The roles of motivation, anxiety and learning strategies in online Chinese learning among Thai learners of Chinese as a foreign language

Abstract

The impact of motivation, anxiety and learning strategies on the achievement of foreign language proficiency has been widely acknowledged in the context of traditional offline classroom settings. However, this issue has not been extensively documented in relation to online learning, which has become the predominant form of language learning during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic. The current study was conducted to investigate the relative prediction of motivation, anxiety and learning strategies for second language achievement among 90 Thai adult learners of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) who took online Chinese courses. The participants completed a questionnaire dealing with motivation, anxiety, learning strategies, and their Chinese proficiency was measured by self-report and a Chinese vocabulary size test. A series of hierarchical regression analyses revealed two major findings. First, anxiety emerged as the most stable factor for the participants' CFL achievement, followed by learning strategies and motivation. Second, motivation, anxiety and learning strategies only significantly predicted the participants' self-rated Chinese language proficiency, but not their performance on the Chinese vocabulary size test. The overall results indicate the relative importance of motivation, anxiety and learning strategies to Chinese language learning in the online environment and suggest different measures of CFL achievement may lead to different research findings. The general findings were of theoretical and pedagogical significance for understanding and addressing individual differences factors in online language learning.

Language Learning Motivations among Turkish Learners of Chinese as a Foreign Language: A Survey of Five Universities in Turkey

“…Similarly, statistical analysis in the U.S. context confirms the interplay between motivation and the learning environment during the learning process [21]. Additionally, CFL motivation was found to affect Thai learners' Chinese language proficiency while taking online Chinese courses [22].…”

“…It is clear from the literature that language learning motivation among CFL learners from diverse L1 backgrounds has not been studied extensively. Moreover, there have been relatively few studies on Chinese language learners outside mainland China [31], particularly in less developed countries [22]. The available literature shows that there is currently limited understanding of Turkish university students' L2 motivations for learning Mandarin Chinese.…”

The development of a Chinese vocabulary proficiency test (CVPT) for learners of Chinese as a second/foreign language

“…Previous studies used different tests to measure L2 learners' proficiency (Hulstijn, 2012;McManus & Liu, 2020;Park et al, 2022;Tremblay, 2011;H. Zhang, 2018), and different measures could yield different research findings (W. Xu et al, 2022;H. Zhang, 2018H.…”

Research on Non-Native Speakers' Motivation in Chinese Language Learning: A Review and Reflection—A Statistical Analysis Based on Academic Journal Papers (1997-2023)

“…In previous studies, scholars measured students' Chinese language proficiency through self-report and proficiency tests. The results showed that anxiety and motivation significantly predicted students' self-assessment results, and motivation affected students' self-assessment (Xu, Zhang, Sukjairungwattana, & Wang, 2022). Appropriately increasing task motivation can reduce anxiety and improve the efficiency of second language learning, but when students are determined to complete the task, the increase in task motivation is also accompanied by various factors that accelerate the increase in task anxiety (Wang, Zhu, & Zhang, n.d.).…”