An Empirical Study on the Correlation Among Language Attitude, Ethnic Identity, Learning Burnout and English Achievements of Achang Ethnic Minority Students in Trilingual Context

Abstract

This study, from three aspects, language attitudes, ethnic identity, learning burnout, investigated Achang middle school students’ English learning situation, aiming to survey the relationship between the three variables and English achievement. It 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. The collected data were processed by SPSS 20.0 with the programs such as descriptive statistical analysis, correlation analysis, and regression analysis. Finally, the following conclusion was reached: (1) In spite of the trilingual environment, 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%.