Full Description
This book provides rare insights into motivation among extremely successful learners of English and languages other than English (LOTEs) through the analysis of a longitudinal study and the examination of the factors involved in becoming multilingual in a non-multilingual environment. Based on sixteen interview sessions, conducted over the course of nine years while the learners progressed from high school to the world of work, this book offers the story of how two learners persist in English/LOTE learning. The study illuminates the long-term processes through which the interviewees develop ideal English/LOTE selves in an environment where multilingualism is not emphasized and where both English and LOTEs can still be described as foreign languages. Educators and researchers will learn from this study, which stretches our understanding of motivation beyond the recent theorizing of L2 motivation and contributes to the limited research in long-term motivational trajectories and LOTE learning motivation, which is particularly scarce in non-European contexts. The book will be of interest not only to readers in Japan but also to those in other contexts as it offers an example of successful learners who go beyond the pragmatic and instrumentalist view of language learning to hold a more holistic view, thus revealing the factors which can sustain multiple language learning, even in foreign language contexts.
Contents
Tables and Figures
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Part 1: Contextualizing the Study
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Theoretical Background
Chapter 3. Growing Body of LOTE Motivation Research
Chapter 4. English and LOTE Education in Japan
Part 2: The Empirical Study
Chapter 5. The Study
Chapter 6. The Early Days: English Self-Instruction Using Radio Materials in High School
Chapter 7. Broadening the Horizons: (Re-)Starting LOTE Learning at University
Chapter 8. Pursuing Multilingualism or Not? Language and Academic Studies
Chapter 9. What Does Language Mean to the Interviewees, in the End? Language Learning beyond Formal Education
Part 3: Concluding Thoughts
Chapter 10. Reflecting on the Method: Advantages and Challenges of Longitudinal Case Studies Utilizing Interviews
Chapter 11. Conclusion
Afterword
Appendices
References
Index
