2012_student motivation for learning chinese as a second language

US-China Foreign Language, ISSN 1539-8080 February 2012, Vol. 10, No. 2, 921-932

Student Motivation for Learning Chinese as a Second Language

in Hong Kong International Secondary Schools

Bennan Zhang

The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

Studying an L2 (second language) has been one of the core curricular designs of the education system among

international secondary schools in Hong Kong for a long time. Although French and Spanish remain among the

most popular second languages for students, it is notable that Chinese (Mandarin) has now become more and more

popular at these international schools since several years ago. The investigation reported in this paper looks at the

motivational orientations behind students who are studying Chinese as an L2 with regards to school environment,

socio-cultural impact, and home factors that influence on the students’ motivation in the context of Hong Kong. A

total of 179 students from three junior secondary school years participated in the investigation. The results have

confirmed the existence of the four traditional motivational variables of integrativeness, instrumentality, linguistic

self-confidence, and classroom environment in the Hong Kong context. In addition, this study has also evidenced

that students from across Years 7, 8, and 9 have different motivations for learning Chinese. While integrativeness

was found to be the most important motivation for the Year 7 students, instrumentality served as the most important

motivation for the Year 9 students. Motivation for the Year 8 students was more complicated and the factor of

classroom environment plays a vital role in keeping students continuing on their Chinese study. All these findings

were supported by the questionnaires and group interviews that the students completed during the investigation.

This study serves as significant information for the understanding of the nature and process of learning Chinese as

an L2 and the choice of pedagogical conditions at international secondary schools in Hong Kong.

Keywords: L2 (second language) motivation, learning Chinese as an L2, integrativeness, instrumentality,

classroom environment

Introduction

Studying an L2 (second language) at school has been one of the core curricular designs of the education

system among international secondary schools in Hong Kong for a long time. Regardless of whether it is French,

Spanish, Japanese, or Chinese, students studying in these international schools have to choose at least one L2 to

study in addition to English, which serves as the school language and the medium of instruction and learning

(English Schools Foundation (ESF), 2009). Although French and Spanish remain among the most popular L2s

for students, it is notable that Chinese (Mandarin) has now become more and more popular at these international

schools since several years ago. The ESF, the largest international school group in Hong Kong with more than 17

Bennan Zhang, Dr./Ph.D., Ed.D, Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong.

DAVID PUBLISHING

D

STUDENT MOTIVATION FOR LEARNING CHINESE AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

922

international primary and secondary schools, for example, now pays great attention to their Chinese courses. Its

aim, through the provision of the Chinese courses, is to enable all students to reach “a basic level of Chinese in a

business situation” after completing secondary education (ESF, 2009, p. 6).

Despite the increasing popularity, however, very little research has been done to investigate the motivation

of the students who are engaged in studying Chinese as an L2. This study, “Student Motivation for Learning

Chinese as a Second Language in Hong Kong International Secondary Schools”, intends to look at the

motivational orientations behind students who are studying Chinese as an L2 with regards to school environment,

socio-cultural impact, and home factors that influence the students’ motivation. This study, therefore, will serve

as significant information for the understanding of the nature and process of learning Chinese as an L2 and the

choice of pedagogical conditions at international schools in Hong Kong.

Literature on Motivation

Researching the motivation for L2 learning has had a long history. Before giving an overview of the

variables affecting motivational orientations, the meaning of “motivation” to L2 learning should be stated. It is

true that, since motivation as a psychological behavior of human beings is highly complex, coming to a good

definition is no easy task. People use the term “motivation” widely in a variety of everyday and professional

contexts without problems with its meaning, but, when it comes to describe precisely what this term might be,

opinions diversify at an alarming rate. In a general sense with regard to L2 motivation, however, the definition of

Dörnyei and Ottó (1998) can be taken as the starting point for our thinking when they suggest that:

Motivation can be defined as the dynamically changing cumulative arousal in a person that initiates, directs, coordinates, amplifies, terminates, and evaluates the cognitive and motor processes whereby initial wishes and desires are selected, prioritized, operationalised and (successfully or unsuccessfully) acted out. (p. 65)

To elaborate on the definition, Dörnyei (2005) later pointed out that motivation is the “driving force to

sustain the long and often tedious learning process” (p. 65). According to Gardner (1985, p. 10), one’s motivation

to L2 learning composes of three elements: The first element is the effort that one performs in learning an L2, the

second element is one’s wish to learn an L2, and the third element is the sense of achievement in the process of

learning an L2. Their ideas on the concept of L2 motivation can shed light on the current study.

