The relationship between ethnocentrism and achievement in beginning learners of French as a foreign language
Greene, Mary Carter
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/125886
Description
Title
The relationship between ethnocentrism and achievement in beginning learners of French as a foreign language
Author(s)
Greene, Mary Carter
Issue Date
1993
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Davidson, Fred
Mack, Molly
Department of Study
Linguistics
Discipline
Teaching English as a Second Language
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
M.A.
Degree Level
Thesis
Keyword(s)
Teaching English as Second Language
Ethnocentrism and Language Learning
Foreign Language Achievement
Cultural Attitudes in Education
Language
eng
Abstract
Ethnocentrism, the perception of one's ingroup as superior to outgroups, visibly increased in the United States recently as evidenced by a rise in both expressions of patriotism toward the U.S. and negative attitudes toward arabs during and following the Gulf War. Given this rise in ethnocentrism, foreign language instructors may be motivated to know if their students' identification with an ingroup {The United States) influences their ability to perform well in a foreign language classroom.
Thus, this study investigates the relationship between ethnocentrism and achievement among beginning learners of a foreign language. Thirty-eight students in French 102 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign served as subjects. The relationship between ethnocentrism and achievement was analyzed with correlational analyses.
Results revealed a fair correlation between ethnocentrism survey scores and final grades. Additionally, subjects rated French people more negatively than most outgroups.
Although this study was conducted with American students of French, the pedagogical implications of these findings as well as suggestions for further research concerning the relationship between ethnocentrism and achievement in other foreign language classrooms are addressed.
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