Language anxiety in Chinese dialects and Putonghua among college students in mainland China: the effects of sociobiographical and linguistic variables

ABSTRACT

This paper examined language anxiety (LA) in Chinese dialects and Putonghua among college students in mainland China and explored the links between their LA in the first language and a range of sociobiographical variables (i.e. gender and geographical background) as well as linguistic variables (i.e. mother tongue, age of onset of acquisition, context of learning, self-perceived oral proficiency, and frequency of use). Participants were 778 Beijing university students who speak Chinese dialects and Putonghua. Statistical analyses revealed that participants reported significantly higher levels of LA in dialects than in Putonghua across a variety of situations. Geographical background and gender had scattered effects on LA in Putonghua and in dialects. Early bilinguals whose mother tongue were both a dialect and Putonghua reported the least LA in both. Later age of onset and acquisition of Putonghua in an instructed context were linked to increased LA in Putonghua. The negative relationships between self-perceived oral proficiency, frequency of use and LA were stronger in Putonghua than in dialects. The higher levels of LA in dialects combined with their language practices suggest a relatively lower confidence in the use of dialects among this group of highly educated young Chinese adults.

KEYWORDS:

• Language anxiety
• Chinese dialects
• Putonghua
• college students
• mainland China

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the participants for taking part in this study. We are also grateful to Professor Li Wei, Professor Zhu Hua and the anonymous reviewers for providing us with insightful suggestions and constructive comments on earlier drafts of the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Twenty-seven participants did not provide the information about their geographical backgrounds.

2. The levels of LA in dialects reported by these 32 participants probably referred to the first dialect they acquired or the one they used most frequently.

3. Participants were required to self-rate their oral proficiency in Putonghua and Chinese dialects on a 5-point scale: minimal (1), low (2), medium (3), high (4), and high (5). They needed to make comparisons between their oral proficiency in Putonghua and their dialects, thus their self-perceived oral proficiency may be more reliable.

4. Except the five choices of the 5-point Likert scale, ‘not applicable (N/A)’ is also offered as a choice for participants to choose if they feel that the situation is not applicable for them. The participants who had situations with N/A were list-wise deleted in the data analysis.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the “985 Project” Fund of Renmin University of China: [Grant Number 2012Q001].