Attitude and motivation of arab learners learning chinese language in china

Abstract

Attitude and motivation play a fundamental and complementary role in the learning process of any foreign language acquisition. Correspondingly, Previous studies have indicated that learners' high attitude and motivation always help them acquire foreign languages efficiently. However, the present study investigated whether Arab learners are integratively or instrumentally motivated to learn Chinese as a foreign language in China. Likewise, how attitude could affect their learning. 271 Arab learners from 10 different nationalities participated in this study. The study was a mixed-methods design, and data were collected through a questionnaire then followed by semi-structured interviews. Descriptive statistics analysis, means and standard deviations using SPSS 25 were employed to analyse collected data. The findings of this study revealed that Arab learners have positive attitudes and motivations to learn Chinese language. Additionally, they were a bit high integratively motivated toward learning Chinese language. This study has concluded limitations and recommendations to help institutions and interested researchers shed light on these further research studies.

Keywords

Chinese language Arab learners attitude and motivation

Introduction

Chinese language

In recent years, there has been an increased interest among learners and researchers towards Chinese language. In addition, it has been attracting considerable interest among other languages in the entire world. The majority of learners worldwide have displayed considerable interest in learning more aspects of Chinese culture, heritage and China. At the same time, it is also considered to be the most complex language in human existence history, specifically for those readers and learners from non-native countries who have orthography systems (i.e. spelling and writing system) alphabetically, as well as that the writing system of Chinese language is syllabic, characters-based, and also logographic (Leung & Ruan, 2012).

According to (Al-Mekhlafi, Hu, & Zheng, 2009), there has been an increased interest among learners who have already travelled to China to learn Chinese language at language schools, universities or training specialized centres or who are struggling to find out recognized and certified training centres in their home countries. The study of Chinese has increased substantially in recent decades. The Chinese Language Council International (Hanban) announced that more than 50 million people were learning Chinese in 2010, and the number of learners still increased year after year (Tsui, Kooi, & Sercu, 2017). Likewise, this growth of demand in learning Chinese language and its culture has been unprecedented in the last two decades. Moreover, Hanban (2014), Gardner (1985) known as one of the famous Chinese National Office for teaching and learning Chinese as a foreign language, announced that around 100 million learners worldwide were learnt Chinese more than in 2004 (D. Zhang & Lin, 2017; Hanban, 2014).

There is a notable spread of learning Chinese language to the entire world as a part of its effort to achieve some foreign demanded policy targets. For example, a sign is displayed in a general bookstore in Chengdu city, Sichuan province in China, written in Chinese and translated into English and says, ‘China needs foreign languages, and the world needs Chinese language’ (Gil, 2008). Surprisingly, China has not seen remarkable progress in the demand of learning Chinese only. Still, there is also a significant demand for learning English, which happened in China, not any other country(Cortazzi & Jin, 1996).

This article focuses on the Arab learners' attitude and motivation in learning Chinese language in China. Several reasons made this study to be importantly investigated; Firstly, China is the largest country in the world of undergraduate and postgraduate international students and the third receiver country of international students. Those international students mostly come from Asia, Africa, and less developed countries in the world (Yang, 2020). Secondly, A continuous increase in the number of international students in general, and the Arab students in particular in the last 10 years. Thus, this increase of Arab learners made the author think critically about the reasons for learning Chinese language and why it has become an obsession for many to know it. Thirdly, few studies have investigated Arab learners of Chinese language in some Arab countries. Still, no such previous studies have focused on the Arab learners studying Chinese language in China. So, the author wanted to take the lead in doing so. This article is divided into six sections; the first section introduces the Chinese language. The second section focuses on the existing literature on Chinese language. The third section explains the purpose of the study and the addressed research questions. The fourth section employs the methodology and data used in this study. The fifth section elaborates the results and the discussion part of this study, while the last section presents the conclusion and the recommendations of this study.

Literature review

Motivation

Up to now, motivation is considered a prominent factor that leads to the success or failure of acquiring languages. Motivated learners have always been at the top of the pyramid compared to their unmotivated peers. In a foreign language learning acquisition, learners need the right motivation to overcome their big obstacle, represented by anxiety. Many studies, experiments, researchers and teachers claimed that; Motivation is one of the critical factors of mastering a foreign language, but they never offered much detailed information about what it means to be motivated? How and when? Furthermore, this is similar to what (Dornyei, 2001) believes that understanding motivations' complexity lies in learners' behaviours actions. That would not be explained in one approach, so learners' behaviours should be studied in detail.

However, what is known, that motivation has two orientations, as Gardner and his associates indicated in their previous studies (integrativeness and instrumentality), which aims to understand why learners are learning a second/ foreign language (Wen, 2011). Similar studies have agreed that attitude and motivation in part of acquiring a second/foreign language are the main influencing aspects that reshape acquiring L2 (Daniel, Halimi, & AlShammari, 2018).

