Identity Negotiation of Japanese Women in International Marriages: Impact of Foreign Language Learning Experiences and Cross-Cultural Encounters:
Tomoko Ascough, Shukutoku University, Saitama, Japan
As part of a broader study of Japanese women in international marriages with native speakers of English, this paper focuses on three women who were particularly keen learners of English when they were students, examining how they became attracted to the English language and culture and how the experience of learning a foreign language and coming into contact with its culture affected their identity development and negotiation. Observation, life-story interviews and questionnaires were used to triangulate the data for the case studies in the more extensive project, but this paper mainly analyzes data from the life story interviews. The interview extracts reveal the significant role that “relatedness” and “akogare” [yearning] played in the participants’ language learning experiences as well as the formation and negotiation of the participants’ identities.
