2019 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Investigating multiethnic students' learning of their heritage languages at Japanese universities
| Project/Area Number |
19K00797
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| Research Institution | Kanda University of International Studies |
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Principal Investigator |
PARK Siwon 神田外語大学, 外国語学部, 教授 (00458639)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
杉田 めぐみ 神田外語大学, 外国語学部, 講師 (70366938)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
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| Keywords | heritage language / multiethnic learners / HL learners |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
For the first year, we had two goals: 1) a complete review of prior studies and 2) an investigation of the demographics of the multiethnic university students majoring in their HLs and the current situations in which they are situated. First, we examined literature concerning heritage language (HL) education in and outside Japan. The result was published as a review study in the journal of the university which we belong to. To achieve the second goal, we contacted the three universities that offer major studies in Indonesian, Vietnamese and Thai languages and requested access to their students with heritage language backgrounds. Their responses varied as some programs informed us that there weren’t students with such backgrounds, while others approved our access to their HL learners. Depending on the availability of the HL learners, we collected demographic information as to how many HL learners were enrolled in the programs of the three languages. Also, instead of collecting only the demographic information, we decided to narrow down our research target to the HL learners of Vietnamese, and collected data from five Vietnamese HL learners at the three universities. We conducted survey first online for their family, educational, and social backgrounds and then a semi-structured interview to them individually including their parents when available. The information collected through these procedures was analyzed, and the result was presented at an international conference.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
Overall, the project has been progressed smoothly. We were able to visit the three universities (Osaka University, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, and Kanda University of International Studies) and met the HL learners individually to conduct semi-structured interviews. All of the participants were very cooperative with our project and willing to share their experiences and ideas about their HL learning, which enabled our data collection to run smoothly. One change that we decided to make with the schedule was we decided to start researching the HL learners of Vietnamese and examined various aspects of their HL learning in terms of socio-affective environments. This schedule change was deemed necessary because first we discovered there existed only a limited number of HL learners of Indonesian and Thai languages at the three universities, whereas we were only able to access Vietnamese HL learners. Also, by looking into the HL learners of one of the three languages in depth, we expected we could build a baseline research protocol that could be applicable to the studies of other HL language learners in the future. Such an alteration of the research schedule allowed us to build a good knowledge base concerning the investigation into HL learners in Japan, which may be evidenced in our presentation of the research findings at an international conference on L2 identity and motivation.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
In the second and third years of the project, we will continue to investigate HL learners’ sociolinguistic backgrounds of the three target languages. First, with the HL learners who participated in the first year research project we will continue our investigation concerning; 1) whether their perceptions of learning the HLs have changed, and 2) to what extent the learning process was affected by the institutional participation as a major of the languages and also interactively affected their perception of themselves (i.e., identity) as HL learners. We will further look for HL learners of Thai and Indonesian languages and begin to collect data based on the research protocol we developed using the Vietnamese HL learners in the first year. Additionally, as we found in the first phase of the project that HL learners perceive English as equally important as their HLs, we will examine how their HLs are perceived as future assets by these HL learners in contrast to other foreign languages such as English. By doing so, we will attempt to develop more comprehensive understanding as to the sociolinguistic characteristics of the HL learners. One concern we have regarding the data collection in this second phase is the restriction of traveling and having direct contacts with the participants due to the disruption of COVID-19. If necessary, we will devise an alternative mean to collect data using digital devices while ensuring the safety of the participants.
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| Causes of Carryover |
In the year of 2019, we wanted to attend workshops on heritage language education offered by NHLRC at Univ. of New Mexico scheduled in June. However, we decided to give up the plan due to scheduling and funding difficulty.
This year, due to the disruption caused by COVID-19, we expect there to be much unpredictability concerning traveling for data collection between the research sites and the institution that we reside. Therefore, we will try to find means to collect data digitally by using video-conferencing device first and attempt to contact our participants for the observation and interview at a later time when such data collection methods are considered undisruptive and safe for the sake of the participants as well as ourselves. Therefore, the employment of technology for data collection may incur extra-spending of the funding in addition to the scheduled expenditure we initially planned.
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