Grown children of foreign parents' experiences of minority language loss in Japan
| Project/Area Number |
18K00698
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Review Section |
Basic Section 02090:Japanese language education-related
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| Research Institution | Kanagawa University (2020)
Sagami Women's University (2018-2019) |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Project Period (FY) |
2018-04-01 – 2021-03-31
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| Project Status |
Completed (Fiscal Year 2020)
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| Budget Amount *help |
¥1,690,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥390,000)
Fiscal Year 2020: ¥130,000 (Direct Cost: ¥100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥30,000)
Fiscal Year 2019: ¥520,000 (Direct Cost: ¥400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥120,000)
Fiscal Year 2018: ¥1,040,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥240,000)
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| Keywords | minority language / mixed-ethnic / regret / Japan / youths / bilingual / identity / monolingual / minority language loss / language regrets / mixed-ethnic youths / bilingual ability / Japanese monolingual / mixed-ethnic identity / mixed ethnic / haafu children / lost opportunity / monolingualism / Minority language / Foreign parents / Bicultural children / Foreign children / Family language policy |
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| Outline of Final Research Achievements |
This research investigates minority language (ML) ability and identity in mixed-ethnic youths in Japan using qualitative and quantitative approaches. Interviews with ten mixed-ethnic subjects showed that family relations, parents’ reluctance to speak the ML and the prioritization of English contributed to the non-transmission of the ML. The youths described their lost opportunity to acquire the ML as regretful, indicating its impact their social and emotional well-being. Moreover, a survey of 31 mixed-ethnic youths showed that many of them feel closest to their mixed-ethnic identity. However, non-ML-speaking youths tend to associate their mixed-ethnic identity with external factors (e.g., appearances) whereas ML-speaking youths consider intrinsic factors (e.g., ML ability) as their reasons, suggesting that their language ability affects their identity development. In sum, these results indicate the importance of speaking one's own language to the child.
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| Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements |
The study shows the importance of minority language transmission in the family. Non-Japanese parents tend to speak Japanese instead of their native language to their children. However, speaking the parent's native language is important for the child's social, emotional and identity development.
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Report
(4 results)
Research Products
(4 results)
