The Language Teacher
Japanese College Student Attitudes Towards
English Teachers: A Survey
Kathleen Shimizu
Yasuda Women's University
Since I began teaching in Japan nine years ago, I have always felt that students viewed
me more as an entertainer than a teacher. In contrast to my Japanese colleagues, I feel
my classes are not taken seriously by my students. Hence, this study will attempt to
answer the following question: Are there any differences in Japanese students' attitudes
towards Japanese and foreign English teachers?
Attitudes and Motivation
Considerable research has been done in the areas of student attitudes and motivation.
Gardner and Lambert's (1972) pioneering research categorized learner's motivation into
two types: "instrumental," which stresses "the practical value and advantages of
learning a new language," (p. 132) and "integrative," which stresses "a sincere and
personal interest in the people and culture represented by the other group"(p.132).
In addition to Gardner and Lambert's integrative and instrumental classifications, Cooper
and Fishman (1977) added a third type of motivation they termed "developmental."
Developmental motivation refers to motivation relating to personal development or
personal satisfaction. This includes such activities as watching movies and reading books
in English.
Recognizing the importance of student attitudes and motivation, several surveys have
recently been conducted in Japan concerning this topic. Berwick and Ross' (1989)
longitudinal study of Japanese college freshmen examined the correlation between
learner attitude and motivation with proficiency in English. The results of the study
showed that motivation to "learn English" peaked in the last year of high school and then
dropped upon entering college. The authors attribute this drop to the college entrance
exam system and to colleges themselves. They state that once the entrance exams are
over, "there is very little to sustain this kind of motivation, so the student appears in
freshmen classrooms as a kind of timid, exam-worn survivor with no apparent academic
purpose at university" (p. 206).
Benson (1991) underscores the importance of these personal goals as factors in
motivation in his survey of Japanese college students. The results of his study did not
yield any clear bias towards any particular type of motivation, but the study did show
that "integrative and personal reasons for learning English were preferred over
instrumental ones" (p. 34).
Widdows and Voller's (1991) survey focused on Japanese college students' motives,
needs, and attitudes toward studying English. The survey concluded that students were
the most interested in developing speaking and listening skills but that many college
English classes neglected to teach to these needs. Similarly, Kobayashi, Redekop, and
Porter's (1992) survey of college English students found that students were most
interested in learning to speak English and using it to learn about foreign cultures.
The results of these studies have yielded valuable information for assessing students'
attitudes toward the study of English. However, none of these studies address an
important factor that should be considered in evaluating students' attitudes and
motivation: student attitudes toward foreign language teachers. According to Gardner's
socio-educational model, motivation to learn and speak a second language is influenced
by two types of attitudes. The first type being integrative (defined above), and the
second being attitudes toward the "language learning situation as a whole, including the
teacher and the course itself" (Spolsky, 1989, p. 154). For foreign teachers of English in
Japan, research on this topic is doubly important because not only are student attitudes
towards them (as teachers) important, but also because they are representatives of the
culture which speaks the target language. Viewed in this manner, attitudes toward
foreign teachers can have consequences far beyond the learning environment. For
example, negative attitudes toward teachers could adversely affect student motivation
not only in the classroom, but also in terms of a student's desire to continue learning the
language.
Method
Subjects: A total of 1,088 Japanese college students (871 females and 217 males) were
surveyed. The subjects included 492 students from Yasuda Women's University, 37
students from Yasuda Women's Junior College, 137 students from Shimane University,
132 students from Hiroshima University, 109 students from Hiroshima Bunkyo Women's
University, 82 students from Hiroshima Bunkyo Women's Junior College, 55 students
from Kansei Gakuin University, and 44 students from Hiroshima Shudo University.
The majority of the subjects surveyed were English majors (636 students), followed by
law majors (100 students), agriculture majors (58 students), and education majors (51
students).
Materials: The survey included a total of 16 questions, half of which offered multiple
responses, and was broken down into two parts. The first part consisted of biographical
questions, including students' gender, major, and year at college. The second part
consisted of questions concerning students' attitudes toward foreign and Japanese
English teachers.
The responses to the survey were used for the analysis of student attitudes toward
foreign and Japanese teachers of English as well as for descriptive purposes.
Procedure: In preparing the questionnaire, a number of students were interviewed to
solicit many of the possible responses. The survey was originally outlined in English, and
then translated into Japanese. After translation, eight people who were not included in
the survey answered the questionnaire so that any ambiguities and/or
misunderstandings could be resolved ahead of time. The survey was then revised and
administered in April of 1992 mainly by Japanese English teachers. Of the 1,153
questionnaires returned 65 had to be discarded due to incomplete data. A total of 1,088
surveys were used in this study.
