Features And Construction Of Cultural Identities Of Chinese University EFL Learners

In the context of globalization, learning a second or foreign language turns out to be a necessity, and exposing to other culture(s) derives and results in simultaneous representations of identity changes. While learning a foreign language, the learners will acquire novel linguistic knowledge and skills, and promote their language competence. Meanwhile, the learners’ cultural identity, e.g. attitudes and values, will eventually change.How people perceive other cultures is of increasing importance in the age of globalization. At the surge of globalization and in the rapidly changing world, individuals are inevitably confronted with considerable challenges to their traditional values. When a growing number of Chinese students are seeking to study in higher education institutions and exposing to foreign language and cultures, it is necessary and important to see that they are not only seeking paths through education to themselves’ and their family’s prosperity, happiness and wellbeing, but also experiencing and balancing the conflict between modern western values presently exposed to them and their traditional values deeply rooted in Confucianism.Cross-cultural study of traditional values has been conducted for many years. These studies proposed theories and models explaining changes of traditional values across different cultures. Yet cross-cultural studies of values have mostly focused on commonalities and differences in the content and structure of values, and have made relatively little effort to understand how values evolve in response to the sociocultural change occurring throughout the world. Various factors of values across cultures have been identified according to some research on the common structure of values. This line of research focused on cultural differences in value orientation, social and cultural changes that most Eastern societies are undergoing as a result of industrialization.Consequently, the conflicts and compromise in the context of globalization in higher education service in China and the related issues concerning the increasing changes of cultural identities of the college students shall be highly considered.Based on theories of sociolinguistics, social psychology, cross-cultural communications, and identity studies, and applying methods of literature, reflection and questionnaire, the present study examined 150 university students from Beijing, Xi’an and Yan’an. The purpose of this paper is to examine the sociocultural change, and the changes of cultural identities of Chinese university EFL learners who are influenced by both traditional Confucian values and western cultural values.The question shall be answered is what the features of cultural identities for university EFL learners in China are and how these identities can be constructed.The study of traditional Confucian values when exposed to western values in the context of sociocultural change is hoped to add some attentively new prospect to the relevant study in this field. This is expected to serve, to a certain degree, as guidance for the college students in today’s changing world. Theoretically, the features of identity changes for university EFL learner in China were studied based on sociolinguistic, social psychological and sociological principles. A “CROSS” model of the features was proposed, with C standing for conflict between traditional Confucian values and western values, R standing for reflection on the new identity resulting from exposure to foreign language(s) and culture, O standing for operation of the newly formed identity, the first S standing for sensibility when confronting with the conflict of forming the new identity, and the last S standing for solution explorer which indicated the students’ awareness in attempting to explore and to find solutions to the issues of identity forming.What was comparatively more significant of the present study was the “GLOBALIZATION” model proposed for comprehensive construction of cultural identities for university EFL learners.Practically, the features of cultural identities found in the study basically reflected and revealed the reality when university students in China came across the confusion resulted from exposure to foreign culture and language learning. The ideas of GLOBALIZATION model of construction proposed in the present study for constructing new cultural identities were thought to be practice-oriented. This model mainly included global perspective, thinking and mindset, language competence, occupational knowledge and skills, background of learners’ cultural and educational experience, ability and aspiration for international communication, local actions presented in realizing and forming steady, rational and effective identities, innovation competence, zest and zigzag, advance of Chinese culture and values, tangram spirit and triangulation for intercultural communication, initiate the newly formed identity, ongoing and outgoing of the national culture and values, national dignity for reservation and promotion of traditional Chinese culture and values.Identification of the CROSS features of GLOBALIZATION construction of EFL learners’ cultural identities enriched the international communication theories on the one hand, and fostered practice-oriented significance in English education and teaching of higher education institutions in China.