A study of non-native Chinese learners' attitudes towards Chinese language and Chinese culture at a university in China

Abstract

This survey research adopted the mixed-methods approach to investigate the attitudes of non-native learners towards Chinese language and Chinese culture. This study also looks into whether there is any relationship between the learners' attitudes towards Chinese language and Chinese culture attitudes. The samples were 195 non-native Chinese learners, and the instruments were questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The results from descriptive data analysis indicated that non-native learners of Chinese have positive attitudes towards Chinese language and Chinese culture. Besides, the content analysis of qualitative data showed that the respondents had positive attitudes towards Chinese language and Chinese culture, which is in line with quantitative data results. Moreover, the correlation analysis result showed a significantly positive correlation between the attitudes towards Chinese language and attitudes towards Chinese culture. Based on the research findings, this study suggests that language teachers and education administrators should seek ways to improve didactics in language teaching. The study also offers new understandings to policymakers to revisit related policies in language learning