Is English a nuisance or an asset? Japanese youths' discursive constructions of language attitudes
Article
Article Title | Is English a nuisance or an asset? Japanese youths' discursive constructions of language attitudes |
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ERA Journal ID | 20446 |
Article Category | Article |
Authors | |
Author | Saito, Akihiro |
Journal Title | System |
Journal Citation | 44 (1), pp. 13-23 |
Number of Pages | 11 |
Year | 2014 |
Place of Publication | Oxford, United Kingdom |
ISSN | 0346-251X |
1879-3282 | |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2014.02.001 |
Abstract | This paper draws on a thematic discourse analysis of the written accounts about 'English' produced by 32 Japanese college students. A constructionist psychological framework is used to explore the intermediary function of language in the construction of language attitudes. The study investigates how the respondents construct their multiple different attitudes as they interact with the social meanings and representations of the global language and the cultural context which reconstitutes these representations. It is evidenced that the respondents' language attitudes are occasioned in the social and political parameters of the cultural context of which they are a part. The respondents' positions in this cultural context, their past, present, and future images of self, and their alignment with socially induced ways of thinking about English together exert influences on language attitudes construction. The paper shows the immense complexity of the contestation processes between language learners' attitudes and the rapidly changing social climate in and around Japan. |
Keywords | language learning; language attitude; Japanese; ELT; constructionism; discursive psychology |
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020 | 520599. Social and personality psychology not elsewhere classified |
470210. Globalisation and culture | |
470405. Discourse and pragmatics | |
470411. Sociolinguistics | |
Public Notes | © 2014 Elsevier Inc. Published version deposited in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. |
Byline Affiliations | School of Linguistics, Adult and Specialist Education |
Institution of Origin | University of Southern Queensland |
https://research.usq.edu.au/item/q2410/is-english-a-nuisance-or-an-asset-japanese-youths-discursive-constructions-of-language-attitudes
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