to help accelerate the Initiative. Nevertheless the study of China’s foreign language planning for the Belt and Road Initiative in colleges and universities since 2013 has not yet been given much thought to. Thus this study intends to trace the China’s foreign language planning in colleges and universities since 2013 within the framework of language planning and foreign language planning.

Chapter Three Methodology

Research Questions

The present study explores the status planning and acquisition planning in China’s foreign language planning throughout colleges and universities newly offering foreign language programs for undergraduate students. Specifically, the following questions are explored:

1. How is the status planning of foreign languages in China after the year of 2013?
2. How is the acquisition planning of non-lingua-franca foreign languages in China?

The first and second question aims to shed light on the status of various foreign languages in China’s foreign language planning by collecting the information concerning the new foreign language programs colleges and universities have offered after the year of 2013, and by collecting the data of these foreign language majors’ enrollment. The third question focuses on revealing the acquisition planning of foreign languages by studying their curriculums, dictionaries and grammar for language learners and other majors.

3.2 Subjects

Colleges and universities offering new foreign language programs were selected by referring to the documents issued by the Ministry of Education. The data of their enrollment in 2013, 2014 and 2015 were obtained on their official enrollment information network.

The curriculums of the foreign languages related to the enrollment were found in the education program of these colleges and universities published on their websites. And the information about dictionaries and grammar textbooks such as Russian-Chinese dictionaries and Russian-Chinese grammar textbooks was collected on some typical shopping websites including JD.com, AMAZON.com, dangdang.com and Taobao.com.

3.3 Methods

3.3.1 Contrastive analysis

By contrasting and analyzing the data about foreign languages, it is clear to comprehend the status planning in China’s foreign language planning. Specifically, four comparisons have been made to better reveal foreign languages’ status in China’s foreign language planning.

First, new foreign languages concerning the implementation of the Initiative introduced to China were figured out to demonstrate the status of these foreign languages by referring to the new foreign language majors available in our educational system since 2013 compared with those foreign language majors already established in China by the year of 2013.

Second, the number of universities newly setting up foreign language majors related to the languages in countries and regions along the Belt and Road from 2013 to 2015 was worked out and compared with each other to reflect their status relatively with the help of the document issued by the Ministry of Education.

Third, the number of colleges and universities offering new majors of non-lingua-franca language used in countries and regions along the Belt and Road and the number of foreign languages regarding newly opened majors in 2013, 2014 and 2015 respectively were compared and analyzed to show the increased attention paid to some foreign languages in the last three years.

Fourth, the growth rate of enrollment from 2013 to 2015 in foreign language majors among colleges and universities involved in this study and the average growth rate of enrollment in 13 language majors from 2013 to 2015 was figured out and analyzed to account for their status.

3.3.2. Case study

To better illustrate the acquisition planning in China in terms of curriculums, dictionaries and grammar textbooks, the Russian major was chosen as a typical foreign language major to represent other foreign languages, for its advantages and disadvantages, which are also common in other language majors, can be pinpointed in this study thoroughly.

Chapter Four Results and Discussion

4.1 Status Planning of Foreign Languages

Status planning of foreign languages can be reflected from two perspectives in this study—the status of new foreign languages in China since 2013, and the relative status of existing foreign languages until 2015.

4.1.1 Status of new foreign languages

According to He amp; Feng (2016), up to 75 kinds of foreign languages have been involved concerning the Belt and Road Initiative of which China attempts to make use so as to achieve the joint development, common prosperity and energy security with the countries and nations along the Belt and Road. However, merely 61 kinds of foreign language majors, due to these languages’ huge popularity abroad, have been set up on the list of foreign language and literature majors among 73 majors altogether. In other words, approximately 14 foreign languages directly connected to the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative have not yet been introduced to Chinese students or been taught in our educational system. Specifically, these languages are Byelorussian, Bosnian, Dari, Tetum, Dhivehi, Khmer, Montenegro, Kirghiz, Comorian, Creole, Kurdish, Moldovan, Tigrinya and Dzongkha. In other words, these languages have no place in China’s educational system, while they deserve more attention and planning in China’s foreign language planning for their crucial impact on the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative.

Fortunately, 11 foreign languages that students have never got opportunity to learn in their choices of majors before the year of 2013 have become language majors in China since 2013, a year when the Belt and Road Initiative has begun to take effect. And nine of them are official languages or commonly used languages in countries and regions along the Belt and Road. To be more specific, these languages include Somali, Turkmen, Armenian, Malagasy, Georgian, Azerbaidzhan, Afrikaans, Macedonian and Tajik. It indicates that more foreign languages have been introduced to students to meet the growing demand for language talents, thus these 9 foreign languages have begun to gain their appropriate status in China.

