Affecting Factors of Cultural Identity of Pre-Qin Confucianism and Taoism and Its Correlation with Academic Achievement among Thai CSL Undergraduate Students

Abstract

In the study of Chinese cultural identity of the foreign Chinese as a second language (CSL) learners, there is a lack of more detailed cultural identity research on the specific content of Chinese culture from a micro perspective, and even less discussion on its correlation between it and academic achievement. Therefore, this study used a combination of questionnaires and interviews to analyze the current situation of Thai Chinese undergraduates’ cultural identification with Confucianism and Taoism in the pre-Qin era, its affecting factors, and its relationship with academic achievement based on three dimensions: cognitive-emotional-behavioral, with a total of 293 undergraduate students from the School of Sinology of Mae Fah Luang University in Thailand as participants. The study shows that: 1) the participants’ cultural identification with pre-Qin Confucianism and Daoism is high and there is no significant difference in their cultural identification with the two ideas; 2) the participants’ cultural identification with pre-Qin Confucianism and Daoism is significantly affected by their self-assessed Chinese language proficiency, the presence of long-term chatting friends who are native speakers of Chinese, motivation for learning and majors, and to a certain extent, by their religious beliefs, the length of time spent on Chinese language learning, and the use of media, but not by the presence or absence of native Chinese speakers, and not by the presence or absence of native speakers; 3) The participants’ cultural identification with the pre-Qin Confucianism and Daoism was significantly positively correlated with their academic achievement. In view of this, it is important to examine how to deal with these affecting factors in order to enhance the learners’ sense of cultural identification with Confucianism and Daoism and to promote the related teaching.