Motivation to Learn Multiple Languages in Japan: A Longitudinal Perspective

Part 1

Contextualizing the Study

1 Introduction

Language learning is a long endeavor, possibly beginning around preschool age and continuing well into late adulthood. It is enjoyable for some and agonizing for others. Having persisted with and having dropped out of my own studies as a language learner, I can empathize with both experiences. There are times when the learning is supported by the pure enjoyment of the experience, and other times we wonder why we started learning the language in the first place. In such long processes, I believe that motivation is one of the decisive factors for a fruitful endeavor.

What Is This Volume About?

This volume is the story of two contrasting yet equally fascinating academically successful Japanese learners of English and of languages other than English (LOTEs), with a particular focus on the learners’ motivations. This interview study started as part of my doctoral studies in June 2012, and thanks to the two interviewees’ sincerity and enduring attitudes, it kept going for nine years until March 2021. During this period, they both finished high school, entered one of the top-tiered universities in Japan, continued on to graduate school and one interviewee started working in the final year.

The two interviewees went through various language, life and academic experiences in the under-researched context of Japan in terms of LOTE motivations. One interviewee, for example, had similar experiences to those reported in past studies in contexts other than Japan (e.g. Henry, 2015a), i.e. difficulty persisting in LOTE studies due to the increasing role of English as a global language. In contrast, the other interviewee had the atypical and under-researched experience of becoming a multilingual, enjoying the studies of both English and various LOTEs. Interestingly, despite such differences the two interviewees shared a similar, constitutive perspective on language and language learning, which perceives language as an essential part of a human being’s thought processes and self-expressions (MLA, 2007), instead of the more dominant instrumentalist view. As such, the two cases demonstrate invaluable lived experiences that enable us to examine how second language (L2) motivation has been theorized thus far and how we can perhaps further develop these theories.

In today’s globalized world, the role of English as a global language is undeniable. It is quite natural that many learners consider it a communication tool and find it useful – we can communicate with so many people around the world, which would not have been achievable without English. The very fact that I am writing this book, not in my first language (L1), Japanese, but in English, demonstrates the power of English as a global language. My intention is to reach readers who are not only in Japan but also outside the immediate context. In order to achieve such a goal, the choice of language was not difficult – I chose to write in English, not in Japanese. With the increasing role of English as a global language, learners now more than ever are motivated to study it due to factors such as ‘necessity, utility, advantage, social capital, power, advancement, mobility, migration, and cosmopolitanism’ (Ushioda, 2017: 471). Many feel that having competence in English gives them a competitive edge, including in the foreign language (FL) context of Japan. In a more extreme case, it may no longer give them a competitive edge because English is ‘now part of a basic social literacy and a medium of expression used extensively in day-to-day life’ (Henry, 2015a: 319), and so many are now competent in the language (e.g. Siridetkoon & Dewaele, 2018; Wang & Liu, 2020; Zheng et al., 2020).

Seen from a broader perspective, the goals of English education in many countries, including Japan, are politically and economically shaped. In many contexts, they now aim to develop ‘human resources’ that are equipped with the four skills in English that can be quantified through ‘objective’ standardized tests. In other words, English education is conducted under a certain political and economic climate, which now seems to be shaped by neoliberal politics and the global market (Kubota & Takeda, 2021). Learners of English study the language under such a climate, and their motivations are influenced by contextual factors to varying degrees, with many forming an instrumentalist view of language learning.

Under such circumstances, past studies have reported that many learners prioritize their English studies over their LOTE studies, questioning the necessity of learning a language in addition to English (e.g. Busse, 2017; Csizér & Dörnyei, 2005; Henry, 2015a). The status of English as a global language negatively influences the motivations of many LOTE learners, making it difficult to develop a multilingual (Henry, 2017).

However, through the study of these two learners, it became evident that it is possible to perceive language learning as more than a way of pursuing economic and political interests, pragmatic utility, enhancement, etc. As the two interviewees in this study demonstrate, learning a language can be a way of empathizing with people of different cultures and different languages. It can also be a way of enjoying and appreciating the diversity of people. If we take such a perspective, English may become ‘one of the languages’ we learn, and it may no longer negatively influence LOTE motivation. If we take such a perspective, reaching ‘nativelike’ proficiency does not always have to be the goal, and learners can keep learning languages throughout their lives. Such perspectives, I believe, have something to add to existing theories of L2 motivation.

