Diversity, Inclusivity, and the Importance of L2 Speaker Legitimacy

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/jll.2020.127

Abstract

This commentary builds on the work presented in Mori et al. (this volume) and considers diversity and inclusivity in the context of L2 speaker legitimacy in Japanese-language education. A discussion of linguistic ideologies, native speaker bias, language ownership, and speaker legitimacy is followed by a brief introduction of key research findings which demonstrate the persistence of native speaker bias for L2 speakers of Japanese. I argue that as Japanese-language educators, we must make a commitment to overcoming native speaker bias with regard to each other and especially with regard to our students. I conclude with some suggestions of steps we can take to become models for our students and demonstrate the legitimation of speakers regardless of linguistic background, so that we may begin to eliminate native speaker bias in our profession and in our classrooms. 

Author Biography

Jae DiBello Takeuchi, Clemson University

Jae DiBello Takeuchi is Assistant Professor of Japanese in the Department of Languages and Director of the Language and International Business Program at Clemson University. Dr. Takeuchi’s specialty is Japanese sociolinguistics and second language acquisition. Her research focuses on Japanese-as-a-second-language speakers who are long-term residents of Japan. She is particularly interested in how they navigate speech styles, such as dialects and keigo. Dr. Takeuchi teaches Japanese language, Japanese culture, and linguistics.

References

References

Blackledge, Adrien and Aneta Pavlenko. 2002. Ideologies of Language in Multilingual Contexts. Multilingua 21(2/3): 121–326.

Bourdieu, Pierre. 1991. Language and Symbolic Power. Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press.

Cook, Vivian. 1999. Going Beyond the Native Speaker in Language Teaching. TESOL Quarterly 33(2): 185–209. doi:10.2307/3587717.

— — —. 2016. Where is the Native Speaker Now? TESOL Quarterly 50(1), 186–189. doi:10.1002/tesq.286.

Davies, Alan. 2003. The Native Speaker: Myth and Reality. (Vol. 38). Clevedon, U.K.: Multilingual Matters.

Doerr, Neriko Musha, ed. 2009. The Native Speaker Concept: Ethnographic Investigations of Native Speaker Effects. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.

Firth, Alan, and Johannes Wagner. 1997. On Discourse, Communication, and (Some) Fundamental Concepts in SLA Research. The Modern Language Journal 88 (3):285–300.

— — —. 2007. Second/Foreign Language Learning as a Social Accomplishment: Elaborations on a Reconceptualized SLA. The Modern Language Journal 91: 800–819.

Holliday, Adrian. 2006. Native-Speakerism. ELT Journal 60(4), 385–387. doi: 10.1093/elt/ccl030.

— — —. 2014. Native Speakerism. Retrieved April 10, 2018, from http://adrianholliday.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/nism-encyc16plain-submitted.pdf.

Kubota, Ryuko. 2009. Rethinking the Superiority of the Native Speaker: Toward a Relational Understanding of Power. The Native Speaker Concept: Ethnographic Investigations of Native Speaker Effects (Vol. 26), ed. Neriko Musha Doerr, 233–248. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Liddicoat, Anthony J. 2016. Native and Non-native Speaker Identities in Interaction: Trajectories of Power. Applied Linguistics Review 7(4): 409–429.

Mori, Junko, Atsushi Hasegawa, Jisuk Park, and Kimiko Suzuki. This volume. On the Goals of Language Education and Teacher Diversity: Beliefs and Experiences of Japanese-Language Educators in North America. Japanese Language and Literature XXX, XXX–XXX.

Okubo, Yuko. 2009. The Localization of Multicultural Education and the Reproduction of Native Speaker Concept in Japan. The Native Speaker Concept: Ethnographic Investigations of Native Speaker Effects (Vol. 26), ed. Neriko Musha Doerr, 101–131. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

O’Rourke, Bernadette, and John Walsh. 2015. New Speakers of Irish: Shifting Boundaries Across Time and Space. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 231: 63–83.

Parmegiani, Andrea. 2010. Reconceptualizing Language Ownership: A Case Study of Language Practices and Attitudes Among Students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. The Language Learning Journal 38(3): 359–378.

— — —. 2014. The (Dis)ownership of English: Language and Identity Construction Among Zulu Students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 17(6): 683–694.

Pennycook, Alastair. 1994/2017. The Cultural Politics of English as an International Language. London and New York: Routledge.

Rampton, Ben. 1990. Displacing the ‘Native Speaker’: Expertise, Affiliation, and Inheritance. ELT Journal 44(2): 97–101.

Rumsey, Alan. 1990. Wording, Meaning, and Linguistic Ideology. American Anthropologist 92(2): 346–361.

Smith, Maya Angela. 2015. Who is a Legitimate French Speaker? The Senegalese in Paris and the Crossing of Linguistic and Social Borders. French Cultural Studies 26(3): 317–329.

Takeuchi, Jae DiBello. 2015. Dialect Matters: L2 Speakers’ Beliefs and Perceptions About Japanese Dialect. Ph.D. diss. University of Wisconsin-Madison.

— — —. 2018. “His Japanese Makes No Sense” —Native Speaker Bias and Depictions of L2 Japanese Competence. Paper presented at the 27th Central Association of Teachers of Japanese Conference, Madison, Wisconsin.

— — —. 2019a. A “Girly Girl” or a “Man’s Man”? Ideologies of Gendered Language and Perceptions of L2 Spoken Japanese. Paper presented at the 34th Southeast Association of Teachers of Japanese Conference, Wake Forest University.

— — —. 2019b. Keigo Ideologies Revisited: JFL Teachers’ Beliefs and L2 Speaker Legitimacy. Paper presented at the 25th Princeton Japanese Pedagogy Forum, Princeton New Jersey.

— — —. 2019c. L2 Speakers and Keigo: Problematizing What It Means to be a Speaker of Japanese. Paper presented at the Annual Spring American Association of Teachers of Japanese Conference, Denver, Colorado.

Wee, Lionel. 2002. When English is Not a Mother Tongue: Linguistic Ownership and the Eurasian Community in Singapore. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 23(4): 282–295.

Woolard, Kathryn A. 1992. Language Ideology: Issues and Approaches. Pragmatics 2(3): 235–249.

Downloads

Published

2020-09-25

Issue

Vol. 54 No. 2 (2020): Japanese Language and Literature

Section

SPECIAL SECTION LANGUAGE AND PEDAGOGY

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

  1. The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
  2. Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
  3. The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Licenseor its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:
    1. Attribution—other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;
    with the understanding that the above condition can be waived with permission from the Author and that where the Work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license.
  4. The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
  5. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a pre-publication manuscript (but not the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.
  6. Upon Publisher’s request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author’s own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.
  7. The Author represents and warrants that:
    1. the Work is the Author’s original work;
    2. the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;
    3. the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;
    4. the Work has not previously been published;
    5. the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and
    6. the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.
  8. The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.
  9. The Author agrees to digitally sign the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work.