Roles of Gender and Motivation in Learning Chinese in the English Immersion Context

Abstract

This study examines how the English immersion context would contribute to college students' motivational orientations to learn Chinese as a foreign language. The participating students' motivational types, either extrinsic or intrinsic, were cross-examined in comparison with their gender, perception of the context, and Chinese achievement scores. The data consisted of 152 Korean college students' questionnaire responses, achievement scores in a beginner level Chinese course and qualitative interviews with 5 students. The findings indicated that, overall, the students had higher extrinsic motivation than intrinsic motivation, while female students being more intrinsically motivated than males in a statistically significant manner. Between the two contextual factors, evaluation of contributions of foreign instructors and of English-only policy, the foreign instructor factor was interrelated with motivation. Interestingly, their achievement in Chinese correlated significantly with the participants' gender, but not with motivation or with the contextual factors. The results will be discussed for pedagogical implications for Chinese programs of Korean universities which are expanding English immersion classes.