Chapter Overview
The opening chapter of this study presents the topic. Background of the study introduces the history and development of Mandarin training centers and provides the rationale for the study. Further, the problem, which lies in the focus of this research, is introduced and research hypotheses and the expected outcomes are stated. Chapter one also defines terms that are used throughout this paper as well as its limitations and delimitations.
Background of the Study
Since the end of 20th century, the growing interest in learning Chinese language is remarkable. The demand of Chinese speaking people is rising every day and thus there are thousands of foreigners coming to Chinese speaking countries to pursue their language studies. The first group of 33 students from East European countries came to China in the year 1950. By the end of 2000, the number of international students in China has risen to 407,000. Students are coming from more than 160 different countries. Among them, 88, 000 students are granted with Chinese Government Scholarship. Number of self-financed students reached 317,000. (The Department of International Cooperation and Exchanges, n.d.) No number of solely Chinese learners in People‟s Republic of China was available, however, the researcher assumes that at least on third of students goes to China to study language and even with such meagre assumption the rise of the number is obvious.
The number of international students in Taiwan in the year 2007 (including degree-level, exchange, and language study students) reached 17,742. This means grow of 3,263, compared to the 14,479 count in 2006. From the total number, 9135 international students in 2006 and 10,177 students in 2007 studied in the language centers in the universities. The
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increase between these two years amounted to 1042 persons. (The Number of Foreign Students Studying in Taiwan Exceeds 17,500 in 2007, 2008) The rise in number of coming foreign students in Taiwan is also evident from the abovementioned data.
In a reaction to such trend, many public as well as private universities around Taiwan founded special language centers, which are regarded as extension programs of the core university studies. Such establishments provide courses on daily bases and make students reach their desired level of language ability in a fast and convenient way.
One of the well-known institutions of that kind is Mandarin Training Center (later only MTC) of National Taiwan Normal University, located in the capital city of Republic of China, Taipei. With its origins being traced back to the year 1956, it is also the oldest one in Taiwan. Since then, it grew to become the biggest Chinese language center of the island as well. Figure 1.1 shows all mandarin training centers in Taiwan and the number of their students in the academic year 2007.
Table 1.1.
Mandarin training centers in Taiwan
School Number of students
Grand Total 10,177
Chinese Language Center, NCCU 531
International Chinese Language Program, NTU 205
National Taiwan University Language Center Chinese Language Division , NTU
359
Mandarin Training Center, NTNU 2,921
National Cheng Kung University Chinese Language Center 463
Chinese Program, Language Center, NCHU 53
Chinese Language Center, NCTU 93
(Continued)
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School Number of students
Language Center, NCU 347
Chinese Language Center, NSYSU 309
National Kaohsiung Normal University Center of Language and Culture Teaching
183
Chinese Language Center at National University of Kaohsiung 16 Center for Chinese Language and Culture Studies 55 Chinese Language Center, Tunghai University 319 Language Center of Fu Jen Catholic University 442
Tamkang University Chinese Language Center 753
Mandarin Learning Center at Chinese Culture University 1,119 Fengchia University Language Center, Chinese Division
309 Providence University - Chinese Language Education Center 39
Chung Hua University Chinese Language Center 21
Mandarin Studies and Culture Center 423
Southern Taiwan University of Technology 116
Chinese Language Teaching Center 218
Kainan Chinese Language Center 136
Chinese Language Instruction Center, Fo Guang University 69
Center of Chinese Language, Wen-Tzo 199
Northern Taiwan Institute Of Science & Technology - Mandarin Language Center
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Source: International Students in University Affiliated Mandarin Centers, 2008.
As it is stated on the websites of MTC:
The Mandarin Training Center represents one of the world‟s oldest and most distinguished programs for language study, attracting more than a thousand students from over sixty countries to Taiwan...Courses in language, literature, calligraphy, art and martial arts are offered…….The center also sponsors travel, hosts speech
Table 1.1. (Continued)
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contests, and stages workshops and performances for a variety of East Asian arts.
(Mandarin Scholarship Taiwan, n.d.)
As above-mentioned, foreigners from all over the world come to MTC. They bring their traditions, customs and habits with them. Therefore, MTC becomes a salad-bowl of cultures and life-styles, which can result in positive outcomes, but also may negatively affect the running of such learning institutions. Chaney and Martin (2007) allege that all people incline to belief that their own cultural background, including ways of analyzing problems, values, beliefs, language, and verbal and nonverbal communication, is the correct one.
