ABSTRACT
Conflicts sometimes arise between the language teachers and foreign students in the Japanese language instruction setting. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of causal attribution and selection of conflict resolution strategies in such conflicts, and to explicate the characteristics of intercultural conflicts resolution strategies, especially paying attention to the teacher expectation of student strategy to resolve a conflict. A questionnaire was administered to 84 Japanese teachers, 214 Chinese students, and 154 Korean students. Results indicated that when students attributed the conflict to the teachers, they chose assertive strategies, and that when attributed to themselves, compromising strategies were used. Moreover, while Chinese students tended to use such compromising strategies as cooperation and obedience when they attributed the conflict to cultural differences, Korean students did not tend to use non-confrontational strategies. The teachers did not expect their students to use assertive strategies, and the large gap between teacher and student perception of assertive strategies could be one of reasons for difficulties that arise in such intercultural conflict resolution.
