English language is perceived as cultural capital in many non-native English-speaking countries, and minority groups in these social contexts seem to invest in the language to be empowered and reposition themselves from the imbalanced power relation with the dominant group. The study employs interview-based qualitative research method by interviewing nine Kazakh minority students in universities in Xinjiang and other inland cities in China. The findings suggest that through English learning, some students have reconstructed multiple identities as multicultural and global identities, which created ‘a third space' to break limits of their ethnic and national identities and confused identity as someone in between. Meanwhile, most minority students were empowered by English language to resist inferior or marginalized position and reconstruct imagined elite identity. However, English learning disempowered a student who has little previous English education in school, and placed them on unequal footing with other students, which further escalated the educational inequities.
TopIntroduction
Language is used by learners to express themselves and communicate with others. However, at the same time, they negotiate their sense of identity, how they understand their relationships with the world and future possibilities (Norton, 2013). Language learners' relationship with the world reflects how they negotiate power relations in a specific social context. In many social contexts, minority groups seem to have imbalanced power relations within the dominant society (Cummins, 2015). They negotiate these power relations by learning the second or third language and how their sense of identity shifts during these dynamic interactions.
The impact of globalization and internationalization has consolidated the status of the English language as the global language for international communication. Particularly in China, with the increased active participation of China in the international arena, the English language is regarded as a 'passport' not only for individual prospective educational and career opportunities but also for national economic development and modernization (Hu, 2005). In 2001, the Ministry of Education in China issued three policy documents to promote English language education; it is stipulated that schools have started to teach the English language as a subject from primary grade 3 from 2002, and English competence is a requirement for the admission to higher education institutions in China (Chinese Ministry of Education, 2001a). However, contrasting to the mandatory English provision at mainstream schools, the policy document issued in 2002 stating with an implicit tone that “the relationship between the minority language and the Mandarin Chinese should be correctly managed...English should be offered in regions where favourable conditions exist” (State Council, 2002, as cited in Feng & Sunuodula, 2009, p. 687).
Some studies had revealed that limited provision of English education at minority schools in western regions, and challenges encountered by minority students when they entered the universities that they were placed on unequal footing with ethnic Chinese students (Adamson & Xia, 2011; Guo & Gu, 2016). It also reflects the unbalanced power relations between the dominant ethnic Chinese and minority groups within the social context. Some studies carried out in international contexts found that minority students are highly motivated to acquire the English language to resist the unbalanced power to reposition themselves and negotiate their sense of identity (Darvin & Norton, 2016; Despagne, 2015; Groff, Pilote, & Vieux-Fort, 2016; M. Gu & Patkin, 2013).