Multilingual transitions and language attitudes: cultural security and language capital among Chinese ethnic minority students

This study examines language attitudes among Chinese ethnic minority students during multilingual transitions in higher education. Drawing on Baker's [(1992). Attitudes and language. Multilingual matters], Spolsky's [(2004). Language policy. Cambridge University Press], cultural security [Gao (2012). Imagined identity of ethnic Koreans and its implication for bilingual education in China. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 15(3), 343–353], and language capital [Bourdieu (1991). Language and symbolic power. Polity Press], it explores how heritage language maintenance concerns and strategic linguistic investment shape attitude formation. China's preparatory education for ethnic minorities offers a unique context for studying how students develop orientations toward Putonghua while negotiating identity concerns. Using Q methodology with 46 preparatory students, the study identifies four attitude patterns: Active Putonghua Learners, Pragmatic Language Users, Balanced Bilingual Supporters, and Practical Policy Supporters. Cultural security is operationalised through perceptions of identity threat and heritage validation; language capital through strategic investment in linguistic resources. Findings reveal that language attitudes emerge from complex interactions among policy environments, family language practices, and individual agency, mediated by cultural security and capital conversion strategies. This study bridges macro-level policy environments and micro-level individual agency, with implications for equitable multilingual education policy and practice.