Study on Uyghur University Students’ Language AttitudesApplying the MatchedGuise Technique.doc

Study on Uyghur University Students Language Attitudes by Applying the Matched-Guise Technique Contents 1 Introduction . 1.1 Purpose of this study. 1.2 Significance of this study . 2 Theoretical Base and Literature Review . 2.1 Matched-Guise Technique . 2.2 Theoretical foundation . 2.3 Review of the Previous Studies . 3 Methodology . 3.1 Research questions . 3.2 Participants . 3.3 lnstruments . 4 Results and Discussion . 4.1 Results on language attitudes . 4.2 Summary . 5 Conclusion . 5.1 Major findings . 5.2 Implication . 5.3 Limitations and suggestions . References . Appendix. Acknowledgements. 论文的中文标题 摘要语言态度是社会心理的反映是人们对某种语言或方言的语言变体的感觉及评价。语言态度研究对语言规划的理论探索和语言方针政策的制定有重要意义还可为教育提供参考信息。但目前对新疆维吾尔少数民族语言态度的研究和调查还较少。 本研究旨在研究维吾尔族民考民大学生对维语、汉语和英语的态度本研究以前人的语言态度理论为理论框架采用了变语配对法。乌鲁木齐市高校的236名维吾尔族民考民大学生参加了变语配对测试。在变语配对测试中采用了变语配对技巧和语义微分量表受试者在听完录音后在一个7级语义微分评价量表中对说话者进行评价。受试者打的分数越高说明对该变语的评价越好。 结果表明维吾尔族民考民大学生对维语、汉语和英语都持有肯定和积极的态度。他们对维语的评价要高于汉语和英语这体现了他们对母语的浓厚和坚定的感情。他们重视汉语和英语主要是从它们的实用型和工具型价值出发的。在他们的自我能力评价中他们认为他们的维语能力最高其次是汉语英语最差。望此研究在新疆这个多语地区对制定正确切实可行的语言规划和教学规划有一定的参考价值。 关键词 维吾尔族大学生语言态度变语配对 Study on Uyghur University Students Language Attitudes by Applying the Matched-Guise TechniqueAbstract Language attitude reflects the social psychology. It reveals much of peoples perception and evaluation to the language dialect varieties. Researches on language attitude have profound significance not only in the theory of language planning and implementation of language policy but also in providing useful instruction for education. But few researches were conducted on language attitudes of Xinjiang students. The main purpose of this research is to examine the attitudes of university students towards Chinese and English. The theoretical framework is based on language attitude theories. A total of 236 undergraduate students in Urumqi was involved in this research. Research data were collected by matched-guise technique. After listening to recordings the students were asked to rate each guised speaker on eight personality traits in a seven-point scale. The higher the students score the more favorable they evaluated on the guise. This study finds that university students hold favorable and positive attitudes towards Chinese and English. They hold a strong and firm affection for their mother tongue. They regard the learning of Chinese and English more for their pragmatic and functional value. The study concludes with a number of recommendations for improving Chinese and English language teaching. Key words: University Students Language Attitude Matched-Guise Technique Questionnaire Appendix 1 Introduction 1.1 Purpose of this study The purpose of this study is to examine Uyghur university students attitudes towards Uyghur Chinese and English. It is designed to find out that whether there are differences between the attitudes of the students toward Uyghur Chinese and English Language attitudes are the main factors that influence language learning. Language attitudes are indicators that affect language policy and language learning. Learners positive attitudes may lead to increased motivation. So the research on students attitudes towards Uyghur Chinese and English may give some insight into the development of their Chinese as second language and English-as-a-foreign-language teaching and learning. 1.2 Significance of this study Researches on language attitude have significance not only in the theory of language planning and implementation of language policy but also in providing useful instruction for education. Language attitudes reflect the social psychology of the learners. Language attitudes have received a great deal of attention in fact language attitudes as a research topic have been the major focus in many recent socio-linguistic studies. So there is no argument that language attitude as a research topic has been one of the major focuses in many recent sociolinguistics studies. However concerning about peoples language attitude most of the researches focused on their bilingual attitudes and few researches focus on their attitudes towards the two languages their second language Chinese and their third and foreign language English in the present social context. They hold a strong and firm affection for their mother tongue. They regard the learning of Chinese and English more for their pragmatic and functional value. China is a country with diverse ethnic groups. Bilingualism and multilingualism are not uncommon. Minority people mainly live in Xinjiang autonomous region which lies in the northwest part of our country. It has the largest population among other ethnic minorities there. With the promotion of bilingual education and the openness to the outside world peoples attitude towards Chinese and English keep changing. The attitudes of people towards Chinese and Appendix English are worth exploring. This study on language attitudes will take the university students in Urumqi as its participants. It aims to examine university students attitudes towards Chinese and English so as to interpret the link of students language attitudes to their values and beliefs emotional reactions and their tendency to choose to study a particular language. It is hoped that findings of this study will ultimately throw light upon the issue foreign language learning in this multicultural area. 2. Theoretical Base and Literature Review 2.1 Matched-Guise Technique The methods used in past studies for measuring language attitudes can be broadly classified into three groups: content analysis of societal treatment direct measurement and indirect measurement. Each inevitably has its own strengths and weaknesses. One of the best illustrations of the type of approach of content analysis is Fishmans language loyalty in the United States in which trends in the maintenance and shift of ethnic languages are examined in terms of detailed analyses of laws/policies regarding language use the numbers of language users and the proportions of language use in various domains Fishman 1966 1. 