The Language Attitudes of Taiwan’s Female Immigrants towards English, Mandarin and Their Native Languages

• Main Authors: Hui-sin Chang, 張卉欣
• Other Authors: Hsiao-tzu Yang
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2010
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/85417725774333314279

碩士 === 雲林科技大學 === 應用外語系碩士班 === 98 === This study aims to investigate Taiwan’s female immigrants’ attitudes towards English, Mandarin and their native languages. Through observation, keeping teaching journals and in-depth interviews, the researcher collected qualitative data for analysis. The researcher played dual roles as a Chinese teacher at the night school and an observer in the classroom at the same time. After keeping teaching journals for a period of time, the pilot study was conducted via the questionnaire. The participants in the pilot study were nineteen students at Dapi elementary night school. Their average age was 27, ranging from 20 to 36. Eight of the participants came from Vietnam, seven from Cambodia, and four from Indonesia. The follow-up in-depth interview included four female immigrants. Three of them were from Vietnam and one was from Cambodia. The results indicate that during the process of accommodation to Taiwan’s society, these female immigrants preferred to adopt an integration strategy, regarding both their native languages and Mandarin as important for themselves. However, they preferred their children to master Mandarin and English rather than their native languages. Three reasons were observed: 1. They expect their children to perform well at school. As the main language used at school, Mandarin is considered important for their children. 2. The children have limited exposure to their mothers’ native languages. Most of the female immigrants think that it is not necessary to teach their native languages. 3. Learning English is regarded as a modern trend. Most of the immigrants do not learn English for their own needs but for their children. They think that children might have decent jobs or live abroad in the future.