Paper short abstract:

This presentation is about a reason why we teach Japanese as a heritage language, especially in classroom settings. A heritage language classroom is a unique learning space with a diversity and sence of symphathy which make possible to stimulate each other's ZPD and meet "important others"

Paper long abstract:

This presentation is about a reason why we teach Japanese as a heritage language, especially in classroom settings. The presenter has been surrounded by children who learn Japanese as their heritage language since her high school days to the present. Her position has been always not the the "center" but the "periphery" from the points of view of these children. At present, the presenter teaches at a Japanese Saturday school and a Japanese language school in the Netherlands.

The ideas of plurilingualism, plurculturalism and heritage language are typically not familiar to the teachers and parents at the Japanese schools in the Netherlands. Therefore, it is common to provide Japanese language education which is just an exact copy of Japanese language education in Japan (kokugo), disregarding the difference in circumstances, and indeed aims and necessities of the students. Because of this, there are several problems. One typical issue is that of "labeling" of problems such as "This child cannot read kanji characters, so he/she is not good at Japanese language." or "This class is problematic since students have various Japanese language abilities."

However, it seems that various Japanese competences also means various abilities. As Howard Gardner (2001) said in his book about multiple intelligences theory, language intelligence is not the only intelligence. Because children have different intelligences, it is possible for them to stimulate each other's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) through for example peer learning activities. It is also called a problem that there are few professional educators but this means there are many teachers with various backgrounds. Moreover, because they share Japanese backgrounds, they have a high possibility to meet "important others" and build up their social capital. Thus a heritage language class room is a unique learning space with many potentials. That is why we teach Japanese as a heritage language.

To conduct education whilst maximizing the meaning of encountering and being around others, it is essential for teachers and parents to consider children's plurilingualism, plurculturalism and their whole educations. For that providing richer information to, and cooperation between schools is necessary.

Paper short abstract:

Based on the educational concepts of plurilingualism and pluriculturalism, this presentation explores the meaning of engagement in Japanese as a heritage language (JHL) to both parents and children by analyzing the outputs of the practices and studies in the Netherlands, Germany and Japan.

Paper long abstract:

In this panel, we focus and discuss on "Learning and teaching Japanese in Europe. Why? - Voices from the field -".

First, we explore based on a report from analyzing the outputs of the practices in the Netherlands. As Howard Gardner (2001) said in his book about multiple intelligences theory, language intelligence is not the only intelligence. Because children have different intelligences, it is possible for them to stimulate each other's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) through for example peer learning activities.

Second, we explore based on a report from analyzing the outputs of the practices in Germany. In the club, alternative ways to the conventional education of Japanese as a native language are being explored and practiced, aiming to respond to the actual state of children's learning. One such example is the adoption of "Can-Do Weekly Check at Home" (hereafter, the Check) since 2016, in which the parents' observations on children's learning are documented. By analyzing the Check and introducing other example practices, this presentation reflects on the meaning of engagement with Japanese as a heritage language to both parents and children.

Third, we explore and compare with examples practiced at a longitudinal studies in Japan. In this presentation (as a discussant) we investigate and discuss optimal educational approaches on relations between Japanese oral proficiency and language behavior in multicultural/multilingual society in Japan, based on a longitudinal studies: Japanese Brazilian students living in a concentrated area A (2007-2012). In the case of concentrated area A, we found that CLD students' social participation as bilingual teaching assistants, accelerated both their Japanese and Portuguese oral proficiencies, for example in usage of "noda" for the sustainability and attainability of paragraphs. In particular, from the point of social participation, we analyzed the importance of language environment as well as use of mother tongues and heritage languages.

Based on these findings, in Europe and Japan's developing multicultural/multilingual society, understanding the importance of promotion of constructing language environment for the CLD students, such as ethnolinguistic vitality as well as communication network , we foresee students' participation in the social (learning) environment and its optimization.

Paper short abstract:

Based on the educational concepts of plurilingualism and pluriculturalism, this presentation explores the meaning of engagement in Japanese as a heritage language to both parents and children by analyzing the outputs of the "Can-Do Weekly Check at Home" and other examples practiced at a JHL club.

Paper long abstract:

In the Japanese language club organized by the presenter, alternative ways to the conventional education of Japanese as a native language are being explored and practiced, aiming to respond to the actual state of children's learning. One such example is the adoption of "Can-Do Weekly Check at Home" (hereafter, the Check) since 2016, in which the parents' observations on children's learning are documented. By analyzing the Check and introducing other example practices, this presentation reflects on the meaning of engagement with Japanese as a heritage language to both parents and children.

Japanese learning by children living abroad often starts from the desire of their parents who are usually speakers of the target language. To develop such external impetus into children's self-motivated learning, attentions should be paid to their affluent plurilingual/pluricultural competences (CEFR: Ch5) recognizing the CEFR's four ideas outlined by Okumura (2014): the Can-Do approach, celebrating partial competences, distancing from the native speaker model and learning autonomously for lifelong. Furthermore, it is vital for each family to create and execute its own family language policy with constant adjustments (Fukushima, 2014).

The Check is an attempt to put the above viewpoints into practice and is used by the club parents to record on a weekly basis what the child has become able to do (i.e., descriptors) in each of the four fields: (1) learnings at the club, (2) Japanese language and culture, (3) other languages, and (4) other observations. In addition, to promote parent-child dialogues, various activities in and outside of the club such as child-parent language portraits and interviews by children with their parents have been implemented.

The adoption of the Check was inspired by the Motto Tsunagu Project (lit. project for further connecting) in which the presenter is also involved. Launched in response to the call for illustrative descriptors for children (Fukushima, Okumura 2014), the project is currently drafting a Language Portfolio designed for children and parents to use together, based on the outcome of over 800 descriptors collected during the workshops organized so far. The outcome of the Check will also be incorporated into the project.