Teaching and research for heritage learners of

Asian and Pacific languages: Part I

The 2010 NHLRC Summer Institute

June 23, 2010University of Hawai‘i Mānoa

Focal heritage language (HL) learners College HL learners in university foreign language classrooms - Typically raised in homes where a non-English language is used - Highly heterogeneous in terms of their HL proficiency levels Morning sessions (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean)

Younger HL learners with historical/personal connection to a minority language such as an endangered indigenous or immigrant language

- May or may not be raised in homes where a non-English

language is used

Afternoon sessions (Hawaiian, Samoan, Tokelauan, and Vietnamese)

Morning sessions (10:45 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.)College heritage language learners of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean

Time Title10:50-11:15

Teaching Japanese as a heritage language to college students: Social and psychological considerations

Kimi Kondo-Brown (University of Hawai‘i Mānoa)

11:15-11:40

Content-based instruction for heritage language learners of Korean

Sang Yee Cheon (University of Hawai‘i Mānoa)

11:40-12:05

Accommodating heritage learners in a mixed student population: Results from an intercultural exchange

Stephen Tschudi and Song Jiang (University of Hawai‘i Mānoa)

12:05-12:15

Questions & Answers for Part I

Teaching Japanese as a heritage language to college students: Social and psychological considerations

Kimi Kondo-BrownThe 2010 NHLRC Summer Institute

June 23, 2010University of Hawai‘i Mānoa

A macroscopic view of heritage language (HL) contacts, use, and learning: Drawing on Allard & Landry’s bilingual development model (Allard & Landry, 1994; Landry & Allard, 1992, 1998; Landry, Allard, & Deveau, 2007)

HL Use and its Performance Level

Individual Level Willingness to Learn and Use the HL

HL competence

Subjective ethnolinguistic

vitality

Ethnolinguistic identity

Motivational effects

Micro-Interactional Level (Individual Network of Linguistic Contacts)

Interpersonal contacts Educational support Contacts through the media

Macro-Sociostructural Level (Ethnolinguistic Vitalities of the Dominant and Target heritage

languages )

Demographic vitality Political vitality Economic vitality Cultural vitality

• Perceived values in

learning the HL• Efficacy (confidence

in one’s ability to master the HL

• Goals (Desire and aspiration to utilize the HL)

Background and Linguistic profiles of focal students

Place of birth

K-12 Mother L1 Father L1 L1 before kindergarten

Strongerlanguage

Lori Hawaii Local private schools

Japanese Japanese Japanese English

Amy Hawaii Local public schools

Japanese English (E-J bilingual)

Japanese English

Alan Hawaii Local private schools

Japanese English(decease)

Japanese English

Recent Japanese Language Use of the Focal Students● 　 always, = only fragments, ×=hardly ever or never △

Contexts of Japanese use Lori Amy Alan

Speaking with mother ● ● ×

Speaking with father ● × × (Deceased)

Speaking with relatives in Japan ● ● ▲

With siblings ● No siblings ×

At work ● × ▲

With Japanese friends in Japan ● × ×

Japanese Language Proficiency Test Results of the Focal Informants

ACTFL-OPI

The Japanese Language Proficiency Test (Nihongo Noryoku Shiken)Results are indicated in the percentages of correct answers

# of Unrepeated, correctly spelled Kanji (Chinese Characters) used in composition

Level 3 (Intermediate) Level 2 (Pre-Advanced)

Reading

Listening Reading Listening

Lori Advanced- High

93 93 80 90 59

Amy Advanced-Low

86 100 35 90 4

Alan Intermediate-Low

60 86 --- --- 4

A sample sentence from Alan’s composition

こどもときから日本語がっこういきました

けど、日本語つかわないから、もうぜんぶわ

すれました。

子供 (child), 時 (time), 学校 (school), 行く (go), 使う (use), 　全部 (everything), 忘れる (forget)

[I went to Japanese language school in my childhood, but because I don’t use Japanese, I forgot everything.]