As agreed, the motivation psychology approach always seeks to justify the attitude’s continuity and strength by referring to the directed behaviour (Heckhausen & Heckhausen, 2008). Intrinsic motivation what is named as a part of integrativeness orientation which thrives on knowing learners' abilities to satisfy their demands for doing what they are interested in because intrinsic motivation is based on internal interest, so, does not require any external rewards (Deci & Ryan, 2010). On the other hand, bonuses play an emotional impact on intrinsic motivation in the short term, but unfortunately, this impact will vanish and will reduce the incentive of future aspects (Benabou & Tirole, 2003).

As well as the previous critical proves, intrinsic motivation is defined as any action that individuals find interesting to do without looking for later consequences and without thinking about rewards or praises to fulfil their passion (Deci & Ryan, 2000). Also, another exact definition of (Ryan & Deci, 2000) intrinsic motivation is doing any activity due to inherent and inside satisfaction rather than any external consequences.

However, further definitions about extrinsic and intrinsic have been extended in the Gardnerian construct, for instance, extrinsic motivation is when the individual seeks to receive some rewards, for example, (good grades) or to avoid punishment while on the other hand, intrinsic motivation is when the individual pursues internal tips, for example, (the interest in doing some activities or to satisfy someone’s curiosity) (Dörnyei, 1994).

A study of both Heritage and non-heritage of 145 learners learning Chinese concluded that more learners preferred to study Chinese because they thought it was fun and meaningful, especially when sharing and participating in the learning process. These learners’ orientations showed high acquaintances with the Chinese community, particularly the Heritage learners. What is not equal to what was found of non-heritage learners is how they were studying Chinese due to its integral aspect of learners' self-concept besides the feeling of obligation (Comanaru & Noels, 2009).

Another similar finding of a study conducted among grade 9 students in EKAMAI international school in Thailand to examine if there is any relationship between motivation and achievement in learning Chinese has concluded that the total level of learners' motivation in learning Chinese language was higher than the extrinsic goals' orientation among learners. On the contrary, the intrinsic goals’ direction between the learners was moderate(Cai & Lynch, 2017). By far, another conducted study was investigated in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia to figure out the relationship between language proficiency and motivation of Iranian learners has shown that high proficiency learners had correlated well with integrative motivation, which explained that high achievers of second language learners were highly integratively motivated(Samad, Etemadzadeh, & Far, 2012).

In comparison to a previous study which uses in-depth, open-ended interviews with six learners learning Chinese in a Canadian university to investigate motivations, beliefs and Chinese language learning has indicated that learners of Chinese language have different and varied motivation orientations in learning. That ranges from communicating with original Chinese speakers, various cultural interests, travelling abroad, making friends and attaining jobs. Furthermore, all these motivation orientations come from their actual experiences in living with Chinese people around them and that critically demonstrated that learners' perspectives could affect the level of their motivation orientations and to prove that not all findings as similar as other research conducted to find whether learners are integratively or instrumentally motivated towards learning Chinese language. In addition to the current literature result, it showed that most learners generally think Chinese is complicated. In contrast, others believed that listening and speaking are the essential skills in learning Chinese more than writing and reading and encouraged to adopt many strategies in learning Chinese language (Sun, 2011).

To compare the result of (Daniel et al., 2018), who demonstrated that attitude and motivation play a vital component in learning acquisition to the study conducted in Saudi Arabia about learners' factors, beliefs about the difficulties of acquiring Chinese language, aptitude, motivation, cultural consideration and pedagogy as well, it found that the fundamental issues that might hamper implementing Chinese as a foreign language among participating students are lacking motives in learning Chinese language and have no interest in travelling to China either studying or doing business as well (Alshammari, 2020).

Generally, theorists in second language learning have assumed that children acquire, but adults can only learn. To add more, some acquisition learning hypotheses believe that adults can only gain does not mean their ability to learn would not stop at a specific age limit but means their learning acquisition will be similar to children’s (Krashen, 1982). Through the meaning of Krashen’s explanation, the earlier to acquire a second language, the better and easiest way to achieve acquisition goals. This motivation could be a pivotal point in contributing and simplifying how you are good at it (Wong, 2020). Based on the existing literature on motivation, it is significantly proved that motivation is positively related to foreign language learning acquisition.

Integrative motivation

Integrative orientation in a second language is identified when learners desire to learn foreign languages due to the attraction toward the target language’s culture or admire the language itself. Also, it implies an interest in interacting with speakers of the target language(Schmidt, Boraie, & Kassabgy, 1996). Integrative motives are not just to acquire some spoken words and phrases. A successful acquisition depends on the desire (willingness) to be considered a member of another language community(Gardner, 1968).

