Factors affecting Chinese language acquisition in a multilingual context at an international school in Nonthaburi : a case study

Abstract

This paper sought to identify the factors affecting Chinese language acquisition in a multilingual context at an international school in Nonthaburi. The mixed methodology of qualitative and quantitative methods was used. The qualitative instrument was presented by a series of interviews to different four groups, including 1) Twenty kindergarten children; 2) Five Chinese teachers; 3) Three administrative staff and 4) One principal. The questionnaire in quantitative method was used to collect the data from fifty parents. The researcher applied simple calculation in frequencies and percentage for the quantitative analysis and used descriptive analysis to analyze the data collected from the interviews. The findings of this research were 14 factors affecting Chinese language acquisition. They were 1) School curriculum (50.00%); 2) Parental factors (47.37%); 3) Language environment (44.74%); 4) Teachers’ instruction (39.47%); 5) Personality (15.79%); 6) Age factor (13.16%); 7) Learning Strategies (10.53%); 8) Culture shock (10.53%); 9) Native Language (7.89%); 10) Different social context (7.89%); 11) Cognitive development (5.26%); 12) Investment on study (5.26%); 13) Textbooks (5.26%) and 14) Teaching facilities (2.63%). The top five factors were as follows: school curriculum (50.00%), parental factors (47.37%), language environment (44.74%), teachers’ instruction (39.47%) and personality (15.79%). In addition, learning environment (44.74%) was the most common factor that had been found in the top three listed in both the questionnaire and all interviews