At the start of 2025, I had just finished my 6-month grant and had to go back to teaching full-time and trying to fit my PhD into the little cracks of time I had in between. I had gotten a book chapter proposal accepted in late 2024 and was busy gathering data when the new year arrived. It was an interesting project interviewing spouses married to Chinese, living in China, and learning Chinese. A very meaningful project for me. I am happy to say that the book will come out sometime later this year, can’t wait!

During Spring 2025, I was writing the book chapter and also working on another paper on Finnish university students learning Chinese. The article was rejected from a journal, but I received such excellent feedback that helped me to improve my article, so I definitely count that rejection as a win. I could really see that both reviewers had spent considerable time going through my article and gave me recommendations and criticism. By now, I have decided to split that overly long article into two to gain greater focus and to go deeper into the themes of those articles. Hopefully, I will hear good news on those articles this coming Spring.

In May, I attended the Tenth International Conference on Teaching Chinese as a Second Language (TCSL) in Hong Kong and gave a paper presentation on the study of Finnish university students learning Chinese and changes in their motivation. A nice surprise was to see my university teacher after ten years and to catch up with her and another student from my alma mater.

I enjoyed the conference a lot, but I do have to say the community of Psychology of Language Learning still has a more special place in my heart, even though we are all focused on different languages. But there just is something about people who research motivation, emotions, and positive psychology, that makes it such a unique group. However, I do hope to keep in touch with the TCSL community as well, as the Chinese language will for sure always be part of my career and what I do.

During Summer 2025, I had a break in teaching and research while on our epic train trip through Finnish, Swedish, and Norwegian Lapland. It is hard to summarize that trip, but as a family of three, we saw Santa Claus, hiked 10 kilometers in Abisko, and drank mountain river water, did a spontaneous trip to a water park in Boden, admired the mountains in Narvik, and had our 18-hour night train extend 13 more hours due to it being too hot in the Nordic! During that Summer, we also had long layovers in Amsterdam and Paris, and it was a delight to get to explore those cities for the first time.

That Summer, I completed my book chapter and sent it to the editor, followed by improvements according to her helpful feedback. I am so grateful to have been a part of this project and can not wait for the book launch later this year! I never thought I would be able to join in as a new PhD student, but I try to go by the words of my brother-in-law, who gave me this golden advice early on in my PhD: “Never say no to yourself”. Always apply, always try and do your best, editors or reviewers will tell you no many times, but do not say no to yourself. I think he does not remember that he gave me this advice, but it has supported me all these three years!

Every year in August, I also visit my university in Finland and have lunch with my supervisors. Even though I have their support remotely all year round, it is always a delight to be able to sit down around the same table and have a chat face-to-face. I also met with my colleagues, and with one, we planned our joint research project on L2 teacher wellbeing. We were happy to hear that our poster proposal was accepted to the PLL6 conference, which will be held in May 2026 in China. At the same time, I also submitted and got accepted for a paper presentation on an autoethnographic study looking back at 15 years of learning Mandarin Chinese. I bet that PLL6 will be the highlight of 2026, but I will tell you more about that later this year.

In August, I also attended the FinEd writing workshop for doctoral researchers for the second time. As always, it was an amazing time to get feedback on our writing, to attend workshops, and most of all, to spend time with colleagues in a beautiful location in Helsinki by the coast.

During Autumn 2025, back in China, I kept working on editing the book chapter and improving the two articles that I decided to split from the original article, which had a loss of focus. Throughout the year, I had amazing support from my new mentor, whom I very much look up to and am eager to learn from. I appreciate all of our Zoom chats and emails exchanged, and look forward to many more ways to cooperate in the future. If she ever reads this, I am sure she knows who she is!

The end of the year came with the highlight of 2025, the Doctoral Winter School at the University of Graz, organized by the International Association for the Psychology of Language Learning (IAPLL). I traveled to three new countries: Austria, Slovenia (to see my brother, and Italy (quick day-trip to Trieste for authentic pizza). It was right before Christmas, so I got to enjoy the European Christmas vibe for the first time since 2009! After I moved to Guangzhou, I always go back home during Summers, so I had missed all the Winter festivities for over 10 years.

The Winter School was just perfection, and I am not exaggerating! Like I have mentioned a few times in this post, this community is truly something I feel I belong in. During the three days, we immersed ourselves in the company of experts, mentors, and peers in our fields. We had several workshops, for example, one that helped me get over my fear of statistics! We got one-on-one time with experts from our field to ask anything that was on our minds. I had great discussions about career, postdoc, publishing, and more. With peers, we not only discussed deep topics related to our research, but also life in general. These types of discussions are certainly an introvert’s dream, as we are often not so keen on small talk in general. I look forward to meeting many new and old friends again at the PLL6 conference this year.

2025 in short

• Article 1 completed, now in editing to catch up with most recent research (systematic review)
• Article 2 completed, in review
• Article 3 split up from Article 2, in writing
• Article 4 completed, will be published as a book chapter later in 2026
• Other projects: L2 teacher wellbeing with a colleague, autoethnograpical study on Mandarin motivation
• Conferences and other events attended: TCSL in Hong Kong, PhD Writing Workshop in Helsinki, PhD Winter School in Graz
• Courses attended: Research ethics, PhD summary writing, and basics of statistics
• Accepted submissions: Book chapter, PLL6 poster abstract, PLL6 paper abstract
• Grants: Winter School and PLL6 travel grants from Turku University Foundation, 2 months research grant from my doctoral program

Conferences are an important, and a fun, part of being a phd student. You get to showcase your research and make important connections. As an introvert, I enjoy conferences as you can often skip the small talk and get to discuss interesting issues with people who are interested in the same topics as you are. That is, if you get into the conference in the first place!

