Investigation And Analysis Of Thai Parents Influence Their Children’s Motivation To Learn Chinese

Learning a second language is currently a very important skill, due to the need to develop oneself in the field of languages and this personal development being limitless. Aside from someone’s native language, these days it is also necessary to study a second language in order to develop one’s own language skills and so that one may keep up with international standards of communication. Chinese is a language that is currently being studied as a second language in increasingly large numbers and is seen as a very important language globally. This is especially the case in Asia where Chinese is studied throughout the region. Thailand is just one of the many countries that has a population studying Chinese in ever increasing numbers all over the country.This research has therefore been carried out to assess and study the factors affecting parents’decisions to enroll their children on Chinese language courses; it will look at the factors which affect someone’s motivations behind studying Chinese too. This research will aim to find out the most important factors affecting the decision to study Chinese in Thailand. The method for collecting data for this research was by use of questionnaires, there were 330 questionnaires given out to students and parents from high schools.110 questionnaires were given to parents of students in the lower level of high school and another 110 to the parents of the higher level of high school, the remaining 110 were given to students currently studying Chinese.For this research many sources were used such as; relevant books on learning a second language, books on linguistics and books on the psychology behind studying a second language. Other resources that were used in this study were various theories about the motivations behind studying a second language. These were all used in conjunction with the aforementioned questionnaires which were given to parents of students as well as students studying Chinese as a second language.This research piece found that the main factors affecting the motivation of parents making their child studying Chinese were as follows; the need to develop language skills, the need to create a good future for their child through the use of a second language and the need to ensure their children gain greater knowledge through their studies. Another very important reason given by parents was that China was seen as a great power in Southeast Asia and there is a need to advance into the ASEAN community through attaining greater knowledge of other languages. Chinese was identified as an extremely important language to learn especially for commercial benefits and uses.This study also found that for the most part Thai parents gave great importance to the development of their children. It was also found that parents have a great influence on the mental state of their children during this development. It was found that their children’s studies were of great importance to most parents and through further study, this research concluded that parents have a huge influence on their children’s studies, their children’s development and even on the choices that their children make in the future As for the students studying Chinese and their motivations for studying the language, it was found that there were many factors which affect their choices regarding the study of Chinese as a second language.However, there were 5 main factors that were found to be of the most importance to the students surveyed, these were; the need to develop oneself, the need to develop skills in order to have greater opportunities in the job market, Chinese language being seen as an important skill that can give someone an advantage over someone who doesn’t have this skill, studying Chinese in order to be successful in acquiring a second language and finally, students or parents had an interest in Chinese culture, traditions and the country as a whole. All of these factors were found to be very important motivations behind studying Chinese as a second language in Thailand. Additionally, I have made some recommendations in this research that may help to increase the quality of teaching Chinese in Thailand to bring it up to an international standard.