An Investigation And Analysis On Learning Motivation Of Iranian College Students Majoring In Chinese

China and Iran have a long history of friendly exchanges.At present,more and more Iranian students and high school students choose Chinese as their major in university,and they have a strong demand for learning Chinese.Learning motivation is a very important factor in learning a second language.Learners’ gender,age,length of learning Chinese and other factors as well as language teachers are closely related to second language learning.However,learners’ motivation is one of the most critical factors,which affects the play of learners’ subjective initiative and determines the learning effect.The author,as a participant and classroom observer of Chinese teaching in Iran,investigated the Chinese learning situation of students and teachers of Chinese language department in three Iranian universities(Allameh Tabataba’i University,Tehran University and Shahid Beheshti University)and students of social education and training institutions in Iran through questionnaires and interviews,and compared and analyzed the learning motivation of Iranian Chinese learners.It is hoped that through this study,Iranian students can improve their Chinese learning ability and gain more career competitiveness.The design of the questionnaire mainly refers to the second language learning motivation questionnaire of Noels(2000)and Clement(1994),and combines the characteristics of Chinese education in Iran to optimize the design.From the four types of achievement motivation,instrumental motivation,internal motivation and external motivation,the study of learning motivation of Iranian Chinese learners is carried out.This paper summarizes the key motivation factors that affect the efficiency of second language learning,helps teachers and students make full use of learning motivation to improve the overall effect of Chinese learning from various angles,and finally puts forward some suggestions for teachers and schools to stimulate students’ learning motivation.Through a series of surveys and interviews,we come to the following research conclusions:(1)Most Iranian Chinese learners think that the "Chinese characters","tone" and"pronunciation" of Chinese are more difficult to learn than "grammar","vocabulary" and so on.As for the form of learning,they are more looking forward to learning Chinese through"collective extracurricular learning or activities" and "teaching materials provided by teachers".(2)There is a significant difference between the evaluation of teachers by current students and those who have graduated.Most Iranian schoolchildren find teachers"hard-working","helpful","fair" and "enthusiastic".What they expected most from Chinese teachers were "good at invigorating classroom atmosphere" and "rich knowledge of Chinese language and Chinese history and culture." However,the order of the graduates’ cognition of the character quality of Chinese teachers was”helpful","serious","interesting" and"hard-working".(3)From the perspective of curriculum design of Chinese majors,Iranian students prefer to have more courses of "Chinese language major(economic and trade direction)" and"Chinese language major(bilingual and translation direction)provided by their schools.(4)Gender,age and time of learning Chinese are all factors that affect the learning motivation of Iranian learners,among which the diversity of motivation types presented by females is more obvious than that of males.From the perspective of age,learners under 18 and 25 to 30 years old are the strongest group of internal motivation.From the perspective of learning Chinese from long to short,Iranian students’ learning motivations from high to low are:(1)instrumental motivation,(2)internal motivation,(3)achievement motivation and(4)external motivation.The internal motivation and achievement motivation of Iranian graduates are stronger than those of Iranian current students.(5)According to the survey and interview of Chinese teachers in Iran,most of them think that the school does not pay enough attention to Chinese lessons,and they are not very satisfied with the current Chinese teaching materials.More than half of Iranian teachers think Iranian Chinese learners are only moderately motivated.Most of them will occasionally use games to teach in Chinese classes.The characteristics of students who think they do well in Chinese literature are "earnest","confident","motivated or purposeful",especially"socializing with Chinese friends".On the other hand,students with poor Chinese learning were characterized as "not serious","no motivation or purpose" and "no interest".(6)As for the factors affecting the motivation of learning Chinese,learners pay most attention to "whether they are in the environment of the target language".Most Iranian learners believe that "teachers will laugh at students’ mistakes" and "teachers’ inappropriate teaching methods or unclear explanations" are important factors affecting their motivation.(7)Through the comparison of the learning motivation types of Iranian college students and social education students,it is found that the internal motivation of students is stronger than that of other learners,especially the students of Tehran University;In the comparison of instrumental motivation,the learning motivation of Iranian social education students is stronger than that of current students.In the aspect of external motivation,most learners hold a negative attitude;In terms of achievement motivation,Iranian society educates students with higher achievement motivation than current students.