Does COVID-19 Matter? - A Quantitative Study on Chinese L2 Learners’ Motivation

Abstract

With current fast-changing Sino-US relations, and particularly considering the effects of COVID-19, there is a concern about Chinese language learners’ motivation. Using the L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS) as the theoretical framework, this study examined data from an anonymous online survey collected from 120 Chinese learners in 13 United States universities. The results show that a proposed new factor, COVID-19, as an example of a societal change factor, was relevant to L2 Chinese learning motivation. Of the three dimensions in L2MSS, Ought-to L2 self appears to be significantly predictive of a societal change factor. On the other hand, Ideal L2 self has a weak correlation with the COVID-19 factor, while Learning Experience appears irrelevant. Further, the results show that Chinese-major/minor students have different learning motivations from non-Chinese-major/minor students during the ongoing COVD-19 pandemic. Also, participants share similar motivations regardless of years of learning Chinese.

Keywords

• motivation
• chinese as a foreign language
• l2 motivational self system
• covid-19