A Sociolinguist and Sociocultural Approach to Attitudinal Dispositions of Graduated Students toward the Business Japanese Language

Abstract

Effective usage of nonverbal and verbal communication in Japanese such as gestures, mimics, silence and employing grammatical or lexical honorifics play a significant role in determining success of foreign language learners in obtaining their intended employment. This study examines the second language (L2) learning of politeness and social interaction in professional life within a sociocultural and sociolinguistic competence in situ between L2 learners of Japanese who took the sociolinguistics competence courses and who did not. The main purpose of this study to exhibit the importance of employing Sociolinguistic Competence courses to the Japanese Language Education Curriculum in order to obtain the students to understand the cross-cultural and sociocultural phenomena. In the Sociolinguistic Competence courses graduates do not only learn theoretical sociocultural background of Japanese society and language. Besides, they familiarize themselves with various practical topics such as social manners, e-mail manners, phone manners, name card (meishi) manners, and even the seating orders as Japanese business manners. The current study analyzed 80 participants who are graduated and are working with native Japanese speakers in professional life. Based on the study findings, implications for teaching sociolinguistic and nonverbal/verbal communication tools were explored.