Studies in Japanese Bilingualism
Studies in Japanese Bilingualism

Author: Mary Goebel Noguchi

Publisher: Multilingual Matters

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 402

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This collection of twelve empirical studies helps fill the gap in information on bilingualism in Japan. The introduction examines the widely-held myth of "Japanese homogeneity", demonstrating how language contact has increased dramatically in the past two decades as Japan's economy has attracted new immigrants. The results of a survey on Japanese attitudes towards bilingualism suggest that only certain languages are associated with bilingualism in Japan - a trend that has serious implications for the treatment of Japan's minorities. Developments in language use by three of Japan's oldest linguistic minorities are examined. Two ground-breaking studies analyse language use by new minorities in Japan, and the problems faced by language-minority students in Japanese schools are also surveyed. Elite bilinguals are the focus of studies on factors affecting the development of active bilingualism in bicultural children and the progress of students in Japan's first English immersion programme. Two studies on codeswitching provide a Japanese perspective on this emerging field of research. The collection closes with an overview of research on language attrition in Japanese contexts. Book jacket.

Language and Education in Japan
Language and Education in Japan

Author: Y. Kanno

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2015-12-26

Total Pages: 219

ISBN-13: 0230591582

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The first critical ethnography of bilingual education in Japan. Based on fieldwork at five different schools, this examines the role of schools in the unequal distribution of bilingualism as cultural capital. It argues that schooling gives children unequal access to bilingualism thus socializing them into different futures.

Studies in Japanese Bilingualism
Studies in Japanese Bilingualism

Author: Mary Goebel Noguchi

Publisher: Multilingual Matters

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 383

ISBN-13: 185359489X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Studies in Japanese Bilingualism helps dissolve the myth of Japanese homogeneity by explaining the history of this construct and offering twelve empirical studies on different facets of language contact in Japan, including Ainu revitalisation, Korean language maintenance, creative use of Ryukyuan languages in Okinawa, English immersion, and language use by Nikkei immigrants, Chinese "War Orphans" and bicultural children, as well as codeswitching and language attrition in Japanese contexts.

Language Use in Interlingual Families
Language Use in Interlingual Families

Author: Masayo Yamamoto

Publisher: Multilingual Matters

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 190

ISBN-13: 9781853595394

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book introduces the way languages are used in Japanese-English interlingual families in Japan and explains what factors influence their language choice, with the aim of arriving at a predictive model of language use. It also proposes a taxonomy of interlingual family types and a typological model of language use.

Negotiating Bilingual and Bicultural Identities
Negotiating Bilingual and Bicultural Identities

Author: Yasuko Kanno

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2003-05-14

Total Pages: 190

ISBN-13: 1135637229

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book examines the changing linguistic and cultural identities of bilingual students through the narratives of four Japanese returnees (kikokushijo) as they spent their adolescent years in North America and then returned to Japan to attend university. As adolescents, these students were polarized toward one language and culture over the other, but through a period of difficult readjustment in Japan they became increasingly more sophisticated in negotiating their identities and more appreciative of their hybrid selves. Kanno analyzes how educational institutions both in their host and home countries, societal recognition or devaluation of bilingualism, and the students' own maturation contributed to shaping and transforming their identities over time. Using narrative inquiry and communities of practice as a theoretical framework, she argues that it is possible for bilingual individuals to learn to strike a balance between two languages and cultures. Negotiating Bilingual and Bicultural Identities: Japanese Returnees Betwixt Two Worlds: *is a longitudinal study of bilingual and bicultural identities--unlike most studies of bilingual learners, this book follows the same bilingual youths from adolescence to young adulthood; *documents student perspectives--redressing the neglect of student voice in much educational research, and offering educators an understanding of what the experience of learning English and becoming bilingual and bicultural looks like from the students' point of view; and *contributes to the study of language, culture, and identity by demonstrating that for bilingual individuals, identity is not a simple choice of one language and culture but an ongoing balancing act of multiple languages and cultures. This book will interest researchers, educators, and graduate students who are concerned with the education and personal growth of bilingual learners, and will be useful as text for courses in ESL/bilingual education, TESOL, applied linguistics, and multicultural education.

