Effect Of Familial Factors On The Learner's Achievement Of English Language Learning In Chinese Context

This paper reports an exploratory study on the effect of the learner's familial factors on his English learning achievement in Chinese context.The present study examines 922 freshmen of 2003, with the answers of 877 entering the final statistical analysis, from the same university through a questionnaire survey. Results from the data analysis bring out the findings as follows:Familial factors do have some effect on the learner's ELA.21 variables in family are found to account for the variances in the learner's ELA: geographical location of the family, economic state of the family, number of children and birth order in the siblings of the learner, rule of daily life in the family, the father's and the mother's final education, their experience in learning English, their regular occupation, their interest in western culture, their concern for the learner's English learning, their attitude toward great ELA, their expectation for the learner's ELA, and their mode of family education.Both the father and the mother have effect on the learner's ELA. More subjective factors of the father (i.e. father's interest in western culture, attitude toward great ELA, expectation for the learner's ELA and mode of family education) influence the learner's ELA than that of the mother, and likewise, more objective factors of the mother (i.e. mother's final education, experience in learning foreign language(s), regular occupation) show stronger predictive power than that of the father.Five variables in order are identified as powerful predictors of the learner's ELA: father's expectation for learner's ELA, geographical location of the family, mother's final education, birth order of the learner in siblings and father's mode of family education.The variable of familial factors is only one of the factors affecting learner's ELA. Learner's ELA is the outcome of mutual effect by familial factors and those other variables.Based on the findings, this thesis suggests that not only researchers but also teachers, parents and learners pay enough attention to the effect of familial factors on learner's English learning achievement, that strong cooperation between family and school is badly needed for the improvement of English teaching and learning, and that language teaching and learning at college/university could perhaps achieve greater efficiency with reference to familial factors in the higher education enrolment.