Engaging in various interviews with the two learners often reminded me of my experience as a student, which helped me understand their take on language and language learning. For example, their perspective of language learning as a way to empathize with people of different cultures and different languages echoed my study abroad experiences during my undergraduate studies; I still remember the smiles of Spaniards when they found out that an Asian like me could communicate not in English but in their language, and this realization clearly changed their attitudes. I imagine that my experiences in Spain would have been totally different had I only communicated with them in English.

What Is New About This Volume?

As one of the most fruitful topics in L2 acquisition research, numerous journal articles and books have already been published on the topic of L2 motivation. However, more research is needed at least in the following three areas, in which the present volume has sought to fill the gap.

First, this study offers a long-term perspective of English and LOTE motivations involving 16 interview sessions, in which I followed the interviewees from high school until after one of the interviewees started working. Considering that it usually takes years to achieve a certain level in any L2, such longitudinal approaches are necessary (Ortega & Iberri-Shea, 2005). By spending nine years, long-term processes could be examined to reveal how English and LOTE motivations developed through the interviewees’ lived experiences at different life stages and how their perspectives on language and language learning – including one that goes beyond the dominant theorizing of L2 motivation – evolved.

Second, the study was conducted in an under-researched context on the topic of LOTE motivation: it is different from the majority of past studies investigating LOTE motivation, i.e. the European and Anglophone contexts (see Chapter 3). Instead, the study took place in the FL context of Japan, where LOTE learning is considered as something unnecessary or non-essential by many learners, who often lack direct contact with LOTE speakers; it is an ‘exam-oriented’ context (Kormos et al., 2011) with great emphasis placed on English education in the era of globalization (e.g. Kubota & Takeda, 2021), making learners dually oriented to ‘English for exams’ and ‘English for communication’ (e.g. Yashima et al., 2004). The two interviewees demonstrate how living in such a context is different from living in a context where English is considered a basic social skill and where learning at least one other language in addition to English is the default, often with opportunities for direct contact with speakers of LOTEs. It is also distinct from living in a context where LOTE learning is valued from a strategic point of view but is received with less interest due to the increasing role of their L1, English, as a global language.

In contrast to numerous studies conducted in Japan regarding English learning motivation (e.g. Apple et al., 2013; Irie & Brewster, 2014; Irie & Ryan, 2015; Kikuchi, 2015; Taguchi et al., 2009; Yashima, 2002; Yashima et al., 2004, 2017), Japan has remained almost silent on the topic of LOTE learning motivation. However, various educational, social and political factors that intertwine to create the particular context of Japan made the interviewees’ experiences unique and distinct from what has been reported on LOTE learning motivation thus far. They are different from learners’ experiences in contexts such as Europe, where multilingualism is much more emphasized (e.g. Henry, 2015a), and contexts which are inherently multilingual due to their historical and geographical conditions (e.g. Coetzee-Van Rooy, 2019). As such, the two interviewees’ experiences and perspectives on language learning offer us an opportunity to further theorize LOTE learning motivation and language learning motivation in general.

Third, this volume is one of the first to report the details of the motivational trajectories of an extremely successful learner of English and multiple LOTEs. With the growing body of LOTE motivation research, we see that many learners, instead of enjoying learning LOTEs, struggle because they find little meaning in learning them due to the growing role of English as a global language. As described, past studies have reported that learners question the necessity of learning yet another language when they can communicate in English with so many people around the world (e.g. Busse, 2017; Henry, 2011, 2015a); the negative influence of English on LOTE motivation has been reported (e.g. Csizér & Lukács, 2010). Furthermore, past studies on LOTE learning motivation have typically reported on learners of (English and) one LOTE, without examining cases of learners studying English and multiple LOTEs (e.g. Henry, 2015a; Oakes & Howard, 2022; Wang & Liu, 2020). However, there should be some learners, albeit perhaps not many, who succeed in learning multiple LOTEs and grow to be multilinguals. Their stories have somehow been left out of the discussions and current theories of L2 motivation, which have perhaps overemphasized the role of English and the instrumentalist view of language learning. This volume offers the case of an extremely successful learner of English and of multiple LOTEs, detailing his experiences as well as his thought processes and perspectives on language learning.

