What do Bilinguals think about Bilingualism?
Graduation Thesis
Presented to
the Faculty of the Department of
English Language and Literature
Notre Dame Seishin University
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirement for the Degree
Bachelor of Arts
by
Tomomi Tanabe
2010
Contents
Abstract1
Chapter One: Introduction
1.1 Introduction2
1.2 What is Bilingual?2
1.2.1 Introduction2
1.2.2 Definitions of Bilingual2
1.2.3 Categorization of Bilingual3
1.3 Attitudes and feelings about bi-lingualism3
1.4 Bilingual education at schools5
1.5 Focus of the thesis6
1.6 Conclusion7
Chapter Two: The Study
2.1 Introduction 8
2.2 The questionnaire 8
2.2.1 Overview8
2.2.2 Method 8
A) Subjects8
B) Questionnaire9
2.3 Result10
2.4 Summery 28
Chapter Three: Discussion
3.1 Introduction 29
3.2Summary of the questionnaire results29
3.3Discussion of the results29
3.3.1 Q1.Background of the subjects
3.3.2 Q2. Skills of language (Speaking, Reading, Listening, Writing)
3.3.3 Q3. What language do you use when you speak to these people?
3.3.4 Q4.What language do you use on such a situation?
3.3.5 Q5. Do you think you are bilingual person?
3.3.6 Q6. The people who answer “Yes”, do you want to be a
bilingual person?
3.4Discussion of the research questions 32
3.4 Limitations of the questionnaire 32
3.6 Conclusions 33
References 34
Appendices 35
Abstract
Today, it is not uncommon for people to use more than two languages in the world. A lot of Japanese goabroad and lots of foreigners come to Japan and they use their own languages. People who use two languages are called “Bilinguals”. Some non-bilingual people are envious of them, however, for the bilinguals themselves, what do they think about themselves? This thesis tries to find out the thinking of bilinguals about bilingualism.
I gave a questionnaire to 38 subjects whowere three types of bilinguals. They were Returnee children, Brazilian school students and Korean school students and teachers. Thequestionnaire hadseven questions to reveal their background, skills, and thinking. In Chapter One, I presented the definitions of bilingual and some examples of bilingual education. In Chapter Two, I reported the study. Chapter Three discussed the results of the study, and then to showed the significance of the results.
The questionnaire discovered that each bilingual has their own form of bilingualism. The difference is shown in where the boundary between the bilingual and non–bilingual for them is. Most of the subjects said though they wanted to be bilinguals, they had to be bilinguals because of their environment. These results suggest that people think about bilinguals more severely than no-bilingual people.
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Chapter One: Introduction
1.1Introduction
Recently, “Bilingual” has become a well-known word. It is uncommon to be bilingual people in these surroundings. But many people work and study abroad and use more than one language. There are lots of people who are called bilinguals, however, how do we distinguish between people who are bilingual and those who are not bilingual? We will focus on the definitions of Bilingual in this chapter.
1.2 What is a Bilingual?
1.2.1 Introduction
We may think a bilingual person is the person who can use both of two languages in a native-likeway however, there are so many different definitions of bilingual that exist today. We will look at some of the definitions in the next section.
1.2.2 Definitions of Bilingual
It is difficult to decide the definition of bilinguals because there are many kinds of bilinguals in the world. There are three types of definitions.
1. The narrowest sense is "A native like control of two languages.",Bloomfield (1933)
2. The broadest sense is that “Bilingualism is understood … to begin at the point where the speaker of one language can produce complete, meaningful utterances in the other language.”,Haugen(1953).
3. In general, a bilingual is accepted to be “the person who has a skill of using two languages.” ,Yamamoto(1991).
Now, we will look at another view ofbilingual by categorizing bilinguals into some groups distinguishing them by language skills.
1.2.3Categorization of Bilinguals
There is another way to categorize Bilingualism.At first bilingual device two types. One is Societal bilingual and another is individual bilingual. Societal bilingualis that it happens on the situation some languages coexist in a community with their own function.Individual bilingual is thatit focused on how processes did the bilinguals pass or how much can they have the faculty of using two languages. We can classify individual bilinguals more detail according to skill. There are some kinds of bilingual for example, Passive Bilingual, Dominant Bilingual, and Balanced Bilingual.A Passive Bilingual is the person who is a native speaker in one and is capable of understanding but not speaking another language.A Dominant Bilingual is the person being more proficient in one of the two languages (in most cases native-like). ABalanced Bilingual is the person who is more or less equally proficient in both languages, but will not necessarily pass for a native speaker in both languages.
