The Influence of the Japanese Parent's Gender on the Acquisition of Japanese by Children of Japanese-Australian Mixed Marriages
Susan Lucacevich
Australian Catholic University
This paper presents the results of a preliminary study on the acquisition of Japanese by children of Japanese-Australian couples. Using an interview format, a language-use questionnaire was administered to ten Japanese-Australian couples. While the results could not be generalized due to the small sampling size, frequencies were used to give some indication of where future exploration may be of value. The study analyzes the role of Japanese mothers and Japanese fathers as the minority language carriers in mixed marriages in Australia and their influence on the acquisition of Japanese by their children. The effect of the gender of the minority language parent is explored from a number of perspectives, including language use, language competency, schooling, language support, amount of time spent in the target culture, language opportunities outside the home, parental roles and parental attitudes. The findings suggest that the adults' proficiency in their spouses' native language is possibly one factor in determining the language-use patterns of the home and the Japanese language competency in the children of Japanese-Australian couples. The findings of the study are considered in light of research on other ethnolinguistic groups in Australia and comparisons are made with recent studies undertaken in Japan.
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