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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 765

Part of Session 169: Sociolinguistic perspectives on the internationalization of HE (Other abstracts in this session)

‘We are jun-Japa’ – Dynamics of ELF communication in an English medium academic context

Authors: Iino, Masakazu; Murata, Kumiko
Submitted by: Iino, Masakazu (Waseda University, Japan)

This paper explores the use of ELF (English as a lingua franca) in a Japanese academic context, where English is formerly used as a means of instruction and interaction. In this undergraduate program, students from various backgrounds study together, negotiating complex dynamics of identity formation in communicating in ELF.  They are categorized, according to their own labeling system, into several groups; kikoku (returnees from overseas mainly due to their parents’ job transfer), ryugakusei (international students, in this case, mainly from Asian countries), intaa (students graduated from international schools in Japan) and jun-Japa (Japanese students born and bred in Japan).

The term jun-Japa is a group category used by L1 Japanese students themselves, describing their own identity in this complex situation as those who were raised and educated solely in Japan, using Japanese as their daily means of communication. Although literally translated, the prefix ‘jun’ means ‘authentic’, ‘genuine’, or ‘pure’, it is not used discriminately against other group members, but as a way of justifying their current English proficiency which distinguishes them from other group members such as kikoku, ryugakusei and intaa.

In this academic environment, students make extra efforts to demonstrate that they are using ELF to communicate with their classmates, facing the fact that more than half the students’ enrollments in this program are L1 Japanese speakers, i.e., jun-Japa. The ELF characteristics are observed, for example, in the use of Japanese formulaic greeting expressions at the beginning of their oral presentations, and the intentional use of Japanese vocabulary, particularly nouns denoting specifically Japanese social and cultural matters.

We will explore the complex dynamics of students’ identity formation, their accommodation to classmates, and ways in which they manage ELF communication where half the participants are jun-Japa, who, on their own terms, claim that it is natural that they use ELF and that they are different from NSEs (Native Speakers of English) or native-like users of English. That is, by using the term jun-Japa, they overcome their anxiety to communicate in ‘native/ native-like’ English, which they had been often taught to aspire to in the Japanese secondary school environments.

This paper, thus, illustrates how jun-Japa tactfully claim their identity, survive and thrive in this English medium academic context, using ELF effectively and turn it to their advantage. This will be discussed on the basis of data collected from participant observation, analyses of classroom discourse, focus group discussions and interviews.