As reported by Gardner and Lambert, the purpose of integrative orientations in the language learning process is to comprehend the language groups widely and to encounter more and different people (Gardner & Lambert, 1959). Similar findings were found in a conducted study among 216 African and Asian international students learning Chinese in three different universities in China. Findings were revealed that three different factors were mainly found to be the main reason for learning Chinese, such as interpersonal relations, personal fulfilment and social bonds, and the personal fulfilment reason was the most factor that boosts learners learning Chinese. These personal fulfilments are represented by interest and enjoyment of learning Chinese language, being immersed in the community, positive attitudes and motives toward learning Chinese (L. Zhang & Tsung, 2021).

Instrumental motivation

The recognition of the practical advantages in learning identifies that when learners desire to learn the target language to pass examinations, social or economic advancement, we mean by instrumental orientation in learning a second language (Schmidt et al., 1996).

Instrumentality orientations involve utilitarian values, pragmatic reasons, and learners' perceptions of travelling, making friends, or understanding foreign media (Gardner, 2001). The relation of motivation with instrumental achievement orientation is considered the main reason for reflecting pragmatical value in linguistic achievement (Gardner & Lambert, 1959). The instrumental direction is what to be achieved as rewards, practical goals, gaining high salary, course credit, but in the integrative orientation, the opposite achieved as to be valued as a member of other community and desire to be one of them and contact them (Noels, Pelletier, Clément, & Vallerand, 2000).

A study was conducted to identify and analyse whether instrumental or integrative orientations can play a crucial role in shaping learners' learning of foreign languages. Findings indicated that instrumental motivation orientations primarily affect learners' learning process and play a role in shaping their attitude toward learning a foreign language (Ametova, 2020). Another related study investigated the influence of integrative and instrumental orientations among two Asian and non-Asian learners of Chinese language in China. Similar findings were found that Asian learners tend to have instrumental orientations in learning Chinese language than the non-Asian learners who reported to have integrative orientations (Yu & Downing, 2012).

Attitude

Attitude plays a crucial factor in language learning, and it is an essential aspect that affects the learners’ way of learning. Perspective is internal, which influences the learner’s positive or negative state, favourably or unfavourably, in what they do and like to do. The variables' attitudes toward any learning process situation involve any aspect of the learning situation to the preferred language. These attitudes could be the teacher, family, friends, course materials, community or classmates in the school context. Some individuals have more positive attitudes than others, so these different attitudes play an essential role in learning (Gardner, 2001). According to this perspective, learners have different attitudes to acquire the target language. The most crucial individual factor that performs a significant role in learning behaviours is the attitude of learning (Zhao, 2015).

Purpose of the study

As mentioned above in the literature review, many studies have been conducted on attitudes and motivations in learning English as a second/foreign language among Arab learners. Still, on the other hand, few studies have been undertaken to investigate attitudes and motivations in learning Chinese language as a foreign/second language among Arab learners out of China. This is considered as the leading research to examine Arab learners' attitudes and motivation in China. This way, the principal purpose of this current study is to study Arab learners' attitude and motivation in learning Chinese language and explore how attitude could affect Arab learners learning Chinese.

Research questions

Motivation is what inspires learners to do and what they like to doLearners without any motivation, either integratively or instrumentally, will encounter problems and difficulties gaining knowledge and acquiring the target language. Thus, this research aimed to investigate students’ attitudes and motivations toward learning Chinese language among Arab learners. This study has addressed three research questions as follows:

1- Are Arab learners instrumentally or integratively motivated toward learning Chinese?

2- How do Arab learners perceive Chinese language?

3- How does attitude affect Arab learners in learning Chinese?

Research methodology

Participants

The participants of this current study were two hundred seventy-one (271). They were Arab learners who were either studying or graduated and looking for jobs in China. The participants were divided into two groups; males were (202), and females were (69). The participants were all in China, living in different cities. And learners who left China because of COVID 19 were exempted from this study. See Table 1.

Table 1.

Gender &Age.

Gender		Frequency	Percent	Age	Frequency	Percent
Valid	Male	202	74.5	18–25	72	26.6
	Female	69	25.5	26–35	172	63.5
	Total	271	100.0	36–45	27	10.0
—	—	—	—	Total	271	100.0

Instruments

Part one: Part one: The questionnaire was divided into three different parts. The first part was general information about students; (age, gender, nationality. Etc.), including eleven (11) multiple-choice questions except for the nationality question, which was intentionally asked to be filled personally. The researcher has double-checked the spelling of this item’s responses. The second and third parts were 20 statements divided into 10 parts: instrumental motivation and integrative motivation. These statements were 5-point Likert scale items which scaled from one to 5 (strongly disagree 1, disagree 2, neutral 3, agree 4, strongly agree 5). The questionnaire was included 20 motivation items were chosen from Gardner’s 1985 AMTB (Attitude/ Motivation Test Battery). The primary purpose of using this questionnaire is to use it chiefly among researchers to test English language learners' attitudes and motivation. So, the researcher has modified just the English language words into Chinese language. For example, English language will be helpful for my future career has Changed into Chinese language will be helpful for my future career. Additionally, this adopted questionnaire was believed to have good validity and reliability among researchers in second languages acquisition for years.