In sum, through the longitudinal study of two contrasting cases of Japanese learners of English and of LOTEs, this volume attempts to (a) examine existing theories of L2 motivation; (b) critically examine major findings in past LOTE motivation research from contexts that are quite distinct from the Japanese context; and (c) delineate how the two interviewees ‘as persons’ (Ushioda, 2009) went through various life experiences at each educational level that shaped their motivations to study both English and LOTEs, accounting for the various political, economic and educational factors that surrounded them in Japan. I hope that the volume will benefit readers both inside and outside of Japan.

Organization of the Volume

The volume is divided into three main parts. Part 1 (Chapters 1–4) tries to contextualize the study. In Chapter 2, I describe the theoretical frameworks utilized in the empirical study, i.e. the L2 motivational self system (L2MSS; Dörnyei, 2005, 2009) and intrinsic motivation in self-determination theory (SDT; Ryan & Deci, 2017, 2020). The chapter illustrates both the advantages and limitations of these frameworks and argues that it is necessary to be open to other emerging themes in order to be comprehensive with the two interviewees’ motivations to study both English and LOTEs. In addition to these two frameworks, I also discuss the under-researched yet crucial aspect of L2 motivation in the present study, i.e. persistence in learning. Persistence has received increasing attention in recent years, and researchers have started to empirically examine its various aspects (e.g. Cheng & Lee; 2018; Davis, 2022; Feng & Papi, 2020; Henry & Davydenko, 2020; Teimouri et al., 2020). In examining the scholarly discussions, I argue that the dimension of time is crucial in persistence.

Chapter 3 discusses the recent increase in LOTE motivation studies and critically examines the findings as well as the theoretical, methodological and geographical bias in the existing research. Then, in Chapter 4, I examine situations in Japan surrounding the education of English and LOTEs, which can both be described as FLs without daily contact with the languages. In Japan, English education has been heavily emphasized and has been shaped by ‘the permanent sense of crisis’ (Ryan, 2009a: 407), which has led to various educational reforms. In sharp contrast to such emphasis on English education, the history of LOTE education can be characterized by constant de-emphasis. By elaborating on these aspects, I hope to contextualize the study and situate it in the existing literature.

Part 2 (Chapters 5–9) reports on the empirical study. First, Chapter 5 lays the groundwork for the empirical study, starting by introducing the two interviewees, the interview method used in the study and the timeline of the study. This includes the interviewees’ early language learning histories before this study, the descriptions of my first contact with them, how the study evolved over the years, as well as some discussions on the methodological aspect of the study.

Chapter 6 focuses on two sets of interviews that were conducted half a year apart when the interviewees were in their second year of high school. There is a particular focus on English self-instruction using radio materials, which has been prevalent in Japan for nearly a century and is closely related to the topic of L2 motivation. Both interviewees studied English with self-instructional radio (SIR) materials, and their persistence in studying with them varied to a great extent. I examine the motivational factors related to these interviewees’ (non-)persistence in L2 self-instruction.

In Chapter 7, the first two years of the interviewees’ university lives are examined. At this stage, they start studying LOTEs (dai-2 gaikokugo in Japanese, or ‘second foreign language’) as a compulsory course at university. It is also around this time that they start broadening their horizons by considering possibilities in their major studies and various future career opportunities. They are both closely connected to their English/LOTE motivations, and I examine their trajectories.

In Chapter 8, I explore the second half of the interviewees’ university years with a particular focus on the interaction between their English and LOTE motivations. During this period, one of the interviewees embarks on a year-long exchange program in France, where he develops not only an ideal French self but also an ideal multilingual self (Henry, 2017). The processes in which the interviewee did not experience negative interactions between an ideal English self and an ideal French self are investigated. This contrasts with the other interviewee, who stopped her LOTE learning for personal and academic reasons; she was also influenced by the societal climate of Japan, where competence in LOTEs is not emphasized. In contrast to these differences, both interviewees undergo intense studies in their majors, which require an advanced L2 reading ability. This facilitates their recognition of the importance of an L2 reading ability.

