In-Person Panel PS7.2

Aspirations and Ambitions in Education and Beyond

Japanese Language Teachers in Queensland: Pathways to Teaching and Individual Trajectories 

Kayoko Hashimoto 

Teaching languages at schools is vital to educating youth as members of Australian society especially when increasing numbers of people speak languages other than English at home. Despite ongoing calls for action and policy commitments by Australian governments, the number of students studying languages in senior secondary school remains low nationally. Japanese is the most taught language in QLD schools, but often a shortage of qualified teachers is cited as a reason for a school’s inability to offer streamlined Japanese language programs. The relationship between language teaching qualifications, university course offerings, and learner profiles, however, is hardly acknowledged as an issue that contributes to teacher shortage. This project documents who the Japanese language teachers are, including their pathways to language teaching in terms of obstacles and opportunities, as well as individual trajectories as a speaker of Japanese in Australian society. The data is collected from Japanese language teachers who are currently teaching part-time or full-time at primary and/or secondary schools (public, private, and independent) in QLD via online questionnaire and Zoom interview. The findings provide us with critical information for better understanding of the transformation from Japanese language learners to practitioners. 

Comparing Changes in Motivation for Learning Chinese and Learning Japanese for Beginner Level Learners at Tertiary Level: A Case Study 

Zongling Mao 

Australia have emphasised foreign language learning and teaching for many years, and this has been embraced by universities through various language courses offered in Australian universities. As a result, there is also significant interest in language learning from university students in enrolling in these courses. Thus, this study investigates the motivation for university students who enrolled and studied in either beginner level Japanese or Chinese language units in an Australian university. Specifically, emphasis will be on how students' motivation changes throughout an university semester, and drawing comparisons between students learning Chinese and students learning Japanese. 

This presentation will focus on three university students, which are highlighted as case studies. Insight will be provided regarding their motivation to enrol in the language unit, how these students' motivation changes during the semester, and their motivation whether to continue their language learning or not. This presentation will also look at some of the factors that influences their motivation at each stage, and provide similarities and differences observed between these three students.

Identity Negotiation and Language Ideologies in Intercultural Communication: Asian International Students’ Experiences in Hong Kong Higher Education 

Matthew Sung

This paper examines a group of Asian international students’ intercultural communication experiences in Hong Kong higher education, with attention to their identity negotiation and language ideologies in their interactions with Chinese students. By analyzing a corpus of narratives elicited from interviews with international students, the study revealed that they faced linguistic and cultural difficulties when communicating with Chinese students, and that their perceptions of their intercultural communication experiences were interwoven with their language ideologies. For example, as a result of their native-speaker ideology, they found it challenging to adjust to the English accents used by Chinese students. Their monolingual orientation to intercultural communication also caused frustration when Chinese students used some Chinese words occasionally in the interactions. Despite the challenges reported by international students, the findings revealed that they exercised their agency in overcoming cultural differences and linguistic difficulties, negotiating meanings in intercultural contexts, and dealing with problematic communicative situations. Overall, their intercultural communication experiences were found to shape their complex negotiation of identities as intercultural mediators and communicators. With English being the main language of intercultural communication, these international students also constructed positive identities as competent speakers of English as a lingua franca in their interactions with Chinese students.

Integrating Immigrant Students in Japanese Classrooms: Reflective Insights from Teacher Narratives 

Nami Sakamoto 

Japan has witnessed an influx of foreign workers since the early 1990s. Immigrant children face school adaptation issues and identity challenges. Teachers play a crucial role in helping these students find their place within the school community and construct their identity. This study examined how a Japanese teacher understood immigrant students, welcomed them into the classroom community, and supported their identity development. I conducted a semi-structured interview with a novice English teacher at a junior high school in Gifu, which has a substantial foreign student population. A qualitative analysis of the interview indicated how the teacher developed students’ sense of belonging within the school community, both inside and outside the classroom, and how these efforts shaped the teacher’s beliefs. The analysis revealed that the teacher consciously or unconsciously adapted his support for students by recognizing their classroom and non-classroom interactions as unique opportunities for relationship-building within the school environment. Moreover, building relationships with these students transformed the teacher’s viewpoints regarding their commitment and deepened his understanding of their position at school. These findings have significant implications regarding how teachers can support the adaptation of immigrant students, which is an increasing demographic, and help them become members of the school community.