Attitude and Habits regarding Foreign Language and Culture
In Table 4.3, we show the statistics regarding how foreign cultures and
loanwords influenced the participants’ attitudes and motivation. In terms of the
relationships among preference and the frequency of foreign cultural exposure, the
results are what was expected. Most of the participants (44.2%) strongly like foreign
pop culture such as foreign cartoons, pop music and movies. Therefore, 94
participants report that they often interact with foreign culture and only 12
participants report they seldom interact with foreign culture (6.1%). As for
self-perception regarding whether students consider themselves to be xenophile,
approximately 60% of the participants disagree with themselves worship everything
foreign; whereas 75 participants agree themselves to be xenophile.
Concerning the borrowing of media, the item was showed through top three
choice percentage in subsequence, including Internet (43%), TV (38%), and
Classmate, Friend and Colleague (19%). In other words, most of them frequently surf
the Internet and watch TV to absorb loanwords. When asked about their perception of
loanwords, around 48% of the students report that they have no special feelings about
loanwords, but 40% report positive feelings. Additionally, 89 students are interested in
loanwords due to novelty (47%), because they find them interesting (31%) and
because they feel their native language is insufficient for expressing some ideas
(22%).
Table 4.3
Attitude and Habits regarding Foreign Language and Culture
Item
Foreign pop
culture
Frequency of
exposure to
foreign culture
Xenophile
Frequency ( Percentage )
Strongly like
Like
Neutral
Dislike
87 (44.2%)
82 (41.6%)
27 (13.7%)
1 (.5%)
Always
Often
Sometimes
Seldom
51 (25.9%)
94 (47.7%)
40 (20.3%)
12 (6.1%)
Agree
Disagree
75 (38.1%)
122 (61.9%)
The borrowing
of media
Internet
TV
Classmate, Friend & Colleague
181 (43%)
166 (38%)
82 (19%)
Perception of
Friendly
Ignorant
no special feeling
Others
loanwords
79 (40.1%)
17 (8.6%)
95 (48.2%)
6 (3.0%)
Motivation for
using loanwords
Novelty
Interesting
Supports native language’s
insufficiency
89 (47%)
59 (31%)
43 (22%)
Note. Q9 to Q14 of Appendix B