What is it like to grow up to be bilingual?-A survey report on bilingual high school students-

Authors

  • Satoshi Tamiya The Himeji City Center for Developmental Medicine
  • Yuka Okada The Himeji City Center for Developmental Medicine
  • Keiko Koterazawa The Himeji City Center for Developmental Medicine
  • Hiroyoshi Miyata The Himeji City Center for Developmental Medicine
  • Montserrat Sanz Kobe City University of Foreign Studies

https://doi.org/10.4471/remie.2014.16

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Abstract

In this era of globalization, Japanese teachers as well as teachers in other areas of the world have increasing chances of encountering bilingual students such as returnees and immigrants. It is important to understand the development of these students. The authors conducted a survey about bilingualism on 60 bilingual high school students at an international school in Japan. The survey questions asked about the students’ background and their experiences as a bilingual. Twenty-nine students responded to the survey. The responses were classified according to whether the reported advantages/disadvantages were linguistic, socio-cultural or identity-related. Linguistic disadvantages as well as advantages were experienced by most students. Bilingual influences on identity were mostly favorable, but some difficulties were common. Despite these disadvantages, socio-cultural advantages were prominent. It was reassuring to see that many bilingual high school students felt they were socio-culturally advantaged and mostly felt secure about their identity as a bilingual. However, we should not dismiss linguistic difficulties experienced by many of them and some cases of insecure identity, as these are crucially related to the mental health and creation of self-identity that is typical of adolescence.

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Author Biographies

Yuka Okada, The Himeji City Center for Developmental Medicine

Staff Pediatrician

Keiko Koterazawa, The Himeji City Center for Developmental Medicine

Staff Pediatrician

Hiroyoshi Miyata, The Himeji City Center for Developmental Medicine

Director

Montserrat Sanz, Kobe City University of Foreign Studies

Professor

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Published

2014-10-15

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Tamiya, S., Okada, Y., Koterazawa, K., Miyata, H., & Sanz, M. (2014). What is it like to grow up to be bilingual?-A survey report on bilingual high school students-. Multidisciplinary Journal of Educational Research, 4(3), 317–342. https://doi.org/10.4471/remie.2014.16

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