2014 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
The raising of a half in Japan and the UK
| Project/Area Number |
26580096
|
|---|
| Research Institution | Aomori University of Health and Welfare |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
BARRY Kavanagh 青森県立保健大学, 健康科学部, 講師 (80404820)
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
|
| Keywords | Child bilingualism / 2nd language acquisition / Mixed race children |
|---|
| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
I originally stated that I would need 7 children from the UK and 7 from Japan to act as research participants for this project. I managed to get more participants than this initial target, and I have a total of 10 families (17 children) form Japan and 5 families (9 children) who have kindly volunteered for this research. Year one targets were mostly achieved, parents completed the questionnaires and I visited each family and interviewed the children. I was able to collect data on parental support and guidance with regards to bringing up a bilingual child and the techniques that parents empty to foster a bilingual environment. Observations and interactions with the families also allowed me to examine issues such as code switching and how much of the minority language the children speak.
I also gave the children some activities to gauge their level in the minority language and a colour recognition test to test the theory of linguistic relativity and bilingualism and to examine how half bilingual view their world linguistically depending on the language they speak. Questions given top the children also aimed to assess how these mixed race children view themselves in both a multicultural society such as the UK and a monolingual one such as Japan.
I visited some educational institutions and schools to examine how the minority language is taught in the UK and Japan and examined how the minority language is used and viewed outside of the family home. So far I have collected enough data through questionnaires and interviews to satisfy my targets for the first year of this research.
|
| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
I feel satisfied with the progress achieved with the research thus far.
In terms of difficulties assessing the Japanese ability of the children who reside in the UK was not easy. There are no standardized tests. This is in contrast to eiken or jido eiken that many of the ‘half’ children have taken in Japan. Therefore a way to compare the level of the mixed race children in the UK to native Japanese children is difficult at this stage but something I am examining. Some families who agreed to do do the research and completed the questionnaires dropped out of the project due to their busy schedules. As the research is voluntary this cannot be helped. Arranging times for home visits can be difficult especially in the UK as the families are very busy.
The research however is progressing rather smoothly and the targets and goals I made as written in my original application were achieved. These targets looked at accessing parental roles in child bilingual development, observations of interactions and examining the role the environment plays in raising a bilingual mixed race child.
|
| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
At present I am still coding the qualitative and quantitative data
I have collected from the questionnaires and interviews and looking at the data from differing research angles. I will present my findings at a conference this year.
I will be sending out new questionnaires to families in this new academic year as well as visiting the families again for further interviews and activities to carry out with the children that will aid with the overall aims of the research. Specifically I will try to engage the children more activities that will look at how these children view the world linguistically depending on the language they speak and also their own ethnic identity.
I will also be visiting some educational facilities in the UK and Japan to further assess the educational environment the children are exposed to and comparing the UK approach to Japanese language education and the Japanese approach to english education.
|
| Causes of Carryover |
I did not use any money for personal expenditure and remuneration in this first year. As the data was collected in the first year, the coding and gathering of data will take place in the second year and hopefully I will be able to enlist the help of some assistants to help me with this and also with the writing up of new questionnaires in Japanese.
|
| Expenditure Plan for Carryover Budget |
The money will be used in the second year as originally proposed on the original application form and again briefly outlined here.1. Money will be used for domestic travel to visit and interview families.
2. UK travel to visit and interview families and also visit educational facilities.3. Conference presentation.4. Employ assistants to help with the research paperwork, translation etc.5. Funds for office supplies, educational materials such as books etc.
|
Research Products
(2 results)
