UCLA

The purpose of this study was to learn about the bicultural educational experiences of Japanese heritage and community language learners, and how they felt their heritage language learning influenced their ethnic identity development. Utilizing the power of reflective practices, current students and alumni of Japanese heritage schools were interviewed to understand their perceptions of their experiences. From an educational leadership standpoint, data that shows the effectiveness of heritage language pipeline/articulation agreements could help fund more heritage language schools as well as provide valuable information to language program coordinators and lifetime learning programs.

Ethnic identity is a major factor in heritage language development and is often viewed through a social and cultural lens (Chinen & Tucker, 2005a; Gibbons & Ramirez, 2004; He, 2014; Nunn, 2005; Shin, 2005). When researching heritage language learning, ethnic identity is examined alongside attitude, motivation, and self-identity.

Interviews with 14 learners and six teachers were completed. The results of the 20 semi-structured narrative interviews and 10 post-interview reflection essays written by learners will be shared. One learner also submitted the critical thematic autobiography they wrote in their Japanese heritage language class in university.

There were seven overarching themes that emerged from conducting interviews with learners and teachers, and reading learners’ post-interview reflections. The Japanese heritage language learners and teachers both agreed on the following points. First, there are significant differences between how learners of Japanese as a heritage language and learners of Japanese as a foreign language learn Japanese, and these learners have very different needs. Second, learners gain a deeper understanding of their ethnic identity through attending Japanese heritage school in K-12 and during their higher education. Third, heritage schools help students achieve bilingual status. Fourth, family life impacts the motivation of heritage language learners to study Japanese. Fifth, learners’ ability to balance both Japanese heritage school and U.S. local schoolwork impacts their motivation. This then impacts their ability to continue in Japanese heritage school. Sixth, it is challenging to attain a high enough literacy and Japanese speaking ability to use Japanese in a career. Seven, intergenerational language transfer was important to the learners.