Paper short abstract:

This study investigates multilingual/plurilingual Japanese-language learners’ beliefs and metalinguistic transfer quantitatively and qualitatively. PAC analysis and discourse analysis are utilized to examine the typological differences/similarities in learners’ beliefs and crosslinguistic transfer.

Paper long abstract:

Language learning beliefs have been extensively discussed in different terms. Among them are ‘folk linguistic theories of learning’ (Miller & Ginsberg, 1995), ‘learners’ philosophy of language learning’ (Abraham & Vann, 1987), and 'a component of metacognitive knowledge' (Wenden, 2001). Though variously defined, most researchers seem to contend that beliefs are shaped by students’ (and teachers’) cultural backgrounds and social contexts (Kalaja & Barcelos, 2006).

Metalinguistic knowledge is not simply a trending word in linguistics. It is succinctly defined as ‘the knowledge about linguistic form and structure which learners reach when they reflect on and analyze the target language’ (Richards et al. 2013). In plurilingualism and multilingualism, which is more common in European countries, language learning and teaching could be more complex than SLA not only because more than two languages are involved but because learners’ beliefs may represent even more intertwined patterns of the metalinguistic knowledge they possess behind (metalinguistic transfer).

This is a longitudinal case study that investigates multilingual/plurilingual Japanese-language learners’ beliefs and metalinguistic transfer both quantitatively and qualitatively. Naito’s (2002) PAC (Personal Attitude Construct) analysis is a well-known mixed method in psychology and will be utilized to analyze the unconscious/subconscious structure of learners’’ beliefs. Furthermore, learners’ speeches will be transcribed word by word to understand each learner’s speech characteristics (narrative/discourse analysis).

11 foreign university students with 7 different mother-language backgrounds joined online interview sessions for one semester (some for a year) with their instructor. Because there are regularly more Korean and Chinese speakers in Japanese language classrooms, more Korean and Chinese informants were interviewed to study the differences within the same mother-language backgrounds. Through the analysis of the unconscious/subconscious structure of learners’ beliefs involved in L1/L2/L3 (even L4) acquisition, with Japanese being one of them, the current study attempts to test the validity of Jim Cummins’s (1980) Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency and Common Underlying Proficiency in the field of plurilingualism/multilingualism. Specifically, the typological relationship between learners’ mother tongue and metalinguistic transfer will be focused on. The study also tries to contribute to developing new perspectives and strategies for the forthcoming Japanese-language teaching and learning in the world.