Motivation of Students Majoring Chinese: An Exploratory Study

This research reports on a qualitative investigation into what shaped and sustained the motivation of L1-Chinese learners of English. Motivation was not constrained to L2 learning but extended to what the participants considered as the dynamic interplay of personal and contextual factors. What makes this research unique is its choice of the subjects, which are L1-English CFL learners. Furthermore, this research is aiming at address three gaps in the existing literature, which are the need for more qualitative empirical research, the need for research focusing on the temporal progression and evolution of motivation within a longer period of time, and the need for situating motivation within the complex dynamic system. Semi-structured interviews were used to in the exploration of motivation. Dornyei and Otto’s (1998) Process Model of L2 is used as a loose conceptual framework of this study. The data was analyzed using an interpretative approach. The findings suggested that teachers and their methods of teaching emerged is a key factor in sustaining motivation. Moreover host environment provides a contextual motive for CFL learners during their year abroad. Another element is the key role of peers and learner community which provides a sense of belong to learners. It also provided a non-judgemental platform on which learners were able to communicate and support each other. Finally, learners as motivation agents also emerged as an important factor in motivational development