My Cannibalized Self: An Autoethnography. Biliteracy Development in Japanese Heritage Language Study

By Michael Kay Allred

My Cannibalized Self: An Autoethnography of Biliteracy Development in Japanese Heritage Language Study is the author's personal account of his attempt to learn Japanese through a masters program in Japanese-English technical translation. Through descriptions of his lived experience as a biracial Japanese American and a lifetime of attempts to learn his heritage language in various contexts, this narrative captures how he used autoethnography and a framework of cannibalism to transform the frustrations and failures he perceived in the acquisition of his heritage language to form a bilingual, bicultural self and a new relationship with Japanese that embraces all of his linguistic and cultural heritage and breaks from the monolingual norms that had damaged his sense of self as a speaker of Japanese. Through this process, he developed a form of autoethnographic writing that he termed the anthropophagic crafting of the self to create a new, agentive sense of bilingual and bicultural identity formation and method of heritage language study in which heritage language learners cannibalize their cultural and linguistic funds of knowledge and lived experience to develop a complex, dynamic sense of self as (emerging) bilinguals which counters the normativizing violence they face in acquiring their home language. This conception of bilingualism, biculturalism, and biliteracy development is meant to foster an appreciation for the linguistic and cultural heritage of heritage speakers that is often devalued by larger society and the dominant culture while honoring the other influences that make up their dynamic language system and complex identity through an agentive process of cultural transformation in which heritage language learners craft their identities specific to who they are as individuals and how they craft their sense of identity. This study is simultaneously an account that provides new, nuanced understanding of the obstacles that he and many heritage speakers face, a celebration of what heritage language study has the potential to be both for the well-being of the whole person and for her language development, and an in-depth treatise on an autoethnographic method that details the iterative writing process that forms the basis of this conception of identity formation, heritage language study, cultural transformation, and therapeutic process of self-acceptance.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Deep University Press / Deep Education Press
• Release date: Jun 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9781939755315

Michael Kay Allred

Michael Kay Allred graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a PhD in Curriculum & Instruction specializing in World Language Education. In addition, he earned an MA in French from the University of North Texas and a Master of Engineering in Technical Japanese also from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Before completing his graduate studies, Michael was a teacher of Japanese, French, and Spanish in public high schools in Texas. In his research, he specializes in discovering new, holistic approaches to world language education and understanding the educational and psychoemotional needs of heritage language learners in mainstream education as well as in heritage and bilingual education to foster heritage language acquisition and mother tongue maintenance in immigrant communities in the United States; particularly in Spanish and Japanese language communities. From his diverse experiences as a language learner, teacher, and burgeoning academic, he constructed holistic approaches to teaching world languages to mainstream students and heritage language learners through a framework of anthropophagy in which language learners cannibalize authentic pieces of literature, music, television, art, and other forms of expression in the target language and from the target culture for the creation of a bi/multilingual and bi/multicultural self that can communicate in the target language in a way that is appropriate to how native speakers express themselves and the norms of the target culture. This bi/multilingual and bi/multicultural sense of self addresses the increasingly global nature of the ways in which language learners will use the target language in their professions and how the target language and culture will become an integral aspect of their identity as citizens of the world.

Book preview

MY CANNIBALIZED SELF:

AN AUTOETHNOGRAPHY.

BILITERACY DEVELOPMENT IN

JAPANESE HERITAGE

LANGUAGE STUDY

Michael Kay Allred

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING…

This avant-garde autoethnographical study offers new empirical insights on the complexity of being a Japanese as a heritage language speaker by drawing upon the multiplicity of his perspectives as heritage language learner, teacher, and researcher. My Cannibalized Self can be recommended to those who won’t be satisfied with existing approaches in heritage language education. -Akihiro Sahito, Assistant Professor, Centre for Liberal Arts and Sciences, Hachinohe Institute of Technology, Japan

One of the predominant tendencies in language teaching is that which highlights the importance of interculturality and of producing speakers who are able to understand and adapt to their role as cultural mediators in globalized contexts. This is where the interest of Marshall's book lies, as it presents an original and novel reflection on the nature of the interaction between language and culture in a bilingual person. -Maria Teresa Diaz Mohedo, Professor, University of Granada, Spain

