2023 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Plurilingual competency and identity of heritage language speakers in Japan
| Project/Area Number |
23K02189
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| Research Institution | Kanda University of International Studies |
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Principal Investigator |
杉田 めぐみ 神田外語大学, 外国語学部, 准教授 (70366938)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
PARK Siwon 神田外語大学, グローバル・リベラルアーツ学部, 教授 (00458639)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2023-04-01 – 2026-03-31
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| Keywords | plurilingual competency / identity / heritage language / Vietnamese / second generation |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
Our goals were to collect data and to investigate how the plurilingual competency of our participants was related to their identity. Interviews were conducted with two participants, a male and a female individually, who were trilinguals in Japanese, Vietnamese, and English. The male participant was working for a consulting company, and the female participant was nearing graduation from college at the time of the interview.
The results showed that both participants had fewer opportunities to use Vietnamese and English skills than they did while in college. Although they both spend most of their daily lives in Japanese, we observed that speaking Vietnamese and English has continuously influenced their identity formation.
We also gave a presentation of our study at an online research seminar.
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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
Although we could not meet our participants frequently, we have successfully collected the data for our investigation by conducting both face-to-face and Zoom interviews.
The original plan was to interview more participants, but due to scheduling difficulties, we were only able to hear from two. We would like to continue to contact participants we were unable to meet this year and interview them in the subsequent years.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
We will continue to conduct individual interviews, either in person or via Zoom. We will also explore in depth how their identities have changed over time.
If we have the opportunity next year, we would like to interview people of foreign origin living in Japan who are of an older generation than the participants in this study. By hearing the stories of different generations, we will be able to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the second-generation immigrants in Japan.
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| Causes of Carryover |
Interviews could not be conducted with the expected number of participants. We will continue to conduct interviews with more participants and compensate them for these interviews using the grant.
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