Search

Purpose: Based on self-determination theory, this study compared the motivation of emergent bilinguals and full bilinguals in English and Japanese learning at an international elementary school in Japan. Methodology: This study employed a questionnaire on motivational orientations in English and Japanese learning. Data and analysis: Participants were 104 children who had either English or Japanese as their first language or had an English and Japanese bilingual background. A mixed-measures analysis of variance and correlation analysis were performed on the survey data. Findings: Although the degree of internalization of motivation differed depending on whether students were emergent or full bilinguals, the pattern of their motivational intensity in learning English and Japanese was similar among the three groups. Specifically, the full bilinguals internalized motivation in English and Japanese learning equally, while members of both the emergent bilingual groups internalized motivation only in learning the main language of instruction, English. Regarding the respective motivational intensity in the learning of the two languages, autonomous motivation (intrinsic motivation and identified regulation) was significantly stronger in English learning than Japanese learning among the groups, except identified regulation in the emergent bilinguals with English as their first language, while controlled motivation (introjected and external regulation) was significantly stronger in Japanese learning than English learning. Correlation analysis between English learning and Japanese learning additionally showed that for the full bilinguals, intrinsic motivation in English learning did not correlate to that in Japanese learning, whereas such motivation was positively correlated among emergent bilinguals. Originality: This is the first cross-lingual study using self-determination theory to compare motivation between emergent children reciprocally learning their first and second languages. It also compares the motivation of emergent children to that of fully bilingual children learning two first languages. Implications: Different patterns of motivation among emergent and full bilinguals necessitate corresponding classroom strategies.

The present study examined motivation toward English learning among students at an international school in Japan. The motivation of 112 elementary school students, including those with English and Japanese as an L1, and those bilingual in English and Japanese, was analyzed based on self-determination theory. The results showed a distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, including three types of regulation (viz., identified, introjected, and external regulation) on the self-determination continuum. For all three language groups, self-determined orientations constituted the highest motivation for studying English, and English L1 participants were more enthusiastic than Japanese L1 participants about studying English. Whereas a number of studies have suggested that Japanese L1 students’ motivation toward English learning decreases with grade level, this study found that participants’ intrinsic motivation did not decrease significantly. This finding may be due to the immersion environmen...

This study explored the relationship between perceptions of culturally deviant acts and multicultural experiences of elementary-school children attending an international school in Japan. Findings indicated that children judged a Japanese harsher than a foreigner, irrespective of the children’s age. It was also found that younger children were more susceptible to cultural factors such as their own experience abroad and mother’s activities, which encouraged the formation of less stereotypical images of foreigners.

Between 10 and 15 months of age, infants seem to become increasingly communicative. The focus of this study was changes in request behavior among infants at ages 11, 13, and 15 months ( N = 22) in a longitudinal design. Changes in durations and frequencies of four different modes of behavior were examined, namely, use of hands, eye gaze, facial expression, and vocalization. Both frequencies and durations of the behaviors expressing requests increased with age, while those of nonrequest behaviors showed a different trend. Also investigated were changes in temporal coordination of different request modes. A greater number of infants used greater combinations of co-occurring modes when they were older than when they were younger.

Detection of social signals, such as biological motion and social causality, is of basic importance in early infancy. There have also been some accounts that infants' visual preference or reaction to social signals change during development because of their changing understanding of such signals, and the detective abilities of primary social signals are related to later social development. In this study, we attempted to find different developmental patterns in individuals in terms of their visual preference for biological motion and socially causal movements at 4, 9, and 18 months and 4 and 9 months, respectively, using a cluster analysis. It was found that for both types of social signals, the infants who demonstrated an increased interest in social stimuli at 9 months scored higher on the developmental index than those who showed a decrease, suggesting a difference in the quality of understanding of social signals at 9 months.

Clear and observable social referencing behavior only emerges when infants are old enough to regulate their own behavior according to adult's emotional messages, but like the findings from other studies on infants' social looking behavior, infants before their first birthday may demonstrate gradual change in their referential looking behavior. In this paper, we attempted to examine possible developmental changes in the infants' referential looking behavior at 7 and 9 months, especially in terms of where and whom they look to for referencing. By analyzing the looks in the particular sequence to referees, we found that infants became more willing to look at a familiarized stranger's face as well as mother's body, as they got older. This might suggest a qualitative change in the referential looking behavior during this period of infancy.

We used a preferential looking paradigm to evaluate infants' preferences for correct versus incorrect counting. Infants viewed a video depicting six fish. In the correct counting sequence, a hand pointed to each fish in turn, accompanied by verbal counting up to six. In the incorrect counting sequence, the hand moved between two of the six fish while there was still verbal counting to six, thereby violating the one-to-one correspondence principle of correct counting. Experiment 1 showed that Australian 18 month olds, but not 15 month olds, significantly preferred to watch the correct counting sequence. In experiment 2, Australian infants' preference for correct counting disappeared when the count words were replaced by beeps or by Japanese count words. In experiment 3, Japanese 18 month olds significantly preferred the correct counting video only when counting was in Japanese. These results show that infants start to acquire the abstract principles governing correct counting prior to producing any counting behaviour.

This study investigated the process involved in the lateralization of movements during infancy by observing upper extremity movements in a laboratory setting. Reaching for flying rings, balls, mini toy cars, and small round cookies were observed and recorded by videotape at 4 and 9 months of age. The subjects were 202 infants who participated in Japan Children's Study, a cohort study on the development of sociability. Infants reached for objects significantly more frequently at 9 months (98%) than at 4 months (40%) (p0.001). Though the lateral preference in reaching for balls at 4 months was ambiguous, reaching for toy cars was performed more frequently with the right hand at 9 months (50%) than with the left one (19%) (p0.01). Lateralization of the upper extremity movements is thought to appear by 9 months.

Background: The purpose of this study was to examine the relations between children’s social competence and initial index of theory of mind at 30 months of age.Methods: The participants of the study were 322 toddlers and parents/caregivers who were registered with the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) project. They completed a five-minute interaction session, which was coded using the Interaction Rating Scale (IRS) as an evidence-based practical index of children’s social competence. In addition, the children were asked to complete a diverse-desire task as a ToM (theory of mind) index.Results: The results showed that the ToM index was related to the total score and subscales of the IRS, such as Empathy and Emotional regulation.Conclusions: These findings show that the IRS score was related to ToM task performance at 30 months of age.

This study investigated developmental changes and sex differences in infants' responses to a female stranger during a face-to-face interaction, still-face, and reunion phase. Twenty-two infants (11 boys and 11 girls) were observed at five and nine months of age. At five months, the infants smiled less in the still-face phase, while at nine months the infants smiled less at each subsequent phase. Girls, but not boys, smiled more at nine months than five months. Girls' gazing toward the social partner's face decreased during the still-face and reunion phases. Girls gazed toward the social partner's face more than the boys, independent of the phases and age. The findings support the view the effect of a still-face on infants is robust at both five and nine months and for both sexes. But the effect remained in the reunion phase only for the nine-month-olds. These findings suggest that girls have more interest in their social partner than boys.