Extracurricular L2 input in a Japanese EFL context: Exposure, attitudes, and motivation

Abstract

This study presents empirical data collected from a survey of high-level and low-level, Japanese high school EFL students with a focus on L2 exposure, attitudes, and motivation. Specifically, the purpose of the survey was to determine which sources of L2 input—verbal, written, or mixed (verbal and written)—the students are exposed to outside of the English classroom, how much exposure they had to each source of input, their attitudes and beliefs toward those sources of input, and, in general, how motivated they are toward learning English. Qualitative data were also gathered from English teachers of surveyed participants as well as a focus group of Japanese ESL students used to inform the creation of the survey. The results show that Japanese high school EFL students have much more exposure to some extracurricular sources of English input than to others, including some sources of verbal and mixed (verbal and written) input, with relatively little exposure to extracurricular written English input. It is also shown that the amount of exposure is highly correlated with how enjoyable the students find each source of input. That students are motivated to seek out those sources of English media that they enjoy rather than those they believe would improve their English supports the English media orientation to learning English (Clement et al., 1994). This study extends previous findings to include a Japanese EFL context, provides implications for L2 pedagogy within that context, and calls for further research into the realities of incidental learning in SLA.