A correlational study of motivation and language anxiety for learning Chinese as a foreign language with Chinese academic achievement of Thai Grade 6 students

Abstract

The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to determine whether there was a significant relationship among Motivation and Language Anxiety with academic achievement for Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language of 164Grade 6students from a Thai government school in Trang, Thailand. The Motivation and Language Anxiety for Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language Questionnaire was used to collect data. The survey questionnaire was adapted from Gardner’s Attitude/Motivation Test Battery. Descriptive statistics (means, standard deviations) and multiple correlational analysis were used to analyze the data. The study findsings indicated a significantrelationship among the target variables -motivation and language anxiety for learning Chinese as a foreign language with Chinese academic achievement. Specifically, the research findings indicated that Grade 6students displayed a slightly low level of motivation and a slightly low level of language anxiety for learning Chinese as a foreign language. The research found that there was very weak relationship between Grade 6students’ motivation and their language anxiety for learning Chinese as a foreign language with Chinese academic achievement.