Part two: Semi-structured interviews were chosen to be employed in this study due to reason that interviews would present more further details and triangulate the data that would achieve insights into this study pattern. Thus, interviews were conducted to find answers to research questions 2 and 3. A purposive sampling strategy was used to select samples. The interviewees participated voluntarily and were then chosen according to these criteria; their availability, their experience in learning Chinese language, and their interest and desire to add something to the conducted study. All interviews were conducted in English, except two interviewees preferred to speak in their mother tongue. Then, interviews were transcribed and translated into English. The interviewees were semi-structed and were focused to respond to the following questions:

2-How do Arab learners perceive Chinese language?

3-How does attitude affect Arab learners in learning Chinese language?

Procedures and data collection

The primary purpose of the current study was to determine whether Arab learners are learning Chinese language according to their instrumentality orientations or integrativeness orientations how can attitude reshape their learning process positively or negatively. To achieve the essential purpose of the current study, the following procedures were taken:

1- The questionnaire was administered to meet the expectation of this study. After gaining the participants' permission to help out by completing the questionnaire, it was distributed online via WeChat as it is the most commonly used social media program in China and is the most convenient one. It is designed to be online due to the participants living areas. They live in different cities and different universities. Furthermore, the current situation of CORONA VIRUS prevented the researcher from visiting some schools to distribute the questionnaire in person or conducting face-to-face interviews.

The researcher used a concise and flexible statement as an introduction to the questionnaire to illustrate the reason for this study and those interested in helping learners respond quickly and without vagueness.

2- Another step was taken to fulfil the expectations. Semi-structured interviews were taken place to double-check the results and findings of the questionnaire. A purposive sampling strategy was employed to select participants to conduct semi-structured interviews. These samples were chosen according to their knowledge and experience in this field and their availability and willingness to participate in this current study. The researcher has conducted 11 semi-structured interviews. More attention was given to answering the last two research questions. The interviewees were glad to participate in the study as it has a critically important role in learning Chinese language, specifically among Arab learners.

3- All data was attentively analysed then interpreted

Data analysis

The current study’s data were analysed quantitively by employing descriptive computing statistics to find out the current type of learners' motivation, whether instrumentally or integratively. On the other hand, thematic analysis was used to analyse the interviews of the qualitative part to distinguish how learners perceive Chinese language and interpret how attitude can affect their abilities to acquire Chinese as a foreign language.

Results and findings

More importantly, the researcher has checked the reliability of this questionnaire, as we can see below. Cronbach’s Alpha was 0.903, about 90%, indicating a high internal consistency level for our scale. For instance, using this statistic to ensure that the questionnaire in general and items specifically included were valid to be used in this present study as other researchers had applied it before. See Table 2 below.

Table 2.

Reliability Statistics.

Reliability Statistics
Cronbach’s Alpha	Cronbach’s Alpha Based on Standardized items	N of items
0.903	0.895	22

In the beginning, two methods were used to analyse data; quantitative analysis was used to analyse research question No.1: Are Arab learners instrumentally or integratively motivated toward learning Chinese? However, on the other hand, thematic analysis was used to analyse research questions No.2 and No.3 of this study.

As for the quantitative analysis section, the most common widely used software program, SPSS version 25, was used to analyse this section. Descriptive statistics, mean and standard deviations were employed to answer this question No1. Therefore, according to the questionnaire’s result of the students' background statistics, most of the study participants were 202 male students with an average of 74.5%, while female students were about 69 with an average of 25.5%. The majority of students were aged between 26 and 35, with an average of 63.5%. Although 36–45 among the participants were counted as the latest frequency with an average of 10% for more details, see Table 1 below.

As shown in Table 3, the majority of participants were 100 holding Master’s degrees with an average of 36.9%, while on the other hand, 86 and 85 were holders of bachelor’s and PhD. Consecutively. Moreover, 93 students were in their fourth senior year, while (graduate) students were = 61, and (Freshmen first year) students were = 54.

Table 3.

Academic Degree.

Academic Degree
		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	Bachelor	86	31.7	31.7	31.7
	Master	100	36.9	36.9	68.6
	PhD	85	31.4	31.4	100.0
	Total	271	100.0	100.0	—

The participants were asked to respond honestly and frankly to the questionnaire’s items to ensure credibility and reliability. According to the questionnaire’s data analysis, participants were from 10 different nationalities. See Bar Chart 1 (Yemeni, Sudanese, Egyptian, Syrian, Moroccan, Libyan, Algerian, Mauritanian, Lebanese and Jordanian)

Bar Chart 1.