1.3 Attitudes and feelings about bi-lingualism
A Bilingual person can experience “Culture shock” which happens when the person who goes abroad, and have to challenge new cultural surroundings and a loss of a familiar cultural environment,Rhinesmith(1984). Culture shock makes their feeling changed. There are stages of Culture Adjustment. The following 10 steps of cultural adjustment by Rhinesmith show how cultural shock can be like a roller coaster ride of emotions.
Figure: 1 Rhinesmith's Ten Stages of Cultural Adjustment
The 10 stages of cultural adjustment in Figure 1 show the changes in feeling when people get integrated into a foreign culture. Also, there is not an exact step to assimilate into the culture abroad. The following Ten Stages of Adjustment which Rhinesmith outlined shows the emotions toward culture shock can be like a rollercoaster ride. (Morikami, 2006, p. 4)
Stage one through to stage five when the person is exposed to a new culture. Thesixth stage is the start of the time to accept the new culture. Stages seven through ten are period when people leave the new culture.
Comparing with Returnee Children, Brazilian school students and Korean school students, which stages are there? The Returnee Children, have been abroad and they learned their second language in the new culture and then came back to their own culture. That’s why, they had those ten stages of Cultural Adjustment. Most Korean school students and teachers were born in Japan and live in Japan. They are the stage one through to five.However the Brazilian school students,who came to Japan and learned a second language in the new culture, are at stage six. However, which stage they are depend on themselves and we cannot decide the stage clearly.
1.4 Bilingual education at schools
1.4.1. Introduction
In this section, we will look at the two bilingual education schools. One is the Brazilian school and the other is the Korean school in Okayama.
The Korean school in Okayama
In Japan, there are lots of Korean residents in Japan and schools for these people. Their ancestors came to (were taken to) Japan after second world war and they decide to live forever in Japan as Koreans. They made some the Korean schools for themselves all over Japan. They are classified into “kakushu-gakko” in School Education Law of Japan. One of them is in Mizushima, Okayama. The school is called officially “Okayama Korean elementary and junior high school.” There are preschool, elementary school and junior high school. In 2010, 86 children take classes. Most of the school days are same as Japanese schools. They come to the school from Monday to Friday to take classes and some of them come on weekend for their club activities. In the school, they use Korean and they learn the Korean language and racial education. Some of them will go to the Korean high school in Hiroshima after their graduation and go to the Korean University which is the only one university for Koreans. All the teachers in the school were students in these Korean school students and they don’t have the Japanese official teaching certificates. They finished their teaching course at the Korean University and after that they teach in the Korean schools all over Japan.
The Brazilian school in Okayama.
Around the time of bubble economy, lots of people who leave their homes in search of temporary work came to Japan from Brazil but most of them couldn’t use Japanese. For such people, Japanese schools were established. In Soja City, Okayama Prefecture, there are lots of Brazilians and there is a Japanese school. In there, they study Japanese to get a grade of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test. There are three classes with their level of Japanese. The students are labourer or their family.
1.5Focus of the thesis
We have looked at the background to bi-lingualism and at two bi-lingual schools in Okayama.
Research question 1: What do bi-linguals think of being bi-lingual?
Research question 2: Are there any differences between the Koreans and Brazilian bilinguals?
1.6Conclusion
We have seen the kinds of bilingual and the bilingual education of the two schools in Okayama. In Chapter Two we will look at the bilinguals answers to the questionnaire. By looking at these bilingual’s answer, we will be able to find out what bilinguals think of themselves.
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Chapter Two: The Study
2.1 Introduction
We looked at what bilingualism is, the types of bilingualism and attitude and feelings of bilinguals.There to being bilingual in Chapter One. Now we will see the result of questionnaire to find out the bilingual person’s thinking of bilingualism and whether each bilingual’s answers are different or not.
2.2 The Questionnaire
2.2.1 Overview
The aim of this questionnaire was to find out if each bilingual’s answers are different or not, and ask if their background and skills of languages make their thinking different or not.
2.2.2 Method
A) Subjects
The subjects who were to answer this questionnaire are three types of bilingual people.
Returnee Children
First are the returnee children. These subjects have been abroad or now stay abroad and go to junior high school, high school and university. Their ages were from 14 to 22 years.All of them were my friends of friends.
