A Study Of China Mongolian Trilingual Learners' Construction And Development Of English Cultural Identity

In English learning,trilingual learners may encounter the problem of how to treat native culture and target culture properly.In dual language bilingual education(DLBE),the learners whose goals are biliteracy and target cultural competence may experience more complicated trajectory of cultural identity development.However,little attention has been paid to how trilingual English learners construct and develop their English cultural identity in China.It is important to learn about the intricate experiences of trilingual learners' cultural identity construction and development of the target culture.Informed by Vygotsky's social cultural theory and cultural identity theory,this study explores the process of China Inner Mongolian trilingual English learners' target cultural identity construction and development through EFL learning,including the following two research questions:1)How do the factors such as genders,majors,academic degrees and family backgrounds have impacts on trilingual learners'construction of English cultural identity?2)How do trilingual learners develop their English cultural identity through EFL learning?The research adopts a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods.Drawing on data from questionnaire and in-depth interviews,four aspects of cultural identity were examined,including additive,subtractive,productive,and disruptive cultural identities.The findings show that,firstly,trilingual English learners at different academic degrees maintain strong cultural identity on their own nation's culture,whereas they also have a higher English culture identity.The factors of genders,majors and family backgrounds exert no significant impacts on trilingual learners' construction of English culture identity,while academic degrees have a significant impact.Postgraduate students show more significant productive cultural identity transformation than undergraduate students.Secondly,the cultivation of native cultural identity,productive cultural identity contributes to trilingual learners' target cultural identity change and development.The factors of genders,majors,academic degrees and family backgrounds have little impacts on trilingual learners' development of additive,subtractive and disruptive cultural identities.The factors of learners' genders,majors and family backgrounds exert less impacts on trilingual learners' development of productive cultural identity,while the factor of academic degrees exert a significant impact.Both postgraduate and undergraduate trilingual learners are developing higher productive cultural identities.Postgraduate learners manifest higher productive cultural identities than undergraduate learners.The findings also show that,trilingual learners develop and modify their target cultural identity through engaging in English language learning,English culture learning,cross-cultural communication practice,and interacting with different contextual factors.However,the trilingual learners' English cultural identity development also encounters some obstacles:teachers' insufficient cultivating of students' cultural identity awareness,teachers' improper class management,learners' less engagement in classroom intercultural activities,and lack of contents of English cultural introduction in textbooks.Based on the research results,the study suggests some practical and effective ways to promote trilingual learners' target cultural identity development,namely,the establishment of proper cultural identity awareness,the creation of target cultural context,the cultivation of cross-cultural communication competence,and cultivating and enhancing their cultural confidence.Pedagogical implications are drawn for learners,and teachers to help learners to develop a healthy and solid target cultural identity.