Researchers have established a number of theories on L2 language learners such as the socio-psychological

theory (Gardner, 1968, 1985; Gardner & Lambert, 1972; Gardner & MacIntyre, 1993) and the self-determination

theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985, 2000). Related to the theories, mostly through conducting empirical studies on

motivation, a number of orientations or types of L2 motivation were suggested by previous research.

Gardner and Lambert (1959, 1972), from a social psychological viewpoint, identified two major types of

orientations—the integrative orientation and the instrumental orientation—which were later confirmed by many

researchers. The integrativeness orientation, according to Dörnyei (2003), Ellis (2008), and Gardner (1985),

refers to the eagerness of the learner to interact with, to assimilate with, to understand and to accept the L2

community. The instrumentality orientation refers to the possible and precise benefits achieved from knowing

another language, such as having a higher opportunity of employment and being able to demand a higher salary

(Dörnyei, 1994; Ellis, 2008).


923

Although the combination of integrativeness and instrumentality had been the most popular in explaining the

motivations in L2 learning among a lot of the L2 acquisition studies for the past few decades, there has been some

shortcomings. Gardner and MacIntyre (1993) once stated that as motivation is dynamic, “The old characterization

of motivation in terms of integrative vs. instrumental orientation is too static and restricted” (p. 4). Therefore, other

variables and theories could be introduced in order to meet the dynamic aspects of motivational orientations.

Another well-known distinction in the motivation comes from self-determination theory with two major

types of intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation (Deci & Ryan, 1985, 2000). According to the summery of Dörnyei

(2001, p. 27), the first type of motivation deals with behavior performed for its own sake in order to experience

pleasure and satisfaction, such as the joy of doing a particular activity or satisfying one’s curiosity. The second

involves performing a behavior as a means to an end, that is, to receive some extrinsic reward, such as receiving

good grades or avoiding punishment.

Extrinsic motivation has traditionally been seen as something that can undermine intrinsic motivation.

Several studies have confirmed that students will lose their natural intrinsic interest in an activity if they have to

do it to meet some extrinsic requirement. Other studies, however, did not find the expected negative relationship

between the two types of motivation. Thus, various types of motivations exist and depending on circumstances,

extrinsic rewards can be combined with, or can even lead to, intrinsic motivation (Dörnyei, 2001, pp. 28-29).

In addition to studying the types of motivation, which have been briefly reviewed above, a number of

researchers focused on factors that affect students’ motivation for L2 study. Among them, the learner’s L2

learning experience, situation of the classroom, and parental influence were found to be significant in shaping

students’ L2 motivation.

The learning experience, according to Dörnyei (2009), is “related to the immediate learning environment

and experience (e.g., the impact of the teacher, the curriculum, the peer group, the experience of success)” (p. 29).

This is also related to the attribution theory in which Dörnyei (2003) suggested that “It (attribution theory)

manages to link people’s past experience with their future achievement efforts by introducing causal attributions

as the mediating link” (p. 8). In other words, positive learning experiences, both immediate and past learning

experiences, will enhance the learners’ motivation, whereas negative learning experiences will de-motivate the

learners to learn the language. This is supported by a number of researchers. For example, Barraclough,

Christophel, and McCroskey (1988) concluded their cross-cultural investigation that “Previous research

indicated people who experience high levels of fear or anxiety regarding communication often avoid and

withdraw from communication” (p. 188). Ryan and Deci (2000) found influences of “positive experiences

associated with exercising and extending ones capacities” (p. 56). Oxford and Shearin (1994, p. 15) stated that

the experience of success leads to positive motivation to progress in L2 learning.

The situation of the classroom that the students are in while learning the L2 was found to play an important

role in shaping students’ motivation. This is supported by Weiner (1979) for example, in which he argued that

“classrooms are environments for the satisfaction of motivation other than achievement” (p. 3). According to

Dörnyei (1994, p. 277), there are three types of motivational components which are related to learning situations

that include (1) the course-specific motivational components, (2) the teacher-specific motivational components,

and (3) the group-cohesion motivational components. The course-specific motivational components involve the


924

syllabus, teaching methods, learning tasks, and teaching materials; whereas the teacher-specific motivational

components involves the teachers’ relationships with the students, the teachers’ personality, teaching styles, and

feedbacks; and, finally, the group-cohesion motivational components involve the interaction within the learning

groups. These motivational components described by Dörnyei (1994) were also supported by other researchers,

such as Pintrich, Roeser, and Groot (1994).

