The Attitudes of Spanish University Students towards the Chinese Language Minority

Abstract

The article contributes to the field of research that focuses on affective factors impacting L2 learning and, more precisely, on language attitudes, by observing the attitudes of 22 Spanish students from the Complutense University of Madrid towards the Chinesespeaking population studying at the same university. The Chinese students there represent a minority community, reason for which we considered relevant to investigate its influence on those who speak the main language natively. Even though minority groups are often negatively regarded by the speakers of the dominant language, our study shows positive perceptions of the Chinese language and culture and even interest in learning it.

Headnote

Abstract

The article contributes to the field of research that focuses on affective factors impacting L2 learning and, more precisely, on language attitudes, by observing the attitudes of 22 Spanish students from the Complutense University of Madrid towards the Chinesespeaking population studying at the same university. The Chinese students there represent a minority community, reason for which we considered relevant to investigate its influence on those who speak the main language natively. Even though minority groups are often negatively regarded by the speakers of the dominant language, our study shows positive perceptions of the Chinese language and culture and even interest in learning it.

Keywords: language attitudes', affective factors', language minority', Chinese minority

1. Introduction

One of the fields of linguistics that has received an impressive amount of attention over the years is language acquisition and, within it, the affective factors that influence the process of learning a new language. Hence, the main focus of this paper lies on one of these affective aspects; more precisely, on language attitudes, which are considered to have a crucial part in language learning (Garrett 2010). For this reason, the present study aims to observe the attitude of students from the Philology Faculty at the University of Complutense in Madrid towards Chinese as a minority language, in order to determine the impact that the language minority has on the primary language (in this case, Spanish) speakers and their perception towards it.

2. Theoretical Background

According to Garrett (2010), language attitudes are defined as dynamic constructs and they encompass three main types of components: cognitive, sociolinguistic and affective. In Samoffs view (1970: 279), attitudes are an individual's "disposition to react favourably or unfavourably"; hence, language attitudes are positive or negative feelings associated with a language. According to Trudgill (1983), attitudes are dynamic and changeable depending on an individual's personal experience and on the social context that one has been immersed in; related to this, Huguet (2007) adds that attitudes might also have their origin in the values and principles instilled by the family.

Moreover, the study of language attitudes is highly important, even though they cannot be observed directly and may be difficult to identify correctly, because it reveals differences and similarities between communities and it shows "how we position ourselves socially, and how we relate to other individuals and groups" (Garrett 2010: 15). Even more relevantly, studies have proved that positive attitudes towards a language correlate to successfully learning that language (Lasagabaster 2003). To this end, Clark Byrd and Sylvie Lamoureux (2014) state that language attitudes should be considered in the design of language policies at universities whenever there is a goal to adopt multilingualism.

Regarding attitudes in higher education, David Lasagabaster and Angel Huguet looked at language attitudes towards minority, majority and foreign languages in bilingual contexts of various European countries, such as Spain, Ireland or Belgium. One important idea mentioned from the very beginning of the study is that "the teacher's role with regards to the formation of language attitudes can [...] be crucial in the students' future language attitudes", which is why the research was carried out on preservice teachers (Lasagabaster, Huguet 2007: 1). Methodologically, the attitudinal section of the instrument employed consisted of various sentences that the participants had to rate on a 5-point Likert scale, which allowed the researchers to differentiate between three labels: unfavourable, neutral and favourable attitudes.

The findings of the study have shown a majority of favourable attitudes and a very low percentage of unfavourable ones towards all three types of languages and, even more, most of the communities have shown a higher percentage of favourable attitudes towards the minority language than towards the majority language. The linguists, therefore, conclude that "the widespread favourable attitudes towards the different minority languages reflect how the linguistic situation has changed in the last few decades" (Lasagabaster, Huguet 2007: 248). Hence, the present study intends to verify the accuracy of this previously noticed attitudinal trend by analysing the attitudes of Spanish university students towards the Chinese minority language.

As for attitudes towards the Chinese language, a study done by Jarkko Mäkelä and Tuomas Posti (2018) on language attitudes of Finnish people has shown that Chinese was considered the third most useful language and the fourth most interesting language. Chinese was also ranked the fourth most important language in Finland in the future, due to China's international trade, its growing influence and the tourism between the two countries. The method used to collect data was a questionnaire which contained unfinished sentences that participants were asked to complete according to their personal preference and experience.

Another paper that investigates language attitudes of Hungarian minority students in Romania towards various languages through a wide variety of methodological tools, like questionnaires, interviews and focus-group discussions, shows that a small percentage of the participants consider Chinese as the most beautiful language, "because the letters are cool", and the most useful one (Tódor, Dégi 2016: 129). And even though the percentage of views that characterise Chinese with the superlative label is low, the fact that the views exist and come from a minority community of Hungarian young learners in Romania carries investigative weight.

