Chapter One Introduction第一章节 介绍
1.1 Research Background研究背景
新疆是一个多民族地区，少数民族的人口占新疆总人口的60%。少数民族学生是新疆英语学习的一个特殊群体。他们出生时就接触到了双语环境(维吾尔语和汉语)，童年时生活在一种特殊的多元文化交流中，这为他们学习外语提供了先天优势。少数民族学生对语言学习有着特殊的天赋，因此他们能很快接受新事物。另外，由于泰族相对典型的多元文化和多语种社会环境，泰族学生更容易适应不同的文化和习俗，少数民族大学生作为少数民族的精英，对文化高度者更加敏感。他们常常需要适应一种不同于他们熟悉的本土文化的新的文化环境。以汉族为代表的中国文化与以英语民族为代表的英语文化有着很大的差异。同时，新疆少数民族文化与汉族文化也存在着很大的差异。少数民族大学生在英语学习中不仅受到汉文化的影响，而且受到英语文化的影响。他们可能遭受的文化冲击远远大于汉族学生所面临的文化冲击。这种文化冲突必然影响他们的英语学习。新疆地处西部边疆，历史文化底蕴深厚，少数民族大学生的英语学习困难重重，与汉族学生相比优势明显。与中国其他省份不同。由于新疆的社会、经济、文化发展相对落后，这有利于教育的发展。长期以来，新疆有12个母语各异的少数民族，少数民族学生众多，英语教学对培养高素质的少数民族人才，发展少数民族地区的社会经济，发挥着重要作用。少数民族文化走向世界。
Xinjiang is a multi-ethnic region，and the population of ethnic minority accountsfor about 60% of Xinjiang's total population. The minority students are a specialgroup of English learning in Xinjiang. They are exposed to the bilingual environment(Uyghiir and Chinese) at birth and live in a very special multicultural communitysince their childhood，which provides them with an innate advantage for a foreignlanguage learning. Most of minority students have a special gift for language learningand they are capable of accepting new things quickly. In addition，due to tiie relativelytypical multicultural and multilingual social environment, tiie minority students aremuch easier to adapt themselves to different cultures and customs.The minority college students, as the elite of their ethnic minority groups, aremore sensitive to cultural diversity. They often need to adapt themselves to a newcultural environment which is different from their familiar native culture. There is abig difference between Chinese culture represented by the Han nationaiity andEnglish culture represented by the English-speaking peoples. Meanwhile, there alsoexists a big difference between Xinjiang minority cultures and the Han culture. Theminority college students are not only influenced by the Han culture, but also affectedby English culture in their English learning. The culture shock which they may sufferis far greater than that faced by Han students. This cultural conflict is bound to afifecttheir English learning. The minority college students will not only suffer a lot ofdifficulties in English learning, but also have great advantages over Han students, Features of Ethnic Minority Education in XinjiangAs we all know, Xinjiang is located in China's western border and its historicaland cultural background is different from any other province in China. Because thesocial，economic and cultural development of Xinjiang is relatively backward，it istrue to the development of education. It has long been inhabited by 12 original ethnicminority groups speaking different languages in Xinjiang, and many of the minoritystudents，English teaching plays a significant role for cultivating high-quality minoritytalents, developing the social economy in the ethnic minority regions and bringingethnic minority culture to the world.
1.2 The Purpose and Significance of the Study
The Purpose of the StudyIn the ethnic minority areas of Xinjiang, Uyghur college students have alreadylearned two or more languages，such as Uyghur, Kazakh and Chinese, so tiiey areexperienced bilinguals. They are apt to compare the similarities and the differencesbetween their mother tongue and L2 or L3，and thus they have different psychologicalcognition and learning orientation towards third language acquisition. Especially inethnic minority areas, Mandarin Chinese is learned earlier and is most widely used intheir daily life; whereas English，as a foreign language，is learned later and is onlyused in English class or on very limited occasions. Minority students will certainlyhave different perception in mind toward the two languages.During my teaching of Uyghur college students, I have found that many Uyghurcollege students have high enthusiasm for and interest in English learning. Meanwhile,most of Uyghur college students also show high language talent in English learningand their English pronunciation is general