This is a bold and political book. It’s bold because Allred here challenges traditional epistemology and canonical ways of doing doctoral research by skillfully linking real life and research. It’s political because it challenges a superficial celebration of diversity and multiculturalism by documenting a heritage language leaner’s voice in socio-political and socio-educational contexts. It has the potential to make a truly significant contribution to our field. -Toshinobu Nagamine, Associate Professor, Kumamoto University, Japan

~~~~~~~~~~

DEEP UNIVERSITY ONLINE !

deepuniversitypress.org

For updates and more resources

Visit the Deep University Website:

www.deepuniversity.net

www.deepapproach.net

Certificate in Deep Education:

www.deepuniversity.net/graduatecourses.html

My Cannibalized Self: An Autoethnography. Biliteracy Development in Japanese Heritage Language Study - Michael Kay Allred

Copyright 2016 by Poiesis Creations Ltd

Deep University Press

Member of Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA)

SMASHWORDS EDITION, LICENSE NOTES

This ebook is licensed for your personal education only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

All rights reserved. Permission is granted to copy or reprint portions up to 10% of the book for noncommercial use under fair use agreement, except they may not be posted online without written permission from the publisher. For permissions, contact: [e-mail]"

ISBN 978-1-939755-31-5 (eBook)

This book is available in print at most online retailers (ISBN 978-1-939755-23-0)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

1. Second Language Acquisition—Study and teaching. 2. Language and languages (Modern)—Study and teaching. 3. Research Methods. 4. Michael Allred

Keywords: Autoethnography – Japanese – Foreign Language Learning – Heritage Learners – Bilingual Education – World Language Education

Target audience: Research Method courses – Students in Language Education and Cultural Studies - language teachers and Collegiate language instructors – policy makers – graduate students - university researchers

Version 3

~~~~~~~~~~

For my dear family and friends,

Rustin, Miwako, and Brian Allred;

along with too many others to mention.

This would not have been possible without you.

Acknowledgments

With as much as I talk about myself in my life story, I fully recognize that these experiences and the book did not happen in isolation of some very key people in my life. I would like to thank my friends and family for being the inspiration for this book. This is as much about me as it is about you and our wonderful, diverse community of immigrants back home. I forget all too easily how special it was to grow up in a community filled with first generation Americans with ties to so many amazing places until I move away and miss it dearly. All of us brought so much richness from our different languages, cultures, distinct ways of knowing and being, and histories. I thank all of you because I would not be who I am now, currently and might never have discovered my passion not only for other languages and cultures, but also for the world around me.

To Jan Hagedorn and Ashley Gaskew, you both were my people during our time together at UW-Madison. Your friendship, support, compassion, and insight helped me to survive graduate school and a time in my life that was as exciting and life-changing as it was painful at times.

