An Exploration of the Role of Factor Analysis in Cultural Cognition on English Proficiency

Abstract

Abstract The role of cultural cognition on English proficiency has received extensive attention in the academic community, and this article analyzes the role of cultural cognitive ability on English proficiency by taking advantage of the advantages of factor analysis in revealing the underlying structure and data interpretation and understanding. The article firstly argues the importance of cultural cognitive ability on English proficiency and then elaborates on the mathematical model of factor analysis from the aspects of raw data and correlation matrix, factor analysis, and factor loading. Factor analysis is used to calculate the correlation matrix and extract four common factors according to the rule of eigenvalue greater than 1. The distribution of factors was adjusted by factor rotation, and the common factors that could explain 71.686% of the test data were named “English Expression Ability”, “English Comprehension Ability”, “Cultural Receptivity Ability,” and “Cultural Communication Ability”, and then classified as “Cultural Cognitive Ability” and “English Ability”. It is found that the loading coefficients of English expression, comprehension, and cultural acceptance and communication ability on English proficiency and cultural cognitive ability are 0.642, 0.591, 0.547, 0.392, 0.438, 0.511, 0.421, and 0.604, respectively, which indicates that cultural cognitive ability has a facilitating effect on the students’ English expression and comprehension, and therefore should be cultivated at the while focusing on the cultivation of cultural cognitive ability.