Investment in learning Japanese as a foreignlanguage: A case study of multilingual adultsin South Africa

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Over the last three decades, the number of Japanese language learners in the world have increased, while the number of learners in the three countries with the greatest Japanese learner populations, China, Indonesia and South Korea, have started to decline. In order to support the increase in number of Japanese learners worldwide, Japanese language learning and teaching in countries where Japanese is a less popular language should be investigated. Against this background, the current study focused on Japanese language learners and teachers in South Africa, where people are not exposed to Japanese in their daily lives. Japanese learners' and teachers' articulations of their Japanese learning/teaching experiences were analysed employing a poststructuralist framework, specifically through the use of the concepts 'investment' (Norton, 1995; 2000), and 'autonomy'. A thematic analysis was utilised in order to examine participants' perspectives on the Japanese language and its learning/teaching. It appeared that the learner participants do invest in learning Japanese, since they have their own 'imagined communities'. Furthermore, it was suggested that the level of visualisation of imagined community, which influenced their learning, is very important. In addition, 'cultural capital', which the learners anticipated as a return on their investment in learning Japanese, might not necessarily be practical or tangible. Intangible or psychological returns, i.e. symbolic resources, appeared to direct learners to invest in learning the target language, Japanese. Finally, a language teacher's role in supporting their learners was suggested to foster learner autonomy, which is also relevant to the stimulation of investment in language learning.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University