Depending on conferences, the amount of competition or what they are looking for can vary. Remember, that conference acceptances or rejections do not make your value as a researcher. I try to remind myself of this as well, as I was rejected from two conferences this year.

To learn from my experiences, I wanted to put together information about how to write conference abstracts and what conferences are looking for. My experiences come mainly from the IAPPL, EuroSLA, and Earli conferences, so things might be different in your field.

A quick checklist

• Check the conference requirements for the application, abstract, and possible summary IN ADVANCE.
• Reserve enough time to get your application together.
• After you have written your abstract and/or summary, go through it again with the checklist to make sure you have covered everything.
• A good article abstract is not necessarily the same as a good conference application abstract.
• Most abstracts are 250-500 words, sometimes a longer 1000 word summary is needed as well.
• Celebrate when you succeed, and learn from the experience if you don’t. Remember, you are still valuable, your research is still valuable.

How to write a good abstract

Requirements of length and content vary, so check the conference website for details. Here are some of the common things that are being checked:

• Theoretical background and framework, a clear theoretical context
• Originality of the theoretical or methodological contribution
• Rigourity of the study
• Clarity of the research plan, methods, results, conclusions
• Significance of the study, theoretical and pedagogical implications
• Link for EuroSLA requirements
• Link for Earli requirements

Looking back in hindsight, my applications and abstracts were not well enough crafted for these conferences, so I dived into the feedback that some of my colleagues and I got to gain more information on what the reviewers were seeing as problematic. Below I focus on the points that were not as clear from the original checklists. So read the conference checklists first, and then you can complement that with the information I have received from reviewers.

Common problems described by reviewers

• “The sample size is quite small, which makes me wonder if a paper session would be the best fit for this study.” > Perhaps the reviewer or this conference favors quantitative studies more?
• “The three research questions are very broad compared to the detailed description of theoretical and educational significance. ” > Perhaps the research questions could be more focused and detailed.
• “From my point of view, it would be necessary for such educational impact statements to assess and analyze learners from different courses and teachers.” > Again this might be a preference for a quantitative study on the matter, or the implications of the study should be reconsidered.
• “There are two outcome measures, but the results do not clearly distinguish between them.” > More clarity is needed, so we would know what influenced what.
• “One thing that could be clearer is what the specific contribution is to the literature, more discussion on how findings might contribute to research on this topic.” > Clarity of theoretical implications.
• “The small sample size and voluntary participation likely introduce bias, as the most engaged students may have self-selected into the study.” > Again, could be seen as a preference for quantitative studies in that specific conference.
• “The research lacks clarity on what is specifically being investigated within this method and how predictors and outcomes are defined.” > More clarity is needed to explain the methodology.

From above we can see that more clarity is very commonly called for. Clarity of the research questions, methodology, and implications for future research. What is often clear in our minds, might not be so clear in the eyes of the reviewer.

From some of the comments above, we can also possibly see a slight preference for quantitative studies, this might depend on the conference, what they are usually looking for. For those of us doing qualitative research, I believe it is important to highlight the benefits of qualitative studies and how the results are not supposed to be generalizable, instead rich background is given for transferability to similar contexts.

For more information on the topic, I recommend this article by Pattemore and Pattemore (2024) Fatal and non-fatal flaws in early-career researchers’ conference abstracts.

Some advice

• Writing an abstract for the first time can be hard, ask your supervisors and colleagues for help, and ask to read their successful abstracts and applications.
• If you get rejected, give yourself time to be sad about it, all feelings are normal. Then, after a while, read through the previous feedback with a critical view, is there something that could be improved for next time? (Unfortunately not all conferences give feedback.)
• If you noticed feeling discouraged from rejections, think about your past successes. You have already successfully enrolled in the phd program, you are valuable. Perhaps you have already presented your research at your own university or research seminar? It is important to remember and celebrate all the small wins as well!
• Sometimes reviewers don’t agree with each other, and you might get mixed feedback, check critically what you should improve, and reject those that you have a good reason to disagree with. If not sure, discuss with your supervisors.
• Always aim high, you never know when you succeed! Always strive to improve and apply again, you never know when it is your turn!

During the first half of 2024, it was sometimes a struggle to balance full-time work and a PhD. The systematic review that had started well was put on hiatus and the little focus I was able to have, was given to the empirical study. The highlight of the Spring was my first international conference in Madrid and my very first poster presentation. That week in Madrid gave me a lot of confidence as a doctoral researcher and on my chosen path. I was super wired during the whole week with all the interesting people and discussions from morning till evening. I did end up getting sick after returning home to China, but it was definitely worth it! Special thanks to the Turku University Foundation for funding half of the trip expenses!

Besides funding the trip, the foundation also gave me a 6-month grant to focus on my research from July to December! Getting funding, even for a short time, was an important milestone for me. Not only for financial reasons but also to gain confidence from the fact that others saw my research significant as well.

During the Summer and Autumn of 2024, lots of things have been happening in terms of my PhD.

• Finished the full draft of Article 2 which is ready for submission next month.
• Finish quality appraisal for the systematic review (Article 1), the draft has 2000 words so far and coding is almost done.
• Article 3 research plan was done and interviews started in early December
• In August I saw my supervisors again in Turku and attended a writing retreat in Helsinki, with excellent networking and fine dining
• Besides May in Madrid, I also presented my research in Hong Kong (June) and Shenzhen (November)
• In December I visited my alma mater where I did my BA and MA, meeting with future Chinese teachers to introduce my research and experiences as a Chinese teacher

Speaking of the third article for my PhD (which is article-based), I got the exciting news that it was accepted as a book chapter for an exciting project that will be published sometime in 2026. The project inspired me to change the direction of that article and provides me with a clear schedule as well, something that I appreciate greatly.

