A Study On The Correlation Between English Learning And Identification With Anglo-American Culture Of College Non-English Majors In Xinjiang

Language and culture are inseparable.Learning a foreign language is also a process of learning its culture.Therefore,language learning is bound to have an impact on the learner's cultural identity;with the accelerating process of globalization,Anglo-American culture has become part of our lives.As the new generation of college students,what's the current situation of their English learning and identification with Anglo-American culture? To what extent is their English learning related to Anglo-American cultural identity? The aim of this paper is to answer the above problems.By using the methods of questionnaire and interview,the research is to investigate the status quo of Anglo-American culture identity and the relationship between English learning and the identification with Anglo-American culture of 478 college non-English majors from three universities in Xinjiang.The results are as follows:(1)In general,the Anglo-American culture identity of the college non-English majors in Xinjiang is relatively mild.The average value is 2.9881<3.0000.Among the five dimensions of cultural identity,students have the highest identification with the western specific cultural behavior followed by the identification with western language and politics;(2)There is significant positive correlation between the students' English-learning motivation and the identification with overall Anglo-American culture,language attitude,western values and western specific cultural behavior,the correlation coefficients are 0.273,0.239,0.290,0.171respectively;(3)Multiple regression analysis shows that the senior students' Anglo-American cultural identity has significant predictive power on their English-learning motivation.The most significant predictive factors include identification with western values,language attitude and specific cultural behavior,and these factors can explain 42 % of the total variance of integrative motivation.The standardized regression coefficients are 0.365,0.086,0.042,respectively;(4)In general,there is weak negative correlation between students' achievement in English and their Anglo-American cultural identity.Among the five dimensions of Anglo-American cultural identity,significant negative correlation exists between western politics identity and their English achievement.While there is no significant correlation between another dimensions of cultural identity and students' achievement in English;(5)There is weak positive correlation between students' English proficiency and their Anglo-American cultural identity.Significant positive correlation exists between English proficiency and their language attitude.While there is no significant correlation between English proficiency and other dimensions of Anglo-American cultural identity;(6)There is weak negative correlation between students' English learning years and their Anglo-American cultural identity.For students with one to eight years of English learning,there is significant negative correlation between English learning years and their overall Anglo-American cultural identity,language attitude,western values and western politics identity.(the correlation coefficients are-0.421?-.280?-0.313?-0.373 respectively);For students with more than nine years of English learning,there is weak negative correlation between English learning years and their overall Anglo-American cultural identity and other dimensions of Anglo-American cultural identity.