本文的主要目的在理解阿美族學生文化認同建構的過程，以及其間出現的問題。為了達成上述目的，本研究選擇文化領域中極為重要的面向之一一語言，作為分析的主題，採用人種誌的研究途徑，以四種方法在兩所阿美族小學同時進行為期五個月的資料蒐集“參與式觀察、半結構性訪談、問卷和文件分析。在研究觀點上，本文採用Cornell和Hartmann(2007)的建構主義來理解與闡釋阿美族學生語言認同建構的過程。根據本文的分析可以發現，兩所學校的阿美族學生認為國語與母語的功能有其差異，國語在日常溝通、學習活動與展現個人語言才能以建立自信上，具有極為重要的功能，然而，母語最顯著的功能卻是娛樂與玩笑，這使得他們在建立對自己族語的正向認同上有其困難，而這將不利於他們建立「雙文化認同」。

The main purpose of this paper is to understand the construction process of the Amis students in their cultural identities as well as possible problems occurred in the process. By using an ethnography approach, this research takes the tribe language as the focus as language is an important cultural dimension. The data are collected from four parts: participant observation, semi-structured interviews, questionnaire surveys, and documentary analysis over a period of five months from two primary schools where majority students are Amis. The analysis of linguistic identification conducted in this research is based on Cornell and Hartmann's (2007) constructionist approach. It is found that Amis students perceived the function of Mandarin differently from that of their mother tongue. For them, Mandarin plays an important role in daily communication, learning activities, and building self-confidence. Whereas, their mother tongue serves to play games for fun. It is then argued that educational practices in these two schools cannot facilitate students in constructing positive identities with their mother tongue. This possible failure might hinder students' formation of "dual cultural identities" proposed in the policy of national education.