Changes In Beliefs About Chinese Language Learning Among Overseas Students In China

In the past ten years or so,in domestic research on second language learning beliefs,scholars have mainly focused on the study of the language learning beliefs of English learners,and related research is gradually shrinking.In the field of Chinese as a foreign language,the research on Chinese as a second language is gradually emerging,but the research content of the beliefs of learning Chinese as a second language is still very small.In several studies related to Chinese language learning beliefs,they have used a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods,that is,a combination of questionnaire interviews,but there is almost no research on the changes in language learning beliefs of foreign students in China.Therefore,this research will be based on socio-cultural theory,using the revised Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory(BALLI)to study the same group of international students from a provincial university in Central China as the research object.This study will also examine the characteristics of the changes in language learning beliefs of foreign students in the process of Chinese language learning,and the factors that affect the changes of foreign students’ Chinese learning beliefs among the participants.This research attempts to answer the following two questions:(1)What are the characteristics of the changes in the Chinese learning beliefs of international students before and after coming to learn Chinese for one semester in China?(2)What are the factors that affect the changes in Chinese language learning beliefs of international students in China? This research intends to adopt a mixed research method combining quantitative and qualitative research.A questionnaire survey was conducted twice in the beginning when the participants started to learn Chinese and at the end of a semester when they studied Chinese in China(N1= 71,N2= 67,138 in total),so as to understand the changes in their beliefs about Chinese language learning.The collected quantitative data was analyzed by means of SPSS 25.0.Meanwhile,12 students from the same group of learners were invited for semi-structured interviews in order to verify the quantitative results and to further explore the factors influencing the changes in the participants’ beliefs about Chinese language learning.The research results show that: 1)The Chinese learning beliefs of international students have changed significantly before and after coming to China.The questionnaire survey data after coming to China show that the average value of each item has risen to varying degrees,and the overall Chinese learning beliefs have been enhanced.Among the five conceptual dimensions: the beliefs of the difficulty of Chinese learning,the beliefs of the nature of Chinese learning,the beliefs of Chinese learning ability,and the beliefs of Chinese learning communication and strategy.The number of items with significant differences indicates the strength and intensity of the changes in the beliefs of dimensionality before and after coming to China.The larger the mean value,the more obvious the effect on the change of the whole Chinese learning beliefs.Among the five belief dimensions,the order of the belief dimensions that can most influence the change of Chinese learning beliefs is: Chinese learning communication and strategic beliefs,Chinese learning essence beliefs,language learning ability beliefs,Chinese learning difficulty beliefs,motivations and expectations for Chinese learning.2)In the process of Chinese learning,the Chinese learning beliefs of foreign students in China are dynamically changing.From the perspective of social cultural theory,gender differences,Chinese learning content,social environment,important others(such as teachers,family members and peers),goals and visions are all factors that lead to changes in foreign students’ Chinese learning concepts.In addition,the learning behavior of learners is affected by their learning beliefs,and the specific learning concepts held by each learner will affect their learning effectiveness.This research can provide a certain reference for the study of Chinese language learning beliefs of foreign students in China,and at the same time,it can have a certain enlightening effect on the teaching of Chinese language classes for foreign students.However,this study still has certain shortcomings,such as the selection of sample subjects,regional diversity and time span.Future research can conduct an in-depth investigation of the dynamic changes in the Chinese learning beliefs of foreign students in China by expanding the sample size and increasing the number of international students from more regions,as well as extending the time span.