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Paper short abstract:

Wakai (2023) investigated how parents deal with their child's heritage Japanese language use with Trajectory Equifinality Modelling (TEM). Therefore, in this presentation, I use TEM to examine how the child developed her Japanese. Then, compare her TEM with the parents.

Paper long abstract:

Only a few studies have examined how parents deal with their child's long-term (heritage) Japanese language use from a parenting perspective. Wakai (2022) and Wakai (2023) tried to investigate this using Trajectory Equifinality Modelling (TEM). In Wakai (2022), J, a Japanese father living abroad, used auto-ethnographic TEM to study his decision-making process about his child's use of the Japanese language. On the other hand, Wakai (2023) analyzed how J's foreign wife, who uses Japanese daily, made decisions regarding their child's use of Japanese with TEM and compared them to J's decisions to clarify the J family's language policy. The findings of the study were as follows. First, in the J family, the couple decided on a family language policy and maintained this policy until their child reached adulthood. They felt that their child had become an autonomous user of Japanese at about the same time. Secondly, each made minor changes to their home language policy, but these small changes were not always consciously shared. However, just like parents are independent, children also have their ways of growing up. Their progress in using Japanese might not always be the same as the parent's expectations. Therefore, in this presentation, we will again place "(my child) has grown up to be an autonomous user of Japanese" as the Equifinality Point and use TEM to examine how the child in family J reached this point. Then, by comparing the child's TEM with that of the parents, I would like to clarify (even a little) the relationship between the family language policy and my child's development.

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Paper short abstract:

This study explores factors affecting motivation for inherited language education among Japanese-Dutch families. Children's spontaneous behavior and previous learning consolidation motivates parents, while facing effort-result discrepancy and conceptual differences lowers motivation.

Paper long abstract:

This research aims to identify the factors that influence the motivation of Japanese-Dutch parents to pass on their language and culture to their children, when they are minorities in their respective societies. Previous studies have focused on investigating the methods and motivations for children's language learning. However, inherited language is a language that parents want their children to learn, and it is recognized that this language learning is imposed on children. Japanese-Dutch is a minority language, and the inherited language is undervalued both at home and in society, as most parents can speak the local language to some extent. Therefore, many parents feel limited in motivating their children at home. The presenter is a parent of three children raised in a Japanese-Dutch household in Japan. On the other hand, Japanese parents living abroad have reported launching Japanese language classes with local Japanese parents. Although the purpose of the Japanese language class may be to increase children's motivation to learn the inherited language, it may be to support the motivation of parents who want their children to acquire the inherited language. Thus, it is assumed that supporting parents' motivation may influence children's acquisition of inherited language. In this study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine Japanese-Dutch parents, and using the SCAT analysis proposed by Otani T. (2019), the factors that affect motivation were discussed based on theoretical descriptions. As a result, it was revealed that parents are motivated by discovering their children's spontaneous actions and the consolidation of past learning, but motivation decreases when faced with the discrepancy between effort and results or differences in concepts. It was also evident that teaching the inherited language in the home became more difficult as the children grew older, and that they repeatedly revised their own educational views along with their disappointment. On the other hand, it was implied that parents' involvement with social settings may support their beliefs and lead their children to become autonomous learners of their inherited language.

Otani T. Paradigm and Design of Qualitative Study: From Research Methodology to SCAT. Nagoya: The University of Nagoya Press;2019 (in Japanese).