Sociocultural Factors

Survey Design:
A survey of word associations was designed for native Chinese speakers
(NCE) and native English speakers (NES) (see Appendix). The survey
for NCS is in Chinese, and that for NES in English. In the survey, ten
words (food, clothes, family, friend, job, money, culture, success,
happiness, love), which are related most closely to people's lives, and
cover both material and spiritual aspects of life, were chosen as prompts.
The subjects were asked to write down six additional words or
expressions that they associated with each of the ten words. That is to
say, the subjects were asked to add six words or expressions after each of
the ten chosen words, making 60 words in all.
Data Collection:
Between 28 March and 8 June 1998, 40 copies of the survey were
distributed to NES by Joni Strohm, an American expert in Qufu Normal
University, Qufu, China, who was also the personnel officer of the
English Language Institute in China. All of the NES subjects were EFL
teachers working in China. In all, 28 valid surveys were collected.
A further 30 copies of the survey distributed to NCS were collected
between 12 November and 16 December 1998. Some of the NCS
subjects were Chinese English teachers, and others were postgraduates
in English Linguistics from Qufu Normal University. Once again, 28 of
the surveys collected were considered to be valid.

Population:

Among the 28 NCS subjects, 11 were male and 17 female; 12 were teachers,
and 16 were postgraduates of English linguistics; their ages ranged from 22
to 59. Among the 28 NES subjects, 10 were male and 18 female; 26 were
Americans, and 2 were Canadians; their ages ranged from 20 to 64.

Data analysis:
Among the ten initiating words, only one word—food—was chosen to
show the associations. The Chinese words and phrases associated by the
NCS subjects were translated into English by the author before
categorization. Then all the items listed by the subjects were classified
into different categories. The number that followed each item (see Table
1) indicates the times the word or phrase appeared, or the number of
people who listed that word or phrase. If the item appeared only once,
number (1) was omitted. Table 1 showing the analyses is in next blog.