Parental influence is another factor found to be important in shaping students’ L2 motivation. Through close

family relationships, children learn about parental values, goals, attitudes, and motivations. Baker (1992, p. 109)

argued that parental language attitudes influence children’s language attitudes, and that although children’s

attitudes tend to match or be similar to those of their parents, this does not imply that one causes the other.

Research on parental attitudes toward languages has also revealed differences by language. For example, after

comparing 65 parents from four language groups at five language school sites in the US, Yan (2003) found that

the majority (68%) of the Chinese parents believed it very important or important to maintain Chinese language

learning and use for their children for the benefit of academic performance in regular English-language schools,

which is a different attitude from parents in the other language groups. Such home language attitude and use is

likely to have considerable impact on the language attitudes of the children.

The concepts or theories on L2 motivation reviewed above are used by this study to examine the motivation

of international secondary school students in Hong Kong on learning Chinese (Mandarin) as an L2.

Methodology

The main data were collected in May 2010. Students of the Chinese classes of Years 7, 8, and 9 from two

international secondary schools in Hong Kong were chosen. A total of 179 students participated in the research,

of which there were 57 Year 7 students, 67 Year 8 students, and 52 Year 9 students, and three students with

missing school year data. Of these students who participated in the study, 86 were male students, 90 were female

students, and three students with missing gender data. About half of the students use English at home—45.1% of

them communicated with their mothers in English, while 54.8% communicated with their fathers in English.

Of the two chosen international schools, one is a member of the English Schools Foundation (School A) and

the other school is a private international school (School B). School A follows the National Curriculum of

England and Wales and most the students will have to sit for the GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary

Education) or the IGCSE (International General Certificate of Secondary Education) in Year 11. As for the

private international school, School B, it follows the IB (International Baccalaureate). The students in School B

will have to sit for the examination offered by the IB organization in Year 11.

The main instruments used in this study consisted of questionnaire and group interview. The questionnaire that

was distributed to the participating students consisted of three parts. Part 1 consisted of 48 close-ended statements

related to the reasons why the students were studying Chinese as an L2. The students were asked to circle the degree

of their agreement with the statement by the use of a 6-point Likert scale. Part 2 of the questionnaire consisted of

two open-ended questions in which the students were asked to write down any comments about their Chinese

lessons and rank the languages that they would like to study in the coming school year. Part 3 of the questionnaire

consisted of questions asking about the students’ background information including the school year of the student,

the gender of the student, birthplace, birth date, and languages spoken with parents at home.


925

Apart from collecting information through the questionnaire, group interviews were also conducted in order

to obtain further and in-depth information from the students in regards to their motivation in learning Chinese.

Thirty students or 17% of the students who have done the questionnaire were asked to participate in the

interviews voluntarily. The questions that were asked in the interviews were set in a semi-structured format with

open-ended questions.

The data collected from the schools were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The results obtained

from the quantitative methods were mainly from responses to the questionnaire and were processed with the

statistical software SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) Version 18. The results obtained from the

qualitative methods were mainly from transcriptions of the interviews. The results of these analyses will be

discussed in the following section.

Findings and Discussion

Four Motivational Variables Confirmed

Each student was asked to circle the degree of agreement towards the 48 statements listed in Part 1 of the

questionnaire ranking from strongly disagree to strongly agree. The data results show that the average response to

the statements listed in the questionnaire Part 1 by the Year 7 students is between 4.68 and 2.95; the average

response to the statements by the Year 8 students is between 4.99 and 2.61; the average response by the Year 9

students is between 5.21 and 3.19.

By factor analyses, students’ responses to the 48 statements were categorized into a few variable groups.

