Needs analysis of Malay students studying Chinese at UiTM

This article is based on our on-going research to determine the suitability of three Chinese language textbooks and the supplementary teaching materials currently used at UiTM. Our research has four objectives: a) to investigate learners´ reasons for studying Chinese as a third language; b) to determine specific knowledge and skills learners wanted to acquire c) to examine the suitability of the contents of three textbooks; d) to conduct a content analysis of the textbooks and the supplementary teaching materials. This article will report only on the first three objectives. A total of 503 Malay students from 17 faculties who were following the third level Chinese course and 24 Chinese language lecturers, all users of the textbooks, answered questionnaires which we developed for this study. Our research findings revealed that two main factors motivated students to take up Chinese as a third language: the desire to master an additional language and to enjoy the economic advantages of mastering the Chinese language. The cultural factor was not an important motivation. Evaluation of the content of the current textbooks by both students and lecturers showed that almost all the contents were considered still relevant and necessary for teaching and learning Chinese at the university. Comments and suggestions to improve the content of the current textbooks were also proposed by the textbooks users. These findings will be used in the designiing and development of teaching materials to meet course objectives and increase students´ motivation for taking Chinese as a third language at tertiary level.