(Chaney & Martin, 2007) Therefore, a multicultural group, especially of such scale, should be treated with respect and special care in order to function smoothly:
Willingness to compromise with other‟s way of living and cooperation in common tasks, these make living happy and fruitful.
Sri Sathya Sai Baba (Famous Quotation, 2009) This study examined factors, which may be significantly related to students‟
performance and their satisfaction during their studies in Taiwan. Also, as there is always space for improvement, this paper tried to provide suggestions for MTC in order to bring its service closer to perfection, which was based on MTC‟s language learning program participants‟ opinion as well as on the researcher‟s analysis.
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Statement of the Problem
As Swinger (1995) states, the benefits of studying abroad are tightly connected with the understanding that students show towards the foreign culture. According to her, studying abroad encourages personal flexibility. Thanks to that, students are able to elevate their comprehension of different lifestyles, variant approaches to problem solving and are able to recognize cultural differences in family relationships as well as time concepts. Swinger unfolds her idea even further by saying that studying abroad promotes political awareness and helps students to see politics in their own countries from a new perspective, that of the host country. Swinger proclaims that the benefits of studying abroad can only be won by understanding the foreign culture (Dekaney, 2008).
Swinger (1995) stresses how important it is to understand foreign culture. She gives a picture of ideal outcome of studying in a foreign country. However, it might be rather difficult to accomplish all aforementioned items.
A study by Allazi and Chiodo (2006) that focused on middle-eastern students coming to the United States shows many obstacles that causes the recession in reaching the ideal state of integration into a new culture. Their research pointed out problems in academic, language, socio-cultural and personal spheres of international students‟ lives.
Students, who come to different country, are facing many things that vary from their home. Some of such dissimilarities seem rather banal. Different food and eating habits, different clothing code or different weather conditions might be some of that kind. In Maslow‟s hierarchy of needs these will represent the physiological level of needs. (For more about Maslow‟s hierarchy of needs, see chapter II, p. 16) For students, who arrive to a country with a very different culture, language, communication and interaction problem are more than likely to arise. Such situation might subvert the self-esteem and confidence and might result in loss of feeling of safeness. For an adult learner, such drastic changes might cause physical as well as psychological problems.
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Students, who come to diametrically opposite culture, where they do not have family or cultural base and have to face the culture shock alone, might feel stress and discomfort.
The disillusionment phase of culture shock might be more then overwhelming and then performance of these students would mirror such situation more than obviously. Students might lose motivation, might not be able to keep pace with classmates etc.
In this stage, the school or – in case of this paper – a language training center, should take the role of a bridge between the newcomer and the host culture. The assumption was that students who are satisfied in their new environment and school are performing better than those who have to deal with above-mentioned difficulties.
This paper analyzed how is the situation in MTC and if students are satisfied with that, in point of fact, how the current situation affects their performance.
Purpose of the Study
This study examined factors, which affect MTC students‟ performance. Better knowledge of those factors may help to see the role of MTC during foreign students‟ study period. Having clear understanding, MTC employees would be able to target the most problematic factors and so to improve services offered to their students by, for example, employing new means of communication and information transfer channels or improving the already existing ones.
Furthermore, this paper tested if there is any correlation between satisfaction and performance. This examination enabled the researcher to make the results more exact and clear and so the contribution to MTC may be greater.
In brief, the purpose of this paper was to study the MTC foreign students‟
performance and satisfaction factors in order to identify the most significant ones. Another reason to carry on this research was to examine students‟ performance and satisfaction factors
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externally, out of the MTC. To the researcher knowledge, limited number of studies of such type was conducted in the past and thus the results of this paper may be interesting or even important for the MTC management. In order to get the whole picture of its students‟
situation, MTC may work with these results on improving its services, programs or teaching and learning methods.
The guiding questions of this research are:
1) What are the major factors affecting foreign students‟ performance and satisfaction during their stay in the MTC?
2) Is there any correlation between foreign students‟ performance and their satisfaction?
Significance of the Study
Language centers are generally not the frequent focus of explorers‟ interest. Mandarin training centers are left without much of researchers‟ attention. These institutions all around Taiwan do not have a very long history, excluded the three oldest centers (as highlighted in the table 1 below).
