Author(s)

Shi Chunhang ¹, Xue Nan ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ School of Ethnology and Sociology, Qinghai Minzu University, Xining, 810007, Qinghai, China

Corresponding Author

Xue Nan

ABSTRACT

Since the mid-17th century, South Africa's universal language policy has roughly gone through three stages: colonial period, apartheid period, and democratic new South Africa period. For over three hundred years, the national lingua franca ecosystem has evolved from English and South African Dutch to the common development of 12 national lingua franca today. The official recognition of multilingualism and the government's attempt to create a diverse and inclusive social environment. However, in practical implementation, many challenges have also been encountered, such as the complexity of language use ecology, problems in policy formulation, and obstacles in policy implementation. In contrast, as a multi-ethnic country, China also faces challenges in promoting the standard spoken and written language. This article analyzes the impact of universal language education policies on strengthening the sense of community of the Chinese nation from a socio-cultural perspective, and explores how to implement effective language education policies in China.

KEYWORDS

Language Policy; Standard spoken and Written Language; Socio-cultural; National identity

CITE THIS PAPER

Shi Chunhang, Xue Nan, The Cultural Identity Dimension of Language Policy: Inspiration from South Africa's Implementation of Standard Spoken and Written Language. Journal of Language Testing & Assessment (2025) Vol. 1: 15-25. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/langta.2025.080103.

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