There are four variable groups motivating the students to study Chinese as an L2. Using similar labels as the

previous studies reviewed above, the four variable groups can be seen as: (1) integrativeness, which includes

factors such as students’ image of Chinese people, how the people around the students affect the motivation of the

students to study Chinese as an L2, and how interested the students are to learning more about China and Chinese

people and how much they like the Chinese language itself, etc.; (2) instrumentality, which includes factors such

as how useful the students think the Chinese language is and how interested the students are in using the Chinese

that they have learnt to understand the media, etc.; (3) linguistic self-confidence, which includes factors such as the

students’ confidence in speaking Chinese in classrooms or with Chinese native speakers, and the level of difficulty

felt by the students towards their Chinese lessons, etc.; and (4) classroom environment, which includes factors

such as whether the Chinese classes are interesting and how much the students like their Chinese classes, etc.

Table 1 shows the mean score of each variable group. The mean score is produced by calculating the average

of the mean values of the statements in each variable group as suggested by the factor analysis.

Table 1

Questions Grouped Into Their Variable Groups by Each School Year

Variable group Mean for Year 7 Mean for Year 8 Mean for Year 9

Integrativeness 3.84 3.36 3.2

Instrumentality 3.25 3.8 4.09

Linguistic self-confidence 3.22 3.2 3.33

Classroom environment 3.25 3.5 3.56


926

From Table 1, one can conclude that integrativeness plays the most important role in motivating the Year 7

students to study Chinese as an L2; however, for the Year 9 students integrativeness is of the least importance.

The reason for Year 7 students to have the greatest integrativeness could be because of the fact that these students

do not yet have the need to sit for examinations like the Year 9 students do. Therefore, being free from the

pressure and examinations, according to Dörnyei (2003), Ellis (2008), and Gardner (1985), the Year 7 students

would be able to develop their integrativeness and hence develop their appreciation of the Chinese culture,

language, and community. At the same time, these students would be able to develop both their interests in China

as a nation and their integrative motivation in learning the Chinese language. Additionally, a high level of

integrative motivation could also imply that the students have high level of intrinsic motivation. This can be

interpreted from the fact that the Year 7 students enjoying their process of learning the Chinese language

(Dörnyei, 2001) which is also reflected in the comments written down by the students about their classes.

On the other hand, the reason why Year 9 students have the least integrativeness in studying Chinese as an

L2 can be due to the fact that they are under the pressure and need to sit for Chinese examinations in the near

future. Such pressure and need would inevitably have caused these students to lose interest in the Chinese

language and the Chinese community. However, such pressure and need would have increased the Year 9

students’ instrumentality motivation in learning Chinese as an L2 which implies that these students are studying

Chinese in order to tackle the future examinations that they are required to sit for. Additionally, being the oldest

of all the three groups in the study, these students will start considering about the usefulness of the language for

their future in aspects of jobs and further education. They will start to consider whether learning the language

would allow them to demand higher salary and higher opportunity of employment (Dörnyei, 1994; Ellis, 2008).

Together, both the lower integrative motivation and higher instrumental motivation showed that the Year 9

students have a high level of extrinsic motivation (Deci & Ryan, 2000). This is because the Year 9 students are

engaging in activities that would help them receive external rewards, such as higher marks for examinations and

better job prospects for the future (Dörnyei, 2001). For the Year 8 students, based on the information of Table 1,

they seem to have a more balanced motivation between integrativeness and instrumentality.

Being different from integrativeness and instrumentality, linguistic self-confidence, and classroom

environment were found to be two factors influencing or supporting students’ motivation of L2 study. Though

linguistic self-confidence is confirmed as one of the two major motivational factors for all years’ students, the

mean is lowest for all students as compared with other motivational variables. This implies that students do not

have a high level of linguistic self-confidence. This is also evidenced by the data collected in the interview. When

the students were asked whether they actually speak Chinese outside class, they would say that they did not have

much confidence in doing so. The following are some of the responses from the students when they were asked:

“Do you think you can speak Chinese with Chinese speakers with confidence?”.

Interviewer: /1.92.24/ yep… sure… and do you think you can speak Chinese with Chinese speakers with confidence? Girl 2: /1.92.25/ no… Girl 1: /1.92.26/ um… I can do like the basics… Interviewer: /2.71.41/ Alright… well those are very good reasons… so do you think you can speak Chinese with

Chinese speakers with confidence? Girl 1: /2.71.44/ like I can speak it in front of my class but not in front of Chinese people.


