Attitudes and Motivation Towards English: A Survey of Japanese Freshmen

Abstract

Over 300 freshmen in a Japanese university were surveyed to assess their attitudes towards English. In addition to a background profile addressing the student's amount of informal exposure to English, the survey asked for a self-assessment of English skills, the motivation for studying English, and the functions for which English was felt to be most useful. The results showed students who have had little exposure to English, and whose self-rating of their own skills showed extremely low morale. Surprisingly, integrative and personal reasons for learn ing English were preferred over instrumental ones. English was seen as being useful for a selection of modern functions, but not useful for domestic and local ones. Such findings pose problems concerning the role of English language teaching at university level in Japan. It remains unclear what precise combination of regulatory control, cur riculum, methods, faculty, and texts would best achieve higher levels of motivation and achievement.

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