注释格式改动了 . The direct method requires respondents to respond to a questionnaire or interview questions that simply ask their opinion about certain languages speakers of a particular language or a language-planning program. When indirect methods are used the respondents are not aware that their language attitudes are being investigated. The most frequently used indirect method in investigating language attitude is the “matched-guise technique” developed by Wallace Lambert 1967. The procedure of matched-guise technique was summarized by Fasold 1984. A number of bilingual speakers who are fluent in the two languages under investigation are asked to read exactly the same passage in different languages. The reading is tape-recorded and the passage is arranged in such a way that each passage seems to be read by a different individual. Bilingual listeners are asked to judge the recordings on the basis of voice cues alone and rate the speakers on various characteristics such as Appendix intelligence social class and likeability. Since each person has provided samples of the two languages if the same person is rated differently in different “guises” one can possibly conclude that it is the different attitudes towards languages that account for it. In Lamberts 1966 original matched-guise study his subjects produced more positive social ratings for reading with standard pronunciation or upper class speech than for readings with lower class or ethnic varieties. Lambert 1967 conducted a series of such experiments in North America. The results led him to conclude that the stereotyped impressions that members of an ethno linguistic group held for another group could be revealed by speech cues alone. According to Lambert people unconsciously translate their social attitude towards languages language varieties into differential judgments of a speakers personality or status. This technique appears to reveal more valid reactions than direct questionnaires do. The rating scale most often used with the matched-guise technique is a semantic differential scale. In these scales the opposite extremes of a trait friendly vs. unfriendly intelligent vs. unintelligent are designated at either end and there are a number of blank spaces between them. If the listener feels the sound on the tape is extremely unfriendly s/he would place a mark on the line closest to the word “unfriendly”. 2.2 Theoretical Foundation According to Gardner amp Lambert 1972 “instrumental orientation” refers to a positive inclination towards a language for pragmatic reasons such as obtaining a job or higher education opportunity and “integrative orientation” refers to a favorable inclination towards a language in order to become a valued member of a given community. “Integrativeness” thus implies not only an interest in a language but also an open attitude towards another cultural group in the extreme it suggests emotional identification with the community of the target language Gardner 2001. Although such a sociocultural model is often criticized as being too simplistic to explain L2 learning motivation Dorney 2001 it offers a macro perspective that allows researchers to characterize the perceptions of a community as a whole. When Gardner amp Lambert 1972 first proposed the notion of integrative and instrumental orientation the main focus of discussion was about motivation to second language learning. However when the theory is applied to the research on language Appendix attitudes in this study the attitudes object is no longer the learning of an L2 but the target language itself and its community. Through an exploration of the integrative orientation of the university students this study therefore aims at finding out how much the respondents favor a language because of their emotional identification with the language and the language group. Similarly their instrumental orientation will reveal how much they favor a language because of its instrumental value and social status. 2.3 Review of the Previous Study 2.3.1 Previous studies in western countries In 1955 Whitman Obwen chose the black peoples speech in the black community as research subject. He allowed people outside this community to listen to these speeches and make evaluations of the speakers status. This is an earlier research using psychological experiment method. But this study has little influence because the choosing of the speaker is not systematic the 39 subjects were born in different places and there was not a judging criterion. Preston 1963 carried out a study by using Matched Guise Technique. The subjects are 80 English-Canadians and 92 French-Canadians freshmen in Montreal University. The result indicates that EC hearers usually evaluate highly of the female FC and male EC especially male EC evaluate highly of female FC. However female EC generally think female FC more proficient. Both female and male EC think male FC lack perfect personality. Giles 1970 investigates attitudes of British secondary school children towards a variety of accents including the non-regional RP Received Pronunciation Irish West Indian and German. In the dimension of social status RP is rated most favorably regional accents are in the middle scale and urban accents are at or near the bottom of the scale. These results reveal that there is a tripartite accent prestige hierarchy in Britain. At the top is RP then come various regional accents and the accents associated with heavily urbanized areas are at the lowest end. Colin Baker 1992 in Attitude and Language reviewed some theoretical issues of language attitude and investigated some substantive issues. The book includes the following contents: 1 illustrations of the nature of attitudes particularly to problems in specifying what an Appendix attitude is. 2 consideration of the attitudes towards language especially minority languages. He comments that previous theory and research on language attitudes have concentrated on attitude to individual languages e.g. attitude towards French in Canada and attitude towards Welsh. In contrast attitude to bilingualism tended to be ignored. Studies on attitude to a minority language sometimes implicitly assume they are concerned with bilingualism. He illustrates a holistic integrated harmonic view of bilingualism as opposed to a fractional separatist decomposed approach. Within this framework attitude to bilingualism becomes different and distinct from attitude to a language. 3 highlighting a crucial issue on language policy and planning. Where languages are in danger of decline or extinction or when cultures and languages are overtly being conserved by for example educational policies changing attitudes is often prominently on the agenda. It is usually accepted that whatever the language policy planning or provision the favorability or unfavorability of attitudes in the population fundamentally affects the success or otherwise of language preservation. Thus changing attitudes is often a major part of the formal or hi