Junko Kobayashi and Linda Viswat, "Cultural Differences in Motivation to Learn".
This article is available on the following website:
Viewing motivation from cultural difference is very interesting. This article argues and analyzes Japanese students' attitude toward discussions.
In Japan, it tends to be considered that having different opinions with others is regarded as a failure of communication. In order to maintain a good relationship with others, Japanese people tend to bite back their tongue without saying criticism.
On the other hand, in a multicultural country like the U.S., it is natural that everybody has a different idea. In this cultural background, stating one's opinion is the beginning of the mutual understanding. In the U.S., as bible shows, words are important. Other reason which blocks Japanese people's communicative skill, I think, is their innate preciseness and punctuality.
Japanese learner might try to find an accurate word. For example, you want to use the word, "headquarter", but you are not familiar with this word. In this case, your communicative skill might be blocked. If you are more flexible, you can replace the word into an easy one, for example, you can use the words "main office" instead of using the word "headquarter".
The tendency of Japanese English learners is to be accurate rather than fluent, though they want to be more fluent in using the language. Comparing Japanese students and American students is just a typical example to discuss cultural differences. Teaching in a diverse population, we might always face this kind of situation.
Rather than looking for the English word which is a perfect counterpart of the word in their native languages, English learner should capture the image that they want to describe, and have the ability to select the words that they already know. Creating well-formed lesson plan based on FUMP, a teacher can elicit this ability from students.