927

Students also do not have enough confidence to speak Chinese with their friends outside class:

Interviewer: /1.92.65/ ok… if it becomes easier… ok… and do you usually speak Chinese with… ah... outside class? Like with your friends…

Girl 1: /1.92.66/ no… Interviewer: /1.92.67/ not even for fun? Girl 2: /1.92.68/ sometimes for fun… Interviewer: /1.92.69/ alright… Girl 2: /1.92.70/ and like my mum… she… she kind of can speak Chinese because she has been learning for a long

time so sometimes she like… Interviewer: /1.92.71/ oh… Girl 1: /1.92.72/ and my mum is learning Chinese so…sometimes we help each other study. Interviewer: /1.92.73/ oh… that’s really good. … you guys have support and stuff like that Girl 1: /1.92.74/ yep

Comparatively, the mean score of Year 9 students for linguistic self-confidence is slightly higher than those

of Year 7 and 8 students. The difference would imply that Year 9 students have a higher linguistic self-confidence

and lower anxiety level when they were trying to speak in Chinese. This could be a result of the length of time

that these students have studied Chinese, because the Year 9 students are the ones who have studied the language

longest as compared to the other two school year groups.

Another important variable group of motivational factors confirmed is classroom environment. From the

same table, it is seen that classroom environment affected the motivation of Year 7 students the least and Year 9

students the most. This situation can be due to the fact that Year 7 students have a high integrative motivation,

thus external factors such as classroom environment did not cause much effect on their learning. On the contrary,

however, Year 9 students’ integrative motivation is not as high as the Year 7 students; hence, the Year 9 students

would need external factors such as an interesting and vibrant classroom environment to motivate them to

continue their study of the language.

Chinese Is the First Choice for All Year Students Excluding English

In Part 2 of the questionnaire, students were asked to write down three languages, excluding English, which

they would like to study in their future years of education, putting the most desired one in the first place. A total of

31 different languages were written down by the students, but the result of the responses was that Chinese is the

most popular of all the 31 recorded languages followed by Spanish and French. Table 2 shows the three most

desired language to be studied.

Table 2

The Three Languages That the Students Would Like to Study in Order of Desire (Excluding English)

First Percentage (%) Second Percentage (%) Third Percentage (%)

Year 7 Chinese 29.8 French 35.1 Spanish 17.5

Year 8 Chinese 41.8 Spanish 35.8 French 22.4

Year 9 Chinese 53.8 French 26.9 Spanish/French 13.5

From Table 2, one can conclude that the Chinese language is the most desired L2 for all the students in Years

7, 8, and 9 in their future years of education. The students who chose Chinese as their first choice language to

learn increased yearly from Year 7 (at 29.8%) to Year 8 (at 41.8%) to Year 9 (at 53.8%). This implies that the


928

Chinese language is viewed as a very important language to be learnt among all the students who participated in

the study.

Results from the interview also support the finding above. According to the responses of all the students who

were interviewed, when asked why they would like to study Chinese, the most significant reason given is that

they realize the usefulness of the Chinese language. The majority of the students think that Chinese nowadays has

become one of the main languages in the world and thus it would be useful to know. Some of the students will go

further to say that if they knew Chinese, it would be easier for them to go and do business with the Chinese in the

future. This could be related to the instrumentality of the Chinese language. As Chinese is now becoming more

and more useful and important for one’s future education and job opportunities, students may have come to know

this fact. Therefore, realizing how important this language is now, they would have become more motivated to

learn Chinese as an L2 (Dörnyei, 1994; Ellis, 2008).

However, at the same time, this realization of the usefulness of the Chinese language could also be

influenced by the students’ parents and it was their parents who asked them to learn Chinese. The responses of the

Year 7 and 8 students below may suggest this:

Interviewer: /2.72.1/ … ok… so why did you want to do Chinese in the first place? Girl 1: /2.72.2/ cos my parents said I have to Boy 1: /2.81.2/ er… cos my parents think it will be good and I can get a good job and become rich…

Parents’ support and influence can be one of the most important formations of a student’s motivation to learn

an L2. According to Gardner (1985), parents who allow their children to enroll in a certain L2 class, in this case

Chinese, would imply that these parents have a positive image for Chinese, and in turn they would encourage their

children to study Chinese. With parents’ encouragement, it would be found that, according to Gardner’s (1985)

study, the students will become more motivated in learning the language that their parents encourage. Dörnyei

(2009) further argued that parental encouragement originates from how important and necessary the language is

viewed by the parents. In other words, the parents who encourage and support their children to study Chinese

understand and agree that Chinese is a language which will aid their children in having better prospects in their

future education and career development, and the students’ responses in turn reflect this parental sentiment.