At a certain point in writing, I realized that this book is not only a love letter to my friends and family, but also to the amazing education that I have received. To Dr. Francois Victor Tochon, my advisor in Curriculum and Instruction, who has supported me in my efforts to become a researcher true to my values. I would also like to thank Dr. Mary Louise Gomez for introducing me to autoethnography and helping me to develop skills in a methodology that I love. Dr. Mariana Pacheco, I would like to thank you for all of the insight you have provided to this book. Dr. Dawnene Hassett and Dr. Luis Madureira, thank you for serving on my committee and for your support throughout this process. Dr. Charles James, thank you for your advice and the professional opportunities you have provided to me. Dr. Jim Davis, thank you for your patience and belief in me when I really did not think I could surpass certain roadblocks in my education. I would like to thank you all for your hard work as your investment in me has paid off.

~~~~~~~~~~

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Table of Contents

Abstract

Foreword

1: Introduction

The Research Project - My Master's Program - Research Questions - Literature Review Organization of the study

2: Research Methods

Autoethnography - Participant - Data Collection - Positionality in Data Collection and Presentation - Data Analysis - Carspecken's Five Recommended Stages for Critical Qualitative Research - Presentation of Data - Is autoethnography a self-indulgent, value-laden research method?

3: Historical Perspectives on Bilingualism and Modern, Dynamic Approaches to Heritage Language Education

What is a Heritage Language Learner? - Research on Bilingualism and Continued Misconceptions - Racism in Research on Heritage Language Learners - The Nature of Bilingualism - Translanguaging and Codeswitching - Repercussions for Bilingual Education

4: Issues and Obstacles in Heritage Language Acquisition

Bilinguals and the Monolingual Dominant Culture - The Role of Family and Community - Racism, the Hidden Curriculum, and Mainstream Clashes - Affect - Issues in Current Heritage Language Program Models - Community Schools: Possibilities and Problems -

Heritage Language Programs: Prescriptivist Tensions - Problematic Notions of what Constitutes a Native Speaker - Bilingual Education - Conclusions and Final Considerations

5: Theoretical Framework

History - Anthropophagy as a Framework - Anthropophagy in the Brazilian Consciousness - Cannibalism and Language Shift - Glottophagy - English as a Killer Language - Applying Anthropophagy to World Language Education - Heritage Language Education - Anthropophagy for Mainstream World Language Education - Culture - Crafting Selves - Crafting Hybridized Identity through Anthropophagy - Cultural Conflict - Conclusions and Final Considerations

6: Autoethnography

The Writing Process - What is autoethnography? - Validity and Ethics in Autoethnography - Meta-autoethnography - Fidelity, Subjectivity, and Openness - Positionality and Power - Representation in Autoethnographic Writing - Conclusions and Final Considerations

7: Storytelling

Storytelling in its Plurality of Purpose - The Mechanics of Storytelling - In the Act of Writing - On the Importance of Storytelling - Biliteracy Development - Conceptions of Literacy - Literacy in Emancipatory Education - Heritage Language Education and the Symbolic Violence of Mainstream Schooling - Everyday Lessons - Hanako-san - Ever the Teacher -

My Life in Kanji

8: Anthropophagic Storytelling

Anthropophagic Storytelling in the Writing Process - Anthropophagic Storytelling - Anthropophagy as a Framework for Connecting Life Stories - The Cannibalized Self - Cannibalism as an Act of Intimacy - Crafting the Cannibalized Self - Positionality - The Translingual Self and the Problem of Translation - Cannibalized Literary Influences - A Tale for the Time Being - Cannibalizing Eco and the Art of Pastiche

9: Who I Am: Early Experiences with Heritage Language

And Culture

¿Quién soy yo?/ Qui suis-je? - Blood Rites - Skin Deep - How I Got My Name - AP Exams and Biracial Identity - Lunchroom Conversations - How My Parents Met - A Primer in Critical Race Theory - Critical Race Theory and Asian American Studies: Reading is Fundamental - Learning to Drive in the Aftermath of September 11th, 2001: Why this isn't Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Why Parents are Embarrassing

10: Being a heritage language learner in mainstream, world language education

Ms Fujiwara - Adventures in Remedial English - Japanese School - A Typical Day in Japanese Class - Office hours - Trying and Failing to Get Caught Up - Monolingual Norms -

11: Heritage language self study, distance education, and lifelong learning

Why a Chapter on Self Study, Distance Education, and Lifelong Learning for Heritage Language Study - Heritage Language Distance Education - Heritage Language Self-Study - Self Study and Lifelong Learning - A Cannibalist Guide to Self Study for Heritage Languages - Expectativas not Expectaciones - What we Become

12: Three Years Later: Thoughts and Feelings

Conclusions - Parallel Structures - Implications for Research - Coming Full Circle - Vulnerability, Shame, and Fidelity: Failing Greatly - The Writing Process: Aftermath - Future Applications of Anthropophagy and Autoethnography

References

~~~~~~~~~~

ABSTRACT

This book is an autoethnography of my experiences studying in a master's program in Japanese to English technical translation as a heritage speaker of Japanese Specifically, I describe how my self-perception as a Japanese American and speaker of Japanese change through Japanese language study and the ways in which I approached my language study and crafted my sense of identity in relation to my heritage language and culture These approaches to language study and the hybridized, anthropophagic identity I created for myself were accomplished through the meta-autoethnographic procession of revision and through reflexivity In this way, the creation of the autoethnographic narrative paralleled and was connected to my process of language acquisition and identity development

The educational experiences of my master's program are contextualized in my early life and general educational experiences, how I perceived them, and how I perceived myself in them to give a sense of how I interpreted my successes and struggles in trying to learn my heritage language over the course of the three years I spent working on the degree These successes and struggles are related to larger social and educational issues that heritage language learners face in studying their mother tongue, such as prejudice in the form of monolingual norms in mainstream language classes, to give a different, more nuanced understanding of these issues and to present new data that might not be collectible in other forms of inquiry