At the end of the year, I still have not secured any funding for 2025 which creates some anxiety. However, I got good news from the Turku University Foundation and my own PhD program that they will give me travel grants for two important conferences next Summer, given that my abstracts will be accepted. If all goes well, I will be traveling to Norway and/or Austria!

Now at the very end of 2024, I am happy with how this year turned out and the experiences I have had. I feel more confident in my own research and pursuing an academic career. Looking forward to 2025, January will be a busy month with multiple funding deadlines, and planning to submit my empiric article before the Chinese New Year holiday.

During the Spring, I look forward to completing drafts for both Article 1 and Article 3, also will be attending on a couple of PhD courses. Autumn would then be used for editing, more courses, and starting to write the PhD summary. I am manifesting to graduate in 2026!

Thank you for following my 2024 and wishing everyone happy holidays and funding for 2025!

Scientific writing can be a scary thing for a new PhD student, at least that was the case for me. I wrote my research plan for a couple of years and once I was accepted into the program, I mostly read and collected data during my first year. I did not write at all! I felt that I was never ready to start writing, instead I read one more article, and another one, and then ten more.

This week I published a video on my YouTube channel about getting rid of my fear of writing. Watch the full video above or directly on YouTube, but here are my three takeaways:

1. Get inspired by articles you like in your field. Do not copy, but learn from them and their way of writing.
2. Write first, edit later! Write freely to get words on the paper, editing is for later.
3. Use citation software like Zotero. I used it to store all of my article PDFs (the extra storage is definitely worth the money!)

My experiences choosing languages

If I first take myself as an example, I have experience learning English, Swedish, German, Latin, Cantonese, and Mandarin. When it comes to English, is a compulsory subject in Finland and as a global language, there are many incentives to learn it. I never had to consider whether I was motivated to learn English. Besides kids’ cartoons, TV shows aren’t dubbed in Finland and I heard a lot of English through TV and later the internet.

Swedish is also a compulsory language in Finland as it is one of our official languages along with Finnish. In school I got average or a bit below average grades in Swedish and never had any passion for the language, it was just a compulsory subject among others. Only recently I got interested in Swedish TV shows and started to relearn it, almost from zero again. I feel a lot more excited to learn it now that it is my choice and I have found something interesting to do in the language. In a year or so, I have noticed my listening and reading skills improving a lot, next step would be to improve my speaking as well. My reborn interest in the language has even gotten me to consider working in Sweden in the future.

German I studied for five years in primary school and middle school because my classmates studied it as well. I never had a deep interest in the language and easily dropped it when it was not convenient to study it anymore. Since I have not considered relearning it.

Latin I dabbled in for a few weeks in university when I was a history major. I thought it would be useful or cool, but I gave up quickly when I realized it required a lot of hard work.

Cantonese I studied for a couple of courses after I moved to China. I was fairly interested in the language and considered it to be a cool skill to learn as I live in Cantonese Cantonese-speaking area. I was discouraged by more advanced learners in the classroom who all seemed to have Cantonese relatives. I was perhaps lacking a true commitment to the language, as I stopped learning after those two courses. I found the level to be too difficult and the pace too quick for me. I sometimes think Cantonese would be a useful language for me as my husband is a native speaker, but my motivation has not been strong enough to make it a priority.

When it comes to Mandarin Chinese, I have written a lot about my years of studying it to a rather advanced level. Mandarin has always been my passion project, but my motivation to learn it has not always been stable, but it has never disappeared either.

A couple of interesting findings in the research

For a year, I have been researching university students in Finland learning Chinese (Mandarin). Choosing to study a language other than English (LOTE) is often an active choice, which can affect motivation. My research participants had experiences studying multiple languages, but for various reasons that I will discuss in my article, they chose Chinese.

In a study by Taylor & Marsden (2014) among secondary school students in England, the general importance of languages was not an important predictor for choosing optional languages, instead personal importance for the students themselves was. If a student found the language important for themselves specifically, they were more likely to choose it.

A 2017 study by Thompson of USA undergraduates and their choice of foreign languages discusses the motivating power of anti-ought-to self among native English speakers. As they do not necessarily need to study another language to compete in the English job market, their rebellious self might choose to study less commonly taught languages like Japanese and Arabic.

If you are interested in the webinar on Japanese students learning English, you can find the video on Dr. Al-Hoorie’s channel.

Attending conferences is a great way to share your research with a wider audience, meet other researchers and PhD students, and learn scientific discussion. That is what I learned this week while attending my first international conference! For a video, click here for my YouTube channel.

Submitting an abstract

Each conference has its requirements, so check them carefully before preparing, and submitting your abstract. As a PhD student, you can usually give a paper presentation (a talk with presentation slides) or a poster presentation (introducing a printed poster and discussing it with others). The following details are according to my experience at the PLL5 conference.

• A paper presentation is a 15-minute talk with PowerPoint slides to introduce your ongoing or finished research paper. I saw presenters presenting already published papers, almost published papers, and even ongoing work. Some PhD students presented their research plans and future plans (though many conferences require you to already have data and results). With a paper presentation, you can introduce your paper to a wider audience at once (though attendance might depend on your topic, the location, the timing, and luck) and if the schedule is not too tight, there is usually time for questions as well.
• A poster presentation means that you design a research poster and stand in front of it introducing it to those coming to see it. Poster presentation is a great opportunity to get feedback and have discussions about your research. It is very interactive and you can ask the audience questions as well.

You usually submit a short abstract and based on that, the organizing committee will choose who are invited to the conference to present their work. How easy it is to be chosen, depends a lot on the conference, some are more competitive than others. You can try to apply to a few conferences and then decide which one(s) to attend when you get the news.

