An Empirical Study On The Changes Of Chinese Learners' Self - Identity In

Language learning is a complicated process. During this process, learners not only master the knowledge and skills of a language, but also change in those aspects:personal competence, mode of communication, values, affiliation of group and so on.This process is “self-identity”, in other words, it is a process of individual development which talks about “who I am”. And it is a result produced by learning language as well. After overseas students come to China to study, it is inevitable that they will have different understanding of Chinese learning.While obtaining knowledge and skills of Chinese, overseas students always encounter a problem--How to correctly treat Chinese and Chinese culture and their native language and their own culture.The paper uses social constructionist theory for reference, based on self-identity theory, referring to Gao Yihong’ s 7 classifications on self-identity, and it studies two main aspects: overseas student’ s cognition to themselves after learning Chinese(positive or negative on self-confidence) and their belongings of cultural identity(additivity, subtractivity, productblity, split, zero change). This project combines quality and quantity as a study method to have follow-up survey on changes of Chinese learning and self-identity of overseas students in sophomores and juniors. Subjects of study are 179 undergraduate overseas students who study Chinese in three universities in Kunming.The result shows overseas students’ self-identity changes with the study processes of learning Chinese(culture). Their self-identity has dynamics and complexity, which the Chinese(culture) study influences their self-confidence most.At the same time, the cultural identity belongings of overseas students have changed somehow in addivitivity and productbility. To those overseas students who study Chinese in China, “productive bilingualism phenomenon” has been demonstrated;changes on subtractivity and fissility do not become the main trend of changes on self-identity. Sex, whether overseas Chinese or not, grade, school, nationality, major,beginning age of Chinese learning and HSK level also have remarkable influences on changes of self-identity.Through the empirical study, the author understands the change of overseas students’ self-identity. The paper offers a new perspective to social psychological study for learners whose second language is Chinese. TCSL teachers can do some targeted improvements to teaching methods, thus improve the effectiveness of Chinese teaching. The self-identity of overseas students is dynamic and complex, and dynamics performs in a way that students’ self-identity is changing, with increasing grade and the depth of learning. Overall, the change of the productive self-identity and additional self-identity is widespread. Complexity of the self-identity expresses in a way that students’ self-identity change has been affected by many factors such as gender, nationality, major, whether is ethnic Chinese or not, starting school age, the impact of the school, HSK level of the individual characteristics, the understanding of Chinese which all affect students’ confidence. In teaching, teachers should encourage and help students to overcome their difficulties in learning Chinese, and to enhance the practical ability to use Chinese. Teachers and teaching institutions should carry out in a timely manner of cultural import, so that students can understand Chinese culture and their native language culture in different perspectives and strengthen their understanding of cultural comparison and cultural reflection, so to promote the development of the productive identity. At the same time, teachers should not focus on language teaching only, they must pay attention to individual differences, and teach students in accordance of their aptitude and help overseas students master English in a foreign country, and build the foundation of professional learning and living in a foreign land.