Chinese university students’ multilingual learning motivation under contextual influences: a multi-case study of Japanese majors

This study closely examined the motivational language selves of Chinese university students in the process of multilingual learning. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twelve Japanese specialist majors. The qualitative data revealed the complex interplay between the participants’ language selves and complicated contextual influences. The participants seemed to have strong ideal English self especially in the workplace and relatively weaker ideal Japanese self. They had strong ought-to Japanese self and their ought-to English self was suspended to some extent. Apart from their English and Japanese selves, they also constructed a multilingual self. The cultural, social and pedagogical contexts in which the participants were embedded exerted mixed influences on their self constructions. The findings suggest the neoliberal emphasis on the instrumental value of language and the negative impact of English as a global language on Japanese learning in such social discourse. This article is concluded with some pedagogical implications for language teachers.