As represented in the recent establishment of the Revised Immigration Refugee Act, the numbers of foreign residents is in rapid rise in Japan. This is also the case with the city of Tsukuba, known as Tsukuba Science City, seeing an increase of foreign researchers and students, not only living as “temporary guests” but also as “longtime residents.” Taking Tsukuba Science City as the fieldwork site, the panel discusses issues regarding language acquisition, self-identification, and social adaptation of foreign residents.

The panel will open with a general report based on a large-scale questionnaire on the “life-issues” regarding language competence and social adaptation among foreign students attending the University of Tsukuba. The first paper reports on the relationship between language choice and life plans among “African” students, whose number has tripled in size since the 2014 launching of the ABE initiative. Based on semi-structured interviews, the paper discusses how language choice reflects processes of self-identification and stance-taking with the local community. The second paper addresses the issues resulting from anxiety in the processes of second-language pronunciation acquisition. Based on a questionnaire survey and interviews conducted with foreign residents in Tsukuba, the paper discusses how educational institutions may acquire renewed attitudes to adapt and accept foreign accents. The third paper analyzes conversational data and diaries written by children of foreign residents attending local elementary schools. Paying attention to code-switching and discourse construction competence, the paper discusses the “hidden difficulties” that these children and their parents may be experiencing while growing up in Tsukuba.

The multiple processes of language identification among African students in Japan

Risako Ide (University of Tsukubay)

Since the launch of the ABE (African Business Education) Initiative in 2014, there has been a triple increase in the number of students from the African continent coming to study at higher education institutions in Japan. In the case of the University of Tsukuba, we have 99 students representing 26 countries from the region according to the 2019 International Student’s Guidebook, a 12.5% increase from the statistics in 2017. Most of these students pursue their graduate degrees through English-language programs. While they have opportunities to learn the Japanese language, many of their daily activities are conducted in English.

As we get into the fifth year of the ABE Initiative program, this study aims to investigate the relationship between the cultivation and maintenance of social networks, language choice, and the changes in the language identification processes among students of African origin. Particularly paying attention to those who accompany their family members, I aim to investigate the motivations behind their use of English, Japanese, and other languages as well as their expectations and realities in adapting to different communities. Data are gathered using a written survey on language use and language choice combined with semi-structured interviews conducted with students and their spouses. From the results, I wish to discuss the challenges that these students face as new-comers to Japan without role models from their countries of origin, and the ways in which their shifting linguistic identities are influencing their future plans and their life decisions as residents in Japan.

Issues of communication and second language pronunciation acquisition

Hiroshi Matsuzaki (University of Tsukuba)

It is very important to acquire Japanese pronunciation which eschews misunderstanding for the listener. This is because bad pronunciation is related not only to misunderstanding about the content, but also about the evaluation of the speaker's personality. Sometimes poor pronunciation results in misunderstanding of the emotional tenor of the speaker, such as appearing to be "childish" "like complaining" or having a "poor attitude". Even in English, there have been reports of cases where pronunciation is misunderstood as "unfriendly" due to inappropriate intonation. It is horrible that pronunciation problems cause a listener’s bad feeling and affect the evaluation of personality and ability, even though the speaker does not have such intentions. Sometimes foreign accents require a concentrated listening attitude to such a degree that it causes fatigue, thereupon leading to communication being avoided. For this reason, the learner may lose the willingness to communicate and may not want to talk. This is a serious problem, especially in second-language acquisition of children.

This paper addresses the issues of anxiety arising in the processes of second-language pronunciation acquisition, based on a questionnaire survey and interviews conducted with foreign residents and their family members residing in Tsukuba. We would like to discuss what it takes to change prejudiced consciousness: how educational institutions may acquire renewed attitudes to adapt and accept foreign accents.

Language competence of foreign residents and their children

Hiroko Sawada (University of Tsukuba)

Tsukuba City currently has a population of about 2.34 million, of which about 9,000 are foreign residents. The density of foreign residents may reach 10-50% depending on the area, with the immediate vicinity surrounding the University of Tsukuba being one such high density zone. Among the children of foreign students and researchers, some children born and raised in Japan attend school without difficulty in Japanese language. However, it has been reported that if their parents do not have sufficient Japanese ability, they will have difficulty in learning at school. Similarly, in the case of the US education system, it is known that immigrant children often have difficulties in subject learning even after they have acquired sufficient English ability to perform daily conversation. The importance of learning languages is also pointed out in Japanese language education, but it is often simply understood as “living language = spoken language” and “learning language = written language”.

In this paper, we focus on children of foreign students and researchers living in Tsukuba City, and observe the difference between their living language skills and learning language skills. As living language skills, we compare language use in the home with language use outside the home and observe aspects of code-switching in each conversation. Regarding learning language skills, we analyze the compositions of foreign children and compare them with the data of Japanese children of the same age and the data of adult foreigners. Through these analyses, we consider the development of vocabulary and discourse construction competence.