Chapter 9 focuses on the last three years of the study, in which both interviewees go on to graduate school, and in which one interviewee starts a professional career. The focus of this chapter is not only on the further development of their English/LOTE motivations but also on the fundamental issue of what language and language learning mean to the interviewees, who go beyond the formal educational settings.

Finally, Part 3 (Chapters 10 and 11) includes reflections on the empirical study and discussions of future research directions. First, Chapter 10 reflects on the methodological aspect of the study. I introduce a discussion on the interviewees’ experiences of being interviewed for an extended period of time and explore this long-term approach to examining L2 motivation including its advantages and challenges.

In Chapter 11, I first integrate the findings from all research phases and discuss how the interviewees’ motivations to study English and LOTEs developed over the years. It shows a bigger picture of how motivations to study L2s are related to individual needs, goals and enjoyment in studying languages, as well as by more implicit factors that entail political, economic and educational forces. Their development also shows that rather than merely impacted by contextual factors, the interviewees also shaped their own contexts as they gained more experiences. The chapter concludes with theoretical implications including possible future research directions and some pedagogical implications that emerged from the prolonged conversations with the interviewees.

L2 Self-Instruction Using Broadcast Materials in Japan and My Involvement in It

As the study initially started with an interest in the relationships between L2 motivational bases and persistence in studying English with SIR materials, a brief description of this type of learning is worthwhile at this point (for more details of these materials, see Chapter 6). Although L2 self-instruction using broadcast materials is not prevalent in many contexts such as the US, it has been widely recognized in Japan (Ohkushi, 1991; Takahashi, 2008; Umino, 1999). Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK), a nationwide public broadcasting company, has been broadcasting self-instructional language education materials for nearly a century (Yamaguchi, 2001). As of 2021, 13 radio English materials and eight TV English materials are broadcast, in addition to materials in Arabic, Chinese, French, Korean, Italian, Russian and Spanish (NHK, 2021a). From 2021 to 2022, NHK also produced a popular morning TV drama series that specifically featured a family of three generations that grew up listening to SIR materials (NHK, 2021b). In Japan, L2 self-instruction using these materials has been perceived as an economical way of studying an L2 (Takahashi, 2008; Umino, 1999), and some junior high school teachers encourage their students to study English using these materials.

I myself listened to various SIR materials for a total of six years throughout junior high and high school, tuning in to the programs every day. Although not an interactive type of learning, I feel that I learned so much English from these materials; studying with SIR materials greatly facilitated my four-year undergraduate study abroad in the United States. However, despite the widespread use of these materials, L2 self-instruction using SIR or self-instructional TV materials has received only peripheral scholarly attention both inside and outside of Japan (for examples of these studies see Hara & Hattori, 1995; Ohkushi, 1991; Rybak, 1984; Takahashi, 2008, 2015; Umino, 1999, 2005, 2006; also see Mynard & Shelton-Strong, 2022, for underlying reasons for the dearth of research on outside-class language learning in general).

After graduating from college in the US, I returned to Japan and worked as a materials designer (called ‘TV/radio directors’ in Japan) for these programs before entering the world of academia. I came to understand how difficult it is to persist in this type of learning without the pressure or encouragement of teachers. The issues of high drop-out rates are also reported in the literature (Ohkushi, 1991; Umino, 1999). I wondered what factors led to persistence, and through a preliminary study (Takahashi, 2008), I realized that it was a sense of direction, a crucial aspect of L2 motivation. As such, my experience as a materials designer helped me become aware of the topic of L2 motivation.

Conclusion

Many of us know how difficult it is to persist in language learning. There are unexpected motivational ups and downs, some goals are not achieved and, in some cases, we just simply give up learning. The two interviewees also experienced ups and downs along the way. As I met with them many times for the interviews, however, I was truly fascinated to learn about their learning development. I was particularly keen to discover that both interviewees strongly emphasized their reading ability when studying English/LOTEs, the importance of which is not widely realized either in Japan or in other countries. They showed me, above all, how enjoyable language learning can be and how much language development is possible even in a context like Japan.

