An Examination of Factors that Promote Symbiotic Learning in a Multilingual Multicultural Society

Focusing on Asian Foreign Students in Japan

Abstract

In a multilingual multicultural society, intercultural contact situations produce a variety of psychological transformations, which can be seen as learning in order to achieve symbiosis. This study tries to elucidate the factors which influence acquisition of modes of conscious consideration in contact situations that differ from those found in situations involving only native speakers. A written questionnaire was conducted with 150 foreign students from Asia, and a factor analysis identified the modes of conscious consideration and factors related to symbiotic learning. Next, a path analysis was performed to examine the process of symbiotic learning. The results show that acquisition of conscious consideration is intricately related to beliefs about the behavior of self and other, and these beliefs are influenced by the foreign students' quality of life in Japan and the attitude of Japanese people.