SLAI Colloquium: Yuriko Miyamoto Caltabiano
Multicultural children’s roles in transforming Japan into a multilingual nation
| What | Colloquium |
|---|---|
| When |
2009-05-12 03:30 PM
2009-05-12 05:00 PM
May 12, 2009 from 03:30 pm to 05:00 pm |
| Where | 18A Olson |
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This is a talk in the Second Language Acquisition Institute Lecture Series
Yuriko is a candidate for the Ph.D. degree in Linguistics at UC Davis.
ABSTRACT
With the sudden increase of foreign residents in Japan, the country has turned into a more culturally and linguistically diverse community than ever. This study explores how children of Cambodian, Peruvian, and Vietnamese descendant negotiate their multicultural identities, and use multiple languages in a country accustomed to viewing itself as homogeneous with one language and one ethnicity. As a number of previous studies have claimed, in multilingual contexts individuals negotiate their identities when positioned in particular ways. As such, identities are viewed as multiple, as a site of struggle, and as changing over time, and their influence on language has been widely explored in western contexts. In order to explore multicultural children’s identities and language use in Japan, ethnographic data were collected through participant-observation in the Volunteer Home Tutoring program administered by a junior college. Analysis suggests that multicultural children born in Japan have a strong affiliation with Japan, and their home language ability is limited. However, they express their multiple identities through language use, cultural discourses, and participation in cultural activities. Some of them enthusiastically try to teach their home language to the Japanese tutor, whereas others voluntarily engage the tutor in conversations about their home country. This study has implications for multicultural children, who are seemingly disadvantaged, to play a role in transforming Japan into a multilingual nation by extending their performance of multicultural identities and use of multiple languages beyond their homes, to their communities, and to their schools.
New Linguistics Club