Table 1.2.
Selected mandarin training centers – years of operation
University Location Founded at In operation for (years):
National Taiwan Normal university Taipei 1956 53
National Taiwan University Taipei 1984 24
National Chenggong University Tainan 1982 26
National Central university Zhongli 2001 7
National Jiaotong University Xinzhu 2005 3
Providence University Taizhong 1996 12
Foguang University Yilan 2000 8
Source: Mandarin Training Center: About us, n.d.; Chinese Language Division, Language Center, National Taiwan University, n.d.; National Cheng Kung University Chinese Language Center: Introduction, 2007;
National Central University: Chinese Language Program, 2007-2008; National Jiaotong Univeristy Language Center: Introduction, 2007; Fo Kuang University: Chinese Language Instruction Center, n.d.
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Numbers of Students Obtaining Student Visas from Foreign Nations between 1998 and 2007
1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2007
Source: Numbers of Students Obtaining Student Visas from Foreign Nations between 1998 and 2007, Ministry of Education, Republic of China, 2008.
However, on the verge of new millennium, the situation changes and public as well as private universities located outside the capital Taipei are founding mandarin training centers.
As was mentioned already, this is due to the rising demand for learning mandarin. Also, with growing number of coming students, the requirements on schools and expectations changes as well. Putting more pressure on language service providing organizations by stating higher demands should lead to improvement of teaching and learning strategies and enhancement of school environment.
Training centers may (in most of the cases) be the only institution foreign students are in everyday touch with. They serve as a base for improvement of one‟s own abilities and skills, for meeting people and also for dealing with obstacles in their everyday life. It is a space where foreigners should have a platform.
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Students are facing international environment daily, however staff of language centers is local. This may cause trivial communication problems, frustration or even feeling of dislike or rejection towards the institution itself. In their study, Herzberg, Mausner, Peterson, and Capwell (1957) learned that the variables contributing to satisfaction are different from those contributing to dissatisfaction. Between the variables for dissatisfaction were for example unfair company policies, incompetent or unfair supervisors, bad interpersonal relations, unpleasant working conditions, unfair salary, threats to status, and job insecurity. Herzberg called them „hygiene factors’. This term was borrowed from medical science, in point of fact from epidemiology. Herzberg clarified this idea simply – good medicine does not make people healthy. It prevents illness. (Herzberg et al., 1959) Sachau (2007) provides another quite pertinent example by saying that public health officials might use pesticides to kill disease carrying mosquitoes. Pesticides do not make people healthier, but pesticides can prevent the spread of illness. “Herzberg and his colleagues noted that, similar to medical hygiene, fair pay, good interpersonal relations, fair policies, and pleasant working conditions do not appear to provide much long-term satisfaction, but they do prevent dissatisfaction.”
(Sachau, 2007)
If more business point of view would be applied, foreign students could be seen as customers, who pay for the services of language centers. In order to accomplish their needs to its best ability, any language center has to understand their students‟ needs.
You can't just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they'll want something new.
Steve Jobs (Famous Quotations, 2009) This study‟s significance lies in the examination of relationship between students‟
performance and hygiene factor (school facilities, classes‟ equipment, teacher‟s attitude etc.), situational factor (stress, different climate, dissimilar cuisine etc.) and adaptability factor
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(openness, self-motivation, etc.) and between students‟ satisfaction and the three mentioned factors. It showed the space for improvement which can make foreigners‟ stay in Taiwan, during their studies at language centers, more effective.
Research Hypotheses
This research aimed to answer six hypotheses that tried to clarify the major factors related to foreign students‟ performance at MTC, National Taiwan Normal University.
First question that guided this research was, if there is any correlation between foreign students‟ performance and their satisfaction. Therefore, hypothesis one (H1) is as follows:
H0: There is no correlation between foreign students‟ performance and their satisfaction.
HA: There is a correlation between foreign students‟ performance and their satisfaction.
Second question was examining the major factors of foreign students‟ performance during their studies at MTC. The researcher split those into three groups of factors in order to achieve more clarity about their possible impact on students‟ performance. Therefore, four hypothesizes were stated. Hygiene factor is tested at first as H2:
H0: Hygiene factor has no significant relationship with foreign students‟
performance.
HA: Hygiene factor has significant relationship with foreign students‟
performance.
