Factors Affecting Online Chinese as a Foreign Language Learning Stickiness: A Study on International Students in China.

Chen Chen

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.803669

Abstract

This study explored international students’ online Chinese as a foreign language learning stickiness in a Chinese university context. A new theoretical model was designed and verified to serve the mixed-method investigation. Participants were a group of 194 international students learning CFL online in a Chinese university. Data were collected through an online questionnaire for all the students and semi-structural individual interviews with eight volunteer participants. The structural equation modeling was conducted to analyze the collected quantitative data, and content analysis was used for the qualitative interview. Findings revealed that the online learning stickiness was significantly impacted by students’ learning expectancy confirmation, which was closely correlated with three key factors: academic integration, social integration, and technological factors. Moreover, social integration was found to be a direct contributor to learning stickiness. These results highlighted the importance of the high quality of the curriculum, the harmonious learning atmosphere, and the need for technical preparations and training for online Chinese language teaching and learning. The study also emphasized the need of integrating social interaction into Chinese learning in an online context. Investigation of a wider range of Chinese learners was recommended for future studies on learning stickiness and the new online approach.

Highlights

Over the past two decades, Chinese as a foreign or second language (CFL/CSL) has been widely taught and learned within and outside China (Ma et al, 2017; Gong et al, 2018, 2020a,c)
The loadings for all constructs were above 0.70, data demonstrated that the internal consistency of the proposed model was good as the reliability values for all five constructs were above the threshold line, as suggested by Hair et al (2006)
The statistics could reflect the picture of online CFL learning stickiness and dropout as satisfactory item reliability and good measurement properties were obtained through the scale constructs of the questionnaire

Summary

Introduction

Over the past two decades, Chinese as a foreign or second language (CFL/CSL) has been widely taught and learned within and outside China (Ma et al, 2017; Gong et al, 2018, 2020a,c). To fulfill international students’ academic and causal needs in China, various Chinese language learning programs have been set both in-class and online. Online CFL teaching and learning has served as an important approach in addition to routine in-class one, helping many international students achieve their language development goals (Jin, 2018; Gong et al, 2020b). To achieve teaching and learning CFL online faces a range of challenges, such as technical problems, learning habits and strategies, and some socioeconomic factors (Simamora, 2020).

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion