Learner beliefs of Japanese exchange students at a Finnish university

Studying abroad in non-English-speaking countries has been increasing in Japanese higher education in recent years. While studying abroad, Japanese learners of English encounter English users from diverse cultural backgrounds, providing them with valuable opportunities for authentic interaction. Finland is a favourite destination for Japanese university students because of its high-quality education and the allure of Finnish culture, which is popular in Japan. The students who come to study in Finland have diverse motivations and goals, along with varying levels of proficiency in English. Valuable insights into these individual differences can be gained by exploring the students’ thoughts and attitudes about language learning as well as their identities as language learners. These language learner beliefs influence their motivations, goals, and learning strategies, and thus their overall accomplishments. Our study explored the language learner beliefs of four Japanese exchange students studying various subjects at their home university who participated in English-medium courses focusing on English language and academic communication skills offered by the Centre for Multilingual Academic Communication at the University of Jyväskylä. Data were collected through individual interviews conducted in Japanese, including visual data in the form of drawings (students’ language portraits and learner portraits). We analysed the data from two distinct perspectives, those of a Finnish and of a Japanese educator, and juxtaposed our different interpretations to gain a more comprehensive picture of the participants’ views. The combination of visual and verbal data provided us with a rich picture of these exchange students’ learner beliefs and helped us to gain a deeper understanding of how they see themselves as students and how they feel about learning English. When teachers have a better understanding of their students, it is possible for them to address students’ individual needs better, create a more inclusive learning environment and offer opportunities to establish a more supportive student–teacher relationship.