A Study On The Impact Of Cultural Capital On University Freshmen’s English Learning Achievement

The study of second language acquisition (SLA) has always been seeking answers to differential learning achievement of individual learners. Mainstream twentieth-century linguistics and applied linguistics have operated from predominantly scientific, cognitively-oriented model of language learning until the "social turn" in SLA theory. Still limited attention has been given to the relationship between learners’social-cultural context and English learning achievement. Therefore, the present study argues for taking a socially-oriented perspective to investigate learner’s differential learning achievement, with reference to Bourdieu’s theories in the sociology of education, i.e., the cultural capital conception.155freshman year English majors under the government-subsidized normal education policy were involved in the present study. A mixed method approach was employed which drew on both quantitative and qualitative data. Questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were two major data collection methods.The study showed that in the accumulation of cultural capital, family and school were two major incubators. Family involvement in students’learning habits and activities, coupled with students’school experience were proven major sources of cultural capital. Students with high level of cultural capital were then at a better position in getting desirable achievement as cultural capital gave significant boost to students’English learning. Habitus, i.e. a set of attitudes and disposition was believed to function as a mediator in cultural capital’s impact on students’English learning achievements.The findings have important implications in teaching English under the government-funded normal education context. For L2teachers and educators, there’s a necessity to improve and upgrade their pedagogical practice with more cultural-related content in order to fill the gap of familial cultural investment. Fostering proactive learner’s habitus through building up self-esteem and improving their school value will also benefit English learning. For policy makers of the government-subsidized normal education programme, the study called for an urgent need to understand students’ concern and anxiety for better implementation.