Analysis: The responses to the survey were used for the analysis of student attitudes
toward foreign and Japanese English teachers. Frequencies and descriptive statistics
were used to analyze the students' overall impressions of their classes and the qualities
and attributes students felt important in English teachers.
Results
Impressions of Foreign and Japanese English Classes: Students showed a clear bias
when asked what their overall impressions of English classes taught by Japanese and
foreigners were. Table 1 shows that over half the students felt that English classes taught
by Japanese were gloomy, boring, dead, strict, serious, and at times tedious. They felt
that students talked too much in class and that they could not hear the teacher. The
biggest impression students had of English classes taught by Japanese was that the
classes were very formal and that students felt sleepy in class. In fact, except for the
responses "feeling comfortable asking questions" and "easy to understand," in none of
the overall impressions that might be considered "positive" did Japanese teachers alone
receive a score higher than 17%.
In contrast to this, over half the students felt that English classes taught by foreigners
were interesting, humorous, and energetic. Similarly, students felt relaxed in class and
their impressions of their foreign teachers were that they were kind and easy to get
acquainted with. The biggest impression students had of English classes taught by
foreigners was that classes were cheerful and fun.
Important Qualities for Japanese and Foreign Teachers: The students were asked what
qualities and attributes they felt important in their foreign and Japanese English
teachers. The results did not reveal any large bias. A trend did surface, however, which
suggested that students' perceptions of foreign and Japanese teachers were dissimilar.
Students were asked to choose the qualities or attributes from a list of 21 items they felt
were important for English teachers. In most cases, students indicated that the qualities
important for Japanese and foreign teachers were the same. As shown in Table 2,
students felt that being knowledgeable was the most important quality (63%), followed
by being reliable (57%), and being respectable (52%) for both Japanese and foreign
teachers.
Table 1
Students' Overall Impression of English Classes
Both
Japanese
Foreigner
Jp & Fr
only
only
Neither
Total
Interesting 19%
8%
67%
6%
100%
Boring
10
68
6
16
100
5
67
3
25
100
9
67
14
10
100
24
54
14
11
100
21
43
23
8
100
21
43
23
13
100
Can't hear
the teacher
Students
talk too
much
Make me
sleepy
Serious
Easy to
understand
Difficult to
17
24
39
20
100
Strict
14
56
14
16
100
Kind
17
13
54
16
100
Very formal 4
80
4
12
100
Fun
13
5
71
11
100
7
16
69
8
100
16
61
10
100
54
23
13
100
understand
Can feel
relaxed
Easy get
acquainted 13
with
Feel
comfort ask 10
ques
Cheerful
14
3
75
8
100
Gloomy
6
67
2
25
100
23
64
8
5
100
Dead
8
73
3
16
100
Energetic
12
4
69
15
100
Humorous
20
4
71
5
100
At times
tedious
Table 2
Qualities & Attributes
Students Feel Are Important in English Teachers
Both
Japanese
Foreigner
Jp &Fr
only
only
Neither
Total
Intelligent
44%
28%
4%
24%
100%
Reliable
57
21
9
13
100
49
16
28
7
100
48
20
17
15
100
Easy get
acquainted
with
Not show
favoritism
Not treat
46
22
18
14
100
Broadminded
49
22
19
10
100
Generous
42
22
22
14
100
Respectable
52
26
7
15
100
35
25
22
18
100
13
13
12
62
100
13
7
11
69
100
Sex (m/f)
14
7
8
71
100
Race
12
4
11
73
100
49
28
14
9
100
Pronunciation 34
33
26
7
100
36
34
7
23
100
Humorous
48
23
20
9
100
Entertaining
19
21
26
34
100
Knowledgeable 63
19
9
9
100
students idiots
Progressive
thinking
Age
Physical
appearance
Ability to
explain clearly
Knowledge
subject area
There were several instances though, where students showed a bias for either Japanese
or foreign teachers. In the case of foreign English teachers, the two things students felt
were the most important were how easy they were to get acquainted with (28%) and
how entertaining they were (26%). These two qualities appear to refer more to
personality traits rather than to academic or pedagogical skills. That contrasts sharply
with what students felt were important for Japanese English teachers. The most
important quality for Japanese teachers was knowledge of the subject area (34%),
followed by pronunciation (33%).
Following this, there were a number of qualities that a majority of students felt were
important for both foreign and Japanese English teachers but showed a bias toward
Japanese teachers. In fact, in almost every case where over a third of the students listed
a characteristic as important for both Japanese and foreign teachers, i.e., where the
"both" category received over 33%, there was a bias towards Japanese teachers. It is
interesting to note that the only instance where this was not true was in the case of "easy
to get acquainted with" where the reverse was true. As the table indicates, 45% of the
students thought that intelligence was important for both foreign and Japanese teachers.