Regarding the Chinese community, it is a well-known fact that Chinese people have been migrating all over the world ever since the 19th century; nevertheless, they have been coming to study in Spain since the middle of the previous century (Tureli 2001). Moreover, Tureli (2001: 298) mentions that many students have remained there after graduating from university and are "quite well integrated into Spanish society". All in all, the Chinese minority is viewed as being educationally successful within their immigrant environment, as they often outrank the native population (Tureli 2001). Related to this, Portóles (2014) claims that the sociolinguistic factors (along with historical, political and cultural ones) have an important impact on the language attitudes that one manifests towards languages in contact. To this, Cenoz (2009) adds that the mother tongue may also play a part in determining an individual's language attitudes. Taking this into consideration, the attitudes that Spanish students manifest towards Chinese speakers should not be negative.

Ergo, since there seems to be a lack of studies that look into language attitudes - not only of Spanish speakers, but also of other language-speakers - towards Chinese (as a language, in general, and as a minority language, specifically), this study aims to fill that research gap.

3.The Study

The present study focuses on attitudes in higher education; more specifically, it observes the attitude of Spanish students from the Philology Faculty at the University of Complutense in Madrid towards Chinese as a minority language. Taking into account the setting of the study, it addresses the following research question: "What is the attitude of Spanish-speaking students towards Chinese, one of the minority languages within the Spanish academic environment?"

3.1. Method

3.1.1. Participants

The participants of the study are 22 Spanish students at the Philology Faculty of the University of Complutense in Madrid, Spain. They were chosen because the aim of the study is, as aforementioned, to establish the attitudes of the majority language speakers towards Chinese, which is spoken at the University by a minority group.

3.1.2. Instrument and procedure

The methodological tool used in the study is a questionnaire adapted from Portóles (2014) and from Gardner's (2004) Attitude/Motivation Test Battery, containing 10 sentences that the students have to rate on a 6-point Likert Scale, from 'Strongly Disagree' to 'Strongly Agree'. It was designed in Google Forms and it was distributed online, through e-mail and social media platforms. The instrument employed was the questionnaire as it is the most efficient method of gathering students' authentic responses, while also facilitating their analysis and evaluation. The items enclosed in the questionnaire have been included in Table 1 below.

3.2.Results & Discussion

For a better visual representation, two questions are illustrated in each graph. As noticeable in Figure 1, students like hearing Chinese spoken in an average of 4.2, meaning that they somewhat agree to this statement. Nonetheless, there is an average of only 3.7 with the sentence "I would like to learn Chinese", score which shows neither agreement, nor disagreement, although it is more inclined towards agreement. This difference is understandable, as students are not bothered by hearing Chinese spoken, but most of them are not necessarily keen on learning it.

As visible in Figure 2, Philology students of the University of Complutense mostly agree with the idea that Chinese is difficult, but interesting, and with the idea that it is a useful language. There is a 4.7 average for these two sentences, which indicates an overall agreement with the statements.

For the next two sets of sentences, there is a discrepancy of 0.3 between them; although the difference is not that consistent, it shows a very high level of agreement with the idea that knowing Chinese is associated with the notion of personal cultural enrichment and a lower level of agreement with the idea of having a Chinese friend or partner. Nevertheless, the fact that the second statement still has a high agreement among students highlights a high acceptance of the Chinese minority language, on the whole.

Moreover, students completely agree with the idea that Chinese is worth learning, which is shown by the average of 5 indicated in Figure 4. On the other hand, the agreement with the second statement, that of being able to read magazines and to watch non-subtitled movies in Chinese, is of only 4.1, which translates into a partial agreement.

The next statement, that Chinese speakers are easy to get along with, has some agreement to it, which is reflected in the 4.3 average, while the last sentence, that associates learning Chinese with a better understanding and appreciation of the Chinese ways, has a 5.3 average. The results, thus, indicate a full agreement with this idea.

Hence, as presented in Figure 6 below, students at the Philology Faculty of the University of Complutense in Madrid, Spain, are not particularly interested in learning Chinese. What is more, they are only slightly interested in experiencing first-hand entertainment items, such as magazines or movies, in non-subtitled Chinese and they only somewhat enjoy hearing Chinese. However, Spanish students mostly agree that Chinese is a useful, interesting and worth-to-be-leamed language. They seem to have no bias towards Chinese people as a minority, since they would agree to having a Chinese friend or partner. But, nevertheless, they express only a partial agreement to the idea that Chinese people are easy to get along with; this might be due to the more reserved culture that Chinese students adopt.

Above all, the most interesting thing to mention is that Spanish students show the highest level of agreement with the idea that learning the Chinese language would enrich them culturally and would also bring them closer to the Chinese traditions. This, in itself, underscores students' curiosity and interest for Chinese, showing that Spanish students' attitudes towards Chinese as a minority language are positive. Moreover, this stands as proof for their appreciation and respect for the Chinese language.

4. Conclusion

Language attitudes are integrated from cognitive, sociolinguistic and affective constructs; for this reason, they carry an impressive weight within language learning, and they have been massively studied during recent years.

This paper aimed at identifying language attitudes of Spanish students at the Philology Faculty of University of Complutense towards Chinese, as there is a Chinese language minority within said Faculty. The results indicated positive attitudes towards Chinese as a language and, moreover, they revealed a high level of interest for the Chinese language (even though not necessarily for learning it). Furthermore, the statements that learning Chinese would imply cultural and traditional enrichment were best scored by the participants, showing a high appreciation for Chinese.

References

References

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