Native-Speakerness, Gender, Race, and Age: The Negotiation of Language and (Imagined) Identities by Learners of Japanese at an Australian University

ABSTRACT

This study explores how three multilingual learners of Japanese as a second language (L2) at an Australian university negotiate their language and (imagined) identities in relation to their L2 learning. Based on interview data, the results indicate that while the participants’ imagined identities were closely connected with “native-speakerness” and/or “Japaneseness,” the specific meaning of these concepts varied between participants depending on their negotiation of other social identities, such as language, gender, race, and age. Additionally, their varying identity negotiations coincided with their unique linguistic choices in the interviews: While two participants predominantly used either Japanese or English, one used Japanese and English much more fluidly when responding to questions that were in Japanese. These findings reveal the unique ways in which each participant actively negotiates language and identities at the intersection of their past, present, and future within the Japanese language learning context, an environment influenced by unequal power relations.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender
• Japanese
• language education
• native speaker
• negotiation of language and identities
• race

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. For consistency and readability, the term “second” language (L2) is used throughout this article, even where “foreign” or “additional” would replace it otherwise.

2. All names, including those of the participants’ friends, are pseudonyms.

3. While valuable, a comprehensive presentation of cross-data analysis is beyond the scope of the paper because of the word limit.

4. The italics indicate that Japanese was used in the original.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Maki Yoshida

Maki Yoshida is a lecturer in Global and Language Studies at RMIT University, Australia. Her research investigates issues related to language ideologies and negotiation of identities in Japanese language education.