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Article published In:
Language and Communication of Asian Diaspora Communities in Europe
Edited by Zi Wang and Florian Coulmas
[Journal of Asian Pacific Communication 31:2] 2021
► pp. 191–212

Transmission of Japanese as a heritage language in the bilingual polity of Catalonia

A case study

| Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

This study explores the transmission of Japanese in Japanese-Catalan/Spanish speaking families in Catalonia from the perspective of Family Language Policy. Based on the data obtained through in-depth interviews with nine Japanese-speaking parents whose spouses are Catalan native speakers, we describe these families’ language policies in terms of how they shed light on how parents cope with transmitting Japanese in such contexts. One of the most striking findings of this study is that socially weaker languages – namely Japanese and Catalan – have an important presence in most of the participants’ families despite the use of Spanish between the parents in their home. The result of our analysis also suggests that parental beliefs and attitudes have a significant influence on their language practice and the maintenance of the heritage language (HL) at home.

Keywords: language transmission, family language policy, Catalan, Japanese, heritage language
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Language transmission and family language policy
  • Interlingual families in Catalonia
  • The Japanese abroad and language transmission
  • Methods
    • Data collection
  • Language practice at home and strategy (practice and management)
  • Management
  • Children’s HL development
  • Reasons for transmission of HL based on strategy
  • Attitudes towards bi-/multilingualism
  • Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 5 October 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/japc.00064.fuk
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