While this narrative relates only my experiences from my point of view, I often present angles of different lived experiences through various aspects of my identity such as heritage language learner, world language teacher, and researcher in heritage language studies and world language education; as these different roles have also shaped my values and positionality with respect to issues in heritage language education The result is a complex text that describes lived experiences throughout my life and relates them to multifaceted issues in heritage language education to better understand this complexity.

~~~~~~~~~~

FOREWORD

Mary Louise Gomez

Professor, Teacher Education

University of Wisconsin-Madison

In My Cannibalized Self: An Autoethnography, Michael Kay Allred writes about being a heritage language speaker of Japanese. This text examines Allred’s affinity for and relationship with Japanese, the approaches he uses in learning his heritage language, and how his life experiences and language learning of Japanese influence his language teaching and learning in general.  This is a delightful and witty book as well as one that tugs at one’s heart as readers see how being biracial (Japanese and European American), but not a fluent speaker, reader, or writer of Japanese influences his confidence around language learning.

We also see how Michael works to conquer his self-doubt through diary entries that form his autoethnography, a qualitative research method intertwining study of cultures and communities—ethnography, with stories of one’s self.  These self stories are located and interpreted within larger social issues explored through meanings of the personal narratives presented. Allred also engages in met-ethnographic revisions with his diary entries, modifying them for purposes of clarification, elaboration, and combination as he critically looks back over a lifetime of language learning and identity development. For him, these are located within language learning and its critical role in the formation of a person’s self; how heritage language speakers often are both praised and demonized for their excellent accents or lack of deep knowledge of reading and writing in their families’ language/s; and a U. S. history of native English speakers receiving praise for their acquisition of new languages while heritage language speakers receive no such parallel praise.

Allred theorizes his study within two interwoven frameworks, anthropophagy or cannibalism, and Kondo’s (1990) notion of a fragmented self. He borrows the notion of anthropophagy from the practices of the Tupi tribe and others in Brazil that following conquering other peoples, would kill, cook, and eat them.  Through anthropophagy, he wishes to convey ideas about identity formation in heritage language learners who are impacted by different linguistic and cultural influences. They must develop new ways to think about and talk about so-called others, people different from them, and how to behave in everyday contexts that honor who they are. In this way, Allred dismantles hierarchies among language and cultural groups, and their supposed value. This meshes nicely with discussion of Kondo’s work on identity development as a continuous fluid and creative process, influenced by various persons, groups, and contexts over time and across occasions.

His presentation of data is intriguing as he traverses various historical and national contexts to explore how he has been conquering lingering self-doubts around language learning through elementary school to earning more than one master’s degree and a doctorate. His writing is clever and engaging, mixing diary style entries with what he calls the writers’ workshops where he analyzes and critiques material written in story form. These writers’ workshop entries were my favorite part of the book as he unpacks what he has written and holds it up for his and our analyses.

Allred’s knowledge of literature, film, plays, and Japanese television add to the depth and complexity of this text. He has lived and taught in several other nations and speaks Spanish, Japanese, French, Portuguese, Italian, English, and is a beginning speaker of Hindi. Ultimately, this is a story of redemption as Allred closes with discussion of shame, and willingness to become vulnerable as a person and a scholar.

Reference

Kondo, D. (1990). Crafting selves: Power, gender, and discourses of identity in a Japanese workplace. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

~~~~~~~~~~

1

INTRODUCTION

Why did social science have to be written in such a way that detailed, lived experience was secondary to abstraction? (Ellis, 1995, p. 7-8)

In this first chapter, I will outline the topic of study of my dissertation, which serves as the basis for this book. In this study, I will describe my approaches to identity formation and language learning as a heritage language learner (HLL) through formal language study in a mainstream master's program in Japanese-English technical translation. I will, thus, also describe the program itself as well as what I wished to gain from it for my own educational, professional, and personal needs. Lastly, I will describe the research questions that I will answer throughout the book as well as its organization and the chapters in which I treat each of the research questions so that the reader knows where to look for the specific aspects of heritage language education (HLE) that I will approach.

