A Survey Study of the Ancient Chinese Learning by Thai University Students from the Perspective of Learners: A Case Study of the Ancient Chinese Course at MFU

Abstract

This article takes the Ancient Chinese course at Mae Fah Luang University as an example, using questionnaire surveys and interviews, based on the perspective of learners, mainly from the four aspects of learners’ learning goals, learning strategies, and satisfaction with teaching and teaching materials.  The study of ancient Chinese courses for third-year students majoring in BC and CLC in this university was investigated and studied.  The survey results show that: 1) the main purpose and demand of learners in learning ancient Chinese is to learn modern Chinese better and improve the level of modern Chinese. This is in line with the purpose of teaching ancient Chinese to foreigners today. 2) The ancient Chinese learning strategies chosen by the learners are mainly two strategies: “classroom learning” and “watching Chinese TV series, movies or TV programs”.  This is closely related to the difficulty of the ancient Chinese class itself, the lack of an after-school learning environment and the environment of contact with ancient Chinese corpus. 3) Most learners said that they like ancient Chinese courses and it is necessary to offer ancient Chinese courses, but the overall satisfaction is not high. This is not only related to the difficulty and practicability of the teaching content of ancient Chinese courses, and the interestingness of the teaching methods, but also related to the learners’ own Chinese proficiency, learning interest and studying pressure. 4) In general, most learners hold a positive attitude towards the textbooks they use, but their satisfaction is not high enough. The teaching material needs to be further optimized in terms of the difficulty and practicality of the teaching content. These survey results have certain guiding significance for our further development of ancient Chinese teaching in Thailand.