Nationalities of the participants.

Research question 1: Are Arab learners instrumentally or integratively motivated toward learning Chinese?

As shown in Table 4, the instrumental items were 10 items given a five Likert scale to measure the highest frequency of participants. An SPSS program used descriptive statistics, means, and standard deviations to compute the means average of learners’ items preferable.

Table 4.

Instrumental motivation items.

Descriptive Statistics of Instrumental Motivation
Instrumental Motivation items	N	Mean	SD
Q12.1: Chinese language will be helpful for my future career	271	3.7	1.2
Q12.2: I study Chinese language to enter university	271	2.9	1.6
Q12.3: Chinese language will broaden my future option	271	3.6	1.2
Q12.4: I Learn Chinese language for practical purposes	271	3.5	1.3
Q12.5: Chinese language is an interesting language	271	3.6	1.3
Q12.6: I Like Chinese language more than English	271	2.5	1.4
Q12.7: I study Chinese language to get a job and earn a higher salary	271	3.2	1.5
Q12.8: Learning Chinese will make me more knowledgeable educated person	271	3.6	1.3
Q12.9: Chinese language is as important as English language	271	3.2	1.4
Q12.10: Speaking Chinese is the best way to get hired in most Chinese company	271	3.9	1.1
Overall Mean Score	—	3.4	—

The analysis below showed that the instrumental motivation items' total and overall mean score was 3.4, which indicated that 3.4 to a 5-point Likert scale means that the total average of the participants who have responded to this part was neutral.

Q12.10 item learning Chinese to get hired by a Chinese company got the highest rank among students with an average of 3.9, and it explained that most students tend to have instrumental orientations. Although Q12.1, learning Chinese will help for a future career, is another hint that proved that learners were learning Chinese to achieve their future goals and careers. On the other hand, Q12.6 item I like Chinese language more than English got the least rank among learners. To explain, learners felt that Chinese is more difficult to acquire than English. Overall, results revealed that learners' type of motivation is extrinsic/instrumental orientation. They learnt Chinese to achieve goals, pass exams, achieve practical rewards, raise salaries and find jobs, and these findings were similar to the previous findings by (Yu & Downing, 2012) and (Ametova, 2020). In conclusion, the total mean of Arab learners' instrumental motivation orientations in learning Chinese as a foreign language was neutral average with 3.4.

Interestingly, as shown in Table 5, the below analysis is related to the integrative motivation items. It showed that the average of 3.8 is the overall mean score, and it represented that 3.8 according to a 5-point Likert scale means that the mean score of the participants who responded to this part related to the integrative items was agree (average). Computed means and standard deviations showed that learners' integrative motivation orientations were higher than the previous instrumental motivation orientations. To explain, Q13.1 item learning Chinese language to ease understanding and speaking with Chinese people got the highest average with 4.4. while on the other hand, Q13.3 learning Chinese language will help me understand Chinese social life and Chinese culture as well, got an average of 4.4. Although on the other hand, Q13.7 item Chinese language easily got the least average among the participants.

Table 5.

Integrative motivation items.

Descriptive Statistics of Integrative Motivation
Integrative Motivation items	N	Mean	SD
Q13.1: Chinese language will help me at ease speaking with Chinese people	271	4.4	1.0
Q13.2: Learning Chinese will increase my communication skills	271	4.3	1.0
Q13.3: Chinese language will help me better understand Chinese social life and culture	271	4.4	1.0
Q13.4: 10 years later, Chinese language will spread broadly especially in the Middle East	271	3.7	1.2
Q13.5: Learning Chinese will make it easy for me to live among Chinese people	271	4.3	1.0
Q13.6: I Learn Chinese to know more about Chinese trade and communication	271	3.7	1.2
Q13.7: Learning Chinese is easy	271	2.5	1.2
Q13.8: I Learn Chinese to achieve my goals (to get a degree, a scholarship)	271	3.4	1.4
Q13.9: Learning Chinese will increase my social respect	271	3.6	1.2
Q13.10: By learning Chinese, I will be able to understand Chinese movies, news, programs ...etc.	271	4.1	1.1
Overall Mean Score	—	3.8	—

Moreover, this explains that Arab learners felt that learning the Chinese language is challenging to acquire. To explain, most Arab learners tend to have integrative motivation orientations, represented by the desire to learn the language, interest in Chinese culture, and immersing with Chinese people, as previously explained by

(Gardner, 1968) and (Schmidt et al., 1996). These outcomes were similar to the previously mentioned results by (Comanaru & Noels, 2009) and (Cai & Lynch, 2017; Sun, 2011). Overall, comparing the two computed means and standard deviations of instrumental and integrative items, there is a slight difference between the two motivation parts, which showed that Arab learners are somehow a bit integratively motivated towards learning Chinese language as a foreign language. Integrative orientations were found to be higher than the other.