The Evolution of English Language Learners in Japan
The Evolution of English Language Learners in Japan

Author: Yoko Kobayashi

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-01-19

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13: 1351804561

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book seeks a better understanding of the sociocultural and ideological factors that influence English study in Japan and study-abroad contexts such as university-bound high schools, female-dominant English classes at college, ESL schools in Canada, and private or university-affiliated ESL programs in Singapore and Malaysia. The discussion is based not only on data garnered from Japanese EFL learners and Japanese/overseas educators but also on official English language policies and commercial magazine discourses about English study for Japanese people. The book addresses seemingly incompatible themes that are either entrenched in or beyond Japan’s EFL context such as: Japan’s decades-long poorly-performing English education vs. its equally long-lived status as an economic power; Japanese English learners’ preference for native English speakers/norms in at-home Japanese EFL contexts vs. their friendship with other Asian students in western study-abroad contexts; Japanese female students’ dream of using English to further their careers vs. Japanese working women’s English study for self-enrichment; Japanese society’s obsession with globalization through English study vs. the Japanese economy sustained by monolingual Japanese businessmen; Japanese business magazines’ frequent cover issues on global business English study vs. Japanese working women’s magazines’ less frequent and markedly feminized discourses about English study.

Language Contact in Japan
Language Contact in Japan

Author: Leo J. Loveday

Publisher: Clarendon Press

Published: 1996-06-20

Total Pages: 254

ISBN-13: 0191583693

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Japanese are often characterized as exclusive and ethnocentric, yet a close examination of their linguistic and cultural history reveals a very different picture: although theirs is essentially a monolingual speech community they emerge as a people who have been significantly influenced by other languages and cultures for at least 2000 years. In this primarily sociolinguistic study Professor Loveday takes an eclectic approach, drawing on insights from other subfields of linguistics such as comparative and historical linguistics and stylistics, and from a number of other disciplines - cultural anthropology, social psychology and semiotics. Focusing in particular on the influence of Chinese and English on Japanese, and on how elements from these languages are modified when they are incorporated into Japanese, Professor Loveday offers a general model for understanding language contact behaviour across time and space. The study will be of value to those in search of cross-cultural universals in language contact behaviour, as well as to those with a particular interest in the Japanese case.

Language Learning, Gender and Desire
Language Learning, Gender and Desire

Author: Kimie Takahashi

Publisher: Critical Language and Literacy

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781847698544

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book explores Japanese women's desire for English as a means of identity transformation and as access to the West and its masculinity. Drawing on ethnographic data and critical discourse analysis, the book illuminates how such desire impacts upon the linguistic, social, and romantic choices made by young women in Japan and overseas.

The Role of English Teaching in Modern Japan
The Role of English Teaching in Modern Japan

Author: Mieko Yamada

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-09-25

Total Pages: 157

ISBN-13: 1317803973

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Role of English Teaching in Modern Japan examines the complex nature of Japan’s promotion of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). In globalized societies where people with different native languages communicate through English, multicultural and multilinguistic interactions are widely created. This book takes the opportunity to look at Japan and examines how these multiple realities have affected its English language teaching within the domestic context. The myth of Japan’s racial and ethnic homogeneity may hinder many Japanese in recognizing realities of its own minority groups such as Ainu, Zainichi Koreans, and Brazilian Japanese, who are in the same EFL classrooms. Acknowledging a variety of English uses and users in Japan, this book emphasizes the influence of Japan’s recent domestic diversity on its EFL curriculum and urges that such changes should be addressed. It suggests new directions for incorporating multicultural perspectives in order to develop English language education in Japan and other Asian contexts where English is often taught as a foreign language. Chapters include: Social, cultural, and political background of Japan’s EFL education Race, ethnicity, and multiculturalism Representations of diversity in Japanese EFL Textbooks Perceptions of English learning and diversity in Japan The role of EFL education in multicultural Japan

Heritage Language Development
Heritage Language Development

Author: Kimi Kondo-Brown

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2006-01-01

Total Pages: 293

ISBN-13: 9027241430

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This collection of studies investigates the individual, micro-psychological, and macro-societal factors that promote or discourage the development of child and young adult heritage language learners' spoken and written skills in East Asian languages (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean). The research presented in this book is based on empirical data from various learning and social settings in the United States and Canada. The contributors are themselves mostly from East Asian immigrant backgrounds and have worked closely with students from such backgrounds. This book also speaks to the needs for future research within East Asian communities that will (a) promote East Asian heritage language development in applied linguistics, (b) encourage parental, community, and national support for East Asian heritage language development, and (c) improve the teaching of oral and written skills for heritage learners of East Asian languages in various educational settings.