New Zealand primary school students’ motivation and strategy use for learning Chinese-as-a-foreign-language

This study examined young learners’ motivation and strategy use for Chinese-as-a-foreign-language (L2 Chinese) learning in New Zealand. A total of 1157 primary school students from 29 primary schools were recruited for the study. The results revealed that primary school young learners’ overall motivation and strategy use for L2 Chinese learning was relatively inadequate. Furthermore, grade, ethnicity, and learning length were found to be significant joint factors differentiating young learners’ motivation and strategy use for L2 Chinese learning. Lastly, canonical correlation analysis was performed to measure the relationship between the two sets of variables, namely, motivation and strategy use. It was found that there was a strong canonical correlation between motivation and strategy use in L2 Chinese learning. Specifically, primary school young learners who were more driven by motivational visions, internal motives, and external motives would employ more metacognitive, cognitive, and compensation strategies but less social strategy in the process of L2 Chinese learning. The implications of these findings were discussed in terms of how to enhance young learners’ motivation and strategy use for L2 Chinese learning. Future research should delve further into L2 Chinese young learners’ motivation and strategy use by taking into account the limitations of this study.