Learner's Attitudes and Motivational Factors towards Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language in Sri Lankan Universities (original) (raw)

One belt one road initiative" concept caused to strengthen China-Sri Lanka bilateral relations considerably during last years and as a result of it a vast number of Sri Lankan students are motivated to learn Chinese language based on its significant impact on contemporary Sri Lankan society. Chinese language is one of the outstanding languages among other foreign languages in Sri Lankan universities. Therefore, learning a language is influenced by various factors. One of the most important factors is learner's attitude and motivation towards the target language. This paper studies the attitudes and motivational factors of Chinese language learners in a foreign language learning environment in Sri Lankan university education system. The paper analyses the result of the survey on 64 undergraduates who studying Chinese in University of Kelaniya in Sri Lanka. The survey focused on their attitudes and motivation towards learning Chinese as a foreign language and how those attitudes impact on Chinese language learning. Results of the analysis showed that the learners' attitudes towards Chinese language learning, curriculum designing, teaching methodologies are both negative and positive. Finally, the study would introduce some pedagogical implications that would help to enhance learners' attitudes and motivation.