Pathways and Influencing Factors of Motivational Changes among Chinese University Students Majoring in Japanese

Abstract

With the deepening of economic and cultural exchanges between China and Japan, many universities in China have made great efforts to train Japanese as an important language major. Japanese major once became a hot major among college students in China. Traditional educators believe that the motivation of China students to learn Japanese is the good career prospects and the influence of Japanese trend culture, which will not change much on the whole. In recent years, colleges and universities in China have carried out a series of teaching reforms, introducing artificial intelligence and other measures. The research results reveal that motivation is not merely a influencing factor. Under the influence of cross-cultural communication, students' motivations show complex changes both horizontally and vertically. Horizontally, students are influenced by their personal emotional connection with Japanese, cultural attraction and conflicts between the two countries, other second language learning, and the domestic teaching standards. Vertically, lower grades focus on interests and tend to have integrated motivations. Under the impetus of career planning, senior students gradually transform into instrumental motivations. In addition, this review discusses the major choice and language development of China students in the future, providing more theoretical support for the improvement of Japanese teaching in the future.