A comparative analysis of Japanese language learners’ motivation in Australia and Korea

ABSTRACT

A growing amount of research has recently focused on the significant role of second language learners’ future self-representations in their learning motivation. This article analyses Japanese language learners’ motivational characteristics, utilizing data collected from interviews with 26 university students in Australia and South Korea. A comparison between these two contrastive social contexts revealed that interest in Japanese language/culture may be a vital source for motivational intensity to learn the language in both Australian and Korean contexts, whereas the role of L2 self does not appear to be identical in both contexts. Many Australian learners’ positive learning experiences seem to help evolve their initial interests in Japanese language/culture and construct their ideal/feared self-images as Japanese users, which contribute to their high motivational intensity to learn the language. On the other hand, some Korean learners’ learning experiences appear to have a negative impact on the construction of their ideal Japanese self-representations in the future, and thus, lead to their low motivational intensity. This article also points to the importance of understanding the learners’ perceived distance from the target language and culture, and how this may play both a motivating as well as a de-motivating role.

KEYWORDS:

• Japanese language
• L2 Motivational Self System
• interest in language/culture
• L2 self
• motivational intensity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Toshiyuki Nakamura is a Ph.D. candidate at Monash University, Australia. His research interests include second language learning motivation, future self-concepts and multilingualism.

Notes

1 JLPT is a worldwide Japanese government-sponsored test to evaluate proficiency in Japanese of non-native speakers, whereas JPT is a Japanese-language test organized by a Korean private enterprise (YBM), which is widely accepted in Korean universities.

2 As of 16 November 2015, JLPT explains on its website that N1 represents one’s competence in Japanese ‘to read writings with logical complexity and/or abstract writings on a variety of topics, such as newspaper editorials and critiques’, and ‘to comprehend orally presented materials such as coherent conversations, news reports, and lectures, spoken at natural speed in a broad variety of settings’.

3 Although there has been no common definition of short term (or proximal) and long term (or distant) in terms of future goal or L2 self, the present study defines the short term as the period of one’s current study program relating to target language, whereas the long term as beyond that period. That is, if a high school student’s future Japanese self-image is connected to a higher grade at school, it can be categorized as a short-term (or proximal) future self-image, while if he/she envisages him/herself as majoring in Japanese at university, it can be classified as a long-term (or distant) one.