A Study On The Factors Affecting The Demotivation Of Students’ Chinese Learning In The Context Of The COVID-19

In 2020,the sudden COVID-19 epidemic spread around the world,bringing long-term risks and challenges to all mankind,Chinese international education also faced huge difficulties.Many international students had difficulties in travelling to China,and the Chinese lessons had been taught on online.Various problems brought by the new learning form affected the Chinese learning of international students.Among the factors affecting foreign language learning,learning motivation accounts for 37%,and the negative change of motivation may have a negative or even decisive impact on learners’ Chinese learning.This study intended to explore the overall situation and influencing factors of the demotivation of students’ Chinese learning in the Context of the COVID-19,so as to reduce the negative impact of learners’ motivation change,hoping to bring new enlightenment to Chinese teaching.Based on D?rnyei’s "three-level theory of second language learning motivation",this study adopted questionnaire survey to investigate the the overall situation and influencing factors of the Chinese learning demotivation of 74 offline Chinese learners and 102 online Chinese learners.The questionnaire(1)consists of three dimensions: language level,learner level and learning situation level;The questionnaire(2)consists of three dimensions: learner factors,learning situation factors and environmental factors.The following specific questions were proposed:1.In the context of the COVID-19,what is the overall situation of the international students’ demotivation in Chinese learning?2.How did individual factors(gender,country,age,Chinese learning time,Chinese level)affect the demotivation of international students’ Chinese learning?3.What are the correlations between the factors of demotivation in different dimensions?What are the differences and similarities between the factors affecting the demotivation of offline Chinese learners and online Chinese learners?The findings showed that,1.In the context of the COVID-19,35.14% of the Chinese learners experienced demotivation in offline Chinese learning,and 65.69% of the Chinese learners experienced demotivation in online Chinese learning.The Chinese learning demotivation of online learners is higher than that of offline learners.2.Different individual factors have different influences on learners’ demotivation factors.There were significant differences at the learner level and learning situation level for offline Chinese learners in different countries have;Significant differences were also found at the learner level and learning situation level for learners with different Chinese learning duration and there was significant differences at the learning situation level for learners with different Chinese level.For online Chinese learners,there was significant differences only in learning situational factors for learners with different Chinese level.3.There were correlations between the factors of demotivation in different dimensions in two questionnaires.For offline Chinese learners,factors at the learning situation level and the learner level were correlated with each other,and factors at the language level and the learner level were alsocorrelated with each other;For online Chinese learners,learner factor,learning situation factor,and environmental factor were interrelated with each other positively.4.The influencing factors of demotivation both in the offline learning scale and online learning scale were different.The influencing factors of offline Chinese learners’ demotivation in descending order is "language level > learner level > learning situation level";the influencing factors of online Chinese learners’ demotivation in descending order is "environmental factors > learner factors > learning situation factors".The results of this study provide enlightenment for Chinese teaching,teachers and learners.For offline classes,the curriculum needs to be enriched and improved in teaching Chinese as a foreign language;Teachers should enrich their teaching methods and give full play to their guiding role;Learners should clarify their learning objectives and keep in touch with other learners.For online Chinese classes,we should increase student’s sense of participation and create a language environment in online learning;Teachers need to overcome disadvantages and help students find methods and strategies;Learners should improve their autonomous learning ability,actively find ways,and make good use of rich learning resources to maintain learning motivation.