Ethnocentrism, Cultural Traits, Beliefs, and English Proficiency: A Japanese Sample

This article reports on a study investigating the role in second language (L2) learning of ethnocentrism, cultural and personality traits, and acceptance of values and beliefs expressed in myths and proverbs. Although scholars have conjectured that these factors may play an important role in L2 proficiency, there has been very little empirical investigation of this issue. In our study, 108 adult Japanese living in North America were asked how much they agreed with or accepted statements expressing ethnocentric views about Japanese culture and language that described their shyness, inwardness, and groupist tendencies and that indicated certain Japanese values and beliefs as expressed through myths and proverbs. Three sets of variables were tested: (a) participants’ ethnocentrism, (b) willingness to acknowledge certain cultural traits as being characteristic of Japanese as a group, and (c) willingness to accept the validity of Japanese-oriented myths and proverbs. The participants’ responses on these variables were correlated with their levels of English proficiency as measured by a cloze test, a self-rated ability sacle, and a self-rated performance scale. It was hypothesized that the higher the participants’ responses on these variables, the lower their proficiency levels in English would be. Results suggest that these cultural traits and beliefs play a role in L2 learning but provide little evidence for an effect of ethnocentrism as the term is commonly defined.