Sources of Students’Chinese Language Enjoyment
Sources of foreign language enjoyment were also explored in this study.Foreign language enjoyment is thought to be related with three factors(Dewaele and MacIntyre，2016).The first is social factor，namely satisfaction that learners gain from their language classrooms.The second one is learners’individual ideas and feelings，such as a sense of achievement and pride gained from successfully resolving a difficult problem.The third one is a positive learning environment created by the teacher or students，or jointly created by the teacher and students.Findings in Dewaele and MacIntyre’s(2016)study support Csikszentmihalyi’s contention(1990)that positive emotions mostly come from two aspects of daily life，interpersonal relationship and progression toward a set goal.
In the returned and completed copies of the survey questionnaire，120 respondents(77%of the total number of respondents)reported incidents that made them enjoy learning Chinese，totalling 2884 words with an average number of words of 24 per reply to the question.Following Dewaele and MacIntyre’s(2016)classification，five types of foreign students’Chinese language enjoyment can be observed.
The first source of Chinese language enjoyment was interpersonal relationship.In the classroom，a good and pleasant relationship between the teacher and students would create a positive learning experience for students.Many students in this study commented that their“teacher is kind and amiable”，“the teacher cares about us”and“the teacher and fellow students are all very friendly”.Positive attitudes and emotions of teachers and students are readily transmitted to everyone.The study conducted by Dewaele and MacIntyre(2016)also found that the learning environment jointly created and constructed by teachers and students brought enjoyment to everyone.
The second source of Chinese language enjoyment was students’successful learning experience in their progression of language learning.Achieving progress was another factor that brought enjoyment to foreign students，including academic progress in formal learning and use of the target language in real life situations.Some students found it difficult to communicate with local Chinese people when they first arrived，but the Chinese classroom provided a setting in which students from various language backgrounds could try to communicate in Chinese，and their confidence developed and so did their Chinese language competence.A slightly different comment is that“Initially I thought Chinese was difficult to learn，but I have persisted and my Chinese has improved”.
The third source of Chinese language enjoyment was a sense of achievement brought by meaningful use of the target language in real life situations.In addition to classroom，use of Chinese in communication in real life situations outside of the classroom also brought students a sense of achievement.Students felt proud that they had“found a Chinese name”for themselves，that they were able to“ask others their Chinese names”and introduce themselves“in Chinese”.It appears that successful learning in the classroom was about individual students being able to express their ideas and feelings，whereas use of the target language in real life situations gave rise to their sense of social identity.Though slightly different，these two types of sense of achievement both manifested enjoyment out of progress achieved in language learning，reflecting social and individual factors as described by Dewaele and MacIntyre(2016).
The fourth source of Chinese language enjoyment was the appeal of Chinese language and culture.The informants in this study were highly attracted to the Chinese language and culture.Cultural factors mentioned by informants in the survey included the Chinese language，festivals，music，food，celebrity，etc.，which all contributed to students’language enjoyment and helped make informants’learning of Chinese enjoyable.Among all these factors，the most frequently mentioned one identified by the informants in this study was the Chinese language itself.Students found many aspects of the Chinese language attractive，including its pronunciation such as particular vowels and consonants，the tones，the pinyin system，numbers，Chinese characters，words，lip shapes when pronouncing certain sounds，etc.One student commented，“I really like practising pronunciation，especially that of‘e’”.Another student said，“It sounds like a song when you are saying‘b，p，m，f’”.Besides the Chinese language，learning about and experiencing the Chinese culture also brought enjoyment to students.A student said，“My teacher told me that I shared the same Chinese name as a movie star，Cheng Long(Jacky Chan’s Chinese name).I feel very happy about it.”Another student commented，“When I arrived in China，people here were eating mooncakes.I found out that they were celebrating a Chinese festival.I look forward to celebrating other Chinese festivals together with Chinese people.”These are only two examples of enjoyment that foreign students experience from various aspects of the Chinese culture.
The fifth source of Chinese language enjoyment was Chinese lessons.Informants in this study commented that foreign students had enjoyable experience when attending Chinese lessons，and their first lesson of Chinese got mentioned most frequently.It makes sense that Chinese lessons provided a context in which students were most likely to have emotional experience of the Chinese language，since students were most intensely and extensively exposed to the Chinese language in Chinese lessons.Many factors that brought enjoyment to foreign students could be observed in the classroom of Chinese lessons，such as conducive interpersonal relationship，progress in language learning and attractiveness of the Chinese language and culture.In addition，teaching and learning activities organised in the classroom also afford students enjoyable experience，such as dialogue practice and presentations of group conversation which were repeatedly cited by the informants in this study.Students felt that teachers’detailed and patient explanations made it easier for students to make sense and grasp features of the Chinese language.Quite surprisingly，many students explicitly remarked that they like tests of what had been covered in their learning，and some students were keen on being corrected when they had made errors in classroom activities.Some teaching practices often adopted in the classroom in China，such as the whole class reading aloud texts and sentences as what primary school teachers would ask their classes to do，made students feel reminiscent of their childhood times and evoke a sense of joy to students.Therefore，a well-planned and executed lesson with effective and enjoyable activities would help students enjoy learning the Chinese language and make learning effective.It is worth noting that some students mentioned that major events organised by their universities，such as academic year opening ceremonies，brought them enthusiasm and excitement.
These five sources of Chinese language enjoyment include both social factors such as good and conducive interpersonal relationship，use of the target language in real life situations and Chinese lessons，and individual factors such as a sense of achievement as the result of progress made by the learner.These findings further support the proposition that foreign language enjoyment encompasses social and individual factors(Dewaele and MacIntyre，2016).It should be emphasised that the target language and its culture themselves may give learners enjoyable experience，pointing to the importance of attractiveness of the target language and its culture that teachers should be aware of，so that they can organise teaching and learning activities that highlight such attractiveness and enhance students’enjoyment of learning the language and culture.
The sources of informants’language anxiety were examined in the same way as enjoyment.Seventy-eight informants(50% of the total number of informants)reported incidents in their learning of Chinese which had caused them anxiety.The total number of words provided in responses was 1645，an average of 21 words per response.The qualitative data are consistent with the quantitative analysis;that is，foreign students’Chinese language anxiety in this study was significantly lower than their enjoyment，and for this reason they provided much less descriptions about their anxiety.An analysis has found that their anxiety came from four sources:language and culture，peer pressure，the stress associated with their first lesson of Chinese，and worries about certain teaching and learning activities including speaking in front of other students，examinations and answering questions in class.There has been a lot of research into sources of foreign language anxiety.It is worth pointing out that some factors such as language and culture and Chinese lessons are sources of students’anxiety，but at the same time they also give rise to students’enjoyment in their learning of the target language.