Attitudes and Motivation of Non-Native Chinese Language Learners towards Learning Chinese Language

Abstract

Learning attitudes and motivation are among the most important factors that affect students' second language learning outcomes. Many previous studies also revealed that learning attitudes and motivation have a positive relationship with students’ learning outcomes. However, non-native Chinese Language (CL) learners may require more attention. Hence, the objectives of this study are (1) to identify the Malaysian former SJKC non-native CL learners’ proficiency levels; (2) to examine the non-native CL learners’ language learning attitude and motivation levels; (3) to determine the relationship between the learners’ CL proficiency and motivation levels. This study is both quantitative and qualitative in nature. The data collection methods used are mainly surveys and focused interviews. A total of 79 former SJKC non-native CL learners were chosen through the snowball sampling technique to answer the online questionnaires. In addition, focused interview sessions were conducted with six survey participants. The results showed there was a mild relationship (r=0.269) between motivation and CL proficiency level, even though the respondents showed a positive attitude and were highly motivated to learn the language. This result may be affected by factors other than attitude and motivation. The respondent’s self-report data showed that 80% of the participants are low proficiency CL learners. Furthermore, interview data also revealed that parental involvement positively affects high-performing learners’ learning motivation. Therefore, it is expected that all these factors might have affected the correlation analysis result. It is recommended that further research could delve into how these factors affect CL acquisition among non-native CL learners.