World Englishes and Confucian Heritage: Towards taking ownership in language and learning

Abstract

This paper is an effort to generate further interest and discussion in the specific area of Learners’ Autonomy, within the broader field of language learning strategies, and to move another step towards the understanding of English as a language used by Japanese students. Autonomy and World Englishes become interconnected, especially for Japanese students, in the light of the fact that Japan is a Confucian heritage society and Confucius placed much importance upon autonomous learning and the language used in a society. Promoting the concept of autonomy from Nyikos and Oxford (1993, p. 11) that “learning begins with the learner”, this effort is one in the ‘explosion of activities’ pointed out by Skehan (1989, p. 285) in the area of research in language learning strategies. Adhering to the philosophy at Chukyo University that World Englishes must be incorporated into all aspects of communication skills classes, this paper will first throw light on the on-going efforts towards learners’ autonomy, awareness among students about autonomy in learning and language that they are putting to practice, and then bring the attention to the connection between these efforts and Confucian concepts. Taking these efforts a step further, the paper then provides some suggestions towards making autonomy a pedagogical tool within the context of cognitive theory as discussed by O’Malley and Chamot (1990), to galvanise students to reflect on and observe self-learning using some creative tasks on the lines of the ESS (Extremely Short Story) propagated by Honna (2008). From the teachers’ perspective, it will bring to the fore strategies and cognitive processes that the learners employ. From the students’ perspective, it will make them focus on actual learning or “take aways”, and in the process empower them to become partners who contribute more effectively to the teacher/student relationship.