In the abstract I believe it is important to show the importance of your search, how it matches the conference, and interesting aspects of the research. Requirements of the abstract might vary, so be sure to follow the requirements carefully.

Attending the conference

Once you get food news, you can register for the conference, and start planning your trip. Check if you can or should apply for funding from your university or private foundations. Be sure to register on time and ask the conference organizers if there is anything unclear.

Tips regarding the conference program and attending presentations

• Check when you are presenting and mark it in your calendar. Keep an eye on the program if there are any changes, and check it again right before the conference, and also during the conference if needed.
• When you are not presenting, you can attend the other presentations. Often there are many presentations happening at the same time and you need to choose which ones to attend. Take a look at the program in advance and highlight the ones you think are most important for you.
• Attend the talks that are most closely related to your topic, you can get many ideas for your research and perhaps connect with the speaker as well.
• Also, attend the presentations of those key figures in your field, with their research experience often spanning decades, you are sure to learn a lot about your field.
• Take notes, not to copy what is on the PowerPoint, but to jot down your reflections, and ideas that come to you during the speeches. I got so many new ideas for substudies when listening to the talks, and if I didn’t write them down right away, they might be forgotten later.

Conference expenses

Conference expenses can vary a lot depending on the conference fees, flight tickets, accommodation, and expenses during the conference. To give you just some idea of what to expect, I have listed below my expenses during a conference in Madrid.

I got a partial travel grant from the Turku University Foundation I am very grateful for. As you can see from the table above, it covered almost exactly half of the expenses. I tried to keep expenses low by buying simple lunch from the supermarket when possible, and avoiding expensive restaurants. I always took public transportation or walked to locations. For accommodation in Madrid, I chose a simple hostel with a private room close to a metro station.

As many attendees were also PhD students or attending the conference with their own money, it was also natural to discuss the expenses, and choose restaurants that matched everyone’s budget. As my university department usually only gives travel grants to those close to graduation, I will most likely have to rely on other types of funding next year as well. Often funding results come after everything is already paid, so I can realistically only plan one international conference per year.

Making connections

I am an introvert, and not the first one to raise my hand, but I found it easy to connect with others during the conference. Now it has been said that PLL is the friendliest conference there is, and I have yet to have experiences from other conferences, but I hope these few tips can be helpful.

• Attend poster presentation to chat with other researchers, posters are often presented by PhD students so this is a great opportunity to connect with those similar to you.
• Ask questions at the paper presentations or if there is time, thank the speaker after the talk, including what you learned from it.
• Join evening events if possible, they are a great way to get to know others. Check if there is a specific event for PhD students and early career researchers. Don’t be afraid to attend alone.
• Offer help if you see someone struggling to find the right room or needing a photo taken of them, and their poster. These are easy situations to strike up a conversation.
• Be your genuine self, think about what you want to get out of the conference, and don’t be afraid to leave your comfort zone just a little bit.
• Relax and make new friends! Follow up afterward on social media and send an email.

I was honored to meet so many distinguished scholars, researchers, and other PhD students at the conference. We had lunch together, chatted during coffee breaks, and navigated the local public transportation together. One of the best parts of the conference was truly the people. I am amazed how welcoming everyone was, and how the more experienced scholars were genuinely willing to help us PhD students by inviting us to the community.

In conclusion, international conferences are an amazing opportunity to showcase your research, and to connect with the research community in your field. Above are the tips I wish I had before I attended, I hope they can be helpful for other PhD students attending conferences for the first time as well. Already looking forward to the next conference!

Video about the conference, click to my YouTube!

This month I attended my very first international conference, where I presented my ongoing PhD research in the form of a poster. Psychology of Language Learning PLL5 conference was held in Madrid, and I can not even begin to describe how excited I was to both attend the conference and to visit Spain for the first time!

I am a newbie when it comes to conferences, but I wanted to write down what I have learned so far, during my preparation of the poster presentation, my experience presenting it, and what I would do differently next time.

The Facts

• PLL5 conference was in May, 2024, in Madrid, Spain
• The size of the poster is A0, later notified that the poster should be vertical

I have never attended or seen how poster presentations work, so I asked my supervisors and looked for more information online. On YouTube I found a few good videos of excellent poster presentations and that gave me an idea on how they work and how I should prepare. I also found useful examples of good posters – and bad! For example, this video from Dr. Stapleton.

Canva is my friend when designing anything, and when I saw my university’s standard layout for the poster was rather boring, I decided to find something better from Canva. I chose a nice design and altered it with the theme colors of my university, which is not compulsory, but I happen to like to violet color scheme.

As I was presenting ongoing research, so far I have the background for the research, the research questions, and my preliminary analysis of the data. Again, I looked for inspiration online to see what information I should include and how to showcase what I am doing as clearly as possible.

Above you can see my old design, the one I used at the conference. On the right is the updated design. The problem with the vertical poster was, that to see the bottom contents, you had to bend down a bit to be able to see it. (It depends on how high you can hang your poster.) In the updated version I improved the mind map, as it was an important part of the preliminary results.

Scientific poster tips

• Less text! Text should be big enough to be easily read and only the key information should be presented in text format. Seeing a poster with tons of text gets me a bit sleepy, so I can imagine others don’t want to see my poster full of tiny text either.
• The poster should say clearly what the research aim was, the population and have a clear flow of the order the poster is best to be read.
• Photos, pictures, or graphics can make the poster more interesting and attract attention. Text-only posters are not very inviting.
• Add a QR-code where others can access the digital version of the poster, or even better, extra information that could not fit the poster. It could be a PDF, a blog post, or a video. Make the QR-code big enough and place it where it is easy to scan.
• Print a draft on regular printing paper to check on the size, layout, and other details. After double-checking everything, print on actual poster paper. Many also like fabric posters that can be folded to neatly fit your suitcase.
• Leave enough space at the edges of the poster, don’t put any important information too close to the edges.
• Double-check for typos, but if there happens to be one, it will not be the end of the world. No one commented on mine!