It deserves attention that a few students who had a Chinese background said that it would be a good idea to

learn the language because they were born Chinese. Others went further to say that since one of their parents was

Chinese or they were already fluent in Chinese, it was an easier option to learn Chinese. The following are some

responses from these students.

Boy 2: /2.92.6/ well my mum is Chinese… Interviewer: /2.92.7/ alright so that’s fine… Boy 2: /2.92.8/ ah no… and it’s easier than any other subject cos I can speak it f fluently… Girl 2: /2.72.10/ um… cos I am like born Chinese, and my parents persuaded me to do cos it’s useful…

Pedagogy Should Be Emphasized to Motivate Students’ Continual Study

The second question in Part 2 was that students were also asked to write down some comments about their

Chinese classes. According to the statistics, 31.6% of Year 7 students, 53.7% of Year 8 students, and 53.8 % of

Year 9 students wrote some comments on their Chinese classes at school. The comments that the students wrote


929

consisted of both negative and positive comments.

All the comments were grouped by nature and frequency, and the findings show that the most frequent factor

is Class atmosphere, which can be seen from Table 3.

Table 3

Students’ Comments on Their Chinese Class Atmosphere

School year Negative response (frequency %) Positive response (frequency %)

Year 7 (7.01%) e.g.: -want more games and activities, boring

(33.33%) fun, resourceful, inquisitive, good atmosphere, friendly, interesting, helpful, enjoyable

Year 8

(38.81%) not interesting/boring, repetitive, messy, hard to concentrate, loud, stressing out, annoying people, need to be more relaxed, distracting

(19.40%) creative, productive, interesting, relaxing, fun

Year 9

(23.08%) no one pays attention, people do not try, people are rude, bad class etiquette, slow, laid back, distracting, people are disrespectful, disturbed, hate, boring, too fast

(38.46%) interesting, vibrant, informative, fun, friendly, enjoyable, calm, funny, good

Although the students do understand the usefulness of the Chinese language, the majority of the interviewed

students made a number of complaints about the way how Chinese is being taught at school. The most common

complaint from the students are about the frequency of dictations that are given to the students from the Chinese

teachers and the fact that there is no fun in class. The following are some of the responses:

Boy 2: /2.92.20/ the class is just boring. Interviewer: /2.92.21/ boring? So what do teachers do? Like how do they teach you? Boy 2: /2.92.22/ they like give you dictations and just write stuff on the board… Boy 1: /2.92.23/ and they read, and they read from the book the textbook and then like say what this word means and

we just read passages and say copy this out. Boy 2: /2.92.24/ yeah they say like you can’t talk you can only just be quiet.

With regards to the proficiency of the students’ Chinese, the majority of the students responded that they

found writing Chinese the most difficult part of all, then they will continue to say that they think that they can and

should improve on speaking, reading, and listening aspects of the language. A lot of the students said that the way

that Chinese is being taught at school is not helping them to improve their proficiency and also de-motivating

them to learn the Chinese language. The following are some of the responses of the interviewed students.

Interviewer: /2.71.78/ alright… and so well… what do you think is the most difficult part for learning Chinese? Girl 1: /2.71.79/ writing Interviewer: /2.71.80/ writing? Girl 2: /2.71.81/ yeah… Girl 1: /2.71.82/ cos there is so much work in writing… in speaking we like… we started since we were very young so

it’s easy but then for writing there are so many like… like Girl 2: /2.71.83/ characters…

Indeed, in this case of the interviewed student, the frequency of dictation and atmosphere of the classes have

led the students lose their interest in learning the language and their anticipation of the classes at school. This is

supported by Wen (1997), in which he suggested that students of the Chinese language will easily become

frustrated by the difficulty of the Chinese writing and this thus creates motivational barriers.


930

When the students were asked what would make them look forward to their classes, the majority of the

students will reply “if there were more fun in class”. The following are excerpts from the interviews:

Interviewer: /1.81.136/ alright. … that’s very interesting… ok. … so do you actually want to have your classes? Are you looking forward to your classes?

