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1 Identity and Second Language Learning IDENTITY AND SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING: LOCAL JAPANESE LEARNING JAPANESE IN HAWAI‘I A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE AUGUST 2000 By Megumi Sugita Thesis Committee: Diana Eades, Chairperson Graham V. Crookes Richard W. Schmidt 1 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I would like to say “Okage sama de” (It is thanks to you) from the bottom of my heart to my mentor, Dr. Diana Eades, without whose guidance, support, and care this study would never have been possible. I would particularly like to express my deepest gratitude for her unlimited patience and thoughtfulness, as well as her invaluable advice, which have encouraged me and helped me to maintain the energy to achieve my goal. I also owe an enormous debt of appreciation to the other thesis committee members, Dr. Richard Schmidt and Dr. Graham Crookes, who have given me insightful comments throughout my study. Their critical suggestions have enabled me to reflect on my work and see it from various points of view, which is essential to a qualitative study. In addition, I am indebted to all the teachers and students who were in JPN 202 and JPN 301 at the time of data collection; they were a great help when I was conducting classroom observations and interviews. I would particularly like to thank the four focal students, without whose support this study would never have been completed. It was always a pleasure to interview them, because I learned many things about their lives and about the Japanese American culture in Hawai‘i that I had not been aware of. I am also grateful to the three teachers of the Japanese language classes. They were supportive not only as teachers who willingly let me interact with their students, but also as more experienced researchers who provided precious advice regarding the data collection. Furthermore, there have been many other individuals who have continually encouraged me throughout the thesis process and have greatly contributed to my study. I 2 am most deeply grateful to Lisa Harada, who inspired me to choose this topic and has helped me in many different ways: as a peerdebriefer, as a proofreader, as an informant, and as a wonderful friend. I would also like to thank other friends and colleagues for their continuous encouragement and friendship: Keith Fujikawa, Midori Furukawa- Ishida, Kazutoh Ishida, Myo-Jung Kim, Minori Murata, Siwon Park, and Misako Sadahiro. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to my parents, Kazuyuki and Yoko Sugita, who gave me the opportunity to study in Hawai‘i and who have always been supportive of my decisions. 3 ABSTRACT This is an ethnographic case study of four Japanese American university students studying the Japanese language in Hawai‘i. Drawing on Rampton’s (1990) concepts of language expertise, inheritance, and affiliation, this study investigates the role of the Japanese language in the construction of the students’ identities. Moving beyond Rampton’s discussion, the careful examination of the relationship between the individual students and their study of Japanese provides a more accurate understanding of these concepts. The findings reveal that the students’ language inheritance and affiliation, which are understood as their “continuity” with other Japanese Americans in Hawai‘i and their “connection” to the language and culture in Japan respectively, have different significance for each student. It is suggested that, by paying sufficient attention to these two aspects, which are both important factors in the construction of the students’ identities, teachers can integrate the National Standards for Japanese into their classroom more successfully. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS................................................................................................... 2 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION........................................................................................ 7 CHAPTER 2: BACKGROUND ....................................................................................... 13 2.1 Issei and Nisei Japanese Americans in Hawai‘i.................................................. 13 2.2 The changing role of the Japanese language in Hawai‘i..................................... 16 2.3 Looking closely at Japanese Americans and the Japanese language in Hawai‘i 22 CHAPTER 3: CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK .............................................................. 29 3.1 Studies on heritage language learning ................................................................ 29 3.1.1 Historical background................................................................................ 29 3.1.2 Heritage language maintenance ................................................................. 30 3.1.3 Recent studies on Heritage Language (HL) teaching/learning.................. 31 3.2 Language and identity......................................................................................... 36 3.2.1 From motivation to identity ....................................................................... 36 3.2.2 Language and identity construction........................................................... 39 3.2.3 Social constructionist perspective in second language studies.................. 42 3.3 Situating my study .............................................................................................. 43 3.3.1 Multiple nature of identity ......................................................................... 44 3.3.2 Speaker as human agent............................................................................. 45 3.3.3 The specificity of the Hawai‘i context....................................................... 47 CHAPTER 4: THE STUDY ............................................................................................. 51 4.1 Research questions.............................................................................................. 51 4.2 Site and participants............................................................................................ 51 4.3 Data collection .................................................................................................... 52 CHAPTER 5: FINDINGS................................................................................................. 57 5.1 The Japanese language and culture in Hawai‘i................................................... 57 5.1.1 Japanese language schools and media in Hawai‘i ..................................... 57 5.1.2 Japanese organizations and cultural events in Hawai‘i.............................. 58 5.1.3 Nisei Japanese Americans today................................................................ 60 5.1.4 Japanese culture in Hawai‘i vs. Japanese culture in Japan ........................ 63 5.1.5 Family in the Japanese American culture in Hawai‘i ................................ 67 5.1.6 Conclusion ................................................................................................. 68 5.2 Introducing the four focal students ..................................................................... 70 5.2.1 Laura .......................................................................................................... 71 5.2.2 Kenny......................................................................................................... 75 5.2.3 Stacy........................................................................................................... 77 5.2.4 Brian........................................................................................................... 82 CHAPTER 6: ANALYSIS – REASONS AND EXPECTATIONS.................................. 88 6.1 Laura ................................................................................................................... 89 6.1.1 Laura’s reasons for studying Japanese....................................................... 89 6.1.2 Laura’s expertise, inheritance, and affiliation............................................ 91 6.1.3 Summary.................................................................................................... 97 6.2 Kenny.................................................................................................................. 99 6.2.1 Kenny’s reasons for studying Japanese ..................................................... 99 5 6.2.2 Kenny’s expertise, inheritance, and affiliation ........................................ 101 6.2.3 Summary.................................................................................................. 107 6.3 Stacy.................................................................................................................. 109 6.3.1 Stacy’s reasons for studying Japanese ..................................................... 109 6.3.2 Stacy’s language expertise, inheritance, and affiliation............................111 6.3.3 Summary...................................................................................................119 6.4 Brian.................................................................................................................. 120 6.4.1 Brian’s reasons for studying Japanese ..................................................... 120 6.4.2 Brian’s language expertise, inheritance, and affiliation........................... 124 6.4.3 Summary.................................................................................................. 129 6.5 Conclusion .......................................................................................................
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