The sociocultural landscape of English: the discursive constructions of attitudes toward English among Japanese undergraduates on a study English abroad program
Paper
Paper/Presentation Title | The sociocultural landscape of English: the discursive constructions of attitudes toward English among Japanese undergraduates on a study English abroad program |
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Presentation Type | Paper |
Authors | |
Author | Saito, Akihiro |
Journal or Proceedings Title | Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Language and Social Psychology |
Year | 2010 |
Place of Publication | Brisbane, Australia |
Web Address (URL) of Paper | http://www.sasp.org.au/content/view/54/1/ |
Conference/Event | 12th International Conference on Language and Social Psychology |
Event Details | 12th International Conference on Language and Social Psychology Event Date 16 to end of 19 Jun 2010 Event Location Brisbane, Australia |
Abstract | English as a global phenomenon has been discussed variably in recent scholarly literature. In parallel, research on ELT continues to abound. However, the scope of ELT research in the Japanese context has been focussed upon the teacher perspective of how pedagogical practices can best enhance learners’ acquisition of the language. Meanwhile, the sociocultural landscape of ELT as subjective realities shared among learners themselves has been underexplored. This paper addresses this gap by tapping into attitudes toward the English language as discursive constructions emerging out of expository-type writing among Japanese undergraduates. The paper presents a discourse analysis of 32 participants’ text about the sociocultural significances of English, from local to global level. Passages of the text elicited from the participants were coded into three theoretical categories of attitudes: positive, negative, and neutral (non-evaluative). An overarching theme that has been identified in each of these categories – English as resource, English as agitator, and English as ornament – is discussed. The study holds, among others, pedagogical and methodological implications for ELT and ELT research. By tapping into language learners’ views of English in their written discourse, the study enables itself to observe the consciousness that individuals bring with them through which sociocultural particularities of their learning context may be visualised. While psychometric attitude research confines individual attitudes within the researcher’s theoretical framework as evaluations oriented to attitude objects, this discourse-analytic study demonstrates that evaluations and attitude objects are discursively intertwined, and the contemporary phenomenon of English is variably constructed therein. |
Keywords | Japanese undergraduates; English; attitudes |
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020 | 390108. LOTE, ESL and TESOL curriculum and pedagogy |
470401. Applied linguistics and educational linguistics | |
470405. Discourse and pragmatics | |
Public Notes | Conference publication consists of only the abstracts of papers presented at the conference. Abstract only is available here. No evidence of copyright restrictions. |
Byline Affiliations | Faculty of Education |
https://research.usq.edu.au/item/q00w8/the-sociocultural-landscape-of-english-the-discursive-constructions-of-attitudes-toward-english-among-japanese-undergraduates-on-a-study-english-abroad-program
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