Thai Junior Technical College Students’ Motivation and Achievement in Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language: A Case Study of a Public Vocational School in Thailand
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Abstract
The present study investigated Thai junior technical college students’ motivation in learning Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) and the relationship between their learning motivation and achievement at a public vocation school. The second language motivational self-system framework (L2MSS) comprising ideal L2 self, ought-to L2 self and L2 learning experience and final grade scores were employed to measure the variables through mixed methods. A total of 97 second-year students of hotel management, marketing, logistics and accounting majors were randomly selected and completed an online questionnaire. The overall quantitative results displayed their moderate motivation level (M=2.93). Their L2 learning experience level was higher than the ideal L2 self and the ought-to L2 self, which indicated that they were highly motivated to learn CFL due to the current learning environment i.e. interesting teaching approaches, friendly classmates, their “liking” to the overall Chinese class atmosphere and positive attitude towards learning CFL. Pearson correlation analysis showed a significantly positive correlation between their motivation and achievement in learning CFL (r (97) = .372, p < .01). Although their motivation was not high, the overall mean final grade score of 76 showed their high accomplishment in learning CFL because their positive attitude towards Chinese learning and future desire of using Chinese (ideal L2 self) could push them to achieve highly. However, the current learning environment, Chinese teachers, curriculum and classmates (L2 learning experience) could not predict their CFL learning achievement. Personal interests, parents’ value in learning Chinese and impacts from others (ought-to L2 self) could positively influence the hotel management and marketing students to achieve highly, but they could not encourage the accounting and logistics students to get good results in learning CFL.
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