The raising of a half in Japan and the UK

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26580096
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Japanese language education
• Research Institution: Tohoku University (2015-2016); Aomori University of Health and Welfare (2014)
• Principal Investigator: Kavanagh Barry 東北大学, 高度教養教育・学生支援機構, 講師 (80404820)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: SLA / Child bilingualism / Bicultural children / Ethnic identity

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study examined bicultural bilingual children born to a foreign and Japanese parent living in the UK and Japan. In a longitudinal study the research looked at these children bilingual development, parental attitudes, and educational methods employed and the ethnic identity of the children themselves. Through questionnaires, interviews and home visits and observations the following themes were examined.
1. How these children are perceived in a multicultural society such as England and a homogenous environment as reflected in Japan was compared cross culturally was examined. 2. What methods are utilised by the parents / communities in order to raise their children bilingually was also compared across these two societies. 3. Through experiments the Sapir-Whorf hypothesises of linguistic relativity was tested for its applicability to how bicultural bilingual children see the world. This was tested through shape, object and colour recognition tests.

Free Research Field

Bilingualism (Applied linguistics)