Presenting the poster

Preparing the poster is not enough, you also need to get ready to present your research and to discuss it with other conference visitors. Prepare a short 3-minute introduction to your poster that highlights the key information or interesting findings. Think in advance about what questions others might have and how you would answer them.

My supervisor allowed me to practice my presentation with her and other PhD students, but before that, I also practiced with the ChatGPT audio chat and had the AI ask me questions as if it was a professor in my field. The prompts I used:

• I am giving you a speech on my research project. Please act like a professor in the field of language learning and ask me questions about my research.
• This is my presentation. Please ask me harder questions.

On YouTube, I found this winning poster presentation that also helped me to know more about what a poster presentation is all about.

After my rather successful poster presentation, and attending the sessions of other researchers, here are my tips for presenting:

• Keep the initial introduction short, see the reaction of the listeners on what you should introduce more, and give them a chance to ask questions.
• Other researchers are there to discuss your research and know more about it, remember you know your research project best.
• When you are talking, remember to check who else is listening or coming in later, to make eye contact with them as well, acknowledging their presence with a smile or a nod.
• Stand to the side of your poster, don’t turn your back to others.
• Stay at your poster the whole time the poster presentation lasts, to get the most out of it. But do ask a friend to bring you something to drink or keep a water bottle nearby.
• Relax, you got this!

My first year as a doctoral researcher is now behind me and it is time to look back on what I achieved in 2023. If you want to read more about my first semester, check out my review of Spring 2023 here.

My Ph.D. courses

I applied to university pedagogy courses, but they are very popular and I was not chosen this time, therefore I didn’t have any courses this semester. In hindsight, that was probably for the best as I was very busy with both work and my research.

My research

Autumn 2023 was a very important semester for my research, as I finished data collection for both substudy 1 and substudy 2. I enjoyed having such clear goals for the semester and being able to tick them off one by one.

• Screening articles for the systematic review (substudy 1)
• Having a meeting with two of my colleagues about the screening
• The next step for the review is a quality appraisal
• Conducting all student and teacher interviews for substudy 2
• Collecting all learning diaries from students
• The next step is to finish checking interview transcripts and to continue coding the data

What I enjoyed the most, was conducting all the interviews and being able to hear the research participants share their ideas and experiences. In total, I recorded 12 hours of student interviews and at this moment I feel all the interviews went rather well.

In my career as a teacher for adults learning Chinese in China, I often discuss different learning and culture related topics with my students. Sometimes my students just wish to share their struggles in a new language and new country with someone who has gone through the same. I believe that years of experience with these discussions and learning to become an active listener, helped me a lot when doing research interviews.

I also spent a rather long time writing my interview guides for the pre-course and post-course interviews. I am planning to write a little bit more about the interview process in a separate blog article.

Applying for funding

This year I applied for funding from four or five different organizations and the success rate was 0%. It was sometimes demotivating to receive one bad news after another, but at the same time, I realized how hard it is to get funding, especially since I have not published anything yet. The quest continues for 2024 and I am keeping my fingers crossed for some good news!

In January 2024 I try to first put my energy into finding travel funding to join an international conference in Spain, where I am accepted to give a poster presentation on my research.

Good news!

The best surprise I got last year, was an email to inform me that my poster abstract had been accepted to an international conference in Spain in May 2024. My brother-in-law, who has a Ph.D. in a completely different field, encouraged me to apply for conferences and not to say no to my own applications, letting the conference organizers decide if my proposal is good enough of not.

Now the challenge at hand is funding the international trip from China to Spain, covering everything from flights to conference and accommodation. Again getting funding is difficult, but I can only try and send out the applications anyway! I am also considering paying the expenses from my savings, but that is of course far from ideal as the price tag is rather high.

No matter what, I am just so happy that my poster abstract was accepted and that there is interest toward my research.

Pros and cons

Let’s sum up my first year as a Ph.D. student, first the pros:

• The poster abstract was accepted!
• Data collection was completed successfully
• My supervisors are excellent and easy to approach
• Being able to work together with my colleagues

A few cons:

• Again difficulties in combining a full-time job with demanding research
• No success in finding funding

All in all, I am still very happy I decided to pursue a Ph.D., I certainly believe I am on the right path.

Goals for 2024

Finally, just a few goals for the new year:

• Applying for funding!
• For substudy 1 (systematic review) finish quality appraisal and start the analysis and writing. Finish the paper this year.
• For substudy 2 (empiric study) finish checking transcripts early this year, finish coding early Spring and start writing analysis, prepare the poster for the conference in May, and finish the paper this year.
• Decide the journals I want to publish in, aiming high!
• Toward the end of the year, start thinking about substudy 3.

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My first memory of being interested in the Chinese language and culture is from primary school, when we had to do notebook presentations by designing a poster in our A4 notebooks complemented with text, photos, and interesting information about our chosen topic. Whenever I could, I chose to write something about China.

In middle school, I had my first contact with the language when I found my parents’ old Berlitz phrasebook for Chinese that they used in Beijing in the 1980s. I would sometimes take it to school with me and amuse my classmates by trying to read the phrases out loud. In high school, my father bought me the very first Chinese textbook that I would study on my own, but only for fun and not in a very serious manner. In the second year of high school, I attended a two-week course in Chinese and taiji, which was the first time I took actual lessons.