This could be interpreted to mean that students thought that it was simply a
characteristic that was important for teachers in general. But a closer examination of the
breakdown shows that while 28% of the students thought intelligence was important for
Japanese teachers only, a mere 4% students thought that it was important for foreigners
only. Knowledge of the subject area, respectability, ability to explain things clearly,
reliability, and being knowledgeable followed the same pattern. In each of these cases,
students felt that these qualities were more important for Japanese teachers by more
than double.
The least important qualities, or in this case attributes, for foreign and Japanese English
teachers were rated the same for both Japanese and foreign English teachers. They were
race, gender, and physical appearance.
Discussion
The most surprising result of the survey was the negative responses students gave for
their English classes taught by Japanese teachers. The only positive impressions the
students had of classes taught by Japanese English teachers were that the classes were
easy to understand (43%), and that the students felt comfortable asking questions
(54%). These responses, however, could be attributed to the absence of a language
barrier. These results suggest that most students have a negative impression of English
classes taught by Japanese.
A less surprising result was the positive impressions that students had of classes taught
by foreign instructors. In all but two of the "positive" items that were listed as possible
responses, classes taught by foreign instructors received a rating of over 50%. The only
two "positive" responses that did not receive a high rating were that classes were "easy
to understand" and that they felt "comfortable asking questions." Difficulty in
understanding the class and discomfort about asking questions may have been due to
communication difficulties between the Japanese students and non-Japanese teachers.
There may be a number of explanations as to why students have negative impressions of
English classes taught by Japanese. One explanation may be found in the nature of the
subjects they teach. In Japanese universities, the subjects of grammar, reading, and
writing are almost exclusively taught by Japanese. These subjects were the three that
students indicated in this survey that they were least interested in studying. Conversely,
the subject usually taught by foreign instructors, conversation, was listed as the area the
students were most interested in studying.
Another possible explanation might be the way in which Japanese teach. Widdows and
Voller's (1991) survey indicated that most Japanese college students perceived
traditional teaching methods as relatively ineffective, which the authors say "amounts to
a strong negative evaluation of the status quo."
The responses appear to imply that Japanese students evaluate Japanese and foreign
instructors by different standards. The results suggest that foreigners are not seen as
serious teachers. Qualities such as intelligence and being knowledgeable did not seem as
important for foreign teachers as for Japanese. Conversely, qualities such as being easy
to get acquainted with and being entertaining seemed more important.
In conclusion, the results of this survey strongly suggest that foreign and Japanese
English teachers are perceived differently. Japanese English teachers are valued more
for scholarly skills such as intelligence and knowledge, whereas foreign instructors are
valued more for personal characteristics such as friendliness. To some degree there are
some benefits arising from this perception. For example, many students are more
enthusiastic about attending English conversation classes. But there are also definite
costs. For example, some students may not seriously participate in classes taught by
foreigners because they feel classes are trivial. In addition, foreign teachers may feel
burdened with having to fulfill student expectations that they are interesting, cheerful,
and entertaining.
The results of this study appear to support my original supposition regarding Japanese
college students attitudes towards Japanese and foreign English teachers. Since the
majority of subjects in this survey are women from private women's colleges in
Hiroshima, the external validity of the study is limited. Further research in this area
would benefit from wider subject selection conducted over a larger geographical area.
References
Benson, M. J. (1991). Attitudes and motivation towards English: A survey of Japanese
freshmen. RELC Journal, 22(1), 34-48.
Berwick, R., & Ross, S. (1989). Motivation after matriculation: Are Japanese learners still
alive after examination hell? JALT Journal, 11, 193-210.
Cooper, R. L., & Fishman, J. A. (1977). A study of language attitudes. In J. A. Fishman,
R. L. Cooper, & A. W. Conrad (Eds.), The spread of English, Rowley, MA: Newbury
House.
Gardner, R., & Lambert, W. (1972). Attitudes and moiivations in second language
learning. Rowley, Massachusetts: Newbury House.
Kobayashi, S., Redekop, B., & Porter R. (1992). Motivation of college English
students. The Language Teacher, 16(1), 7-9,15.
Spolsky, B. (1989). Conditionsfor second language learning. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Widdows, S. and Voller, P. (1991). PANSI:A survey of the ELT needs of Japanese
university students. Cross Currents, 18(2),127141.
Article copyright © 2000 by the author.
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Last modified: May 17, 2000
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