An Empirical Study On The Correlation Among Language Attitude,Ethnic Identity,Learning Burnout And English Achievements Of Achang Ethnic Minority Students In Trilingual Context

With the development of second language acquisition,more and more scholars at home and abroad have begun to pay attention to the English study of ethnic minorities in the context of trilingualism(ethnic/Chinese/foreign language).However,the existing literature indicates that this paper is an unique empirical study on the English learning of the Achang middle school students in history,and tries to make up for the lack in the study of foreign language.This study,from three aspects,language attitudes,ethnic identity,learning burnout,investigates Achang middle school students' English learning situation,aiming to survey the relationship between the three variables and English achievement.This paper tries to answer the following three questions:(1)What is the basic situation of language attitude,ethnic identity and learning burnout among the Achang ethnic middle school students in Yunnan province?(2)Is the students' English performance related to their language attitude,national identity and learning burnout?(3)Do the students in different grades,genders and schools have different views on these three variables? This study adopted the Likert questionnaire,and 317 middle school students,from Jiubao Achang Township Middle School and Nang Song Achang Township Middle School,Lianghe County were investigated,including 107 students in the seventh grade,90 in eighth grade and 120 students in ninth grade.The collected data were processed and analyzed by SPSS 20.0 with the programs such as descriptive statistical analysis,correlation analysis,regression analysis,one-way ANOVA,independent sample T test and Post-Hoc Multiple Comparison.Finally,the following conclusion was reached:(1)In spite of the trilingual environment,the Achang middle school students keep contact with and communicate daily with other ethnic groups,especially the Han nationality,and they still attach great importance to their own ethnic language;Achang middle school students are far more fluent in Chinese than their mother tongue.The English scores of the Achang students are not ideal,of which the girls are obviously stronger than the boys in English study;(2)The subjects' language attitude is average and ethnic identity is relatively strong,and the study burnout is not very serious.Therefore,the overall situation is relatively optimistic;(3)The students' language attitude and learning English achievement are significantly and positively correlated,but the correlational strength is weak;learning burnout and English achievement are significantly,moderately and negatively correlated;the students' ethnic identity is not correlated with English learning.Among the three variables,the contribution rate of learning burnout to the predicted learning achievement is 17.9%;(4)The results show grade(year–level)differences in language attitude,ethnic identity and learning burnout.However,gender differences and school differences only appear in language attitude and learning burnout.The results should be able to help both teachers and students in ethnic minority area in the teaching and the learning of English language via the awareness of language attitude,ethnic identity and learning burnout.Hopefully,this study will be of theoretical significance and practical value in the reform of English education in the context of trilingualism.