To achieve the complete picture of how attitude and motivation affect language acquisition and whether Arab learners are integratively or instrumentally motivated. To accomplish the goal of this study, semi-structured interviews were conducted to elaborate answers to research questions 2 and 3 and to comprehend the role of the attitude in the learning of Chinese language.

Research question 2: how do Arab learners perceive Chinese language?

According to the thematic analysis of the interviews conducted, which were held to ensure the quality of this study. The top important repeated thematic among participants of this analysis part was distinguished such as:

Interviewee one: Chinese language is not complicated, and it is the new world’s language. Interviewees two and ten: Chinese language is fascinating and easy to learn. Interviewees three and three: I like Chinese language, and I prefer to study additional courses to improve my Chinese language. Interviewee four, five, seven and nine: I loved Chinese so much, and I enjoy the language. Interviewee eight: Chinese language is challenging.

The thematic analysis was coded into several main headings: five themes were headed such as: the reason for learning the language, language environment, language practising, attitude and motivation. Based on the analysis, most Arab learners recognised and noticed that Chinese language is an easy to acquire, fascinating language, while on the other hand, a few students perceived that Chinese language is complicated and hard to learn. See Table 6 below.

Table 6.

Thematic analysis.

Data	Code
Interviewee One:
Male, a Yemeni student, currently doing my master’s in business administration, studied Chinese for 6 months. I can say that the Chinese language isn’t complicated, but some skills are. So, I think writing skill is easy. Chinese language is the language of the new world, and we should learn it because, in the last decades, Chinese language has been on the top of the language spoken over the world. My teachers were outstanding and helpful, but the environment where I studied and practiced my language was very uncomfortable, and some Chinese people didn’t help me learn and practice my Chinese. As here in China, different cities have different accents so, it makes me embarrassed sometimes because they don’t understand me. I have confronted a big problem while studying Chinese language; I have immense power and high motivation, which always pushes me to learn Chinese. (Time: 03.16 min)	Language Reason Environment Difficulties Attitude and Motivation
Interviewee Two:
Male, a Yemeni student, I have been living in China for 3 years; I am doing my master’s in business administration. I have studied Chinese for a year and a half. Chinese language is fascinating and easy to learn, especially by practicing with friends and colleges. According to my opinion that the Chinese language will invade the world, and it will become the first spoken language in the field of money and business but not in the area of scientific research because there are not enough references in Chinese language that benefit and give help to the scientific research and researchers as well. My attitudes in learning Chinese language were very high especially after I got a scholarship, which I struggled to learn it to understand my teachers, classmates, and to understand my majors' courses since my teachers did not speak much English to explain their lessons. All that depends entirely on the Chinese language, and on the other hand, my attitudes were to simplify my living and work with Chinese people and get a job after graduation. (Time: 08.42. min)	Language Practicing Reason Attitude Attitudes
Interviewee Three:
Male, Egyptian, a Ph.D. student. I got a scholarship and studied Chinese language for one semester because of my Ph.D. requirement. The scholarship was in English. I Like Chinese language, and I prefer to study additional courses to improve my Chinese language. I want to learn Chinese because it’s the language of commerce, especially here in China. In my opinion, Chinese language is not easy, but the most challenging skill is writing and the tones, which make its pronunciation very complicated. My attitude towards learning Chinese was much higher because it is the language of business, which I admire. So, I want to learn Chinese to find a job and ease my living here. (Time: 06.24. min)	Attitude Reason Language Attitudes and Reasons
Interviewee Four:
Male, Djibouti, a Ph.D. student in control science and engineering, I lived in China for 6 years. I have studied Chinese language for 1 year before doing my master’s. In the beginning, I found it difficult, especially after the dean of international school had warned us more than once that if we didn’t pass the HSK exam, we would not be allowed to continue studying and would be forced to leave the school. Therefore, I intended to go back to my country, then I think over and challenge myself in the end. I have won the challenge, and I loved Chinese so much. I studied harder, practiced more, and enjoyed the language. According to my knowledge, the most challenging part of Chinese language is writing, I can read characters easily, but I found it challenging to write them. I liked going to the library to practice my Chinese and using Chinese social media, which helped me a lot, and I advised students to do the same. My attitudes in learning Chinese were to ease my study, living here, and doing business after graduation, of course. Chinese language is the critical point of living in China. Finally, China needs me, and I need China as well. (Time: 17.08. min)	Attitude Attitudes
Interviewee Five:
Male, Egyptian, a Ph.D. student in food science and engineering, I have been living in China for 2 years, my scholarship was in English program. I have studied Chinese for one semester, and that’s it was a graduation requirement; and I think Chinese language is easy, but reading and writing characters were the hard part of it. I enjoyed learning Chinese. My attitude toward learning Chinses was learning and adding a new language to help me in my work and study. (Time: 05.41. min)	Language and Attitudes.
Interviewee Six:
Male, Yemeni, a Ph.D. student in food manufacturing engineering. I have been living in China for about 4 years. I liked learning Chinese language, and I intend to study it in the future or whenever I have a chance. I have studied Chinese courses for 1 year. Chinese language is not complex, but its characters are complicated to learn and remember. My attitudes in learning Chinese are to ease my speaking with teachers, classmates, and Chinese people also to know more about Chinese cultures and heritage because I am very interested in reading Chinese history. (Time: 07.46. min)	Attitudes Language Attitudes and Reasons
Interviewee Seven:
Female, Yemeni, a master student in dentistry, I have been living in China for 3 years, I have studied Chinese language for 1 year. My attitude towards learning Chinese is to ease my living here and my study. Chinese language is complicated for me because it has different grammar rules and a lot of characters. (Time: 01.03. min)	Attitudes Language
Interviewee Eight:
Female, Yemeni, a master’s student in food manufacturing engineering. I have been living in China for 4 years. Chinese language is challenging, especially in its plenty of characters, reading, and writing. My attitudes toward learning Chinese language are; to ease my living here with Chinese people, increase my opportunities in getting a scholarship, and find a job in some ranked companies. Furthermore, and most of that, I wanted to be a knowledgeable person in Chinese culture. (Time: 01.16. min)	Language Attitudes
Interviewee Nine:
Female, Yemeni, a master student in business administration, I have been living in China for about 4 years. I have studied Chinese for 1 year. Living here for 4 years made me love this language, which forced me to learn it to help me communicate with Chinese, understand Chinese culture, and understand my teachers' lecturing and my majors' lessons. Chinese language is not very difficult nor not easy because it has plenty of characters, it needs effort and time. Having attitudes will help us acquire this language quickly. (Time: 01.27. min)	Attitude Language Attitudes
Interviewee Ten:
Male, Egyptian, a master student in Microbiology, I have been living in China for 2 years, I do like Chinese language. I have studied two courses just for graduation’s requirements. Chinese language is easy, while the most challenging part is writing characters that have a lot of. My attitudes in learning Chinese are to simplify my daily life, easily contact my professors, and communicate with Chinese people easily and smoothly. I wish I had a chance to study Chinese again in the future, and these attitudes make the language easy for me to learn (Time: 06.03 min)	Attitude Language Attitudes Reasons
Interviewee Eleven:
Female, a Yemeni student. I have been living in China for 2 years. I didn’t study Chinese because I haven’t got a scholarship yet. My attitudes in learning Chinese are to acquire a new language besides my Arabic and English languages, find a better chance of finding a job, and achieve my parents' dream, who encouraged me to learn Chinese. (Time: 01.30. min)	Attitudes Reasons