4.1.2 Status of existing foreign languages

The status of existing foreign languages can be reflected upon comparing the number of colleges and universities newly setting up majors of foreign languages used in countries and regions along the Belt and Road from 2013 to 2015, the number of colleges and universities offering new foreign language majors in 2013, 2014 and 2015 respectively and the number of foreign languages regarding newly opened majors every year from 2013 to 2015, the growth rate of enrollment among various languages from 2013 to 2015, and the average growth rate of enrollment in 13 language majors from 2013 to 2015.

a. The number of colleges and universities newly setting up foreign language majors concerning the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative from 2013 to 2015

From Table 4-1, it is obvious that English major is still the most popular one for colleges and universities to set up, prior to other language majors. Besides, Russian, Spanish, French, Arabic, Thai language, German and Portuguese are embraced by a few schools. It can also be noticed that the education of several languages introduced to China’s educational system for the first time are accessible to merely few colleges and universities. To put it another way, English, Russian, Spanish, French, Arabic, Thai language, German and Portuguese enjoy superior status to Malagasy, Georgian, Azerbaidzhan, Afrikaans, Macedonian, Tajik, despite the vital effect all of them have on promoting the Belt and Road Initiative.

Table4- 1The total number of colleges and universities setting up majors of foreign language used in the Belt and Road areas from 2013 to 2015

b. The number of colleges and universities offering new non-lingua-franca language majors in 2013, 2014 and 2015 respectively and the number of foreign languages regarding newly opened majors every year from 2013-2015

Table 4-2 presents the number of colleges and universities newly setting up majors of non-lingua-franca foreign languages and the number of foreign languages with respect to new majors in 2013, 2014 and 2015. It indicates that more schools are making great efforts to develop foreign language education and non-lingua-franca language majors are given more attention than before, as reflected upon the enormously increased number both of schools and of foreign languages from 2014 to 2015. That is to say, the importance of non-lingua-franca languages has been gradually highlighted by the government and schools with the increasing demand for foreign language talents apart from English majors, to which the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative contributes to a large extent.

Table4- 2The number of colleges and universities offering new non-lingua-franca language majors and The number of foreign languages regarding newly opened majors

in 2013, 2014 and 2015

c. The growth rate of enrollment among various foreign language majors from 2013 to 2015

The growth rate of enrollment about a language major can reflect the change of the number of students majoring in this particular language, which in turn sheds light on the status of the language. The data in Table 4-3 suggest that the majority of foreign language majors in colleges and universities have enlarged their recruitment since 2013, except for several languages including Lao, Vietnamese and French. This elucidates that these foreign languages with enlarged recruitment have continued to received due attention and their status is enhanced in China’s foreign language planning, while the status of Lao, Vietnamese and French is affected by other languages in the last three years.

Besides, several language majors, such as Polski, Czech, Urdu, Malay, Hungarian, recruit every four years or every two years. For one college or university, it is nearly impossible to work out its growth rate of enrollment in the last three years. The following data show the enrollment of these languages. Compared with the language majors mentioned above, their enrollment changes slightly on the whole. Comparatively speaking, Polski, Czech, Urdu, Malay and Hungarian maintain their status in the last three years.

Table4- 3The growth rate of enrollment from 2013 to 2015

Table4- 4Enrollment of several language majors in 2013, 2014 and 2015

d. Average growth rate of enrollment in 13 language majors from 2013 to 2015

A comparison among the average growth rate of enrollment in various language majors indicates the different status for different languages. It can be seen from Figure 4-1 that French, Thai and Russian have a far larger growth rate of enrollment than the rest ones. Besides, Portuguese is the only one language major which has negative growth rate. In other word, French, Thai and Russian maintain their superior status in China for the past three years, while Portuguese is affected by other foreign language majors in terms of enrollment.

Figure4- 1Average growth rate of enrollment in 13 language majors from 2013 to 2015

4.2 Acquisition Planning

There is no denying that the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative requires talent pools in which the cultivation of foreign language talents and interdisciplinary foreign language talents is of great practical significance, for these language talents play an integral part in achieving the connectivity and cooperation between countries primarily in the Belt and Road Initiative areas and China.

Table 4-6 presents key areas of China’s outward investment in the Belt and Road Initiative countries and regions. Not only does the development of these industries bring about a growing demand for foreign language talents, but it also largely depends on these language talents to promote the international competitiveness and upgrade Chinese industries. Namely how to foster qualified language talents to satisfy the need for the development of our country has become a top priority for the government and schools. From the perspective of acquisition planning based on the study of Russian majors, their curriculums, dictionaries and grammar textbooks are taken into consideration to reveal the tendency of language education development in China now.

Table4- 5Key areas of China’s outward investment in the Belt and Road Initiative countries and regions