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A Place for Second Generation Japanese Speaking Children in Perth: Can they Maintain Japanese as a Community Language?

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Book cover Critical Perspectives on Language Education

Part of the book series: Multilingual Education ((MULT,volume 11))

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Abstract

Community languages and multiculturalism were embraced by Australia’s first national language policy, but with the rise of the new agenda in industry and economic development, both have been pushed aside and monolingual ideology is reasserting its dominance. In this chapter I examine the impact of language policies at different levels on the position of the Japanese language as a community language in Perth, Western Australia. I examine the views of family and community toward language maintenance and argue that monolingual ideology is blocking the effort to maintain language diversity in the family and the community. If the spirit of multiculturalism that recognises and values differences is conceived, understood, and practised first in the family and then in the community, it will offer a new way to language maintenance.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In WA, the assessment of the award course comprises classroom assessment and examination. The assessment for private candidates is 100 % examination. If a student wishes to take a subject not taught at school, this option is available. Although the course has not been introduced yet, one private school has allocated 1 hour per week to teach one student.

  2. 2.

    Over 90 % of long-term temporary stay families in Australia from Japan send their children to local schools rather than the Japanese school so that their children have opportunities to learn Englis; parents’ attitude is quite different in Asian countries, where English is not the medium of education and the priority is the children’s re-adjustment to Japanese society and its education system (Mizukami 2007).

  3. 3.

    They admit children with lesser linguistic skills and enrol them in a lower class: for example, a Year 5 child may be in a class of Year 2 according to the child’s literacy skills, if the child and parents are willing.

  4. 4.

    Original comment in Japanese is Iya desu. ‘Yameteyo. Hazukashii. Umakunainoni’tte.

  5. 5.

    Original wording reads Nihongo shaberenai nihonjintte nihonjinnjanai desuyone. (Oriyama 2010, p. 99).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, Curtin University, Perth, Australia

    Kyoko Kawasaki

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  1. Kyoko Kawasaki
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Correspondence to Kyoko Kawasaki .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education, University of Bath, Bath, Bath&NthEstSomerset, United Kingdom

    Katie Dunworth

  2. Humanities Department, Curtin University, Bentley, West Australia, Australia

    Grace Zhang

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Kawasaki, K. (2014). A Place for Second Generation Japanese Speaking Children in Perth: Can they Maintain Japanese as a Community Language?. In: Dunworth, K., Zhang, G. (eds) Critical Perspectives on Language Education. Multilingual Education, vol 11. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06185-6_9

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