Understanding the motivations of fluent speakers in beginner-level foreign language classrooms: A Hong Kong study

ABSTRACT

Fluent speakers of a target language choosing to enrol in beginner-level courses at tertiary institutes could be considered unfair. In this paper, however, based on data obtained from in-depth qualitative interviews with 12 students at a Hong Kong university, we show that fluent speakers of Japanese – a widely-spoken foreign language in Hong Kong – were motivated to engage in learning activities during beginner Japanese lessons, as those lessons constituted ‘safe houses’ in which the participants shaped subversive identities against the perceived institutional dominance (GPA-oriented system) of the university and negotiated security. Our key findings related to the participants’ L2 motivations are three-fold. First, perceived ease pertained to the participants’ motivations to enrol in the course. Second, the participants were motivated to ‘outsmart’ the university’s dominant GPA-oriented system and ‘cash in’ their accumulated effort to achieve fluency in Japanese, ‘converting’ it into good grades. Third, the participants showed motivation because they believed beginning Japanese lessons to be sites in which they could feel secure, due to being able to speak Japanese and extend their Japanese-related social networks. This paper concludes with implications for L2 motivation research and suggestions for language teachers who are faced with such fluent speakers in beginner-level language classrooms.

KEYWORDS:

• L2 motivation
• beginner language course
• fluent speaker
• pedagogical safe house
• subversive identity
• Japanese

Acknowledgements

This research benefitted immensely from discussions with Andy Gao, Henry Kwok and Rui Yuan (Eric). Our gratitude also goes to Yongyan Zheng and John Edwards for their tremendous editorial support. All usual disclaimers apply.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Kazuyuki Nomura http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0604-4392

Notes

1 All the names of the participants and the research site are pseudonyms.

2 ‘Foreign languages’ here means languages other than English and Chinese, including Cantonese, Mandarin and other dialects (e.g. Hakka). The prevalence of Indonesian and Tagalog is related to the large Indonesian and Filipino domestic helper populations in Hong Kong.

3 By adopting qualitative interviews, we also intended to spend time with the participants to build rapport and elicit in-depth responses, as we were asking them to recount experiences related to actions the institute deemed unwelcome (i.e. engaging in wat-gei) (see Canagarajah [2016] on related ethical issues).

4 However, unlike some other tertiary institutes in Hong Kong, University X did not penalise fluent speakers of Japanese for enrolling in those beginner Japanese courses (e.g. deducting marks, nullifying enrolment or cancelling credits).

5 Although no structured proficiency test was conducted, the course instructors estimated that the participants’ oral proficiency fell in the range between ‘intermediate low’ and ‘advanced low’ according to the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines 2012 (ACTFL 2012).

6 The university tended to discourage teachers from giving out too many good grades (especially A-range grades) to ensure a reasonably balanced distribution of results.

7 This was to guarantee that what the participants said (or did not say) would not affect their course grades, though being interviewed by their teachers might regardless have affected the interaction.

8 Alex disclosed in the interview that he had passed the highest level (N1) of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test.