Boy 1: /1.81.137/ Chinese? Interviewer: /1.81.138/ yeah Chinese… Boy 1: /1.81.139/ yeah… if it’s fun…

As a follow up to this question, the students were asked what they would do to make the clases more fun if

they were the teachers. The majority of students will then reply that they would include more games and make

use of movies and flashcards in the class to help the students learn the language, and some students will also say

that they will give out more projects to the students to do to make the classes “more fun”. This can be seen from

the interview excerpts below:

Boy 2: /2.92.192/ more Chinese games Interviewer: /2.92.193/ ok Boy 1: /2.92.194/ Chinese hangman Interviewer: /2.92.197/ ok Boy 2: /2.92.198/ yeah I mean just like make it more fun! Interviewer: /2.92.199/ will you do movies? Boy 2: /2.92.200/ like… like… just easy times… like if students are sleeping in the class… Boy 1: /2.92.201/ yeah… movies! Boy 2: /2.92.202/ yeah movies...Movies are great! Boy 1: /2.92.203/ yeah cos like all the Chinese Harry Potter Boy 2: /2.92.204/ that’s really good…

Looking more closely at Table 3, one can see that the Years 7 and 9 students seem more comfortable with their

classes than the Year 8 students. Referring to the discussion above, one can suppose that, as the Year 7 students have

a higher integrative motivation in learning the Chinese language and less pressure of examination, they seem to be

enjoying their Chinese classes more. Despite that the fact the students in Year 9 have pressure from completing

examinations and the lower integrative motivation, the Year 9 students are still enjoying their Chinese classes with

much positive comments. This could be due to the pedagogical conditions that the teachers of the schools are using,

and as well as students’ previous longer learning experiences. MacIntyre, Dörnyei, Clément, and Noels (1998)

pointed out that positive experiences could be developed by “the development of self-confidence, which is based on

a lack of anxiety combined with a sufficient level of communicative competence, arising from a series of reasonably

pleasant L2 experiences” (p. 548). Since Year 9 students had more learning experience and stronger self-confidence

on this language learning, they would find it easier with their classes.

Year 8 students commented their classes more negatively than Year 7 and Year 9 students did, e.g., “not

interesting/ boring”, “repetitive”, “messy”, “hard to concentrate”, “loud”, “stressing out”, “annoying people”,

“need to be more relaxed”, and “distracting”. The reason for that might be seen from their comments on the

assignments: “too much dictation”, “too much homework”, and “not enough time to study”. In other words, the

students felt that Chinese class was “too hard/too difficult”:

Boy 1 & 2: /1.81.60/ Cos it’s really hard. B2: /1.81.61/ it’s very hard.


931

Interviewer: /1.81.62/ hard? Boy 1: /1.81.63/ there is no fun… Boy 1: /1.81.64/ it’s mostly like sit there… write write write

Indeed, according to Wen (1997), when the tasks that the students are given exceed the capability level of

the students, the students will be de-motivated in learning the language.

Related to this, the investigation also revealed a fact that the Year 8 students were the ones who have paid

the most effort on their Chinese study. We know from the interview, a lot of parents of Year 8 students provide

tutors for their children to help them with the Chinese homework. This suggests that the parents of these students

are more supportive in the fact that their children are learning Chinese at school. The following are the responses

from the students of Year 8 in interview:

Boy 2: /2.81.689/ yeah we both get tutoring together… Interviewer: /2.81.70/ oh… ok… is it a private a tutor? Boy 2: /2.81.71/ yah. Boy 1: /2.81.72/ yah. Interviewer: /2.81.73/ ok. … what do they do? Do they help you with homework? Dictations and stuff like that? Boy 1: /2.81.74/ yeah… Boy 2: /2.81.75/yah… er… not really… cos we moved up a set and so we needed to catch up so our teachers sort of

helps us revise what we have done.

This implies that the Year 8 students, who have a more balanced motivation between integrativeness and

instrumentality, are putting in extra time and effort in their learning of the Chinese language.

Conclusions

The study results presented in this paper have shown the major motivational orientations of the international

secondary schools students to learn Chinese as an L2 in the context of Hong Kong. From the discussions above

on the variables confirmed by the present study, one could conclude that a number of factors would play

important roles in shaping the motivation of students in choosing and continuing their learning of Chinese as an

L2. These factors widely cover the teaching and learning aspects, including students’ interest in China as a nation,

awareness of the usefulness of the Chinese language, linguistic self-confidence, learning experience, the effort

involved, teachers’ strategies and classroom environment, and parental influence and support, etc.

