Managing linguistic repertoire
Indexical aspirations, dissonances, and consensuses in the sociolinguistic trajectories of becoming Japanese language teachers.
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Description
This presentation reports on part of an ethnographic study that examines sociolinguistic trajectories of a group of Japanese language teacher volunteers in a government-sponsored international volunteer program in Japan. The study focuses on the 20 participants’ trajectories to the program, by tracing the evolution of their linguistic repertoire in their sociolinguistic trajectories. The study aims to illustrate the evolving and dynamic ways in which one’s mobility and subjectivity are mediated through various metapragmatic discourses regarding language. Data collected from in-depth life history interviews and participant observation showed that the volunteers’ choices prior to joining the program were mediated by metapragmatic discourses that links English to cosmopolitanism, as well as discourses on native speaker status linked to linguistic ownership and competence.
Speaker Bios
Dr Kyoko Motobayashi is an Assistant Professor at Ochanomizu University, Japan.