Language learning and human capital formation in preschool children : evidence from a poverty alleviation project in China = 學前兒童語言學習與人力資本的形成 : 來自中國一個扶貧項目的證據

Abstract

Popularizing the national common language education in the preschool education stage is beneficial to laying a good language exchange foundation for preschool children in minority areas to enter the compulsory education stage, and is an effective way to promote the accumulation of human capital in minority areas. In recent years, with the promotion of the National Language Work Conference and the support of relevant policies on “Preschool children learn Mandarin” (hereinafter referred to as “preschool learning Mandarin”), the national common language education in kindergartens in ethnic minority areas has developed rapidly and achieved remarkable results. Since its implementation in 2018, the “Preschool Learning Mandarin” program has helped children acquire and develop Mandarin in an all-round way at the level of “understanding, speaking, daring and using”. This study is mainly based on the perspective of economics, and uses human capital theory and language economics theory to explore the effectiveness and experience of the “Preschool Learning Mandarin” action, a successful poverty alleviation case in China, to do an overall combing and analysis. This is of great significance to further promote the economic development of ethnic minority areas and provide Chinese experience on the road of poverty alleviation. After three years of long-term research, based on the visual education status quo, awkward education dilemma and a new education action in Liangshan Yi Autonomous City of Sichuan Province as the background and starting point of the research, this study explores the positive role of “preschool learning Mandarin” action in improving the human capital of children and their parents in three dimensions: skills, knowledge and attitude. Based on these analyses, this study puts forward eight hypotheses, that is, children’s lingua franca learning has a positive impact on improving language skills, mastering mainstream cultural knowledge, forming an open attitude towards mainstream culture, improving logic ability and academic performance. At the same time, based on the theory of post-Figurative culture, this study also hypothesized that children’s lingua franca learning would promote their parents’ lingua franca language skills, mastery of mainstream cultural knowledge and openness to mainstream culture. This study uses a variety of research methods, such as questionnaire, interview and observation, to empirically test these six hypotheses. The results show that preschool Mandarin learning program significantly improves children’s language skills and cultural openness, and significantly improve part of mastery of mainstream cultural knowledge (National flag color and Ability to sing Chinese songs) and academic performance (Chinese performance). In addition, the duration of preschool education can significantly positively predict parents’ part of Mandarin proficiency (listening and expression) and mastery of mainstream cultural knowledge. Based on these findings, this study summarized the experience and enlightenment of preschool learning Mandarin in strengthening organizational security, optimizing teacher training, improving teaching security system, strengthening teaching supervision and giving play to the commendation function. These experiences are of great significance for further improving the implementation effect of preschool study popularization program, promoting education development in ethnic minority areas and poverty alleviation work. Although this study has achieved a wealth of research results, there are still some limitations, such as the sample scope and the integrity of data collection need to be improved. Future studies will expand the sample scope and strengthen the exploration of the spillover effects of preschool popular education actions at the social level, in order to more comprehensively assess its long-term impact. In general, this study not only provides strong support for the development of preschool economy and education in ethnic minority areas, but also contributes Chinese wisdom and Chinese solutions to promoting educational equity on a global scale.