Kedo“but

”

No ni

o

Lori

Speaking English

Speaking Japanese

Japanese Identity

American Identity

Lori I’m lucky I’m bilingual. I really enjoy everything I do

with Japanese language . . . speaking Japanese to my friends, watching Japanese TV, reading Japanese magazines, singing a Japanese song in a karaoke booth, visiting Japan and meeting people there . . .everything… I’ve been reading Ginga Tetsudoo no Yoru by Miyazawa Kenji. I really like the story and it helps me learn new vocabulary and Kanji.

It would be really hard for me to choose just one nationality or identity. I don’t want to choose just to be American or to be Japanese. . . I really enjoy right now going back and forth between Japanese and English, between two different cultures. I want to maintain my dual identity and make the most of both countries and cultures.

　

Lori I took many courses in Japanese studies like

Japanese language, Japanese religion, Japanese geography…I enjoy learning more about Japan, its culture and language... My Japanese language classes are challenging and there are so many things to learn . . . I always do well in my Japanese language classes…I study Japanese harder at the university. . . High school Japanese classes were very easy. I’m more motivated to study Japanese now than when I was in high school.

Lori When I was small, I just didn’t like to learn how to

read and write Japanese, thinking “Why do I have to learn Japanese? This is America. People speak English, not Japanese,” you know. But now it’s totally different. What makes a real difference is that, unlike many of the school teachers I had, professors here don’t tell me, “You have to learn English only,” you know. They stress instead that there are people from different language and cultural backgrounds and encourage you to learn and appreciate cultural diversity. So I guess after all it turns out good for me to know Japanese. I appreciate that my mom forced me into learning Japanese.

Amy

Speaking English

Speaking Japanese

American identity

Amy Speaking Japanese is an

important part of my identity. It’s just a part of my whole life. . . I just take it for granted that I speak Japanese. . . If you’re American, you’re allowed to be different. . . Just because I speak Japanese, people don’t perceive me any differently.

Amy When I was in secondary school, none

of my friends spoke Japanese. In school, I was totally American. I mean I was just like any other kid in school. I talked to my mother in Japanese at home but it was just pretty separate. The only thing that was Japanese about me in school was that I had all those new San Rio things ‘cause I used to go back to Japan every year.

Amy The first year they started you off with

Hiragana and maybe Katakana* and the second year they’re like going over Hiragana again and some Kanji. It was so easy. I didn’t have to study at all. I got an A from my Japanese classes. . . My friends said it’s not fair for me to take Japanese, but I didn’t care.

*Hiragana & Katakana : Two basic Japanese syllabries

Amy I don’t want to work in Japan

because they don’t take women seriously . . .If my mom hadn’t left Japan, she probably wouldn’t have achieved the same. . . She now has a busier schedule and makes more money than my dad does.

Amy Most 4th-year students . . . already knew

hundreds of Kanji, but I knew very few. I just couldn’t take that many Kanji. . . . the teacher expected the students to know all these rules in Japanese, you know, you’re supposed to use rule one in this situation or rule two in that situation. That may have been the way regular students have learned Japanese, and they may be used to that kind of teaching style, but it is not the way I learned Japanese.

Alan

Speaking “Standard” English

Speakin

g Japanese

Speaking HCE

Local Identity

Hawai‘i Creole English (HCE) a salient marker

of “local identity” which is both cultural

and political (Okamura, 1992)

Alan Being local is just growing up in

Hawai‘i, you know, picking up other different cultures and understanding all different kinds of ethnicity. Just let people do what they want. . . local English is what I’ve been speaking my whole life so it’s important to me. It is the language I use with my friends and family members . . . It’s just part of my whole life. . .

Alan I don’t identify myself as

Japanese much because, Japanese people seem to be always pushing around and, to them, everything should be perfect, yeah. Work, work, work. Too much stress. In Hawai‘i, things are slower, and local people are more relaxed.

