The Han Uyghur-major University Students’ Language Attitudes And Language Use

This study targets its research goal on the Han Uyghur-major’s language use ofand language attitudes towards Uyghur and Chinese in the four universities in Urumqi.The study intentionally chooses out the living milieu (whether the students are fromNorthern or Southern Xinjiang, or other places outside Xinjiang in inland China), thestudents’ former school type (whether they studied in an ordinary school, in acombined school together with other ethnic minority students using Han or Uyghur astheir teaching language), their matriculation examinees’ identity (whether theyanswered their examination in Uyghur or in Chinese), all these three factors that areunique in Xinjiang involved with other common factors such as grade, gender andneighborhood characteristics, test the way and degree they function concerning theHan Uyghur-major students’ language use of and their attitudes towards both Uyghurand Chinese by using a large sampling (422valid questionnaires in language useanalysis through SPSS17processing and411valid answer sheets in language attitudestest). A matched-guise test targeting at investigating the participants’ languageattitudes towards both Uyghur and Chinese is attached to the questionnaire.The research randomly selects from all the participants several students andinterviews them. It takes this means as a check or testimony to the questionnaire dataprocessing results and matched-guise test results, thus guarantees the results’truthfulness.After careful investigation and data processing, this thesis has made thefollowing major findings:1) students from Southern Xinjiang occupy the highestproportion in mixing using Uyghur&Chinese compared with students from NorthernXinjiang and students from other provinces outside Xinjiang and inside Main LandChina whereas students from other provinces outside Xinjiang and inside Main LandChina occupy the highest proportion in using pure Chinese only with students fromNorthern Xinjiang occupy the medium proportion both in mixing using Uyghur&Chinese and in using pure Chinese only compared with students from the other twokinds of places.2) generally speaking, the Han Uyghur-major students hold positiveattitudes towards both their target language Uyghur and their mother tongue Chinese,they even hold a higher or more positive attitude towards their target language Uyghur.The living milieu, the students’ former school type, their matriculation examinees’identity and their neighborhood characteristics are the factors that influence theirlanguage use proportions.The findings of this thesis reveal from a particular facet the real situation andprovide an empirical case study concerning language use and language attitude.