エルウッド, ジェームズ・A

ELWOOD, James A.

[SUMMARY] In this study, a questionnaire survey was conducted with 124 Japanese first-year university students to examine the relationship between international posture and weekly hours of studying English (hereafter ‘weekly English study’). First, the students’ responses to international posture was analyzed with factor analysis and a four-factor solution was extracted: intergroup approach tendency and interest in international activities, intercultural friendship orientation, interest in foreign affairs, and intergroup avoidance and uninterest in other cultures. The configuration of the third factor, intercultural friendship orientation, was the same as in Yashima’s 2002 study, but the other three factors differed from the original sub-constructs and exhibited low reliability (.50 < α < .70). The participants’ weekly English study was 0 to 1 hour on average regarding their English classes, whereas their weekly English study through the Internet was 1 to 3 hours on average. Next, an analysis of Pearson product moment correlations showed weak positive correlations between intergroup avoidance and uninterest in other cultures and weekly English study (r = .302) and intergroup avoidance and uninterest in other cultures and weekly English study through the Internet (r = .270). Moreover, weak negative correlations were found between intercultural friendship orientation (r = -.295) and weekly English study through the Internet as well as interest in foreign affairs (r = -.335) and weekly English study through the Internet. It appeared that the participants’ degree of international posture did not affect the length of their English study outside of the classroom.