Exploring Japanese University Students’ Repertoire of Polite Request Expressions, Affect, and Well-being in Language Learning

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate Japanese university students’ repertoires of request strategies and explore the relationship between their positive affective evaluation regarding the learning of the subjunctive mood and their well-being as language learners. The participants were 59 Japanese first-year students from a national university in Japan. The data were collected by using a written discourse completion test and two types of questionnaires about their affective aspects and well-being in language learning. The results revealed the participants’ limited knowledge in making polite requests and showed that the participants’ affective evaluation regarding the learning of the subjunctive mood was positively associated with their well-being in language learning. These findings provide us with two pedagogical implications: (1) instruction could be effective and necessary in helping learners create appropriate form-meaning-function associations about target grammatical forms; and (2) second language pragmatic instruction that is designed to inform learners of the value and usefulness of the English subjunctive mood could enhance positive affect or emotions (e.g., a sense of joy, meaningfulness, relevance, and self-efficacy) in second language grammar learning, further promoting the well-being of language learners.