Brazilians
The second are the Brazilians in Japan who came to Japan as laborers. They went to the Brazilian school in Soja City, Okayama Prefecture and they took Japanese classes. The subject’s ages were from 22 years old to 65 years old. All of them came to Japan as laborers. In that Japanese class, they were separated into three level classes. I asked subjects in the top two level classes. In the top class, there were Japanese-Brazilians (Nisei or Sansei) people. The middle class, there were students who can understand Japanese and all of them came to Japan to work as labors in Japan. Their language skills weredifferent across the two classes but all of them use Japanese for work.
Koreans
The last are the Korean residents in Japan. The subjects were the students and teachers of the Korean school in Mizushima, Okayama. Korean residents do not have Japanese nationality but they were born and grew up in Japan and their nationalities were South Korean or North Korean.
B) Questionnaire
- The questionnaire comprisedsix questions. The questions follow.
- Please tell me about your background.
- Skills of language (Speaking, Reading, Listening, Writing)
- What language do you use when you speak to these people?
- What language do you use on such a situation?
- Do you think you are bilingual person?
- The people who answer “Yes”, do you want to be a bilingual person?
The first question was subject’s background which helped to find out what kind of bilingual person was the subjects were. The second question was about their language skills of both languages which found out about subjects’ skill of “Speaking”, “Reading” “Listening” and “Writing”. The thirdquestion and fourthquestionswere about the use of languages which found out the actual use of their both languages. The fifth and sixthquestions were about their thinking about bilingualism.
2.3 Results
Returnee Japanese children
The returnee Japanese children subjects were eight people.
- Please tell me about your background
・Nationality
The nationalities of these subjects were Japan, Japan and Mexico (both dual nationality).
・Where were you born?
Five subjects were born in Japan, one was born in Canada and another one was born in Mexico.
・Where have you lived overseas?
All of the subjects have lived in Japan, other places were Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Malaysia, Canada, England, America, Jamaica, Mexico, Jordan and China.
- Skills of language (Speaking, Reading, Listening, Writing)
The skills (speaking, reading, listening and writing) of their languages were; for these subjects, their two languages were Japanese and English.
Figure 2: The number of Japanese Skills of Returnee Japanese children.
This figure means; the length is the skills, breadth is the numbers of subjects and numbers are the answer of the subjects. For example,four people think they can speak at Japanese “average level”, three people think “perfect level”. The reading skill, one think “neither bad nor good level”, four people think “average level” and two think “perfect level”. The listening skill, four people think “average level” and three think “perfect level”. The writing skill, “neither bad nor good level” was two, “average level” was four and “perfect level” was one.
Figure 3：The number of English Skills of Returnee Japanese children.
The number of people who think they can speak English “neither bad nor good level” was one, “average level” was four and “perfect level” was two. For the reading skill, the number of people who think they can read English “neither bad nor good level” was one, “average level” was five and “perfect level” was one. The number of people who think they can listen to English “neither bad nor good level” was one, “average level” was five” and “perfect level” was one. The number ofpeople who think they can write down in English “neither bad nor good level” was one, “average level” was four and “perfect level” was two.
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- What language do you use when you speak to these people?
Table 1：The answer of Returnee Japanese children for “what language do you use when you speak to these people?”
Father / Mother / Brotherand sisters / Friends
(at school) / Friends
(out of school) / Teacher
J / E / J / E / J / E / J / E / J / E / J / E
Returnee subjects 1 / 100% / 0% / 90% / 10% / 25% / 75% / 0% / 100% / 0% / 100% / 0% / 100%
Returnee subjects 2 / 100% / 0% / 100% / 0% / 50% / 50% / 5% / 95% / 0% / 80% / 0% / 100%
Returnee subjects 3 / 100% / 0% / 100% / 0% / 100% / 0% / 100% / 0% / 100% / 0% / 100% / 0%
Returnee subjects 4 / 100% / 0% / 100% / 0% / 100% / 0% / 0% / 100% / 50% / 50% / 0% / 100%
Returnee subjects 5 / 99% / 1% / 99% / 1% / 99% / 1% / 5% / 95% / 90% / 10% / 0% / 100%
Returnee subjects 6 / 100% / 0% / 100% / 0% / 100% / 0% / 95% / 5% / 95% / 5% / 20% / 80%
Returnee subjects 7 / 100% / 0% / 100% / 0% / - / - / 100% / 0% / 100% / 0% / 50% / 50%
99.9% / 0.1% / 98.4% / 1.6% / 79.0% / 21.0% / 43.6% / 56.4% / 62.1% / 35.0% / 24.3% / 75.7%
Table 2: The answer of Returnee Japanese children for “What language do you use when you are spoken to by these people?”
