A Study On The Causes Of Barriers To The Acquisition Of English As L3: A Case Study With Kazak Students In A Middle School In Xinjiang

In recent years, third language acquisition or multilingual acquisition has become a trend of the language study both at home and abroad, along with the research of second language acquisition that are maturing and mastery of multilingualism is on a rise. In China, with the economic development in ethnic minority areas and the demand for elites, English teaching has become increasingly important in minority areas. Due to the particularity of the ethnic minority students in English learning, more and more people begin to pay attention to the minority students’ English learning. For the ethnic minority students, English learning is third language acquisition in addition to native language and Chinese. Unique learning environment and human environment make the minority students’English learning more difficult. Moreover, there are few researches on the barriers of the Kazak students’ English learning. Due to these reasons, this thesis investigates the barriers and their causes of the Kazak students in English learning.On the basis of the former third language researches both at home and abroad, two research methods are used in the survey, one is quantitative used in analysis the questionnaire and the other is qualitative used in analysis the interview. The subjects of the research are 100 the Kazak high school students who come from Changji No.2 middle school in Xinjiang for questionnaire survey and four English teachers of trilingual class were interviewed. The results of questionnaire are figured out by comparing the percentage of the factors which have an influence on Kazak students’ English learning.According to the results and analysis on the collected data and interview, the main barriers of Kazak students’ English learning are the following:(1) There are more difficulties in Kazak students’English learning, in most minority areas in China, the ethnic minority students learn English by Chinese, which makes the minority students have dual-interference from native language and Chinese in English learning, so it is more difficult for them to learn English. (2)Their English learning time is limited, and they do not have effective English learning strategies. Due to the particularity of minority students in college entrance examination policy, senior Kazak students spend little time on learning English; they have not formed effective English learning strategies and clear learning objectives. Because of the difficulties in learning English, most students feel anxiety in English class; long-term anxiety will make their English learning motivation and interests gradually subsided, and this affect the results of their English learning. (3) The external environment of English learning is not mature, they lack of foreign language learning and application environment. The English teaching do not meet the needs of most Kazak students who are from different places and have different English levels. Also, the lack of English teachers in minority regions and most English teachers are not minorities, who do not know the culture and customs of the ethnic minority students, and cannot understand the learning and cognitive characteristics of minority students correctly. All these affect the teaching effect. Besides, in China, there are no suitable English textbook and other learning materials for the minority students, and most Kazak students are not interested in contents of English textbooks they are using. According to their opinions, they will be more willing to learn English if the content of textbooks are closer to their life.