A STUDY ON FACTORS RELATED TO INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE AT THE MANDARIN TRAINING CENTER IN THE NATIONAL TAIWAN NORMAL UNIVERSITY

Abstract

For recent years, number of international students coming to Taiwan in order to pursuit their studies is growing rapidly. A significant part of them come to acquire mandarin language skills. These students utilize services offered by language centers all over the island. However, approximately one fourth of all learners of Chinese enroll in the Mandarin Training Center (MTC), which is affiliated to the National Taiwan Normal University. Its location in the heart of capital city Taipei as well as long history and reputation are intriguing. Despite the long tradition of teaching mandarin as second language, MTC is an organization that is still adapting to international students’ expectations and needs and is improving its services in order to provide environment in which international students can achieve their goals. This research was conducted in order to learn, what are the international students’ points of view (about the MTC services and other topics) and what do they perceive as most significant factors related to their performance and satisfaction at MTC. The methods of data collecting were semi-structured interview and a questionnaire, which used snowball sampling method. SPSS software version 16 was used for data analysis. This study tested six hypotheses. The statistical results showed that only relation of satisfaction and hygiene and situational factors is highly significant. Therefore it could be concluded that variables of hygiene and situational factors are not motivating or de-motivating for international students’ at MTC, however, they still play a significant role in their everyday lives.