Constructing the heritage language learner : knowledge, power, and new subjectivities

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Title:

Author:

Doerr, Neriko Musha, 1967-

ISBN:

9781614513995

Personal Author:

Doerr, Neriko Musha, 1967-

Physical Description:

xiii, 185 pages ; 24 cm.

Series:

Contributions to the Sociology of Language ; 103

Contents:

1. Introduction: The heritage language leraner? -- 2. An emerging field of investigation; Construction of the heritage language learner as a new object of study -- 3. Ethnographic fieldwork at Jackson Japanese Language School -- 4. Betwixt and between Japanese and the heritage language learner of Japanese -- 5. Designing the heritage language learner: Modes of governmentality in the classroom -- 6. Defining the heritage language learner -- 7. Shifting frames of reference: JJLS, AP, heading college, and construction of the Japanese-as-a-heritage-language learner -- 8. Adjusting the Jackson course -- 9. Implications and departure.

Subject Term:

Language and languages -- Study and teaching -- United States.

Second language acquisition.

Language teachers -- Training of -- United States.

Japanese language -- Study and teaching -- Foreign speakers.

Added Author:

Lee, Kiri.

Copies:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Item Barcode	Shelf Number	Copy	Status
Searching... 1:IIEMSA	1:GEN-BOOK	33168025744885	495.680071 D652C 2013	1	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

Heritage language education is a relatively new field developed as "heritage" has become an important trope of belonging, legitimacy and commodification. Many recent studies treat the "heritage language learner" as an objective category. However, it is a social construct, whose meaning is contested by researchers, school administrators and the students themselves. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in 2007-2011 at a weekend Japanese language school in the United States, this monograph investigates the construction of the heritage language learner at the intersections of the knowledge-power complex, ideologies of language and national belonging, and politics of schooling. It examines the ways individuals become, resist and negotiate their new subjectivity as heritage language learners through becoming objects of study, being caught in nationalist aspirations and school politics regarding what to teach to whom, and negotiating with peers with various linguistic proficiency and family backgrounds. The volume proposes a new approach to view the notion of heritage language learner as a site of negotiation regarding the legitimate knowledge of language and ways of belonging, while offering practical suggestions for schools.