Click the star to add/remove an item to/from your individual schedule.
You need to be logged in to avail of this functionality.
Log in
- Convenor:
-
Noriko Iwasaki
(Nanzan University)
Send message to Convenor
- Stream:
- Japanese Language Education
- Location:
- Torre B, Piso 3, T13
- Sessions:
- Thursday 31 August, -
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
Short Abstract:
From the perspective of "mobility and language", we examine how adults in Europe who were born to Japanese parent(s) view their linguistic repertoire (including Japanese as a heritage language) and rethink the significance and education of Japanese as a heritage language in European contexts.
Long Abstract:
Recognizing the perpetual mobility of various kinds (e.g. temporal, transnational, trans-lingual) in the world of superdiversity and its consequences on language, this panel discusses how adults of Japanese heritage residing in Europe view their linguistic repertoire (including Japanese as a heritage language) in their lived experience. We regard language as embracing dynamic hybridity, fluidity and interactivity, and it is not the speaker's language ability that are of our primary concern for research and/or education. Rather, it is the speaker's own agency and subjectivity in recognising their plurilinguistic and pluricultural competence and repertoire in their lived experience that we examine to understand the relationship between the speaker, language, and society. In so doing, we rethink the significance of the use and the learning of Japanese as a heritage language in European contexts.
The first presenter examines young adults born to Japanese parent(s) and raised in Germany. They have learned Japanese since they were children. Their narratives in interviews were compared with those of young Japanese adults who grew up and learned Japanese in Thailand in order to rethink Japanese heritage language education.
The second presenter reports on a female university student born to a Japanese mother and a British father, who majors in Japanese in the UK, and examines how her year abroad in Japan in the third year of the university curriculum affected the perception of her linguistic and cultural identities.
The third presenter focuses on two male adults who were born in the UK to a Japanese mother and a non-Japanese father. They had had no Japanese language spoken at home until they began to learn Japanese in their adulthood. The study examines their reasons for learning Japanese and how learning Japanese as a second language came to have significance in their lives. The findings allow us to rethink the premise of heritage language education and the prevailing view on (heritage) language and worldview.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 31 August, 2017, -Paper short abstract:
I examine the trajectory of a BA Japanese student's identity construction, utilising a multimodal representation called a "language portrait". Regarding linguistic and cultural identities as fluid and constantly emerging, the impact of the year abroad on the student's sense of self is discussed.
Paper long abstract:
Language plays a significant role in identity construction, perhaps especially for speakers of a heritage language. Regarding identities as fluid and constantly emerging sociocultural constructs, and conceiving multilingual speakers' language as linguistic repertoire, this study examines the trajectory of identity construction of Hana (pseudonym), who was born in the UK to a Japanese mother and a British father, and is a combined major of Japanese and Art-History at a British university. A method of biographical approach suggested by Busch (2016) called a "language portrait" was used for this study, using multimodal representations of the linguistic repertoire.
Hana spent her third year in Japan studying at a university in Kyoto as part of the university curriculum. She was asked to draw her language portrait on a body outline, focusing on which part of the body she associates her language(s) with and which colour most suitably represents the languages. This was done at three points in time: before she left for Japan, about 4 months into the year abroad, and upon return to the UK.
Before the year abroad, she drew the British flag with blue and red on the right half of the body and the Japanese flag on the left with half of a red circle. She identified herself as a 'haafu '(half), seemingly treating this identity as a given stable identity. But four months in, she found herself relying more on English, regarding English as her foundation drawn as blue feet. Her head (brain) was mostly English as well. Japanese was red and on her hands, because she had to be alert and careful in using the language and had to make efforts to mould the language. Upon return, having fully enjoyed the time in Japan, she found herself a hybrid of Japanese and English. A heart emerged on the body because her attitude had turned more emotional, and the two languages were now tangled lines of blue and red in the heart, which are impossible to untangle. Hana's portraits and narratives about them are discussed to understand the impact of the year abroad on her sense of self.
Paper short abstract:
This paper examines young adults born to Japanese parent(s) in Germany who learned Japanese as children. Comparing their interview data and the data from young adults in a similar situation in Thailand, I discuss these young adults' subjectivities in using their Japanese and plurilingual competence.
Paper long abstract:
The number of Japanese women emigrating from Japan has been increasing since the 1980's. 80 percent of Japanese marriages overseas are international marriages and over 80 percent of these marriages involve Japanese women marrying a non-Japanese spouse (Shibuya, 2014). The recent increase of Japanese women raising children overseas has led to increased discussion and research on Japanese heritage language education for children, particularly in Europe.
Many researches have focused on the views and awareness of parents rather than the views and opinions of children. In many cases a child who has continued learning Japanese is presented as a successful model among parents, and the case of a child who failed to learn Japanese as a negative outcome. However, such views on heritage language learning create uneasy feelings among parents and underestimate the plurilinguistic and pluricultural resources of children.
This paper examines young adults born and raised in Germany to Japanese parent(s) who have learned Japanese since they were children. Their narratives are compared with those of young Japanese adults who grew up and learned Japanese in Thailand. Based on interview data, the meaning of childhood Japanese language learning, self-evaluated language competence and socio-cultural and domestic factors affecting consciousness are analyzed. I also discuss how people who suspended learning Japanese in educational institutions live subjectively using their plurilingual and Japanese language competence. I conclude with a proposal to rethink Japanese heritage language education for children.