The role of self and identity in motivating learners of Mandarin Chinese as a foreign language in Ireland

Abstract

This thesis investigates the role of self and identity in the learning motivation of Mandarin Chinese. The number of participants is 92. Employing theories from sociology, social psychology and applied linguistics, the researcher aims to bring together different perspectives to see how language learners' motivation is influenced by the interplay between psychological and sociocultural factors. Methodologically, the researcher adopts a rarely used statistical technique in applied linguistics, namely cluster analysis. The technique identifies special cases which may not have been recognised by inferential statistical skills commonly used in the field of Second Language Acquisition (SLA). The statistical analyses suggest beginners and intermediate learners can be motivated by different reasons. The beginners in the study are likely to make more effort to learn Chinese if they are interested in Chinese culture, whereas the intermediate learners are mainly driven by their personal goals. Follow-up interviews were conducted to understand why some learners are motivated differently from the others. The result found that one's self and identity often hold sway over one's behaviour. In particular, an individual often makes a decision that is congruent with the way he/she identifies him/herself. If the individual's current self or identity are in conflict with what they would like to become in the future, they may struggle to make effort to achieve their goal. For some participants in this study, the Chinese language is a gateway to their future success. When they see their desired self and identity as not compatible with their current ones, their motivation level suffers.