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

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 re...

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Main Author: Koh, Reena Cheng Yee
Other Authors: Ng Bee Chin
Format: Final Year Project
Language:English
Published: Nanyang Technological University 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/165174
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1651742023-03-25T16:55:47Z “Sorry my Chinese bad lah…” The relationship between heritage language anxiety and Mandarin language competency of Singaporean-Chinese youth Koh, Reena Cheng Yee Ng Bee Chin School of Humanities MBCNg@ntu.edu.sg Humanities::Linguistics 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. Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics and Multilingual Studies and Philosophy 2023-03-20T00:59:37Z 2023-03-20T00:59:37Z 2023 Final Year Project (FYP) Koh, R. C. Y. (2023). “Sorry my Chinese bad lah…” The relationship between heritage language anxiety and Mandarin language competency of Singaporean-Chinese youth. Final Year Project (FYP), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. https://hdl.handle.net/10356/165174 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/165174 en ETH-LMS-2022-026 HG4099 application/pdf Nanyang Technological University
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Humanities::Linguistics
spellingShingle Humanities::Linguistics
Koh, Reena Cheng Yee
“Sorry my Chinese bad lah…” The relationship between heritage language anxiety and Mandarin language competency of Singaporean-Chinese youth
description 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.
author2 Ng Bee Chin
author_facet Ng Bee Chin
Koh, Reena Cheng Yee
format Final Year Project
author Koh, Reena Cheng Yee
author_sort Koh, Reena Cheng Yee
title “Sorry my Chinese bad lah…” The relationship between heritage language anxiety and Mandarin language competency of Singaporean-Chinese youth
title_short “Sorry my Chinese bad lah…” The relationship between heritage language anxiety and Mandarin language competency of Singaporean-Chinese youth
title_full “Sorry my Chinese bad lah…” The relationship between heritage language anxiety and Mandarin language competency of Singaporean-Chinese youth
title_fullStr “Sorry my Chinese bad lah…” The relationship between heritage language anxiety and Mandarin language competency of Singaporean-Chinese youth
title_full_unstemmed “Sorry my Chinese bad lah…” The relationship between heritage language anxiety and Mandarin language competency of Singaporean-Chinese youth
title_sort “sorry my chinese bad lah…” the relationship between heritage language anxiety and mandarin language competency of singaporean-chinese youth
publisher Nanyang Technological University
publishDate 2023
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/165174
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