The Relationship of Thai Kindergarten 1 Students’ Learning Behaviors and Parental Encouragement for Learning Chinese Oral Skills with their Chinese Oral Skills Achievement

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between learning behavior and parental encouragement for learning Chinese as a foreign language oral skills and Chinese as a foreign language academic achievement at An International school in Thailand during the 2020~2021 academic year. Two research instruments were used in this study. The first was the Preschool Learning Behavior Scale to measure the learning behaviors of 138 Kindergarten 1 students during the Chinese as a foreign language oral skills class. The second instrument was the Parental Encouragement Questionnaire which was adapted from Gardner’s (2004) International version of the Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMTB) and was given to the mother of each of 138 Kindergarten 1 students at the school. The research found that learning behaviors were sometimes applied by students and that parents had a moderately high level of parental encouragement for their child’s Chinese oral skills learning, and the level of Kindergarten 1 students academic achievement in learning Chinese was excellent. Correlation analysis showed that there was no significant relationship between the learning behavior and parental encouragement for learning Chinese as a foreign language oral skills with Chinese as a foreign language oral skills academic achievement in Kindergarten 1 students at An International School in Thailand. The researcher provides recommendations for parents, teachers, school administrators, and future researchers.