Attitudes to English Study among Japanese, Chinese and Korean Women

Yoko Kobayashi (PhD, University of Toronto) is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Iwate University. Her book, The Evolution of English Language Learners in Japan: Crossing Japan, the West, and South East Asia (2018), has recently been published by Routledge.

• Introduction (Yoko Kobayashi)  Part I: East Asian Female Students’ Motivation to Study in the West  1. Study abroad, Media and Digital Diaspora of Korean Women (Youna Kim)  2. Japanese Women's (Re)negotiation of 'Self/s' in Australian Universities (Takae Ichimoto)  3. Gender Returning or Staying: Japanese Women's Motivations to Study Abroad (Eleni Oikonomidoy and Gwendolyn Williams)  Part II: East Asian Women's Lives after Their English Study at College  4. Female Language Learners and Workders: Japan versus its East Asian Neighbors (Yoko Kobayashi)  5. Language as Pure Potential in Taiwan: Case Studies of Six Professional Trajectories (Mark Seilhamer)  6. Dreams and Realities: Translating in South Korea (Jon H. Bahk-Halberg)  7. "How I Wish English Would Actually Save Us Women!": Anguish, Ambivalence and Agency among Bilingual Career Women in Japan (Aya Kitamura)  8. Problems in the Discourse of Developing "Japanese Who Can Play Active Roles around the World": Focusing on the Life Histories of English Learners who Turned into Japanese Teachers (Nami Hirahata)

'What Kobayashi has done here captures the variety of experiences of Japanese, Korean and Chinese women who are or were learning English. The collection explores their motivations and the shifts in their sense of themselves as new English speakers. It’s important reading for English language teachers everywhere as well for scholars and researchers in the field.' - Allyson Jule, Co-Director of the Gender Studies Institute, Trinity Western University, Canada