A Study of English Acquisition of Pre瞔ollege Ethnic Minority Students under the Multi—Cultural Background

Huang Chun

（Southwest University for Nationalities，Chengdu，610041，Sichuan，China）

JOURNAL OF ETHNOLOGY，VOL.6，NO.6，74-77，2015 （CN51-1731/C，in Chinese）

DOI：10.3969/j.issn.1674-9391.2015.06.11

Abstract：

The multicultural background of precollege ethnic minority students provides with a living model for developing second language teaching and related research.An investigation of the relationship between having a multicultural background and English acquisition，and an analysis of its negative and positive influences will be helpful for improving the quality of teaching.In recent years，the research on college English teaching has been of concern both at home and abroad，and many books and articles related to this field have been published.These publications have provided an analysis on the status and main problems of college English teaching with regard to course arrangement，teaching models，teaching methods，systems of evaluation，and the specific needs of English in society，etc.  Some suggestions for English teaching reform have been proposed in order to solve some outstanding problems，such as the shortage of providing speakinglistening opportunities in English teaching，or the relatively poor communication abilities of the students.In recent years，the cultural background of the students has been explored，which could have an important influence on English teaching.However，most of the research has focused on theoretical issues，and less on practical useage.Moreover，there has been much less research on the influence and role of the precollege ethnic students multicultural background.Hence，this article intends to start with the English level of the precollege ethnic minority students，and，based upon an analysis of the different cultural backgrounds of the various students，explores the effect of English teaching within this background of cultural diversity.The purpose is to propose practical and valuable solutions of these questions—how do teachers teach？ And，how do students learn？ The influence of the diversified cultural background of the precollege ethnic minority students on their second language （English）acquisition is obvious.

The study of the problems related to English language acquisition among precollege ethnic minority students will be not only helpful for the students becoming fully aware of their advantages in linguistic cultural background，it will also play upon the comparative linguistic advantage of their “multilanguage experience”，and improve the efficiency of English learning，as well as teaching quality.However，it also can strengthen the ethnic minority students confidence and enthusiasm in learning and using English，thus，stimulating their language learning potential，and consciously overcome the influence of any unfavorable factors，such as the impact of their mother tongue on their English learning，and enable them to grasp English acquisition methods more effectively.

The diversified cultural background of the precollege ethnic minority students is a living model for conducting second language teaching and research.The influence of ethnic cultural diversity on English acquisition of the precollege students is both negative and positive.The positive factors include the fact that the ethnic minority students： 1） have a multilanguage usage  and communication environment;2） have strong ethnic psychological qualities;and，3）have relatively good capacity for learning different languages.The negative factors include the fact that their English learning is influenced by 1）their first language;2）the dialect;and 3）having to learn intermediate languages （such as Han Chinese）between their first language and English.

The special multiethniccultural background of the ethnic precollege education determines that the precollege students will have to encounter inevitably more complex situations during the process of English language acquisition.Their English level is uneven，and the influence of unfavorable factors is more obvious.However，we should notice that before the precollege ethnic minority students start to learn English，they already have the experience in learning both their mother tongue languages and Han Chinese，and some students even have had the experience of bilingual learning in their primary education.Hence，they are not only familiar with their mother tongue language，but also have a foundation of Han Chinese culture.During the process of English language learning，their multicultural background is helpful for these ethnic students to make multilingual comparisons horizontally and vertically from the angle of phonetics，syntax，and semantics.Through a comparison between the various languages，they can have a conscious understanding of the expressions，habits and ways of thinking of the various languages，which can not only help to improve the efficiency of English learning，but can also cultivate their active acceptance of the culture of the target language.This，thus，lays a solid cultural language foundation for crosscultural communication.The interest and confidence for learning a language and its culture is the power for a success in language learning.Once someone has cultural consciousness，their interest and confidence in English learning will be strengthened—interest and confidence are just the key for second language acquisition，and this point is more important to the precollege ethnic minority students.

Key Words： cultural diversity;precollege ethnic minority students;English language acquisition

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