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Factors related to Chinese language achievement in a bilingual situation
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Type
Thesis
Author
Siak-Lee, Poh Chun
Supervisor
Ho, Wah Kam
Abstract
This study sought to investigate why some students were able to perform well in both English as the school's First Language (i.e. EL1) and Chinese as the school's Second Language (i.e. CL2), while others, experiencing little difficulty in coping with EL1, could not do as well in CL2.
Six socio-psychological variables (viz. Peer-Pressure, Parental-Influence, Reading-Factor, Informal-Use-Factor, Attitude-Factor and Motivation-Factor) were thus hypothesized to contribute to the variability in the CL2-Achievement of a group of "good" EL1 learners. The extent of Inter-relationships among the predictor variables themselves was also explored.
The sample comprised all the Secondary Three Express-Stream male students in a Singapore Government-Aided missionary school, who had achieved a score of 60% or higher for EL1 in their Secondary Three Final-Term School Examination.
The instruments to measure each predictor variable were first validated through a pilot study. A questionnaire comprising the instruments was then administered to measure the students' responses. The criterion variable (CL2-Achievement) and the moderating variable (EL1-Achievement) were measured by the scores of the students in their 1989 end-of-year Secondary Three school promotion examinations in their CL2 and EL1 subjects respectively.
Seventeen hypotheses were tested and found to be supported by the data. Pearson correlation analyses indicated that all the six independent variables were positively correlated with the criterion, CL2-Achievement (p<0.05). In particular, the Attitude-Factor was found to have highest correlation with CL2-Achievement (r=0.63, p<0.0001). The mean scores of the students in the CL2 high-achieving and low-achieving groups, for both the criterion variable and the predictor variables, were significantly different. Stepwise multiple regression analysis showed that the six predictor variables altogether account for 44.44% of the all overall variance in CL2-Achievement. However, the variables that emerged as the best significant predictors of attainment in CL2 were the Attitude-Factor, the Informal-Use-Factor and Parental-influence.
The findings also indicated that the Attitude-Factor and Motivation-factor were very strongly correlated. Moreover, the Attitude-factor emerged as the best statistically significant predictor of variance in the Motivation-factor scores, and vice versa (71.96% in both cases.) Five variables (namely, attitude-Factor, Reading-Factor, Parental-Influence, Peer-pressure, Informal-Use-factor) altogether significantly accounted for 82.18% of the overall variance in Motivation. On the other hand, Motivation was found to be not only the most correlated variable with the Reading-Factor and Informal-Use-Factor, but also the best statistically significant predictor of variance in both the Reading-factor and Informal-Use-Factor scores. Of interest was the weak relationship observed between Peer-Pressure and Parental-influence, which were neither substantially nor statistically significant correlated to each other.
In conclusion, the results indicated that for this sample of "good" EL1 learners, the variability in their proficiency in CL2 was greatly related to differences in their attitude towards the learning of CL2, the extent of informal exposure to and use of CL2, and supportive parental influence. In particular, the findings suggested that the learners' own affective and language-use characteristics may, in fact, play a relatively more important role than environmental factors such as peer-pressure and parental influences.
Six socio-psychological variables (viz. Peer-Pressure, Parental-Influence, Reading-Factor, Informal-Use-Factor, Attitude-Factor and Motivation-Factor) were thus hypothesized to contribute to the variability in the CL2-Achievement of a group of "good" EL1 learners. The extent of Inter-relationships among the predictor variables themselves was also explored.
The sample comprised all the Secondary Three Express-Stream male students in a Singapore Government-Aided missionary school, who had achieved a score of 60% or higher for EL1 in their Secondary Three Final-Term School Examination.
The instruments to measure each predictor variable were first validated through a pilot study. A questionnaire comprising the instruments was then administered to measure the students' responses. The criterion variable (CL2-Achievement) and the moderating variable (EL1-Achievement) were measured by the scores of the students in their 1989 end-of-year Secondary Three school promotion examinations in their CL2 and EL1 subjects respectively.
Seventeen hypotheses were tested and found to be supported by the data. Pearson correlation analyses indicated that all the six independent variables were positively correlated with the criterion, CL2-Achievement (p<0.05). In particular, the Attitude-Factor was found to have highest correlation with CL2-Achievement (r=0.63, p<0.0001). The mean scores of the students in the CL2 high-achieving and low-achieving groups, for both the criterion variable and the predictor variables, were significantly different. Stepwise multiple regression analysis showed that the six predictor variables altogether account for 44.44% of the all overall variance in CL2-Achievement. However, the variables that emerged as the best significant predictors of attainment in CL2 were the Attitude-Factor, the Informal-Use-Factor and Parental-influence.
The findings also indicated that the Attitude-Factor and Motivation-factor were very strongly correlated. Moreover, the Attitude-factor emerged as the best statistically significant predictor of variance in the Motivation-factor scores, and vice versa (71.96% in both cases.) Five variables (namely, attitude-Factor, Reading-Factor, Parental-Influence, Peer-pressure, Informal-Use-factor) altogether significantly accounted for 82.18% of the overall variance in Motivation. On the other hand, Motivation was found to be not only the most correlated variable with the Reading-Factor and Informal-Use-Factor, but also the best statistically significant predictor of variance in both the Reading-factor and Informal-Use-Factor scores. Of interest was the weak relationship observed between Peer-Pressure and Parental-influence, which were neither substantially nor statistically significant correlated to each other.
In conclusion, the results indicated that for this sample of "good" EL1 learners, the variability in their proficiency in CL2 was greatly related to differences in their attitude towards the learning of CL2, the extent of informal exposure to and use of CL2, and supportive parental influence. In particular, the findings suggested that the learners' own affective and language-use characteristics may, in fact, play a relatively more important role than environmental factors such as peer-pressure and parental influences.
Date Issued
1991
Call Number
PL1068.S5 Sia
Date Submitted
1991