In hypothesis three (H3), this paper looked at the problematic considering the situational factor and its possible effect on foreign student‟s performance.
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H0: Situational factor has no significant relationship with foreign students‟
performance.
HA: Situational factor has significant relationship with foreign students‟
performance.
Hypothesis four (H4) tested, if region of origin (or continent) from where students came to Taiwan has significant relationship with their performance.
H0: There is no significant relationship between international students‟
performance and their region/continent of origin.
HA: There is a significant relationship between international students‟
performance and their region/continent of origin.
The researcher found it vital for the quality and validity of research to also involve the adaptability factor. Therefore hypothesis five (H5) follows:
H0: Adaptability factor has no significant relationship with foreign students‟
performance.
HA: Adaptability factor has significant relationship with foreign students‟
performance.
Hypothesis six tested whether hygiene, situational and adaptability factors are associated with international students‟ satisfaction with their lives in Taiwan. Therefore:
H0: There is no significance relationship between hygiene, situational and adaptability factors and international students‟ satisfaction.
HA: There is significant relationship between hygiene, situational and adaptability factors and international students‟ satisfaction.
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The researcher also wanted to find out by using one way ANOVA test, if hygiene, situational and adaptability factors show significant results when sample is divided into groups according to 1) length of students‟ stay in Taiwan and 2) students‟
region of origin.
y1 = b0x0 + b1x1 + b2x2 +….+bkxk + e y2 = b0x0 + b1x1 + b2x2 +….+bkxk + e
- where y1 is international students‟ performance; bs are weights expressing relative degrees of influence of the xs in accounting for y1; e is error
- where y2 is international students‟ satisfaction; bs are weights expressing relative degrees of influence of the xs in accounting for y1; e is error
Limitations and Delimitations
This is a pioneering paper about determinants of MTC foreign students‟ performance.
Such initial studies usually examine the most obvious issues and may not work with all possible factors. Furthermore, only students were involved in the research. MTC personnel may provide feedback and sketch in the situation of environment of the institution. However, this research was limited by inaccessibility of organizational data and records as well as other constraints that did not allow the researcher to seek for answers in wider range.
Other limitation of this study was the fact that it only focused on the Chinese language center of National Taiwan Normal University. This institution is the oldest in Taiwan and invites the biggest number of foreign students to join its courses. Also, MTC, being located in the capital of Taiwan – Taipei, may have different conditions and resources than institutions in other cities and more remote areas. Therefore, results of this research may have limited applicability outside of MTC.
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The delimitation of this study is that only MTC students participated in the research.
This research used snowball sampling method; therefore the result tended to be general and further research should be carried on in order to get more precise answers about learners divided into more particular subgroups, for example according to the specific regions, etc.
The study was based in Taiwan and worked solely with local conditions. This limitation implies that the results can only be used by Taiwanese mandarin training centers.
Definition of terms
International students: Students enrolled in the Chinese language training program at Mandarin Training Center (MTC) at the National Taiwan Normal University, who do not possess R.O.C. citizenship.
International students’ performance: average score of all tests, quizzes, in-class activities and participation given by MTC teachers on weekly or monthly basis.
International students’ satisfaction: describes whether students are happy and contented with their life in Taiwan and whether they fulfill their desires and needs within their lives.
Hygiene factor: job factors that can cause dissatisfaction if missing but do not necessarily motivate employees if increased. (Herzberg, 1968) In this research, hygiene factors are applied in school environment and hence stand for factors within school that can cause dissatisfaction or de-motivation (administration personnel‟ attitude, teachers‟ attitude, school equipment, teaching materials, hygiene maintenance, etc.).
Situational factor: factors of everyday life or situations caused by everyday life in unknown
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environment (communication, transportation, cuisine, stress, homesickness, etc.)
Adaptability: the ability to change in order to fit in different environment, culture or situations.
Adaptability factor: personality traits that can ease or aggravate the process of adaptation of an individual.
Chapter Summary
Chapter one introduced in detail the topic of this research. Six hypotheses, which were stated in order to test the collected data, were given. Furthermore, the author clarified why only the Mandarin Training Center of the National Taiwan Normal University was chosen as
Chapter one introduced in detail the topic of this research. Six hypotheses, which were stated in order to test the collected data, were given. Furthermore, the author clarified why only the Mandarin Training Center of the National Taiwan Normal University was chosen as