Language, Citizenship, and the “Model Minority Myth”

2019 ◽  
Vol 101 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-241
Author(s):  
Zevi Gutfreund

Noting that the image of Japanese Americans as a “model minority” reflected a conservative vision of citizenship that excluded other racial and foreign language minorities from civic participation, this article traces the careers of California’s two most prominent Nisei of the postwar period, Judge John Aiso and Senator S. I. Hayakawa. Both of them established careers based on language arts. Although Aiso had experienced a multiculturalist background and Hayakawa an assimilationist education, both voiced right-wing opposition to bilingual education and racial identity politics by citing the self-achievements of Japanese Americans.

Societies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 84
Author(s):  
Chiara Imperato ◽  
Tiziana Mancini

The effects of intergroup dialogues on intercultural relations in digital societies and the growing conflict, inflammatory and hate speech phenomena characterizing these environments are receiving increasing attention in socio-psychological studies. Based on Allport’s contact theory, scholars have shown that online intercultural contact reduces ethnic prejudice and discrimination, although it is not yet clear when and how this occurs. By analyzing the role of the Dialogical Self in online intercultural dialogues, we aim to understand how individuals position themselves and others at three levels of inclusiveness—personal, social, and human—and how this process is associated with attitudes towards the interlocutor, intergroup bias and prejudice, whilst also considering the inclusion of the Other in the Self and ethnic/racial identity. An experimental procedure was administered via the Qualtrics platform, and data were collected among 118 undergraduate Italian students through an anonymous questionnaire. From ANOVA and moderation analysis, it emerged that the social level of inclusiveness was positively associated with ethnic/racial identity and intergroup bias. Furthermore, the human level of inclusiveness was associated with the inclusion of the Other in the Self and ethnic/racial identity, and unexpectedly, also with intergroup bias. We conclude that when people interact online as “human beings”, the positive effect of online dialogue fails, hindering the differentiation processes necessary to define one’s own and the interlocutor’s identities. We discuss the effects of intercultural dialogue in the landscape of digital societies and the relevance of our findings for theory, research and practice.


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhongfeng Tian

Abstract Traditionally strict language separation policies in dual language bilingual education (DLBE) programs reflect parallel monolingualism and have been criticized as failing to recognize the sociolinguistic realities of bilingual students (García, Ofelia & Angel M. Y. Lin. 2017. Translanguaging in bilingual education. In Ofelia García, Angel M. Y. Lin & Stephen May (eds.), Bilingual and multilingual education, 117–130. Cham: Springer International Publishing). To recognize the dynamic nature of bilingualism and leverage bilingual learners’ full semiotic and linguistic repertoire as a resource, this study looks at how to strategically and purposefully develop flexible and multilingual educational spaces in a third grade Chinese Language Arts (CLA) class in a Mandarin-English DLBE program in the New England area, U.S. Drawing upon Sánchez, María Teresa (Maite), Ofelia García & Cristian Solorza. 2018. Reframing language allocation policy in dual language bilingual education. Bilingual Research Journal 41(1). 37–51. https://doi.org/10.1080/15235882.2017.1405098, translanguaging allocation policy framework, the researcher and the teacher co-designed and implemented translanguaging documentation, translanguaging rings, and translanguaging transformation spaces in the CLA class throughout the school year of 2018–19. Taking the form of participatory design research (Bang, Megan & Shirin Vossoughi. 2016. Participatory design research and educational justice: Studying learning and relations within social change making. Cognition and Instruction 34(3). 173–193. https://doi.org/10.1080/07370008.2016.1181879), this collaborative inquiry demonstrates that translanguaging pedagogies could promote student engagement, contribute to their academic learning, and build home-school connections. It aims to provide authentic, sustainable knowledge for both researchers and practitioners to better serve bilingual learners in DLBE programs.


