ABSTRACT:

While bilingual journalism education in China aims at training students to be professionals with the ability of communicating in a foreign language, English, a similar kind of training in Nigeria purposes to train students to be professionals in the media with the ability of using an indigenous language, Yoruba. Acquiring a foreign language to reach a wider audience is not a problem in Nigeria; English is already dominant in the media of the country. The struggle is to ensure the survival of the indigenous language, and to make attractive its learning, especially at the University level. In China, the indigenous languages are dominant; the purpose of the BJE therefore is to reach an international audience. While BJE in China has been in existence for decades, it is just about ten years old in Nigeria. This paper examines the two BJE models in China and Nigeria, and draws out their similarities and differences as well as implications for journalism education.