Abstract
This chapter will discuss L2 English users’ attitude towards English language through study abroad (SA) experiences. No matter where students choose to SA, English (along with a local language) is used as a lingua franca not only in an academic setting, but also in informal settings among students and sometimes with the local people. Therefore, SA cannot be discussed without the role of English as a multilingua franca (Jenkins in Englishes in Practice 2(3): 49–85, 2015). In this qualitatively approached study, narratives of two Japanese sojourners revealed unique trajectories of attitude changes (if any) towards the English language and their sense of self as an English learner/user as they went through various multilingual experiences and self-reflections during SA. The findings indicate that the quality of social networks sojourners build during SA guides development of a sense of self as an ELF user. The author will also consider educational implications for English-medium instruction programmes in higher education.
Based on poststructuralism, identity refers to a sense of who people are and how they relate to the social world (Norton, 2000). Identity is not a fixed entity, but rather is socially constructed and changes over time. The plural form identities will also be used to denote multiplicity of identities. Importantly, when one looks into somebody’s identity, they need to see the process of identity construction and negotiation as a social phenomenon. I will also use the term sense of self to refer to one’s perception of oneself that may be relevant to them in/around a specific situation.
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Notes
- 1.
In this chapter, “English speakers” refer to any English speakers/users around the world, not just so-called native speakers of English. I treat every English speaker/user as a legitimate speaker of English and an active agent who uses the language in their own right.
- 2.
Translanguaging refers to the way multilingual speakers use their linguistic resources flexibly and creatively. By combining the codes, selecting from their features, and employing it in interactions, the multilingual speakers communicate a message, and at the same time, they express their social place in the world (Blackledge & Creese, 2010; Kalocsai, 2013, p. 49).
- 3.
It is commonly understood that, as layman’s terms, native speakers (NS) are those who learned the language as their first language in their early childhood and developed intuitive competence in it, and non-native speakers (NNS) are those who have learned the language as an adult or young adult and “lack” in NS sensitivity over the language. Thus, the term “native speaker” in this chapter is problematised in order to question such dichotomy between NS and NNS, especially with an implication of NS as language speakers with a “complete” competence.
- 4.
The participants were asked to send me a diary entry once fortnightly; however, I received diary entries less frequently.
- 5.
Post-SA interviews were conducted in February 2019 several months after both of the participants returned to Japan. The post-SA interview data is not included in this article because the interviews were conducted after the submission of this article.
- 6.
It is important to note that not all the Erasmus students behave like the term Coleman (2015) introduced.
- 7.
Nevertheless, Hana mentioned clearly there were some diligent Erasmus students too.
- 8.
Hana had participated in various research studies I was involved in since 2016 (JSPS KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) JP15K02774), and I observed various data sources including her participation in group discussion sessions through ELF and Japanese as a lingua franca, post-discussion interviews about her attitude toward intercultural communication, as well as the data that is directly relevant to the present study. During such a longitudinal observation of Hana, she never voiced nor showed an Anglocentric attitude toward intercultural communication even though her narrative sometimes showed that her relationship with the English language was constrained by Standard English ideology. She always maintained that every interactant needs to put an effort in collaborating each other in order to achieve successful intercultural communication through any languages (Nogami, 2017), which, I believe, represents that she holds ELF awareness.
- 9.
It is also important to note that current methods of English language assessment does not capture importance of ELF capability (Seidlhofer, 2011; Widdowson, 2016), which represents capability to utilise language(s)’s communicative potential (Seidlhofer, 2011, p. 202) by adapting flexibility and effectively to achieve intelligibility.
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Acknowledgements
This research is supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B) JP16K16893. I am grateful to the research participants for their prolonged cooperation through their SA experience.
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Nogami, Y. (2020). Study Abroad, Identity, and Attitude towards the English Language. In: Konakahara, M., Tsuchiya, K. (eds) English as a Lingua Franca in Japan. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33288-4_8
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