Research question 3: how does attitude affect Arab learners in learning Chinese language?

After obtaining permission from the respondents, the interviews were archived, and the names of the respondents were replaced by mentioning their sex, male or female, to preserve their privacy.

The total time of the interviews was around 1 hour (59:00 minutes). Thematic analysis was used to analyse interviews. The data were coded using names according to the general meaning mentioned in the interviews section in Table 6. Based on thematic analysis findings, most Arab learners showed that they have a high attitude and positive motives toward learning the Chinese language. These personal attitudes can reshape the language learning acquisition process and ease learning the language. The more attitude and motivation toward learning Chinese language they have, the easier the language acquisition becomes. Attitude factors include simplifying living and work in China, dealing with the Chinese environment, interest in Chinese culture, and adding a highly recommended additional language. For more details, see Table 6 below. Below are the conducted interviews, and a thematic analysis was used to decode the interviewees' themes.

Thus, in responding to the qualitative section of how attitude affects their learning. Most Arab interviewees explained their experience learning Chinese after arriving in China with zero Chinese and how community affects their attitudes. The average of the Arab interviewees who have attitudes was high. Furthermore, their attitudes were mainly related to their integrativeness orientations. Furthermore, this leads to similar findings of analysing the quantitative question number one, which supports and proves that Arab learners were a bit highly integratively motivated learners toward learning the Chinese language. For example, enjoying learning Chinese, living with Chinese people, interest in Chinese culture, communicating purposes with their professors and friends, the curiosity of Chinese history and its heritage, finding jobs and doing business. So, these attitudes significantly affected their learning process and reshaped their goals of acquiring a foreign language.

