2021 Volume 19 Pages 95-111
Recently, English Medium Programs (EMP) have increased due to the internationalization of universities, even in the humanities and social sciences. Most students of these English Medium Programs in Japan are multilingual speakers. This study investigates the language life evaluation of the parties via Personal Attitude Construct (PAC) analysis of one international student from the EMP of the Graduate School of Social Sciences and one returning student from the EMP of the Graduate School of Humanities. Results show that both are satisfied with their research life in English, but are more or less dissatisfied and have an oppressive attitude construct in aspects of their language life, such as interactions with Japanese students, part-time jobs, and job hunting. They felt that Japanese society was closed, hierarchical, and emphasized educational background, and both of them had high multilingual ability but could not fully demonstrate their abilities. In both cases, there was a relatively high emphasis on family, confirming the important function played by the mother tongue.
