Use of spatial orientational terms by college students in Taiwan (China)

This study investigated 241 Taiwanese college students' usage of spatial orientational terms (i.e., ‘front/back,’ ‘left/right’). In addition, it explored the metacognitive and metalinguistic explanations they provided for their usage.; Three kinds of tasks were used: (1) a task investigating whether the students wrote the names of their three favorite colors vertically or horizontally; (2) a task investigating whether they used a deistic perspective (i.e., based on the orientation of the language user) or a non-deistic perspective (i.e., based on the orientation of the verbally established reference object); (3) a task investigating whether they used mirror imagery (i.e., based on the verbally established reference object oriented toward the language user) or in-tandem imagery (i.e., based on the verbally established reference object oriented away from the language user).; The relationship between the students' responses on the tasks and four independent variables was explored: (1) gender; (2) geographic background (i.e., metropolitan areas vs. non-metropolitan areas); (3) language of the academic major (i.e., Chinese major vs. English major); (4) language medium (i.e., Chinese vs. English).; The results show that (1) the non-deistic perspective and mirror imagery were dominant, and (2) the deistic perspective and mirror imagery were more frequently used when the students were: (1) male, (2) English majors, and (3) responded in English. The dominant explanation for use of the deistic perspective was the position of the language user; regarding deistic imagery, there was no dominant explanation, although frequent attention was given to relative distance and the position of the language user.; These results are consistent with previous research conducted in West Africa, North America, and East Asia, which demonstrated significant patterns of sociocultural variation in the domain of spatial deixis. More particularly, in contrast to research conducted in the People's Republic of China, this research suggests that undergraduate students in Taiwan make considerably less use of in-tandem imagery. It also shows that males rather than females make greater use of the deistic perspective and mirror imagery These results suggest that westernization rather than preservation of Chinese cultural traditions is operative in Taiwanese students' use of spatial orientational terms.