An Empirical Study On The Ethnic Identity And Language Attitude Of Zhuang Students At Guangxi University

As an important tool in communication, language is a media for ethnic group members to exchange information, transmit culture and knowledge. And it is a media for them to maintain ethnic identity, which can facilitate ethnic group members to achieve unity and consistency in cognition, behavior and feeling. From the sociolinguistic perspective, language use and language attitude are closely related. Language attitude refers to an individual or some group’s evaluations on language or language varieties. How individuals evaluate language and language varieties plays an important role in their uses of the language or language varieties. And their language attitudes are usually influenced by their ethnic identity and motivation. The degree of ethnic identity can directly influence national unity, which is an important element of building a harmonious society. Zhuang College students are a small part of the Zhuang population who can receive the higher education. Their behaviors and thoughts will produce a far-reaching impact upon the entire Zhuang group.A total of 216 Zhuang nationality university students in Guangxi University are involved in this research. Data is collected through random sampling in the form of questionnaires, and interviews. The data is analyzed by SPSS 19.0. Based on the development theory of ethnic identity and mentalist theory of language attitude, the study aims to interpret the status quo of the ethnic identity and language attitude towards Mandarin, English and Zhuang ethnic language of the Zhuang Nationality College Students, and also the relationship between ethnic identity and language attitude through combining theoretical analysis with empirical research.Results from the study show that:1. Zhuang nationality students in Guangxi University hold high, positive ethnic identity. They have a strong sense of belonging and pride to their ethnic group, and they think their destiny is closely related with the destiny of their ethnic group.2. Zhuang nationality students in Guangxi University have positive language attitudes towards Putonghua, English and their native languages. However, Putonghua ranks top for its position, function and prospect, their native language next and English the last.3. Ethnic identity of Zhuang Minority College students in Guangxi University and language attitudes towards their native language are positively correlated significantly. Also is positively correlated with the proficiency of their ethnic language.This thesis consists of five chapters, the first chapter is a brief introduction of research background and significance; the second chapter is literature review and theoretical basis; the third chapter is the research design; the fourth chapter is results and discussion; the fifth chapter is the conclusion. It is hoped that the results of the study could give reference and insights to build a harmonious society and harmonious language ecology in Guangxi, throw some lights upon language education and language planning and policy-making in Guangxi, and provide some thoughts and inspiration for relevant teaching, and studies.