Student motivation for learning Chinese as a second language in Hong Kong international secondary schools

Abstract

Studying an L2 (second language) has been one of the core curricular designs of the education system among international secondary schools in Hong Kong for a long time. Although French and Spanish remain among the most popular second languages for students, it is notable that Chinese (Mandarin) has now become more and more popular at these international schools since several years ago. The investigation reported in this paper looks at the motivational orientations behind students who are studying Chinese as an L2 with regards to school environment, socio-cultural impact, and home factors that influence on the students’ motivation in the context of Hong Kong. A total of 179 students from three junior secondary school years participated in the investigation. The results have confirmed the existence of the four traditional motivational variables of integrativeness, instrumentality, linguistic self-confidence, and classroom environment in the Hong Kong context. In addition, this study has also evidenced that students from across Years 7, 8, and 9 have different motivations for learning Chinese. While integrativeness was found to be the most important motivation for the Year 7 students, instrumentality served as the most important motivation for the Year 9 students. Motivation for the Year 8 students was more complicated and the factor of classroom environment plays a vital role in keeping students continuing on their Chinese study. All these findings were supported by the questionnaires and group interviews that the students completed during the investigation. This study serves as significant information for the understanding of the nature and process of learning Chinese as an L2 and the choice of pedagogical conditions at international secondary schools in Hong Kong.