2021 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Heritage language literacy development in Japanese-educated children
| Project/Area Number |
21K00740
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| Research Institution | International Christian University |
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Principal Investigator |
QUAY Suzanne 国際基督教大学, 教養学部, 教授 (70276442)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
中村 ジェニス 神奈川大学, 外国語学部, 准教授 (10622136)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2021-04-01 – 2024-03-31
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| Keywords | biliteracy / bicultural / bilingual / weekend school / English writing |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
In our first year, we have recruited some new Japanese-English bilingual and biliterate children who took our writing assessment for the first time. We also continued testing existing participants who took part in their second, third and fourth writing assessments. Their writing scores will form part of our longitudinal data which involves monitoring their writing progress over time. We also collected additional data, i.e., parental and children questionnaires and parental interviews, which will help us understand the various home and weekend school factors that contribute to their biliteracy development.
Our preliminary findings were presented at the International Symposium of Bilingualism in July 2021. Our oral presentation was made online. The presentation explained the English writing ability of 31 children and how the home and weekend school contribute to their writing performance. Our findings were also summarized in a research paper, and the manuscript is now under review.
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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
Our longitudinal data collection is progressing smoothly with many of the Japanese-English bilingual and bicultural children attending weekend schools in Japan participating in our writing assessments for the second, third or even fourth time.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
The plan for this year is to analyze the longitudinal data, particularly the Japanese-English bilingual and bicultural children's writing performance since the pandemic and how the switch to online weekend schooling has affected their English literacy learning. We will use the longitudinal data to write a second paper on their biliteracy development.
We will also continue to test our existing participants and recruit new ones.
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| Causes of Carryover |
We would like our findings to be disseminated widely and freely, particularly for the benefit of parents raising bilingual and biliterate children. Therefore, this year's funds would be used to pay Open Access fees should our manuscript be accepted by a journal.
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