The Research Project

For this study, I will describe my experiences as an HLL of Japanese in my master's program in Japanese-English technical translation, a mainstream language program at a large Midwestern university. I am a biracial Japanese American; my father is Caucasian of largely English extraction and my mother is Japanese. I grew up in bilingual household, but even now as I am writing, there is a lot about Japanese that I still have to learn in the way of more academic language and literacy. I struggle a lot with reading and writing. It is for that reason and really wanting to improve my Japanese overall that I decided to pursue further study in Japanese.

As for the structure of the manuscript and research method, I will use autoethnography as a means of evoking aspects of these experiences that apply to educational, linguistic, and sociocultural phenomena that exist in heritage language study. Through my own perspective as an HLL, I hope to get a deeper sense of issues already described in the literature on heritage and bilingual education as well as discover other aspects of heritage language study that may have yet to be studied or may be better understood through my own lived experiences, how they affect me, how I perceive myself in them, and how I think these perceptions can provide new dimensions of understanding of the struggles that HLLs experience and of our unique needs in learning our mother tongues. As the quote above states, I hope to accomplish this through detailed description of lived experience. I will focus on how I form my self-perception as a heritage language learner of Japanese and Japanese American as well as the approaches I use to learn Japanese so as to focus on myself as an agent of my own learning and identity formation. The objective of this study is to find out how these experiences can be used to improve language education for heritage language learners in mainstream and bilingual/heritage language programs.

My Master's Program

I was back in Texas the Summer of 2011 for the graduation ceremony for my master's degree in French. My parents had just moved to Florida and I had just returned from my time in France. It was a really exciting period for me because I had learned a lot over the course of my program and had even managed to live in France for a year at the end of my program while I was writing my master's thesis. Unlike after my undergraduate education, I left feeling accomplished even though I knew there was still so much I wanted to do and experience. That memory came back to me as I was getting dressed for the ceremony. This got me to thinking what else I wanted to achieve. I found myself lost in thought; a daze occasionally interrupted by my brother passive aggressively reminding me every now and again that he would rather spend time with his friends than attend my graduation. Honestly, I didn't want to go either. I only attend graduations because I fear I would regret not attending.

I slipped back into my thoughts of future plans only to feel a little less than satisfied. I couldn't figure out why. In a few short weeks, I would be starting my PhD in World Language Education in a top program located in Lake City[1]. Was it that I didn't want to move to the Midwest? I didn't know if that really bothered me or not. I had only ever been to Chicago and really had no concept of what a city in a completely different state would be like. No, it couldn't be that. It finally occurred to me that I felt guilty preparing for a graduation ceremony for an advanced degree in French when I had not even finished my BA in Japanese.

My original plan of study in my undergraduate studies was to double major in Spanish and Japanese and earn my teaching certification. I instead settled for a minor in Japanese because I had been so frustrated in my attempt to study Japanese. I always managed to do well in courses, but found the process frustrating because I felt that the expectations of me were much higher being an HLL. What my professors didn't realize is that I was studying Japanese because I still had a lot to learn. This meant that my peers were lauded for barely managing to construct a thought in Japanese whereas I was torn apart for the things I didn't know, things which I may never have heard at home growing up or learned previously. Other students were allowed to come in as blank slates, but I had to be perfect from start to finish. I didn't appreciate being held accountable for things with which I had no experience and to be viewed as deficient. I think that I am now in a position, being almost thirty years old, to take advantage of a situation like that and to see that, while not very ideal, I could still learn a lot from their brutal honesty; especially since I have found that people often do not feel comfortable correcting me when I speak Japanese- nor is it their duty nor responsibility.

Back at the hotel, remembering all of the times I tried and failed to learn Japanese, I start to think through my options to try again, knowing that I would be attending a large university that I knew offered Japanese because my dad had in fact gotten his degree in Japanese from there. A second realization hits- I could try to do the same program my dad had done. At this point I was partially dressed with pants and a half-buttoned shirt and yet I hadn't made any motions to continue dressing in minutes. I kept thinking about whether or not I should even think about doing the program. As I am trying to figure this out, images of my dad while he was working on this program came flying through my mind like fragmented videos of varying lengths. My dad had completed his degree about a decade prior at this point. I still remember him receiving the videotaped seminars on VHS tapes in the mail. He would be working on his homework, watching those videos in our pink carpeted living room (more tasteful than it sounds) as my brother and I would be working on our own. Thankfully, me starting the program about ten years later meant that the videos were online in mp4 format. In fact, I have them saved on my external hard drive to enjoy for years to come. Regretfully, being a student and living in Lake City meant that I would actually be in the videos whereas my dad got to enjoy them from the comfort of our living room.

