A Diachronic Study Of Students' Chinese Learning Motivation In Baton Junior-senior High School

Motivation is one of the key factors that exert effect on second language learning.In teaching Chinese as a foreign language,it is important to understand and stimulate students' Chinese learning motivation for improving learning effect.This paper adopts the method of empirical research to investigate the general situation of Thai middle school students' Chinese learning motivation,investigate the correlation between learning motivation and learning effect,and record the change of learning motivation.One hundred and fifty students from Baton high school in Thailand are the research subjects of this study.The researcher conducted a one-year follow-up survey on the participants and during the research,observed their learning situation in and out of class,tested and recorded their academic performance.The quantitative research data were collected in the form of questionnaire,while the qualitative research data were collected by the observation and the interview.The researcher uses Gardener's AMTB(Attitude /Motivation Test Battery)and SPSS15.0 to analyze the data,and the data results are as follow:1)Students' motivation to learn Chinese is generally strong,with an average of3.98.Among them,the average of instrumental motivation is 3.70,the average of integrative motivation is 4.16,and the integration motivation is stronger than the instrumental motivation;2)students' Chinese learning motivation is negatively correlated with the learning effect(P <.05);3)students' learning motivation changes persistently in the process of learning;4)there is a significant difference between the integrative motivation of junior middle school student and the counterpart of senior middle school students(P <.05).It is shown that: 1)in the process of Chinese learning,students are mainly affected by the integrative motivation;2)highly strong learning motivation will negatively affect language acquisition;3)in the process of Chinese learning,learners' learning motivation is constantly changing;4)with the deepening of Chinese learning,students' integrative motivation is stronger.