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AILA Review: Online-First Articles

Closeness facilitating interaction among Japanese learners of English

ORCID logo | Shimane University
This study investigates the perceived effect of friendship on the difficulty arising from the fear of negative evaluation experienced by Japanese university students when engaging in pair work and speaking English. Furthermore, this study aims to determine the perceived effectiveness and opinions towards friendship-building activities in an L2 English classroom. The investigations administer a questionnaire to students after 14 weeks of friendship-building activities that include icebreakers, games, and randomly assigned seating. Students report their perceived level of difficulty when engaging in pair work and speaking English with friends and non-friends. Additionally, students report on their perceived effectiveness and opinions towards friendship-building activities. The investigations find that learners associate less difficulty with pair work and speaking English among friends. Moreover, the results indicate that learners perceive friendships as a mitigator of the fear of negative evaluation and its effects. The results also suggest that friendship-building activities facilitate the creation of friendships and are perceived as necessary and positive by learners. The study promotes the use of friendship-building in the classroom, particularly for learners with sociocultural backgrounds that are more prone to experiencing the fear of negative evaluation.
Keywords: fear of negative evaluation, friendships, Japanese contexts, L2 English speaking, language learning interventions, pair work, positive interactions
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1Fear of negative evaluation and language learning
    • 2.2Heightened fear of negative evaluation in the Japanese context
    • 2.3Countering the effects of the fear of negative evaluation with friendships
    • 2.4Friendship-building in the classroom
    • 2.5Research questions
  • 3.Material and methods
    • 3.1Participants
    • 3.2Procedures
      • 3.2.1Informed consent
      • 3.2.2Friendship-building activities
      • 3.2.3Defining friend and non-friend
      • 3.2.4Friendship questionnaire
    • 3.3Data analysis
      • 3.3.1Ratings
      • 3.3.2Free response
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Ease of pair work
    • 4.2Ease of speaking English in pairs
    • 4.3Friendship-building activities
      • 4.3.1Activity effectiveness
      • 4.3.2Opinions towards randomly assigned seating
  • 5.Discussion
    • 5.1RQ1: How do friendships influence the perceived difficulty of pair work in the language classroom?
    • 5.2RQ2: How do friendships influence the perceived difficulty of speaking English in the language classroom?
    • 5.3RQ3: What are the perceived effectiveness and opinions towards friendship-building activities?
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Bibliography
Published online: 31 October 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/aila.24014.tu
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