Attitudes toward language study and cross-cultural attitudes in Japan

Despite its obvious importance, the issue of language study remains to be a relatively unexplored research area in the field of intercultural communication. A previous study reported a generally positive relationship between attitudes toward language study and cross-cultural attitudes among college students in the United States. However, one should be cautious about generalizing such a research finding to populations outside of the United States, for the Americans may not be typical among industrialized nations with regard to their attitudes toward foreign languages and cultures. The present study, therefore, attempted to replicate the previously reported relationship between attitudes toward language study (a general attitude, instrumental/integrative attitudes, attitudes toward specific languages) and cross-cultural attitudes (worldmindedness and social distance), using a comparable sample of college students in Japan. Contrary to the previous study, the results of the survey of 116 Japanese students did not indicate a positive relationship between a general attitude toward language study and a cross-cultural attitude. The results of the present study, however, were consistent with those of the previous study with regard to (1) the relationships between different motives for language study and social distance, and (2) the relationships between attitudes toward specific languages and social distance.