Japanese social influences on academic high school students' attitudes toward long-term English learning

grantor: University of TorontoFocusing on Japanese high school students at university preparatory high schools, this thesis examined Japanese social influences on the students' attitudes toward long-term English learning and on gender differences in this attitudinal variable. Drawing its theoretical framework from Gardner's socioeducational model, this study presupposed the relation between Japanese social milieu and Japanese students' attitudes toward long-term English learning. In order to interpret the quantitative data of this study from the Japanese social perspective, this study used not only its own data obtained from the research participants but also other extant data from related previous studies. This study found that students' interest in learning about the outside world and communicating with people in English and their perceptions about studying English as a main school subject influence their attitudes toward long-term English learning. In contrast to this finding, students' self-reported academic English grade and their self-rated English skills were found to have little influence on their attitudes toward long-term English learning. This study demonstrated that these findings are embedded in the Japanese university preparatory high school context in which English education places undue emphasis on entrance examinations and results in the underdevelopment of students' English communicative skills, as perceived by both the students and teachers. Regarding gender differences, female students were found to be more positive toward their current and future English learning. It was argued that Japanese women's marginalized status in the society and related social elements such as the femininity of English professions in Japan are likely to cause women's positive attitudes toward English learning. This study verified that the focus on the relationship between social milieu and language attitudes can generate a new understanding of research findings on L2 attitudes. In order to concretely make evident the strength of this study with its context-based perspective, it was demonstrated that what Chihara and Oller (1978), a classic study on Japanese students' attitudes toward English, failed to explain about some of their major findings could be explained with an understanding of the Japanese context for students' English learning at school.Ph.D