Factors Affecting the Motivation of Students from an International School in Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language

Abstract

The main focus of the study was to determine the factors of motivation among the G6-G10 students who study Chinese as a foreign language at Southville International School and Colleges (SISC). The result was expected to serve as a basis for the development of an action plan to motivate the students to learn the Chinese language further. This research will be designed on a quantitative descriptive correlational method, where numeric score ratings are assigned to gather the assessment of a specific respondent to observe a structured pattern. Quantitative research allows for objectivity, fast data collection and analysis of the data in a statistical form that can provide a thorough overview of the study (Health Research Funding, 2018). Aside from the descriptive quantitative design, correlation will also be used to further understand how variables relate with each other; according to I-Chant A. Chiang, Rajiv S. Jhangiani, and Paul C. Price (2013), correlation research is a non-experimental research design in which two variables are measured and assessed on the aspect of their statistical relationship in strength and range. The respondents' personal interest affects their motivation towards learning the Chinese language; according to them, they like challenging class work in Chinese because they can learn new knowledge, and they want to do better than their previous performance were among their several reasons. With parental encouragement, the students shared that their parents’ allow them to learn from previous poor performance; hence, they have better grades in Chinese courses now than before. Further, teachers showed encouragement by providing an outline of the topic to make it easier for the students to be proficient in the Chinese course, and most of the time, teachers do not judge the students when they answered questions in the Chinese language incorrectly.