The teacher as a learner: English teachers learning Japanese in Japan

This study investigates the Japanese learning of foreign English teachers in Japan. Foreign English teachers are an example of a previously under-explored group of migrant language learners due to the linguistic capital they draw from being English speakers which in turn gives them access to employment positions in Japan. This study used a mixed methods approach and combined three data collection methods. In the Diary Study, nine teachers who had been in Japan for less than 1 year wrote weekly reflective diaries and took part in monthly interviews. For the Linguistic Biographies, thirteen long-term teachers who had been in Japan for over 5 years took part in two semi-structured interviews. In the L2 Motivational Self Survey, 227 teachers took a survey about their attitudes to learning Japanese. The Diary Study found that it was difficult for newly arrived teachers to manage their Japanese learning because of the pressure of self-directing language learning while living and working in Japan. For these teachers, exercising agency about their learning and having access opportunities to use Japanese were important in helping them maintain Japanese engagement. The Linguistic Biographies data found that a teacher’s attitude to learning and using Japanese learning influenced whether a learner could stay engaged with Japanese learning. These teachers’ Japanese learning was affected by the commitments that came with being a long-term migrant. The L2 Motivational Self Survey found that Dörnyei’s L2 Motivational Self System was present in the experiences of foreign English teachers in Japan, but it was not possible to fit their responses stably during Structural Equation Modelling analysis. For both groups of foreign English teachers in Japan, managing Japanese learning while living and working in Japan was influenced by the how each learner valued Japanese learning, the linguistic capital that Japanese learning had for them and investment by communities in them as Japanese speakers. This shows that dominant ideologies that exist within a context and the L2 Learning Experience play a major role in whether teachers can maintain consistent language learning. This suggests that Dörnyei’s L2 Motivational Self System does not fully account for the motivations of foreign English teachers in Japan learning Japanese.