The Multilingual Lived Experience of Mongol-Chinese in China

This paper explores the multilingual lived experience (MLE) of four Mongol-Chinese individuals. This lived experience is set in the multilingual context of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (IMAR) of China. Compared to the ethnic majority Han people, who are Mandarin (Putonghua) speakers, and who study English as a L2, Inner Mongolian ethnic minority students’ experience is often trilingual, with Mongolian as their L1, Mandarin as their L2, and English as a L3. The study is presented in two analytical stages. First, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) is used to understand the MLE of the Mongol-Chinese participants. IPA shaped the selection of these participants, the semi-structured interview methodology, and the processing and coding of the interview data. The subsequent presentation of the participants’ MLE includes two super-ordinate themes: (a) multilingual experience in school, which appeared to be influenced by externally determined linguistic challenges, and (b) multilingual experience beyond school, which contributed to an ethnic consciousness and a wish to use Mongolian more. Second, post-structuralist theory is used to provide a broader interpretation of the MLE, as well as more general conclusions about the relationship between language and identity in the IMAR and China, with potential relevance also for other multilingual contexts.