Conclusion and Implications

This chapter has reported a study in which foreign students’positive emotion(enjoyment)and negative emotion(anxiety)in learning Chinese were examined.The study has found that①foreign students’Chinese language enjoyment was significantly higher than their anxiety，and the level of their positive experience in learning Chinese was much higher than their negative experience;②Chinese language enjoyment and anxiety were two essentially different emotions largely unrelated to each other;but individual factors and social factors of Chinese language enjoyment were much related to each other，therefore students’social enjoyment in learning Chinese could be enhanced by livening up the classroom atmosphere and improving interaction and communication between teachers and students，which would promote students’individual enjoyment in learning the target language;③There was no obvious link between students’gender and their enjoyment/anxiety;the number of languages that had been mastered by students did not significantly impact on their language enjoyment，but students who had mastered four or more languages experienced much less anxiety than the other two groups of students;④There was no obvious link between levels of Chinese language enjoyment or Chinese language anxiety and students’academic results and learning outcomes;and⑤factors promoting Chinese language enjoyment included good and conducive interpersonal relationships，a sense of achievement brought by progress made in learning Chinese，use of Chinese in real life situations，attractiveness of the Chinese language and culture，and attending Chinese lessons，etc.;factors inducing Chinese language anxiety included peer pressure，differences between students’own language and culture and the target language and culture，the stress associated with students’first Chinese lesson，and students’worries about certain teaching and learning activities such as speaking in public，examinations，answering teachers’questions，etc.

This study has some implications for teaching and learning of Chinese as a foreign/second language.Firstly，it has highlighted a positive emotion，Chinese language enjoyment，which is present yet largely overlooked throughout the process of Chinese language learning，a reminder to teachers to be observant and take into account of students’emotional state in planning and organising activities of teaching and learning.Secondly，this study has analysed the overall emotional state of foreign students learning Chinese in the beginning stage，and found that foreign students experienced greater levels of enjoyment than anxiety，indicating that foreign students present a generally positive outlook.Teachers may be able to build upon students’emotional state in this stage of learning and develop their belief about and confidence in learning the Chinese language，and help them prepare for and develop strategies to overcome difficulties which they may face in their future learning.This study has also found that individual factors of Chinese language enjoyment were influenced to a significant degree by social factors，and thus has an implication that social factors of Chinese language enjoyment should be enhanced by way of creating a friendly classroom environment and promoting a good relationship between the teacher and students in the classroom，so that students’individual enjoyment can also be improved.This study has found that foreign students’Chinese language emotions of enjoyment and anxiety were constrained by a range of factors，which require teachers of Chinese to get to know their students well and understand factors influencing students and their learning in order to teach them effectively and efficiently.Teachers should also be aware that Chinese language enjoyment and anxiety are two different emotions which are not closely related to each other;reducing students’anxiety does not necessarily increase their enjoyment，and conversely an increase in their Chinese language enjoyment does not necessarily lead to a reduction in their language anxiety.Most importantly，teachers should be aware of various factors causing students to feel the joy of learning Chinese and feel anxious in learning Chinese;though foreign students’Chinese language development depends on many factors，merely focusing on increasing or reducing one emotion may not be a good approach to promoting their language development.Another point is that although a positive emotion may not lead to a better learning outcome in a short period of time，it will most likely enhance learners’interest in the target language，making them more readily accept challenges in their learning of the target language，persist with their language learning，and achieve good long-term learning outcome.In contrast，learners experiencing negative emotions would more likely drop out of Chinese language learning.Perhaps，the greatest benefit of Chinese language enjoyment is that it encourages learners to keep going on their journey of learning Chinese，and as long as they stay on this journey，they will make progress and achieve an outcome and success.

This study is one of very few in using a“Chinese language emotion scale”to study foreign students’Chinese language emotions and analyse their affecting factors，which also serves as a reminder to researchers and teachers to pay attention to foreign students’emotions in learning Chinese.This study has examined the relationship between social factors and individual factors in language enjoyment proposed by Dewaele and MacIntyre(2016)for the first time with Chinese as the target foreign language，and found that social factors and individual factors in language enjoyment are significantly correlated.Further，as for foreign students learning Chinese，the target language itself and its culture are a source of their enjoyment，and this study has thus proposed to include questions about learners’target language and its culture in foreign language enjoyment scales.However，this study has its limitations because of the conditions in which it was conducted.One limitation is the range of informants who participated in this study.There were only 155 informants from Asian countries neighbouring China and from some African countries，who were beginning learners of Chinese，therefore from this small sample which did not cover the whole spectrum of foreign students studying in China，the findings reached and conclusions drawn can only be limited，which have yet to be further explored and tested by studies of larger scales in the future.Another limitation is that only two factors were examined in this study，and more factors，such as variables of emotions which affect learning of the Chinese language，including levels of existing language proficiency，motives of learning，etc.，need to be studied.A further limitation is that the findings with regard to the relationship between Chinese language enjoyment and Chinese language anxiety，and the relationship between Chinese language emotions and students’learning outcome and academic results differ from findings of previous studies conducted outside China with other languages as their target languages，and therefore more studies are called for to provide further evidence of emotions in foreign language learning.