Learner Attitudes Towards English:Considering the Japanese Context

Reesor (2003) contends that "for many years, Japan has been held up as a poster child for industrialized countries that have been largely unsuccessful in regards to English language education" (Reesor, 2003, p. 57) .This claim is supported by the 2019 TOEFL iBT test and score data summary(TOEFL 2020) , which saw Japan ranked 27 th of the 29 the countries listed under the'Asia'category.Reesor(2003, p. 57)suggests that attitudinal factors affect how English is perceived in Japan; thus, attitudes towards English could be one possible reason for Japan' s difficulty with EFL learning.Therefore, this paper explored the relationship between attitudes and language learning, and how this may affect English language learning (ELL) in Japan.By carrying out a literature review on the topic of attitudes and ELL it was determined that a connection between attitudes and ELL success does exist in Japan.Several factors were identified as important in terms of the formation of attitudes towards English in Japan.These included education, English for communicative purposes, Japanese cultural factors, and goals.It was concluded that although the paper clearly demonstrates a link between attitudes towards English and ELL success in Japan, further research is needed to fully address a number of the issues raised throughout the paper.