“Sorry my Chinese bad lah…” The relationship between heritage language anxiety and Mandarin language competency of Singaporean-Chinese youth

• Main Author: Koh, Reena Cheng Yee
• Other Authors: Ng Bee Chin
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2023
• Subjects: Humanities::Linguistics
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/165174
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This study investigated the relationships between Heritage Language Anxiety, Mandarin language proficiency, and frequency of Mandarin spoken in young Singaporean-Chinese English-Mandarin bilingual students. The sample included 10 English-Mandarin bilingual students (M = 17 years old) who have all recently graduated either secondary school or junior college. This study assessed their proficiency in two ways — self-perceived and actual — using self-rating scales and LEXTALE_CH scale respectively. The participants’ Heritage Language Anxiety was assessed using a modified Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale, which tests for anxiety related to learning the language generally in a classroom setting. Lastly, the frequency of Mandarin spoken on a regular day was self-estimated by participants in terms of percentage. Results show that there was a small negative correlation between Heritage Language Anxiety and Mandarin language proficiency, both self-perceived and actual, as well as between Heritage Language Anxiety and frequency of Mandarin spoken in a regular day. There was also a small positive correlation between LEXTALE_CH scores which indicate actual Mandarin proficiency and frequency of Mandarin spoken in a regular day. Results thus suggest that an increased frequency of Mandarin spoken may be linked to lower anxiety levels associated with learning the language, as well as a higher general proficiency. However, due to the small sample size, results are inconclusive in suggesting whether the correlations found were statistically significant. Nevertheless, implications of the results in the area of language policies and educational models are discussed.