In Japan many families face various challenges in their attempts to bring up bilingual/multilingual children. There are identity conflicts, community language dominance, time pressure constraints in negotiating conflicting language demands, and the negative effects of institutional social processes such as state mandated language in education policy. This is particularly the case where families live in multilingual ‘resource poor’ areas where there is limited access to facilities, amenities, and support networks for bilingualism. This paper reports on the results of a survey examining how bilingual families in Japan living in ‘resource poor’ areas raise their children to be bilingual. It details both the planned strategies and actual interactional processes that families use to promote the regular use of two or more languages.
Bilingualism and Family Language Policy in Outlying Areas of Japan
HLC_16_1-14
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