モチベーションの混合状態 : 外国語学習における学習者の抵抗と前向きな意欲に関する考察

This paper reports on an on-going research project to explore learner resistance to foreign language learning. Negative attitudes toward foreign language learning are a major issue for Japanese university students. Previous studies have often treated this attitude simply as a form of “loss of motivation”. Based on intercultural adaptation theory, the authors assume that learner motivation is not simply “motivated” or “unmotivated,” but psychologically complex.The authors have developed the Linguaculture Motivation Profiler (LMP), a psychometric instrument that measures foreign language learners’ motivation in terms of psychological resistance, engagement, and mixed states of motivation. This project contributes towards a more complex understanding of learner motivation, and has widespread implications for pedagogy and increasing learners’ self-efficacy

Explicit and implicit cultural difference in cultural learning among long-term expatriates

Globalization has meant increased contact between cultural communities throughout the world.  This contact is at times relatively shallow - involving, for example, tourism or short-term travel - and at others relatively deep, as during study-abroad programs, expatriate job assignments, or immigration.  Whether shallow or deep, intercultural experiences create adaptive demands for the sojourner.  This ‘cultural learning’ may involve explicit demands, such as figuring out a subway system, or relatively deeper challenges, such as learning a new language, adapting one’s communication style, or understanding a different cultural world view. This study examines the nature of these shallow and deep intercultural learning experiences.  It seeks to answer the questions:  1)  How can we describe the depths and intensity of different cultural learning experiences?  and 2)  How can we use this increased understanding to inform intercultural education?  The methodology involves interviewing expatriates, some of whom have relatively isolated and shallow experiences abroad, and others who have involved themselves more deeply in their new environment.  Analysis focuses on comparing the level of intercultural sensitivity of sojourners who have had varying depths of intercultural experiences.  The depth of sojourners cultural learning is examined from the point of view of relationships with cultural hosts as well as foreign language ability.  The level of intercultural sensitivity is examined using the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (M.J. Bennett, 1993). Results show that a sojourner’s reaction to hidden cultural difference is key to understanding intercultural learning, and that deeper intercultural contact can create greater intercultural empathy, but can also increase resistance to cultural difference.  Results also show that while competing models of intercultural learning providing effective conceptual frameworks for understanding different elements of intercultural learning, no existing model incorporates the sojourners’ reactions to implicit and explicit cultural difference.  A new model of intercultural learning is presented which incorporates these elements, and which is intended for use in designing intercultural education initiatives.</p

From abstraction to empiricism : a new paradigm an intercultural education in crisis

In recent years, researchers have made enormous strides in understanding culture and cognitive processes, e.g .: cultural differences in information processing, emotion, motivation, and identity; cognitive biases; empathy and value judgments. By and large, however, these insights have not been incorporated into intercultural education. Instead, intercultural education finds itself in crisis as long-standing approaches have lost credibility. This talk will argue that the empirical insights of cognitive and cultural psychology can help reorient intercultural education away from abstraction and ideology, towards the psychological realities of intercultural experiences. I will discuss research which shows that the beliefs/assumptions of intercultural educators are often at odds with an empirical understanding of cognitive processes. Just as a therapist can help identify cognitive distortions and change how we interact with others, intercultural education can give learners insights into: 1) the influence of culture on our experience of the world, 2) patterns of psychological difference around the world, 3) mental shortcuts (cognitive biases) that lead to intercultural misunderstanding, 4) and, the cognitive processes related to empathy. I will share examples of how this deep culture approach is being developed and applied, and invite participants to discuss the future of intercultural education