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 156
Author(s):  
Sahar Jalilian ◽  
Rouhollah Rahmatian ◽  
Parivash Safa ◽  
Roya Letafati

In a simultaneous bilingual education, there are many factors that can affect its success, primarily the age of the child and socio-cognitive elements. This phenomenon can be initially studied in the first lexical productions of either language in a child. The present study focuses on the early lexical developments of a child, who lives in the monolingual society of Iran, where there is no linguistic milieu for French, and has been exposed to a bilingual education since birth. Applying Ronjat’s principle of “one parent-one language” (1913), the parents have formed the child’s basic linguistic interactions; the father employs Farsi in his interactions with the child as his mother tongue while the mother uses French as her foreign language. The data is collected from audio files recorded in the period between 18 and 36 months old of the child, containing her everyday interactions with her parents. Through the analysis of the data with the purpose of studying the changes of the presence of the minority language words, i.e. French, in the child’s sentences at different ages, questions are raised regarding the conditions of a persistent presence of both languages and the reason due to which one language positions as a minor means of communication, observing parental attitudes and environmental issues that can influence the language acquisition procedure.


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 25-39
Author(s):  
Liaquat A. Channa ◽  
Daniel Gilhooly ◽  
Charles A. Lynn ◽  
Syed A. Manan ◽  
Niaz Hussain Soomro

Abstract This theoretical review paper investigates the role of first language (L1) in the mainstream scholarship of second/foreign (L2/FL) language education in the context of language learning, teaching, and bilingual education. The term ‘mainstream’ refers here to the scholarship that is not informed by sociocultural theory in general and Vygotskian sociocultural theory in particular. The paper later explains a Vygotskian perspective on the use of L1 in L2/FL language education and discusses how the perspective may help content teachers in (a) employing L1 in teaching L2/FL content and (b) helping L2/FL students to become self-regulative users of the target language.


2018 ◽  
Vol 87 (2) ◽  
pp. 264-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane C. Fujino

This study contrasts Japanese American activism, centering on citizenship struggles surrounding the 1952 McCarran-Walter Act, to show alternatives to the emergence of the model minority trope. This complexity of activity worked to create and contest the making of a “successful” minority and ideas about U.S. democracy and equality at mid-century. Through a nuanced interpretation, this article reveals how certain narratives relied on a social progress framework and shifting global Cold War politics to create a “Japanese American Exceptionalism.” The little-known history of Japanese American Cold War progressivism shows the forging of deep solidarities and the refusal to promote domestic rights based on empire building. By inserting Japanese Americans into the “Long” freedom movement historiography, this article further examines intergenerational continuities and ruptures.


Author(s):  
Roman Pavliuk

The article describes the modern approaches to the informatization of educational process in higher educational institutions of Ukraine. The relevance of introducing of and its regulatory framework are investigated and the views of scientists to the definitions of "distance learning" and "information-educational environment" are summarizes. The system of work with students using distance learning courses "Business Foreign Language" and "Modern children's literature English-speaking countries" is shown on the example of BorysGrinchenko Kyiv University (Kyiv, Ukraine). The results of investigation based on a survey of students at the beginning and end of the distance courses work demonstrated that the use of distance learning coursespromotes to the self-organization of the student, improving computer skills, facilitates the process of self-learning.


2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (2 (4)) ◽  
pp. 78-92
Author(s):  
Elena Xeni

The article discusses a number of issues contributing to the efficient teaching of a foreign language. Studying Diary Writing as a unique literary genre (a text disclosing the self of the author) the author of the article believes it is very important that students should have diaries since such an assignment highly contributes to the improvement of a written language.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 676-693
Author(s):  
Dilek Unveren

The aim of this study is to develop a scale to measure Turkish reading, listening, speaking and writing self-efficacy of foreign students in Turkey. The sample group of this study consists of 412 foreign students studying in TOMER. At the first phase, four sets of items consisting of 200 items were prepared as a data collecting tool. Eliminating 90 of the items upon expert evaluations, a draft scale consisting of 110 items was applied to mentioned foreign students. The data obtained from the study were analysed by item analysis, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis methods. At the end of the study, the self-efficacy scale of Turkish reading, writing, speaking and listening skills, which consists of 94 items and targets foreigners who learn Turkish as a foreign language, was found to be a reliable and valid scale. Keywords: Self-efficacy scale, learning Turkish as a foreign language.


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