Chapter 1 A Historical Review of the Researches on LanguageAchievement and Family Background
1.1 Overseas Researches on Language Achievement and FamilyBackground
Musgrove (1966) regards family as a social and economic organization, whichexert a profound influence on the prospects, developmental capacity and life chancesof the young children. With the development of a more democratic and more “open”society, the influence of families on their children’s personal development hasincreased rather than decreased. In such a society, in order to maintain their children’sstatus, parents with high status arrange various frenzied activities, while the pursuitfor high status through achievements increases the interest of parents with low statusin their children’s great progress. “The influence of parents on the standards, valuesand behavior of their children (even in their teens) is in general supreme”. There wasa survey conducted among children from England and America (Musgrove, 1966)revealing the general fact that children from middle-class families perform better inthe school system. He attributes it to the differences in their parents’ encouragementand social class in the rearing practices in the early years of their children. Parentswith scholastic achievements are intelligent and conscientious, thus they are able topay extra attention on the long-term gains and planning of their children. Middle-classupbringings are claimed to have more adaptive and socialized anxiety, which preventsthem from their parents and teachers’ disapproval. However, upbringings fromworking-class families are more permissive and indulgent, lacking the personalities offar-sightedness and control. Therefore, children from middle-class families tend tohave better examination results and more often to the university than children fromwork-class families.
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1.2 Domestic Researches on Language Achievement and FamilyBackground
Domestic researchers have done a few researches on the influences of familybackground on students’ language learning, but they are relatively limited in numberand many of them remain in theory.Parents’ different occupations have influences on a family’s living style andenvironment, as well as students’ Education and morality. Domestic scholar Ding Yu’s(1985) research indicated that parents’ different occupations resulted in theirchildren’s difference in academic achievement and morality. statistics reflected thatfor children whose parents are intellectual and those whose parents are cadres andclerks, the academic achievement of the former is higher than that of the latter. As forchildren whose parents are workers and farmers, their academic achievement is lowerthan that of children whose parents are cadres and clerks.In his research, Ding also found that family is one of the most importanteducational forces outside school and has a close relationship with the children’seducation and growth. He did a research on the influence of family background on thestudents’ academic achievement with 450 middle school students. The familybackground factors include parents’ occupation, parents’ educational level, families’economic condition, families’ atmosphere, parents’ expectance. The research resultreflects that children whose parents are intellectuals get better grades than thosewhose parents are cadres and officers. And those children，英语论文题目，英语毕业论文
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