Exploring Factors for Learning Through Social Cognitive Theory

Abstract

This quantitative study is done to explore factors for learning Mandarin among undergraduates. A purposive sample of 168 participants responded to the survey. The participants are non-native speakers who were learning Mandarin language as a foreign language. They consisted of 48% diploma students and 52 % of degree students in a Malaysian public university. The instrument used is a 5 Likert-scale survey and is rooted from learning strategies by (Wenden and Rubin, 1987). The survey has 4 sections which include items on participants’ demographic profile, cognitive components, metacognitive self-regulation component and resource management component. Findings of the studies show that factors for language learning for instance attention, reproduction, retention and motivation show significant correlation among each others which indicated that these factors have significant influence on Mandarin language learning among learners. However, help-seeking in motivation factor is the strategies most preferred by learners to improve language learning.