Role of self efficacy, attitude, engagement and anxiety on achievement of Malaysian learners of Mandarin as a foreign language

<p>The objective of this study is to investigate the relationships between engagement,</p><p>attitudes, anxiety, and Mandarin achievement among Malaysian learners of Mandarin</p><p>as a foreign language (MFL). It also aims to exam...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Suo, Yanju
Format: thesis
Language:eng
Published: 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ir.upsi.edu.my/detailsg.php?det=10056
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Summary:<p>The objective of this study is to investigate the relationships between engagement,</p><p>attitudes, anxiety, and Mandarin achievement among Malaysian learners of Mandarin</p><p>as a foreign language (MFL). It also aims to examine the role of self-efficacy in</p><p>mediating between determinants of MFL achievement. A quantitative study was</p><p>selected to answer five research questions. Four sets of instruments adapted from the</p><p>previous study were used to measure Self-efficacy, Engagement, Attitude and Anxiety.</p><p>The Psychometric properties of the instruments were evaluated via experts' comments,</p><p>while the internal consistencies were examined through Cronbach's alpha. The values</p><p>of Cronbach's alpha ranged from .746 to .915, indicating the instruments</p><p>appropriateness and suitability. 614 MFL learners from Malaysian public universities</p><p>were chosen as a sample through cluster sampling. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA),</p><p>Confirmative Factor Analysis (CFA), Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), and</p><p>MANOVA were used to analyse the data. The results of EFA and CFA suggested that</p><p>the engagement, attitudes, anxiety, and self-efficacy were loaded according to the</p><p>predetermined theory, which indicated strong construct validity. The SEM result</p><p>showed that engagement and self-efficacy were directly and positively related to MFL</p><p>achievement. At the same time, anxiety was negatively but statistically associated with</p><p>achievement. There were significant differences between learning engagement across</p><p>gender, self-efficacy across ages and proficiency levels. However, anxiety and</p><p>attitudes are statistically insignificant across gender, age, and proficiency levels. The</p><p>results of the present study suggested that language learning engagement and selfefficacy</p><p>are significant determinants of MFL achievement. In contrast, language</p><p>anxiety contributes negatively to MFL achievement. The implication of this study</p><p>suggested engagement, self-efficacy, and language anxiety should be given</p><p>importance since they affect the success of learning MFL.</p>