Paper short abstract:

This paper examines language ideology of the JSL (Japanese as a second language) classroom in ethnography. Focusing on the JSL teacher’s discourse, the relationship of social role and language ideology in the JSL classroom will be analysed.

Paper long abstract:

This paper is an attempt to examine how the JSL teacher negotiated her language ideologies in the classroom discourse and exercised covert power in the class. It is based on my longitudinal ethnographic research of how a sojourner child became a Korean and Japanese bilingual in the JSL (Japanese as a second language) classroom.

Education and general government administration are two large arenas in which language becomes a question of nationalism (Fasold 1984). The school I researched was Japanese local state school, therefore, the school education was designed for mainstream Japanese children and the language of instruction, the medium at the school, was Japanese. Once the sojourner Korean child enrolled in the school, he needed to learn Japanese, referred to as 'Nihongo [Japanese]' and also needed the subject of Japanese, referred to as 'Kokugo [National language]'. This discourse of double 'Japanese languages' designated the nature of JSL classroom.

More than teaching language, the JSL teachers are expected to teach: oral and written, informal and formal, conversational for the communication with peers and academic for the subject. Working on these complex tasks in the JSL classroom, the teacher negotiated with the roles of 'school teacher' and 'bilingual individual'. In the role of teacher, her instruction of Japanese language reflected the power over the pupil.

This paper examines ethnography of JSL classroom in depth, where the language ideology in the classroom discourse will be analysed.