From what has been observed from the questionnaires and interviews, it is found that students from across

Years 7, 8, and 9 have different motivations to study Chinese. While integrativeness is the most important

motivation for the Year 7 students, instrumentality is the most important motivation for the Year 9 students. The

results from the interviews with the students show that linguistic self-confidence and classroom atmosphere are

two importent factors that affect students’ motivation in their learning of Chinese as an L2.

It is also noticeable that the negative comments from Year 8 students on their Chinese class environment

indicate that the way the language is taught in the classroom serves as a vital factor in motivating or

de-motivating the students in their learning of the language.

References

Baker, C. (1992). Attitudes and language. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Barraclough, R. A., Christophel, D. M., & McCroskey, J. C. (1988). Willingness to communicate: A cross-cultural investigation.


932

Communication Research Reports, 5(2), 187-192. Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. New York: Plenum. Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). Intrinsic and ectrinsi motivations: Classic difinitions and new directions. Contemporary

Educational Psychology, 25, 54-67. Dörnyei, Z. (1994). Motivation and motivating in the foreign language classroom. The Modern Language Journal, 78(3), 273-284. Dörnyei, Z. (2001). Teaching and researching motivation. England: Pearson Education Limited. Dörnyei, Z. (2003). Attitude, orientations, and motivations in language learning: Advances in theory, research, and applications. In

Z. Dörnyei & E. Ushioda (Eds.), Motivation, language identity and the L2 self (Second language acquisition) (pp. 3-32). Great Britain: Multilingual Matters.

Dörnyei, Z. (2005). Psychology of the language learner: Individual differences in second language acquisition (Second language acquisition research) (1st ed.). Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Dörnyei, Z. (2009). The L2 motivation self system. In Z. Dörnyei & E. Ushioda (Eds.), Motivation, language identity and the L2 self (Second language acquisition) (pp. 120-143). Bristol, U.K.: Multilingual Matters.

Dörnyei, Z., & Ottó, I. (1998). Motivation in action: A process model of L2 motivation. Working Papers in Applied Linguistics (Thames Valley University, London), 4, 43-69.

Ellis, R. (2008). The study of second language acquisition. London: Oxford University Press. English Schools Foundation (ESF). (2009). Annual report 2007-2008. Retrieved from

http://www.esf.edu.hk/sites/esf/files/esf_ar_2007_8_eng_final.pdf Gardner, R. C. (1968). Attitudes and motivation: Their role in second-language acquisition. TESOL Quarterly, 2(3), 141-150. Gardner, R. C. (1985). Social psychology and second language learning: The role of attitudes and motivation (Social Psychology of

Language (Vol. 4). London: Edward Arnold. Gardner, R. C., & Lambert, W. E. (1959). Motivational variables in second language acquisition. Canadian Journal of Psychology,

32, 162-178. Gardner, R. C., & Lambert, W. E. (1972). Attitudes and motivation in second language learning. Rowley, M.A.: Newbury House. Gardner, R. C., & MacIntyre, P. D. (1993). A student’s contributions to second-language learning. Part II: Affective variables.

Language Teaching, 26, 1-11. MacIntyre, P. D., Dörnyei, Z., Clément, R., & Noels, K. A. (1998). Conceptualizing willingness to communicate in a L2: A

situational model of L2 confidence and affiliation. Modern Language Journal, 82(4), 545-562. Oxford, R., & Shearin, J. (1994). Language learning motivation: Expanding the theoretical framework. The Modern Language

Journal, 78(1), 12-28. Pintrich, P. R., Roeser, R. W., & Groot, E. A. (1994). Classroom and individual differences in early adolescents’ motivation and

self-regulated learning. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 14, 139-161. Weiner, B. (1979). A theory of motivation for some classroom experiences. Journal of Educational Psychology, 71(1), 3-25. Wen, X. (1997). Motivation and language learning with students of Chinese. Foriegn Language Annals, 30(2), 235-251. Yan, R. L. (2003). Parental perceptions on maintaining heritage languages of CLD students. Bilingual Review, 27(2), 99-113.

2012_student motivation for learning chinese as a second language

Documents