An Empirical Study On Language Attitude Of Salar People Under Cultural Identity

Cultural identity is one of the identities that is formulated in multicultural communication,and the acceptance of shared culture by individuals or communities.The core of cultural identity is the using of the same language and adherence of cultural norms(Collier & Thomas,1988).Language attitude is influenced by factors such as motivation and behavior.People make objective evaluation on its social function,that is,the actual usefulness of a language(Wang Yuanxin,2002).As one of the most essential elements of culture,ethnic language not only plays a role of a tool for communication within the cultural group,but also an explicit manifestation of identity and heritage of cultural connotation.The evaluation of a language objectively reflect the identity toward the cultural community one comes from.The higher the evaluation is,the stronger the cultural identity will be(Kramsch,2011).Salar people,an ethnic group with a small population in Qinghai Province,have been experiencing tremendous intercultural communication and cultural fusion,with frequent interactions taking place in all round ways.However,few attention has been paid to Salar people’s cultural identity and language attitude.Firstly,previous researchers used to show more interest in diachronic description of Salar people’s ethnic origin and language rather than conducting empirical studies.Secondly,previous researchers tended to study cultural identity and language attitude separately,leaving the combination research of cultural identity with language attitude an empty domain.In light of these two points,the research on Salar people’s cultural identity and language attitude is necessary.Based on the definition and structure of cultural identity and language attitude,300 Salar people from five townships are involved in this research.Both quantitative and qualitative methods are applied.297 subjects were chosen for quantitative research and 64 for the interview;and 61 interviewees are overlapped with the quantitative research.SPSS 19.0 and AMOS 24.0 are applied as tools for data analysis.The goal of the research is to investigate the current situation of cultural identity and language attitude of Salar people.Successively,influential factors will be analyzed based on demographic variables.At last,the correlation between cultural identity and language attitude of Salar people will be analyzed,based on which several implications that may contribute to the inheritance of Salar culture andlanguage will be proposed.The results of the research show that: Salar people possess relatively high cultural identity toward their native culture.Besides,they also hold inclusive attitude toward intercultural exchanges and cultural fusion.Based on demographic factor analysis,the researcher found that age,occupation,educational level,place of residence,father’s language ability are all influential factors on Salar people’s cultural identity.Having analyzed the four dimensions of cultural identity,the researcher found that Salar people’s identity toward religious belief stays on a similar and high level.However,their identity to custom,language and ethnic identification present more diversely situation based on different factors.As for the second research question,Salar people’s language attitude is much more complicated.They have strong affection to Salar language,and they are aware of the extinction of it,but their attitude of behavioral perspective tends to be more negative.Moreover,age,occupation,educational level,place of residence,father’s educational level and language ability,those influential factors imposed on cultural identity also change Salar people’s language attitude.Furthermore,generation gap exists on Salar people’s language inheritance,and the missing of written form is the tremendous obstacle for their language learning and heritage.Regarding the last research question,having analyzed both the scales and interview,the researcher found that cultural identity has a strong and positive connection with language attitude,through investigating Salar people’s identity toward their native culture,and their attitude toward the language.In return,their language attitude also reflects their identity toward their ethnic culture.Thus,strengthening Salar people’s awareness of language protection will contribute to the maintenance of their native culture,and the dissemination of Salar culture will also enhance their expectations toward their native language.Thereout,the consciousness of reestablishing their written language will be promoted.The ultimate goal of the discovery the current situation of Salar people’s cultural identity,language attitude,and the correlation between the two brings about two major points.Theoretically,this study is a naive application of cultural identity and language attitude.More importantly,it provides pragmatic significance in promoting Salar people’s cultural and language heritage,and contributing to building a typical model for national unity which echoes with the national policy.