The program is a master's degree in technical Japanese-English translation offered through one of the engineering departments. While I thought this was cool, I did not have a technical background beyond the science coursework required for my BA in Spanish; which turned out to just barely be enough for me to be admitted into the program. For that reason, when buying spirit wear, I would also see the T-shirts for the engineering department and kind of wanted to get one only to determine that I didn't want to be the asshole wearing the engineering T-shirt who doesn't know anything about engineering. I finally caved once my dad gave me one of this old shirts. For some reason, I have no problem wearing it.

Back to my previous thought process, I decided, What could it hurt to check the admission requirements and application dates for the program? Still only half dressed, I pull out my laptop and search for the program, only having a vague sense of its name and yet I pull up the web page almost immediately. I read that I met all of the basic criteria to enter the program and that there was rolling admissions to the program. I then think about why I would pursue that program over another one. I think about what I want from the program. What do I want to learn? What do I want to be able to do? I realized that I really wanted to learn how to read. I had learned to read basic Japanese in my previous attempts to study the language, but my reading skills still lagged far behind my ability to speak and understand oral Japanese. I also thought that I would be exposed to a wider variety of vocabulary and would learn more academic language. This understanding led me to think that this program was in fact the right program for me. My university also offered a standard Japanese program in which I could study linguistics, culture, and language. I was sure that I would get to read authentic Japanese in those courses, but figured the focus would really be on the academic study of those materials in relation to a specific field of study. I didn't really want that. I was already getting prepared for that kind of training for my PhD.

Having determined that my focus would be acquiring more academic language and learning to read better, I figured that having to constantly translate Japanese documents would be the best way of going about that. Then, having worked through this thought process, I become very excited and motion to tell my dad my thoughts, but refrain. I was too excited and didn't want him to squash my new dream when I had already starting laying plans for how I would do the master's degree concurrently with my PhD.

This was a much different line of thinking from my initial embarrassment to be a Japanese American who had quit all of his previous educational endeavors in Japanese. I had quit Japanese school. I had never finished my correspondence course for high school credit in Japanese. I never finished my BA in Japanese, settling instead for the minor along with a minor in Portuguese and French for my BA in Spanish and Secondary Spanish Teacher Certification. I was looking for redemption, but was that a good enough reason to try to study Japanese again after I had tried and failed several times before? My parents told me that my heritage did not obligate me to study Japanese and that they really didn't care if I preferred Spanish and French over Japanese. I never knew what to say to them when they would make those kinds of comments. A couple of times I told them that that wasn't the case, but I didn't insist too much because I wasn't sure they were wrong.

And yet, occasionally I would regret not continuing with my Japanese studies. I would feel this nagging. I could say that I'm not sure of the reason, but really it is probably a combination of the following reasons: (1) I felt like a failure not being able to improve my Japanese from what I had learned at home despite knowing several non-native speakers who managed to successfully acquire it who did not have the background that I did. (2) Japanese is my mother tongue and I have a relationship with and an affinity for it that I will never have for the other languages I learn. (3) Part of me did not want to give up. Part of me knew that I could actually really improve my Japanese, especially in terms of being able to read and write. This uncertainty and desire to prove myself to my parents and myself was my reason to want to push forward with Japanese studies. I thought that I was older and more mature. I thought that this would be the time that I finally stick with my studies and that I wouldn't let myself either get fed up with my teachers and quit or that I would get stuck and quit thinking I would never get past my language learning block.

Research Questions

I did not necessarily begin working on the dissertation with preset research questions already formulated. I thought it better to start collecting data in the form of writing journal entries to see what themes emerged and what would be interesting to investigate further. That said, three of the four questioned presented below are edited forms of the questions that I had posed when first developing the research project; before collecting any data. The only new question was that which my advisor, François, had suggested, the one on heritage language distance education. As I will focus on my agentive role in my own identity formation and language learning, I have formulated the following research questions:

1. What is my relationship with Japanese language and culture and how do I see myself in relation to these?

2. How do I form this relationship and my own self-perception through language study?

3. What are approaches I use in learning my heritage language, specifically with respect to learning to read?

4. How do my past life experiences and experiences learning Japanese influence my language learning?

Literature Review

The literature review presented in the following