背景

SIL东乡语研究员金瑞卿不仅提议为东乡族设制书写文字，并且帮助一些学者出版了一本《东乡语汉语词典》。其中有两位东乡族的官员因此开始对双语教学产生了兴趣，他们十分关心东乡人民教育水平低下的问题。因为根据统计, 在全国56个民族中，东乡族的教育情况总是处于最落后的地位。金瑞卿提出了 “推展母语、双语教学将对教育带来全面成功”的理念，这对当地的双语教学起了催化的作用。在美国教授 Jerry Postiglione的协助下,福特基金会为开展这个双语教学试点项目资助了5万美元；另外一位临夏地区的东乡族官员也为这个双语教学项目提供了一些设施和资金（大约2000美元），向来出钱出力的SIL反而不用在金钱上支助这个项目。

这个项目的最初计划预定为3年（2001-2004），后来延长至四年，并已在2005年6月结束。此项目的目的是为孩子们提供了一个通过或借助母语教育的机会，来成功地掌握学习汉语 的方法。虽然东乡县政府在项目中充当了主要角色，但此项目并未成为政府开展的正式活动。金瑞卿是这个双语项目的主要领导, 其他领导委员会包括县政府官员和地区政府官员，他们的目标是要使双语教学成为一个完全由政府拥有并执行的项目。此项目有三名教师从事编写教材和培训其他教师的工作。

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Background

After SIL member Stephen Kim proposed an orthography for the Dongxiang people and helped scholars to publish a Dongxiang/Han dictionary, two of the Dongxiang ethnic leaders became interested in bilingual education. They were concerned about the poor education level of the Dongxiang people because they have always statistically done poorest in education among the 56 people groups in the country. Stephen served as a catalyst, putting forth the idea of bilingual and mother tongue education for the success of overall education in the long run. One young, capable, high government official, came across Jerry Postiglione, an American Professor in Hong Kong, who contacted the Ford Foundation to start an experimental bilingual education project. The Ford Foundation provided a total of 50,000 US Dollars. One of the Dongxiang officials from the Linxia Prefecture also provided some equipment and funding (approximately 2,000 USD) for the BE project. SIL has provided no funding for this project.

The initial project proposal was three years (2001-2004), which later extended to four years and ended in June 2005. The purpose of this project is to provide the children tools to succeed in Chinese language learning at school through or aided by the mother tongue education. The Dongxiang county government plays a major part in this project, but it is not an official government activity yet. A leaders committee for the BE project has been formed, composed of about 7 people, including County government officials, Prefecture government officials and Stephen Kim. Stephen has been the main leader of the BE Project Office, although every member of the leader's committee voices their opinion with regard to important decisions. Their aim is to make this a fully government-owned and run project. Currently there are three teachers working on writing, editing materials, and training other teachers.

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