Self‐directed learning with anime: A case of Japanese language and culture

Due to its accessibility and popularity, anime has been explored as a motivation for learning Japanese and as a pedagogical tool linking Japanese‐as‐a‐foreign‐language (JFL) literacy practices inside and outside of the classroom. However, JFL learners' actual practices in anime‐mediated self‐directed learning have not been fully investigated. Thus, this study examined JFL learners' digital literacy practices in their self‐directed learning via anime. The study's anime focus group (AFG) (n = 6) engaged in activities with three commercial anime titles throughout 10 consecutive weeks. Additionally, JFL learners from a Japanese language program (n = 191) and students from an anime class (n = 79) completed surveys, which illustrated the presence of anime in their lives, their purposes for learning Japanese, and exposure to Japanese in their literacy lifeworlds. The AFG's reflections also demonstrated anime's potential in digital literacies to present diverse linguistic and cultural information and links between in‐class and outside‐of‐classroom learning. The Challenge Online accessibility to entertainment media, such as anime, has changed L2 learners' literacy practices. What digital literacies are L2 learners exposed to? How do they access entertainment media and exercise their literacies? What role does anime play in the current literacy landscape? How are outside‐of‐classroom literacy practices connected to in‐class pedagogies?