Alan I didn’t take Japanese 301 after I completed the

foreign language requirement ‘cause learning Japanese was so hard. I didn’t think I’d do well in the 3rd year Japanese class. . . .We had to learn so many Kanji, but it was so hard, you know. I forgot all the kanji I studied because I don’t use them. Another hardest part was that we had to learn so many different ways just to say one thing, like in some situations, you have to use keigo (=honorific language). I’ve never learned how to use it. They’ve got to make it easier to learn. . . .

Implications

Lori Amy and Alan

Chart Title

High Motiva-tion

LowMotiva-tion

• For some HL students, motivation is a real problem (e.g., lack of self-efficacy, irrelevance to academic/career goals)

• Better articulation between high school and college HL instruction

• Importance of developing challenging and yet realistic expectations as well as motivating strategies

Common approaches for teaching and online tools:  1. Traditional rote learning strategies

Assign students to write kanji characters repeatedly

Make flashcards (front-kanji, back-multiple meanings and readings with examples)

  2. Frequently give quizzes on kanji

characters and compounds (external motivation)

Suggested approaches for teaching and developing online-tools 1. Cognitive/meta-cognitive strategies (the use of

mnemonic devices help learners retain memory better).

Help students create an association between the new kanji and a pictograph ( 山・川・魚・鳥 ).

Help students make a link between the new kanji character and a previously-taught Kana/Kanji. ( 利 [ リ ri]).

Teach how to use radicals to learn kanji ( 鯖 [saba “mackerel’] ・鮭 [sake ‘samon’] ・鮪 [maguro ‘tuna’]). 　

Contrast or group certain kanji characters or words based on semantics or extended compounds sharing the same characters (e.g., 大学、学生、学校 )

Suggested approaches for teaching and online-tools2. Use of context/incidental learning Teach kanji by having students read signs and/or

creating tasks that require the use of Kanji

Read authentic materials with the help of online translation/dictionary tools

http://language.tiu.ac.jp/tools_e.html Teach inferential skills for determining the meaning

of kanji based on contextual cues.

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Relationship between phonological accessibility and inferencing ability (Kondo-Brown, 2006)

Statistical analyses suggest:

The students' kanji inferencing ability and phonological accessibility are related (X2= 33.84, p <.001).

This observed relationship is substantial (.331, calculated by Cramer's V).

31%

65%16%

37%

21%64%

31%

14%

20%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Complete Patial None

Phonological accessability

Correct inferencing

Wrong inferencing

Failure to infer at all

29

Failure to infer at all, no phonological access (The student could not pronounce any part of the kanji word accurately, and could not infer the meaning of the word at all)

先日なんと祖父が他界してしまった。

Senjitsu nanto sofu ga … something shite shimatta.

Something happened to .. my grandfather yesterday? (ID#46)

Teaching and research for heritage learners of

Asian and Pacific languages: Part II

The 2010 NHLRC Summer Institute

June 23, 2010University of Hawai‘i Mānoa

Afternoon sessions (1:30 - 3:30 p.m.)Younger heritage language learners of Hawaiian, Samoan, Tokelauan, and Vietnamese

Time Title1:35-2:00 Administration and validation of an oral assessments for the Hale Kuamo'o

Hawaiian Language Program

Alohalani Housman and Māhealani Kobashigawa (Hale Kuamo'o Hawaiian Language Center, University of Hawai‘i Hilo )James Dean Brown (University of Hawai‘i Mānoa)

2:00-2:25 Vietnamese as a heritage language in a Japanese public elementary school

Tomomi Nishikawa (Yokohama National University) 2:25-2:50 Teaching through fātele: Tokelauan action songs in language pedagogy

Akiemi Glenn (University of Hawai‘i Mānoa) Betty P. Ickes (Te Taki Tokelau Community Development, Inc.)

2:50-3:15 Le Fetuao Samoan Language School: A community-based model for Samoan youth

John Meyer (University of Hawai‘i Mānoa)3:15-3:30 Questions & Answers for Part II