A Study On The Motivation Of Chinese Learning Of Foreign Students In China Based On Activity Theory

Motivation is one of the most important factors that influence second language learning.It has been a hot topic in the field of second language acquisition for nearly two decades.With the rise of China's international status and the widespread of Chinese culture,an increasing number of foreigners choose to learn Chinese.Up to now,quite a number of studies have been conducted on Chinese as a second language learner's motivation.However,there are few researches on Chinese second language motivation from the perspective of Activity Theory.The present study therefore is an attempt to explore the motivation changes and its reason of Chinese second language learning of foreign students before and after coming to China from the perspective of Activity Theory.Based on the activity theory,this study first analyzes the change of motivation intensity of Chinese second language learning before and after foreign students come to China by means of questionnaire,and then investigates the reasons for the change of motivation intensity by means of interview.Participants of this study are the foreign students from School of International Education in Hubei University of Technology.To this end,two research questions have been set:(1)Will the motivation of foreign students to learn Chinese change before and after they come to China? If there is a change,what are the characteristics of the change?(2)What are the factors influencing student motivation within the framework of Activity Theory? And how do these factors affect student motivation?After investigation and analysis,it is found that:(1)After coming to China,the learning motivation of foreign students is significantly enhanced.(2)Attitudes to second language community are the strongest among all the motivation types of foreign students.From the perspective of Activity Theory,the reasons are as follows: students' motivation changes before and after coming to China are affected by learner individual factors and sociocultural factors.The main influencing factors are students' interest in learning,self-confidence,teachers,classroom atmosphere,etc.,and some factors are intertwined to affect the changes of students' motivation.Then,the author puts forward some suggestions from three aspects: teachers,learners and teaching materials,which can provide some enlightenment for the construction of international students' classroom.Finally,the shortcomings of this study are summarized and prospected.