But it was not until university in 2008 that I started to take regular Chinese lessons once or twice a week and from where I can date back my ideas about my learning motivation.

Motivation when starting to learn Chinese (2008-2009, Finland, Chinese lessons twice a week)

I was a highly motivated student as I had always been interested in Chinese language and culture. I felt I had a unique bond with the language and it just felt like something I was supposed to do. I did a fair amount of self-study outside of our classes but was way too shy to practice my spoken Mandarin, even if I had an opportunity to do so.

During class, we used the materials created by the teacher, and even though I don’t remember many of the details, I do remember enjoying the learning a lot and I would handwrite tons of characters both for fun and for memorizing them. I would also listen to Chinese music and read up on Chinese culture in general.

I believe I had a high integrative motivation and wanted to learn Chinese because it would allow me to understand Chinese culture better and become a part of that community. I was also very interested in the language itself, not only using it as a tool.

When my university wasn’t able to provide Chinese lessons anymore due to an insufficient number of learners, I switched to the Open University to continue my studies. I wasn’t going to stop learning just because it became harder, which unfortunately happened to most of my classmates from the beginners’ course.

In early 2020 I then moved to China as an exchange student.

Motivation during study exchange in China (2010-2011, daily Chinese lessons)

For three semesters I was an exchange student at the University of Guangzhou and had Chinese lessons every day from Monday to Friday, approximately 4 hours per day. Besides lessons, I did homework and found ways to practice my Chinese out on the streets.

Nothing would stop me from learning Chinese anymore, but I remember that the teachers did have an impact on my learning. I felt we had a few inexperienced teachers who made the courses frustrating and affected my studies, but I would rather give feedback than stop learning altogether.

But there are other reasons why I don’t find the Chinese language so difficult. Firstly, I think Chinese is the most interesting language I know. It would have been cool to know Latin but I didn’t really have a good reason to learn it. Secondly, I need Chinese every day so I have great motivation to learn it. I didn’t want to become an Ancient history researcher so I didn’t have any use for Latin. I also forgot Swedish (studied 6 years) and German (studied 5 years) completely because I never used them.

Blog post from November 2010

After reaching a level of Chinese where I could manage my most common daily life interactions, I also encountered the intermediate plateau where learning seemed to slow down and it felt harder to improve further. It made me question if experiencing these feelings in my language learning is normal or if I was just being a lazy student.

And here my laziness comes into the equation as well. Just living in China isn’t enough to improve my Chinese from now on. For the next three or four years I will be attending formal teaching, but that still isn’t enough. In my spare time and especially on my holidays (right now!) I have to remember to study. But how to study when I totally feel like my motivation flew out of the window?

Blog post from January 2011

Motivation during undergraduate degree in China (2011-2013, studying full time)

In Autumn 2011 I was excited to start my undergraduate degree in the Chinese language with other foreign students. From the beginning, I set my goal to be an excellent student and to master Chinese. I was very satisfied with most of my courses which helped to stay motivated and work hard on my Chinese. In my blog post from November 2011, I mention several reasons for being happy with my studies: satisfaction with the course materials, the teacher, and the difficulty of the course.

Throughout my undergraduate studies, I kept a monthly list of goals set and goals achieved. These were the years that I spent the most time learning the Chinese language, as opposed to later learning about subject matters in Chinese.

In July 2012 after studying hard for a year, I encountered hardships in my learning and negative emotions towards my learning.

Some of my grades from the spring semester are out already and I went to the office to check them. I really shouldn’t have. I’ve done very very poorly! Some grades I just can’t understand how they are possible! I went from being at the top of my class (20 students in class) last year to being perhaps the worst (3 students in class).

I feel like that whole semester was for nothing, feel very humiliated that I got poor grades. I only saw grades from 5 courses, but I don’t really look forward to seeing the rest (4).

Blog post from July 2012

I felt defeated after putting so much time and effort into learning and for a moment let those negative emotions affect my study motivation. I took a break during the Summer and relaxed with other things I enjoyed. Nevertheless, being so invested in learning Chinese, nothing could truly make me stop studying the language. That has perhaps been my greatest strength, having this connection with the language, that even though there have been times when I haven’t been actively studying, the language would still be a part of my life and career.

Towards the end of my undergraduate degree, I was transitioning from learning the language to becoming a teacher. I had influential teachers and mentors in my life who inspired me and motivated me to pursue a career as a Chinese language teacher. I also looked up to other learners of Chinese as a foreign language who had achieved a high level in Chinese and were entering exciting careers due to their language skills.

Motivation during a graduate degree in China (2014-2016)

After my bachelor’s degree in Chinese language, I entered a master’s degree program in teaching Chinese as a second language. This was a program for local Chinese students where twenty foreign students joined in. I was no longer studying the language itself, instead learning about Chinese linguistics and pedagogy in Chinese.

During these years there were many factors outside of my studies that affected my learning and motivation. I got married in early 2014 and had a baby girl in late 2015. I attended many of my graduate courses while pregnant and finished my master’s thesis with a newborn in my hands. Besides creating obvious challenges to my studies, becoming a mother also taught me about planning my time better and being more productive with the time I had.

Throughout my years of learning Chinese, I had the advantage of being a full-time student and being expected to study hard no matter the motivational level I had. I didn’t have to worry about sustaining my motivation, as learning Chinese and later studying in Chinese was already a routine for me. As a student, I work best when I’m enrolled in a program and can combine course learning with self-study.

Motivation for learning Chinese after graduation (2016 onwards)

After graduating and achieving the highest level of Chinese proficiency exams (Level 6) provided at that time, I focused on teaching Chinese and improving myself as a teacher. I didn’t feel motivated to improve my own Chinese because I was mostly teaching lower-level students and also had the challenges of being both a mother and a teacher.

