The Influences Of Minority Nationality Preparatory Students’Learning Attitude On Their English Study

In recent years, many universities and colleges have set up the Minority Nationality Preparatory Department, where the minority nationality students will learn for a year or two before entering the college or university. It will help the minority nationality students to keep pace with the students of Han nationality. During the preparatory years, English is the most difficult subject for the students to learn because for most of them, English is a third language, in addition to their ethnic language as L1and Chinese as L2. Furthermore, the different cultural background underlying the three languages may also set back their English learning. Therefore, it is of profound significance to investigate the minority nationality preparatory students’attitudes towards English learning and then explore the influences of such attitudes on their English learning with an aim to help the students to learn English better.In respect of the teaching and learning of English as L2, previous studies mostly focused on learning strategies and teaching methods. Some of the researchers have been aware of the importance of the learner’s attitude towards English. However, they merely concerned the Chinese learners of English as a whole, not focusing on the minority nationality students, particularly the students in the minority nationality preparatory departments. This thesis will thus attempt to investigate the language attitude of such students in three aspects:cognitive, affective, and conative.The learners’attitudes towards English learning are closely related to a variety of factors, such as nationality, regional diversity, and major differences. This thesis attempts to make an empirical study of the language attitude towards English learning. The subjects of this project include141students from the Minority Nationality Preparatory Department in Southwest University, Yucai College. The data under discussion are collected through a randomly-sampled questionnaire and analyzed statistically by the Excel program with an aim to formulate a multidimensional picture of the students’attitudes towards English learning and then reveal the correlations between their language attitudes and English learning achievements.The study focuses on three questions:(1) What is the minority nationality preparatory students’attitude towards English learning? Or to be more specific, what cognitive, affective, and conative attitudes do the minority nationality preparatory students hold towards English learning?(2) How do the learning styles, nationality diversity, and regional diversity of the minority nationality preparatory students influence their attitude towards English learning?(3) What is the relationship between the minority nationality preparatory students’ language attitudes and their learning achievements? The major findings of this project are as follows:(1) The minority nationality preparatory students tend to have a positive attitude towards English learning;(2) The language attitudes of the minority nationality preparatory students are influenced by a number of factors, including their learning styles, nationality diversity, and regional diversity.(3) The minority nationality preparatory students’attitude towards English has an influence on their achievements in English learning.Based on the findings of the survey, some counter-measures are then suggested for the students and the teachers so as to improve the study of TEFL in minority nationality preparatory departments in Chinese universities and colleges.