日本語学習者の目標言語への意味世界

Abstract

This study analyzes the world of meanings associated with Japanese language from the perspectives of three Japanese language learners, i.e. KJ(Korean), CJ(Chinese) and TJ(Taiwanese). For KJ, Japanese language has shed light on her potential and drawn her attention to Japanese culture. KJ is firmly committed to having a native-like good command of Japanese and identifies herself with a Japanese native speaker when speaking in Japanese, which is attributable to her curiosity about Japan and its culture, her fear for any disadvantage resulting from less proficient language skills, and her motivation to meet people’s expectation of her Japanese language skills. For CJ, her personal interest in Japanese novels has motivated her to major in Japanese literature in undergraduate and graduate courses. She perceives Japanese language as redounding to her positive aspect which is not manifested when she speaks in Chinese, acknowledging Japanese literature to have given her an insight into the links between Korean, Chinese and Japanese languages, cultures and histories. TJ ascribes her positive perception of and interest in Japanese language to Japanese TV dramas. She finds it challenging to master Japanese language and often feels frustrated despite being an eager learner. Still, she has realized the joy of learning since she joined the master’s course to major in Japanese language education. Japanese language education and research have been of great interest to her, and conducive to her unprecedented self-discovery and self-development. The three learners share the positive views that learning Japanese language has illuminated some new aspects in themselves, and that their interest in Japanese culture has motivated them to learn the language, forming a virtuous cycle. These findings warrant the need to guide Japanese language learners to discover a positive self by learning the language and to make the most of Japanese culture to motivate them in Japanese language education.