Japanese university students’ attitudes towards their English and the possibility of ELF awareness

Abstract

Abstract Previous studies have identified Japanese negative attitudes towards their English and ambivalent attitudes towards the language (e.g. Jenkins 2007, English as a Lingua Franca: Attitude and identity. Oxford: Oxford University Press; Matsuda 2003, The ownership of English in Japanese secondary schools. World Englishes 22(4). 483–496; McKenzie 2010, The social psychology of English as a global language: Attitudes, awareness and identity in the Japanese context. Dordrecht: Springer). The current research targets Japanese university students and adds several insights into the nature of these attitudes through the analysis of 95 open-ended questionnaires and 18 conversational interviews. First of all, the participants’ negative language attitudes embraced notable contradictions. Also, their ambivalence was scarcely evident, and more to the point, a matter of degree. Moreover, it is the doxic experience (Bourdieu 1977, Outline of a theory of practice. Trans. Richard Nice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) within Japanese society that was likely to hinder grounding those attitudes on their own critical thinking and valuing their English communication ability with non-Japanese. And most importantly, it was easy for them to appreciate English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) perspectives, so long as they would like to use English for international communication. More precisely, while they were unlikely to have any previous attitudes towards the unfamiliar representation of their English (i.e. from ELF perspectives), they were highly likely to develop positive attitudes towards it. This article calls for more future research and effort devoted to raising ELF awareness in Japanese and other similar contexts.