For years I didn’t do much to improve my Chinese level further. I wanted to improve, but I didn’t manage to motivate myself to make it a top priority and truly put in the hard work it would require. I was lacking a concrete goal that had always worked so well for me in the past.

Fast forwarding all the way to the year 2022, the official proficiency exam called the HSK rolled out the advanced Chinese exam (Levels 7 to 9) I was excited to take. Preparing for the exam got me motivated again to improve my Chinese and I had a good couple of months of concentrated effort. After the exam and receiving an HSK Level 8 certificate, I again settled into my routine of being a Chinese teacher.

Now in 2023 I still have a lot I want to achieve with the Chinese language, including increasing my active vocabulary, improving my reading fluency, scientific writing, and being able to discuss my research in Chinese more fluently with a higher level of vocabulary and grammar.

It still remains difficult for me to motivate myself to actively pursue these goals, therefore I am including the language in my Ph.D. program by reading research articles in Chinese and sharing my research on Chinese social media.

Conclusion

Looking back over ten years of learning Mandarin Chinese, I can see that I had such a high motivation, a special bond with the language, and high goals, that I set myself up for success. I enrolled in language courses, graduated with a master’s in teaching Chinese, and wholeheartedly created my whole career around the language. I didn’t try to only rely on self-study, which most likely would have been extremely hard for me to succeed in as I easily procrastinate on tasks.

My motivation has gone through many ups and downs, but the underlying passion has always been there to keep me going. I have mostly been intrinsically motivated and had a strong vision of becoming a fluent speaker of Chinese, but at the same time, I have been motivated by grades and exam results as well. I can recognize myself having feelings that I should be better than I am and that others expect me to be completely fluent, but that self-doubt isn’t strong enough to make me actively study to fulfill the expectations I feel others have about me.

There are many factors that affected my current Chinese language level, but the main reason for sustaining my motivation continues to be the special bond I have with the language, which is difficult to put into specific words. Now as a doctoral researcher in Chinese language learning motivation, I am excited to find out what truly motivates or demotivates students, and perhaps I will learn something new about myself as a learner as well.

What makes an exceptional language learner and how can we achieve native like fluency? Late 2022 a book was published on the topic of motivation, cognition and identity with a title “Lessons from Exceptional Language Learners Who Have Achieved Nativelike Proficiency” by Zoltán Dörnyei and Katarina Mentzelopoulos. They interviewed 30 participants that had achieved nativelike fluency in a foreign language as adults. Through analyzing the interview data, they categorized different variables explaining why these learners had achieved something that only few language learners are able to achieve.

When looking at the data, we of course first need to define what nativelikeness means. At this study, the research participants had to satisfy the following conditions:

1. Be recommended by someone who recognized them as someone often taken for a native speaker

2. Confirm themselves that they are indeed nativelike

3. Provide evidence of passing for a native speaker

As native speakers themselves speak their first language (L1) at varying levels, there isn’t necessarily one specific level that could be tested by standardized tests of what constitutes as a native. For example in the case of Mandarin Chinese, think of a someone who has only gone through compulsory schooling and then someone who has a PhD degree from literature, they can be both be native Chinese speakers, but speak Chinese in a completely different way and on a different level.

I personally think that any learner of Chinese as a second language (L2 Chinese) than can pass as a native speaker has achieved great success with the language, no matter if they can pass as nativelike for 20 minutes or several hours. Passing as a native speaker in Chinese is obviously harder for those who don’t look Chinese, but it can be possible in a phone call or online communication. Or at night when it’s dark, like happened to me once when I was walking the dogs and started chatting with another dog-walker, who later looked up from the dogs and saw that I actually wasn’t Chinese.

What paths can then lead to such exceptional success in second language learning? The research found out several factors that can contribute to achieving nativelike proficiency in a foreign language. For example:

• Unique bond with the language
• Cognitive endowment
• Attention to developing native accent
• Strategic learning and intensive effort
• Having people around them that spoke the language as a L1, for example friends, spouses or colleagues
• Persistence and passion
• Confidence
• Indentifying with the target language community

What I regard as excellent news for all language learners, is that there is no one recipe for success. Instead the participants presented a variety of combinations of the variables listed above and each of them had a few of these characteristics, but they weren’t identical with other participants.

We could then say, that from these different ingredients, a student can create their own recipe and make their own fluency soup. Perhaps you don’t have a Chinese spouse, but that will not hinder your studies, you can use your strengths in intensive studying and paying attention to pronunciation, achieving your goals your own way.

Achieving nativelike fluency in Chinese

In a more detailed look into the participants of this research, we can see that most of them achieved fluency in European languages like English, German, French and Italian to name few. Only one participants, a native English speaker, had achieved nativelike level in Mandarin and Japanese. Now this can be due to convenience sampling, that these participants were the ones that could conveniently be asked to join the research, or that there are simply more learners that achieve fluency in European languages (among those that speak another European language as L1 like most of the participants).

This participant who achieved native like fluency in Chinese, mentioned some reasons behind his success:

• Deep interest towards Chinese characters
• Great memory when it comes to the characters (at the same time, he had found learning French very difficult in school)
• Fondness for silent observation, just listening to native speakers speak Chinese
• Attention to pronunciation and actively working on learning a standard pronunciation and the want to get each tone correct
• Focusing on his mistakes in order to learn from there and improve
• Using creative learning strategies

A word of caution for L2 Chinese learners, this is one participant’s path to fluency in Chinese, not all learners follow the same path. As mentioned above, there are many routes to nativelike fluency or as we could say, many combination of ingredients can all make a delicious soup.

