A Study On Correlation Between Uyghur College English Major’s Psychological Distance And Their Motivation For English Learning

In China’s Xinjiang minority district, English teaching for Uyghur students is quite different from that for Han students, because English is their third language. Most Uyghur students begin to learn English after they have learned their second language, Mandarin Chinese. In fact, third language acquisition is more difficult and complicated than second language acquisition. Under the influence of their mother tongue (Uyghur), and their second language (Mandarin Chinese), the learning of a third language (English) is not only constrained to language transfer, but also involved with the learner’s psychological factors.Based on Kellerman’s hypothesis---the perception of language distance between native language and target language can directly influence the learning of the target language, this paper attempts to investigate the Uyghur students’ mentally perceived distance towards English and the influence of psychological distance on the English learning motivation for Uyghur college students. The participants are English majors from Tarim University, in the southern part of Xinjiang Province. By conducting questionnaire survey and interview, this study aims to answer the following questions:(1) To Uyghur college students, which language is psychologically closer, Chinese or English?(2) Will different English proficiencies lead to different psychological distances towards English leaning?(3) What is the relationship between psychological distance and English learning motivation for Uyghur college students? And will the nearer perceived distance necessarily lead to a stronger learning motivation?Through the result analysis, the major findings have been revealed as follows:(1) Uyghur college students have shorter mentally perceived distance towards English. In other words, their emotional tendency towards English is closer than that towards Chinese.(2) Psychological distance is not constant for different English proficiencies. Uyghur college students with different English proficiency may perceive different language distance. In general, Uyghur students with high English proficiency often perceive shorter psychological distance towards English.(3) Uyghur college students mainly have three types of English learning motivation: instrumental motivation, cultural motivation and situational motivation. According to the survey, most participants have stronger cultural motivation in learning English, and the second is instrumental motivation. Most subjects have lower situational motivation in learning English.(4) There is significant correlation between psychological distance and English learning motivation. In other words, shorter psychological distance can lead to stronger learning motivation for Uyghur college students. Specifically, there are significantly positive correlations between psychological distance and instrumental motivation, and cultural motivation as well. However, psychological distance is not significantly correlated with situational motivation in their English study. On the whole, psychological distance does have impacts on Uyghur college students’English learning motivation.Therefore, in the future English teaching for ethnic minorities, teachers should pay more attention to correctly guide Uyghur college students’ psychological identity with English learning, so as to promote their instrumental and cultural motivation. At the same time, English teachers should also make efforts to improve the various factors influencing Uyghur college students’ situational motivation, such as the quality of English class, the choice of teaching materials and the influence from English teachers, etc. This paper also proposes some constructive suggestions for college English teaching and learning in Xinjiang ethnic minority areas. It is hoped that the findings of this thesis can be of some value in improving the English teaching for the minority students in the northwestern districts of China.