Father / Mother / Brotherand sister / Friends
(at school) / Friends
(out of school) / Teacher
J / E / J / E / J / E / J / E / J / E / J / E
Returnee subject 1 / 100% / 0% / 90% / 10% / 25% / 75% / 0% / 100% / 0% / 100% / 0% / 100%
Returnee subject 2 / 90% / 10% / 90% / 10% / 50% / 50% / 5% / 95% / 20% / 80% / 0% / 100%
Returnee subject 3 / 100% / 0% / 100% / 0% / 100% / 0% / 100% / 0% / 100% / 0% / 100% / 0%
Returnee subject 4 / 100% / 0% / 100% / 0% / 100% / 0% / 0% / 100% / 50% / 50% / 0% / 100%
Returnee subject 5 / 99% / 1% / 99% / 1% / 99% / 1% / 5% / 95% / 90% / 10% / 0% / 100%
Returnee subject 6 / 100% / 0% / 100% / 0% / 100% / 0% / 95% / 5% / 95% / 5% / 20% / 80%
Returnee subject 7 / 100% / 0% / 100% / 0% / - / - / 100% / 0% / 100% / 0% / 50% / 50%
98.4% / 1.6% / 97.0% / 3.0% / 79.0% / 21.0% / 43.6% / 56.4% / 65.0% / 35.0% / 24.3% / 75.7%
Table 1 shows us the answer of the question “what language do you use when you speak to these people”. When they speak to these people Most of subjects use Japanese to their parents, brothers and sisters and friends out of the school. On the other hand, they use English to their friends at school and teacher.
Table 2 shows us the answer of this question “What language do you use when you are spoken to these people?” ;they use Japanese to their family. On the other hand, 75% of them use English when they are spoken to their teacher.
- What language do you use on such a situation?
Table 3: The answer of Returnee Japanese children for “What language do you use in such a situation?”
Watching TV or DVD / Reading Magazines or newspaper / Listening to music / Shopping / Playing sports / Calling / In your dream / Getting angryJ / E / J / E / J / E / J / E / J / E / J / E / J / E / J / E
Returnee subject 1 / 30% / 70% / 50% / 50% / 10% / 90% / 10% / 90% / 10% / 90% / 50% / 50% / 50% / 50% / 10% / 90%
Returnee subject 2 / 30% / 70% / 90% / 10% / 20% / 80% / 70% / 30% / 5% / 95% / 50% / 50% / 20% / 80% / 20% / 80%
Returnee subject 3 / 95% / 5% / 100% / 0 / 60% / 40% / 100% / 0 / 100% / 0 / 95% / 5% / 100% / 0 / 100% / 0
Returnee subject 4 / - / - / 100% / 0 / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / - / 90% / 10% / 90% / 10%
Returnee subject 5 / 90% / 10% / 99% / 1% / 99% / 1% / 0 / 100% / 20% / 80% / 95% / 5% / 90% / 10% / 50% / 50%
Returnee subject 6 / 70% / 30% / 95% / 5% / 80% / 20% / 100% / 0 / 100% / 0% / 100% / 0 / 95% / 5% / 90% / 10%
Returnee subject 7 / 70% / 30% / 90% / 10% / 80% / 20% / 50% / 50% / 50% / 50% / 50% / 50% / 50% / 50% / 70% / 30%
64.2% / 35.8% / 89.1% / 10.9% / 58.2% / 41.8% / 55.0% / 45.0% / 47.5% / 52.5% / 73.3% / 26.7% / 70.7% / 29.3% / 61.4% / 38.6%
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Table 3 shows the answer of this question. They use Japanese and English almost fifty-fifty when they listen to music, go shopping and play sports. Other situations they use Japanese more than English.
6. Do you think you are bilingual person? Why?
Five people answered “Yes” and two people answered “No”. Their reasons are that; “I can use both languages”. “I can live without trouble in both countries”. “I think bilingual person mean the person who use both languages very good and use equal level. In my case, both of my language skills of speaking, reading, listening and writing may reach more than daily life level but it is not perfection to use. For that, I cannot say I am a bilingual person clearly.” “I can live without trouble in the daily life but it is true that both of languages are half-finished. I can’t assert I am a bilingual person. ”