2 Theoretical Background

When I first became interested in the topic of second language (L2) motivation in 2009, when Dörnyei and Ushioda’s (2009) influential book on the L2 motivational self system (L2MSS) came out, I was overwhelmed by the various theoretical frameworks proposed and the already rich volume of studies in the area. It was necessary to immerse myself into reading relevant journal articles and books for months to start to understand the historical development of the field. At the time, I was trying to prepare myself for my doctoral dissertation and deciding which theoretical frameworks would be suitable for exploring the relationships between persistence in L2 self-instruction and L2 motivational bases among Japanese learners of English. Although I understood very well the profound contributions of the socioeducational model (Gardner, 1985, 2001, 2020), in terms of the motivation that would support self-instructed Japanese learners of English, I felt that other perspectives were also necessary.

Another aspect I was trying to grasp at the time was the relationships between L2 motivation (particularly the aspect of direction) and persistence in learning. The issue of (non-)persistence was crucial in self-instruction using radio materials, and it was one of the reasons I became interested in L2 motivation. As postulated in psychology, persistence may be facilitated or hindered by motivational as well as non-motivational factors (e.g. Moshontz & Hoyle, 2021), but persistence is surely a crucial aspect in motivation. However, at the time, the aspect of persistence had received far less attention than the other two aspects, i.e. choice and effort (e.g. Ramage, 1990; Vallerand & Bissonnette, 1992). Recently, the landscape has been changing little by little (e.g. Dörnyei, 2020; Dörnyei & Henry, 2022), and I hope that the empirical examinations in the present study will contribute to the discussion of persistence in L2 learning.

Before describing the theoretical frameworks utilized in the study, some contextual factors that shape Japanese learners’ motivations to study English and languages other than English (LOTEs) are worth scrutinizing (see Chapter 4 for more details). These include (a) the symbolic meaning of ‘English’ in society in the era of globalization; (b) learners’ somewhat vague orientations to study ‘practical English’, which is related to globalization and internationalization; and (c) the educational context of (high school) students having to intensely study English and other subjects for paper-and-pencil university entrance examinations, i.e. ‘the exam-oriented’ context (Kormos et al., 2011). These contextual factors sharply contrast with society’s as well as many Japanese learners’ disinterest in LOTE learning. Furthermore, self-instructed learners of English using radio materials may have unique motivations to study English without institutional control and pressure/encouragement from teachers and peers. Theoretical frameworks that would be utilized in the study needed to address these interrelated issues. As such, below is an attempt to first briefly explain the three factors mentioned above.

First, in Japan, many people perceive English as symbolizing ‘globalization’, ‘internalization’ and ‘things overseas’. As described in Yashima (2002: 57), ‘English symbolizes the world around Japan, something that connects them to foreign countries and foreigners’. Despite being a typical English as a foreign language (EFL) context with limited daily opportunities for contact with the language (e.g. Sugita-McEown et al., 2017), society greatly emphasizes English competence in the era of globalization; English seems to be perceived as a tool that is used for communication with both native speakers (NSs) and non-native speakers (NNSs) of English in the ‘globalized society’, which does not necessarily mean a particular country or community but something more general and vaguer.

A second aspect is Japanese learners’ orientations to study ‘practical English’, which is often contrasted with English for exams (see Chapter 4 for details). The emphasis on acquiring ‘practical English’ is reflected both in the country’s educational policies and in the societal discourse. For example, when examining English learning and education in Japan, one immediately notices that English communication competence, speaking competence in particular, has been emphasized for some decades now (note that I intentionally use the term ‘communication competence’ instead of the more scholarly established term ‘communicative competence’; for the differences between the two, see Kubota & Takeda, 2021). This can be seen in various documents issued by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), such as the lines in the Course of Study: ‘nurtur[ing] the foundation for communication skills’ in elementary school and ‘nurtur[ing] the ability to understand familiar topics, carry out simple information exchanges and describe familiar matters in English’ in lower secondary school (MEXT, 2013). What MEXT seems to emphasize is ‘communication’ that involves ‘face-to-face interaction in hypothetical intercultural contact situations’ (Yashima, 2002: 54).

Furthermore, the emphasis on practical English, and speaking ability in particular, is evident in the societal discourse. This is reflected, for example, in the Japanese term eikaiwa, which means ‘English conversation’: the word is included in some of the self-instructional broadcast materials by NHK