Discussion

The current study is designed to investigate the current role of attitude and motivation in foreign language learning acquisition. Furthermore, to examine whether Arab learners are instrumentally or integratively motivated toward learning Chinese language. Moreover, how attitude can affect their learning process. According to the research questions of the study, the outcomes are discussed as follow:

Whether Arab learners are (extrinsic) instrumentally motivated learners or (intrinsic) integratively motivated learners.

Based on the findings of this study, results showed that Arab learners were a bit high integratively motivated toward learning Chinese language with an average of 3.8 than of integrative orientations with an average of 3.4. It explains that their integrative orientations (intrinsic directions) are higher than instrumental orientations (extrinsic directions). Although that is what discussed by (Deci & Ryan, 2010), that intrinsic motivation is what is named as a part of integrativeness orientation which thrives on knowing learners' abilities to satisfy their demands for doing what they are interested in because intrinsic motivation is based on internal interest, so, it does not require any external rewards. Furthermore, that goes with what has been mentioned in the literature earlier that more learners preferred to study Chinese because they thought it was fun and meaningful, especially when sharing and participating in the learning process. These learners' orientations showed high acquaintances with the Chinese community.

On the other hand, and on the contrary to a previous study mentioned in the literature that investigated Arab learners in Saudi Arabia, which showed that learners tended to have poor motives to learn Chinese, and they reported that they have no interest in learning Chinese, no interest in travelling to China, or to do business as well (Alshammari, 2020). Moreover, according to the finding results, two possible explanations could be the reason behind this; learners considered that Chinese language is a complex language to acquire while others lacked motives to acquire Chinese language. In other meaning, the more attitude and motivation learners have, the more accessible language acquisition they achieve.

How learners perceive Chinese language? And how attitude affect their language learning process?

On the other hand, research questions No.2 and No.3 showed that learners were perceived that Chinese language is a fascinating language, easy to acquire, and despite that, learners found that integrating with the community, living and working were achieved the most repeated code in the thematic analysis among Arab learners. To critically explain these results, learners exposed to the language itself and immersed in the community situations have more interest and attitudes toward learning Chinese than learners outside of China or who fulfil their graduation requirements. Moreover, that might be how attitude affects learning Chinese language. In contrast, learners who lack communication experience or the desire and willingness to learn Chinese might have unsuccessful experience in learning this language. To explain, all that lead to possessing a low attitude and motivation. Interestingly, that is similar to a study by (Sun, 2011), which indicated that learners had a different variety of motivations, attitudes and these proved to acquire foreign language successfully, such as:

• Their interest in learning Chinese,

• Interest in culture,

• Communicating with the Chinese community, friends or finding jobs can help reshape their attitudes toward learning the Chinese language.

Similar findings were found in a study among 216 African and Asian international students learning Chinese in China. (L. Zhang & Tsung, 2021).

Conclusion and recommendation

Thus, to summarize, the combination of using a questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews in this study gave a complete and comprehensive view of Arab learners' attitude and motivation toward learning Chinese language. The unique feature of this study is that it has apprehended perceptions during the COVID 19 epidemic. Furthermore, this is a pioneering study into Arab learners' attitude and motivation towards learning Chinese language where the learners are based in China. The study suggests similar findings with previous Chinese situated studies or globally(Cai & Lynch, 2017; Sun, 2011; Yu & Downing, 2012; L. Zhang & Tsung, 2021). Accordingly, most Arab learners were highly integratively motivated to learn Chinese as a foreign language based on the study findings. Learners revealed that they liked Chinese language very much; they showed a high attitude toward learning and speaking Chinese even if they were not required to do so; they had passion, desire and willingness. Those factors made their integrative orientations / intrinsic motivation level higher than instrumental orientation / extrinsic motivation level. That is to say, the more attitude learners have, the more motivation they get. Additionally, according to the interview-based results, their attitudes were not wholly different, but attitudes towards learning the Chinese language were apparent and evident.

Indeed, this study recommends that policymakers, curriculum designers, schools and teachers consider the findings of this study. In addition, to simplify learners' seeking to advance learning Chinese language, it alleviated most of the difficulties that most learners faced during their study period. Schools should play a significant role in simplifying some challenges in learning Chinese courses requirements or styles of teaching methods that attract learners, preferably using new modern technologies, facilitate cafes and libraries to encourage zero Chinese learners to communicate with Chinese students to be prepared enough through their learning process to guarantee to acquire Chinese language easily and without neglecting teachers' role which plays distinctly to replace learners' negative attitudes with positives ones. Finally, the government and educational institutions should provide incentives and job offers for learners to ensure that the number of applicants will flourish dramatically to learn the Chinese language and provide a more suitable environment for all international students in China.

Footnotes

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Mohammed Aatif

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