What makes a successful language learner?
What makes an exceptional language learner and how can we achieve native like fluency? Late 2022 a book was published on the topic of motivation, cognition and identity with a title “Lessons from Exceptional Language Learners Who Have Achieved Nativelike Proficiency” by Zoltán Dörnyei and Katarina Mentzelopoulos. They interviewed 30 participants that had achieved nativelike fluency in a foreign language as adults. Through analyzing the interview data, they categorized different variables explaining why these learners had achieved something that only few language learners are able to achieve. When looking at the data, we of course first need to define what nativelikeness means. At this study, the research participants had to…
Should L2 Chinese learners learn how to write Chinese characters by hand?
After listening to an interesting podcast episode by David Moser in a discussion with Matthew Coss about handwriting Chinese characters and whether students should be expected to learn handwriting, I’m interested in continuing this discussion as a Chinese language learner, teacher, and Ph.D. researcher. My own current research focuses on learning motivation, but learning characters is also an important element in the complex topic of motivation. Perceived difficulty in the Chinese language definitely affects learning motivation. Two of the most difficult aspects of the language that students report themselves is the pronunciation, especially tones, and the Chinese characters. As a teacher I understand that the characters can seem very intimidating…
Why research language learning motivation?
As a Mandarin Chinese language teacher, I always strive to help my students reach their goals and succeed in their studies. There are countless variables that contribute to their success, or sometimes failure, in learning the language. According to research, and my personal observation as a teacher for the past 8 years, motivation is an essential key in unlocking mastery of a foreign language. When a student stops learning Chinese, and I’m talking about adult learners outside of the university context, they often can find a list of reasons for doing so: not having enough time, the language being too difficult, lessons being expensive or hard to find a suitable…
What makes someone motivated to learn Chinese?
My story My own journey of learning Mandarin Chinese is perhaps not the most usual one. My parents lived in Beijing in the 1980’s for a few years when my mother was working at the Finnish Embassy there. During their last year in the Northern Capital, my mom started expecting me, therefore I can say I was in China even before I was born! My parents didn’t continue the diplomatic adventure, instead returned Finland to their hometown. I was born and lived in Finland for the first 21 years of my life. My earliest memory of being interested in China and in Chinese culture is from 5th grade when I…
