Rieko Matsuoka

1.0 Purpose Many language-teaching professionals agree that motivation is a key part of the process of learning a second or foreign language. However, in a real situation, outside of the classroom in particular, where the language learners are exposed, motivation and ...

Words not only describe the world but also influence the world or modify relationships (Austin, 1965; Pinker et al,, 2008). Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has presented his competence in influencing or even shaping diplomatic relationships through his words and utterances. This study explores the ways in which he has been successful as a strategic speaker (Lee & Pinker, 2010), establishing solidarity with Japan using the soft power introduced by Nye (2004, 2011). By closely examining his 12-minute online speech at the Japanese parliament in March 2022, it investigates the extent to which his speech has exerted influence on the Japanese people as well as on the two countries’ relationship. As for methodology, the data of an English-translated script were analyzed by adopting politeness theory (Brown & Levinson, 1987), which stems from the concept of “face” (Goffman, 1967), a positive social value in social interaction. Spec...

Motivation including individual difference variables, and English proficiency have been believed to be sufficient for language learners to use their second or foreign language; however, facing real English speaking context, these two factors are not necessarily sufficient. The notion of willingness to communicate (WTC) is useful in investigating why the standard of Japanese communicative competence in English is not high enough to allow many Japanese college students to communicate effectively in English. This study examined correlational and causal interrelationships among individual difference variables, willingness to communicate (WTC), and English proficiency, based on the data from 180 Japanese college students majoring in nursing. Individual difference variables made up of international posture, introversion, communication apprehension, compulsivity, motivational intensity, and perceived competence, were extracted from factor-analyzing the questionnaire items, and were scored ...

... Page 2. 135 NEUROLOGICAL STUDY OF SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND ITS PEDAGOGICAL APPLICATION Rieko MATSUOKA In this papaer, I would like to overview the system and mechanism of second language learning/acquisition and to propose the optimal ...

The 1989 British film Scandal is a fictionalized account of the Profumo Affair of 1963. The female protagonist is young and beautiful but totally lacking in social prestige. On the other hand, the main male characters are older and socially very powerful. John Profumo, in particular, enjoys one of the top positions in the British government as the Secretary of State for War. The power differential of the characters in this movie exemplifies a stereotypical societal image representative of gender bias. Beliefs surrounding gender are societal constructs — “man” and “woman” do not represent scientific, objective “fact,” but rather community norms (Tanesini, 1994). Studies of nursing experiences show how in the healthcare community, gendered discourse reveals norms that reinforce the silent oppression of nurses (Ceci, 2004). In healthcare settings in Japan, 94.9 % of all registered nurses are female (Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare, 2010). Though there was a slight increase in t...

In healthcare communication, showing empathy and listening carefully to patients are regarded as important (Riley, 2000). However, the behaviour of showing empathy or listening carefully is not explicitly projected in verbal communication. With regard to nursing communication, Henderson (1960, 1997) points out that the patients’ needs for communication are satisfied if they can communicate their feelings, desires, fears or whatever exists in their minds. Following this principle, she states that nurses should adequately facilitate their patients’ expression of their feelings, desires and so on. Therefore, from the first stage of interaction with their patients, nurses are required to attempt bilateral communication. They need to acquire communication skills that should lead to mutual trust and a therapeutic and supportive relationship between them. Gambatte, the request form of Gambaru, is frequently used among Japanese speakers. The focus of this study is an examination of its effe...

This study examines the ways in which college students in Japan overcame sensitivity to external evaluation and increased their willingness to communicate in English. It is not uncommon for university students in Japan, who are otherwise proficient speakers of English and motivated to learn, fail to exhibit English competency in real communication situations. In interviews with students and teachers we discovered that sociocultural factors impede spontaneous communication, resulting in a reduced level of willingness to communicate in the students’ L2, English. The social norms of the language classroom at a Japanese university create a milieu where individual students are sensitized to the social appropriateness of their communication acts. Since these norms are related to both the speech community of college students as well as larger societal expectations, including the concept of ‘seken’ (public eye), we suggest that language educators need to consider carefully the social contex...

In a global society, English has become the international lingua franca and is regarded as a necessary language for being a member of the international community (Jenkins, 2007). Even in such a milieu, the high degree of communication apprehension has generated a lower level of willingness to communicate and consequently has impeded communicative competence among Japanese learners of English (Matsuoka, 2009).

The notion of willingness to communicate was developed in order to account for the frequency of individuals' first language and second language communication acts. The main purpose of this study were to investigate how individual difference variables, consisting of integrativeness, communication apprehension, perceived competence, introversion, motivational intensity, attitudes and other-directedness, affected Japanese university students' willingness to communicate in English as well as their English proficiency, and to determine how these same individual difference variables, willingness to communicate in English, and English proficiency were causally related to one another.

Abstract: The main purposes of this study are:(a) to identify the constructs that may generate communication apprehension and to investigate how they influence communication apprehension and reduce the level of willingness to communicate; and (b) to explore the ...

The purpose of this study is to examine the socio-psychological and interpersonal process by which Japanese college students majoring in nursing reduced their levels of communication apprehension and eventually enhanced the level of willingness to communicate through their experiences of volunteering as interns at an international conference. Data were obtained from a focus group meeting of nine Japanese students who volunteered to work as interns at an international conference. An approximately 120-minute meeting was audio-recorded and transcribed. Using a qualitative content analysis approach, the transcribed data were coded into meaningful units, which were then categorized into concepts representing the participants’ sociological and psychological outlook on communication. The results reveal that participation as an intern at an international conference can reduce the level of communication apprehension and suggest that the Japanese sense of self, manifested socially as ’otherdirectedness’, might actually be re-directed in a positive way leading to more effective L2 communication strategies.