Chinese learners’ choices and pragmatic awareness of Japanese formality: an intercultural perspective

Chinese nationals constitute the largest foreign community in Japan. To better understand how Chinese learners of Japanese (CLJs) make choices regarding formal forms – an essential communicative skill – this study examines the formality choices of eleven CLJs and the pragmatic awareness underlying their choices from an intercultural perspective through a bottom-up approach. A multiple-choice discourse completion task (MDCT) comprising 64 scenarios was developed, each presenting three semantically equivalent responses differing in formality level. Five recurrent patterns of divergence from Japanese native speakers (JNSs) were observed: CLJs tended to select more formal expressions when imposing a high burden on others and less formal expressions in (1) familiar, hierarchical relationships, (2) when offering benefits, (3) interactions with unfamiliar, equal-status interlocutors, and (4) situations involving infringements of personal interests. Thematic analysis of concurrent think-aloud protocols and post-test interviews revealed three dimensions of their pragmatic awareness: (1) intercultural understandings of Japanese language and culture, (2) learners’ identity and agency, and (3) perceived personality. These findings highlight how CLJs’ formal form choices and pragmatic awareness can be understood through an intercultural lens, offering pedagogical implications for empowering learners as agentive and legitimate language users and promoting mutual understanding between CLJs and JNSs.