A Survey On Chinese Identity Of African Students In China

This paper is based on an empirical study of Chinese identity among international students in China.Based on the theories of human language identity and acculturation,this study compiled a questionnaire on Chinese identity of African students in China,investigated the Chinese identity of 85 African students from five universities in Zhejiang Province,and made a statistical analysis of the collected data with the software "SPSS 26.0".To start with,descriptive analysis was conducted on the personal background information of the voluntary samples,such as gender,age,nationality,Chinese proficiency and so on.Then,the effective factors and ineffective factors affecting the African students’ Chinese identity are sorted out through the difference analysis.Finally,the relationship among the four dimensions of language identity,language attitude,language behavior and language culture was summarized through the correlation analysis.The results indicate that: First of all,the overall identification of African students in China is above average.From the average of four dimensions of identification,African students in China have the highest language and culture scores and the lowest language cognition score.Secondly,there are no significant differences in the identity of African students in terms of gender,education and Chinese level,but there are significant differences in age,language ability,time spent living in China and time spent learning Chinese.In addition,the language cognition,language attitude,language behavior and language culture dimensions of African students have different degrees of correlation with each other.It can be seen that the degree of Chinese identity of African students in China is not only affected by the individual factors of the students,but also has a certain correlation with the environment of the target language.Chinese level is not the decisive factor affecting the degree of Chinese identity of foreign students.It has to be acknowledged that this study has some deficiencies in sample size,national distribution of students and other aspects.The data obtained are not enough to fully represent the Chinese identity of African students coming to China.Nevertheless,it can provide certain empirical evidence for relevant studies on Chinese identity.Finally,the author puts forward suggestions for teachers and African students.On the one hand,teachers should carry out phased and targeted teaching according to the Chinese identity of international students,by improving their Chinese language competence and Chinese identity and helping them to accumulate knowledge,build friendship and affinity for China.On the other hand,African students should adjust their mentality,embrace and accept cultural differences rationally,and actively learn Chinese to improve their inter-cultural communication competence.