Motivation to Learn Multiple Languages in Japan

A Longitudinal Perspective
Erscheinungsjahr 2022
ISBN: 978-1-80041-483-9
Verlag: Multilingual Matters

Buch, Englisch, 195 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 487 g

This book provides rare insights into motivation among extremely successful learners of English and languages other than English (LOTEs) through the analysis of a longitudinal study and the examination of the factors involved in becoming multilingual in a non-multilingual environment. Based on sixteen interview sessions, conducted over the course of nine years while the learners progressed from high school to the world of work, this book offers the story of how two learners persist in English/LOTE learning. The study illuminates the long-term processes through which the interviewees develop ideal English/LOTE selves in an environment where multilingualism is not emphasized and where both English and LOTEs can still be described as foreign languages. Educators and researchers will learn from this study, which stretches our understanding of motivation beyond the recent theorizing of L2 motivation and contributes to the limited research in long-term motivational trajectories and LOTE learning motivation, which is particularly scarce in non-European contexts. The book will be of interest not only to readers in Japan but also to those in other contexts as it offers an example of successful learners who go beyond the pragmatic and instrumentalist view of language learning to hold a more holistic view, thus revealing the factors which can sustain multiple language learning, even in foreign language contexts.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Takahashi, Chika

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Spracherwerb, Sprachentwicklung
• Sozialwissenschaften Psychologie Allgemeine Psychologie Differentielle Psychologie, Persönlichkeitspsychologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Sprachwissenschaft Fremdsprachenerwerb und -didaktik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Tables and Figures

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Part 1: Contextualizing the Study

Chapter 1. Introduction

Chapter 2. Theoretical Background

Chapter 3. Growing Body of LOTE Motivation Research

Chapter 4. English and LOTE Education in Japan

Part 2: The Empirical Study

Chapter 5. The Study

Chapter 6. The Early Days: English Self-Instruction Using Radio Materials in High School

Chapter 7. Broadening the Horizons: (Re-)Starting LOTE Learning at University

Chapter 8. Pursuing Multilingualism or Not? Language and Academic Studies

Chapter 9. What Does Language Mean to the Interviewees, in the End? Language Learning beyond Formal Education

Part 3: Concluding Thoughts

Chapter 10. Reflecting on the Method: Advantages and Challenges of Longitudinal Case Studies Utilizing Interviews

Chapter 11. Conclusion

Afterword

Appendices

References

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Takahashi, Chika
Chika Takahashi is Associate Professor at Ehime University, Japan. She holds a Ph.D. in Second Language Studies from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, and her research interests include L2 motivation, L2 self-instruction and research methods. Particularly, she is interested in motivation to learn multiple languages that may sometimes extend beyond formal education and how that can be captured in empirical studies. She has recently published articles in The Language Learning Journal and Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, and a volume entitled Motivation to Learn Multiple Languages in Japan: A Longitudinal Perspective (Multilingual Matters).

Chika Takahashi is Associate Professor at Ehime University, Japan. Her research interests include L2 motivation, LOTE motivation and L2 self-instruction, and she has recently published articles in The Language Learning Journal and Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching.