Role Models and Motivators in English Language Learning in the Japanese High School Context

Role models and motivators can influence young people in a general sense and have a significant effect on their values and beliefs. As part of a larger project, we investigated the presence of L2 (second language) role models and motivators among 12 Japanese high school students (aged between 15 and 18), who took part in one-to-one interviews with the researcher. A thematic analysis of their responses was conducted to examine the extent to which the role models and motivators they mentioned had an influence on their L2 motivation. The results showed that parents were salient L2 motivators, although they did not, for the most part, act as L2 role models in a linguistic sense, as many of them did not speak English. On the other hand, teachers, famous people, and peers were shown to have a more important role, in terms of actual language acquisition, over the participants’ motivation in relation to English language learning in the school context. Finally, we propose a pedagogy that utilizes the influence of L2 role models and motivators in the classroom and highlight areas for future research in this area.