My own experience learning Chinese

I wouldn’t necessarily describe my self as having nativelike fluency in Mandarin Chinese, even if I can sometimes pass as a native speaker on the phone or during online communication – or at a dark park like mentioned above – but I am rather certain that I can still call my self an advanced learned of Mandarin Chinese. I have written my master’s thesis in Chinese and have achieve HSK Level 8 certificate, to give an idea of my language level.

Some of the reasons that I believe have helped me with achieving a high-level of Chinese.

• Unique bond with Chinese. As my parents lived in Beijing in the 80s, I’ve always had a connection with China and Chinese culture. I was born in Finland and didn’t go to China until I was 21, but since primary school I do remember being interested in the language and culture of China. Now I have been living in China since 2010.
• Strategic learning and intensive effort. I studied some Chinese in Finland, but after I moved to China I focused on learning Chinese full-time from 2010 until end of 2013 and then 2014-2016 completed my master’s degree in Chinese.
• Being in the target language environment and having a Chinese family. Since 2013 I have used Mandarin daily to communicate with my husband and his family. Family has never been the reason why I learn Chinese, but having someone to talk to in your target language is certainly always helpful, even if they don’t specifically help you learn or teach you. If I wasn’t married to a Chinese speaker, I would have had to form other strong relationships and friendships with native speakers to achieve the same. Another option could have been to work in a Chinese workplace.
• Passion. I can’t put it quite into words, but similar to having a unique bond, I also feel that I have great passion for learning Chinese and also for teaching the language as well. I believe this passion has also kept me motivated throughout the years, even my motivation hasn’t always been at the same level.
• Teaching Chinese. Becoming a teacher for Mandarin Chinese has also been an important way for me to improve my own Chinese.

In order to achieve what I consider as a nativelike fluency (when it comes to me), I still have certain aspects of the language that I wish to improve further:

• Improving my pronunciation in certain aspects, for example I still find it difficult sometimes to remember if a word is spelled with j or q if I have never seen the word written out and have only heard it in speech. I can recognize it on the spot, but later it’s hard to recollect which one it was. I also sometimes make tone mistakes as well when speaking, which my daughter (L1 Mandarin speaker) is happy to point out. These mistakes don’t affect my communication, but would be an added level of nativelike fluency.
• Larger active vocabulary. I consider my vocabulary being rather large, but there are many specific terms and words that I’m not as familiar with. I want to be able to read books on a variety of topics in Chinese, which will require a lot more varied reading than I am doing at the moment.
• Formal writing and speaking skills. In Chinese, the different is casual speech or writing (口语) compared to formal speech and writing (书面语) is big. This goes hand in hand with learning more vocabulary and in terms of writing skills, also formal grammar patterns.

My native language is Finnish and my first foreign language is English, but I have never had such pronounced goals for learning English. I’m not planning to achieve native pronunciation in English or feel ashamed that I use software like Grammarly while writing research plans or articles in English. Therefore clearly my relationship with Chinese is very different, something that I can only describe by using the word mentioned above, a unique bond with the language.

Comparing my own skills in these two L2, English and Chinese, I still feel more comfortable reading in English as I have a larger vocabulary in English and it’s easier to read a language with an alphabet when you encounter words you aren’t familiar with but can still read them out loud. My goal is to be as comfortable reading and writing Chinese as I’m with English and to be able to talk about variety of topics, including my research, in Chinese.

Ideas for related research

The research reported in this book that inspired me to write this blog article, is such an important part of understanding what makes successful language learners and how we can use this knowledge to designing and conducting language lessons. What I would hope to see in the future, or participate my self if possible, is a dedicated study on students achieving nativelike or high-level fluency in Mandarin Chinese.

On another level, I also find it fascinating to meet learners who have maintained their foreign language learning motivation for years and years. They aren’t always necessarily those with the highest level, but maintaining a high motivation is such a special achievement that I would love to conduct research in that topic as well.

A message to everyone conducting research on similar topics: My email inbox is always welcoming messages of interesting research or possible collaborations.

Takeaways for language learners

As a teacher I often hear my students saying similar things during the first class. How they aren’t good with languages, they have bad memory or they are too old to learn. Some mention how they don’t have the language gene or any natural talent for language learning. For these students I would like to offer words of comfort based on this research, as there are many different ways to achieve your goals in Chinese.

I personally always got very average grades in English and Swedish in high school, but still managed to learn Chinese to a high level. I don’t have any musical ability, so like for most of us, tones were an extremely difficult part of the language, but with time and effort, I was able to learn them to a decent level. I often tell my students, that I don’t have any natural talent for learning languages, I was just motivated enough to put in the hours of hard work to achieve my goals. Therefore I believe that if you put in the effort, anyone can achieve great results as well.

Not all of us aim to reach nativelike fluency in Chinese, most of my students want to use Chinese in daily life situations or in simple work matters. For them my advice would be:

• Pay attention to pronunciation (including tones) from the beginning even when it feels like a lot of work. It is a lot harder to go back to the basics if you later notice that locals have a difficult time understanding you.
• To foster motivation, set small goals that excite you, but that are within your reach. Enjoy the feeling of accomplishment when check marking your goals.
• Find things in Chinese that interest you and can help you to bond with the language, that can be music, movies, history or any other aspect of the culture that you find fascinating.
• Find your people to practice Chinese with. You don’t have to marry a local to improve your Chinese, instead you can make local friends and get to know them well. Start chatting with people around you, guards in your neighborhood, the local hairdresser or waiters at your favorite restaurant. Don’t worry about making mistakes, have fun with the language and immersing yourself in the local culture.

Looking forward to reading about your experiences in learning a second language or researching fluency.