Transformation of discourse: multilingual resources and practices among Filipino mothers in Japan

Abstract

Family language practice can be significantly influenced by social, historical, and political contexts, especially in immigrant households where a society's minority languages are used. Set in a large city in Japan, this study examines how institutional power can affect Filipino mothers' language use at home. Drawing from the cultural historical activity theory, this study examines both individual and collective discourses. After conducting individual interviews, participants and I collectively engaged in workshops, the topics of which included child–parent communications at home, experiences of Japanese schools, and multilingual development. Interactions during the workshops revealed the characteristics of the collective discourse to mitigate the repercussion from the dominant ideology and indicated participants' heightened awareness toward a supportive parental community. The findings also highlight the paradoxical role of English for Filipino women in Japanese society. English served as a resource to empower these women, but its economic and political power also hindered them from using their first languages at home. This study highlights the institutional power affecting Filipino mothers' language use and suggests the significance of cultivating a supportive parental community.

Keywords:

• multilingual parenting
• immigrant community
• discourse analysis
• cultural historical activity theory/sociocultural theory
• workshop

Acknowledgments

I truly appreciate the participants whose insights and experiences taught me a lot. I am thankful for the critical comments on earlier versions of this article from Joe Curnow, Lesley Dookie, and Sue Carlson Lishman.

Funding

This work was supported by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research [12J02927].

Notes

1. Entry into Japan with an entertainer visa was severely tightened in 2005. The details of gender politics in the globalized world related to Filipino women in Japan are described fully, for example, in Suzuki (2003) and Takahata (2012).

2. All the names used in this article are pseudonyms.

Additional information

Funding

Funding: This work was supported by the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research [12J02927].