My Cannibalized Self : Biliteracy Development in Japanese Heritage Language Study: an Autoethnography by Michael Kay Allred ebook EPUB
9781939755230 English 1939755239 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. 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. He researches how the autoethnographic writing process can be used by heritage language learners to develop a bilingual, bicultural identity and critical consciousness using anthropophagy (cannibalism) as a framework for cultural transformation and the creation of a complex, dynamic sense of identity that incorporates influences from all of the linguistic and cultural heritage that heritage speakers possess; an iterative research method and educational intervention he calls the anthropophagic crafting of the self. He intends to extend this intervention to mainstream language education by using it as a framework in the formation of a bi/multilingual, bi/multicultural self through which the target language and culture are acquired. This is meant to be a more holistic, profound acquisition in which the target language and culture become a part of the identity of the learner., This book is an autoethnography of the writer's experiences studying in a master's program in Japanese to English technical translation as a heritage speaker of Japanese He describes how his self-perception as a Japanese American and speaker of Japanese change through Japanese language study and the ways in which he approached his language study and crafted his sense of identity in relation to his heritage language and culture These approaches to language study and the hybridized, anthropophagic identity he created for himself 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 are contextualized in his early life and general educational experiences, how he perceived them, and how he perceived himself in them to give a sense of how he interpreted my successes and struggles in trying to learn his heritage language over the course of the three years he 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 experiences from his point of view, Michael Allred often presents angles of different lived experiences through various aspects of his 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 his values and positionality with respect to issues in heritage language education The result is a complex text that describes lived experiences throughout his life and relates them to multifaceted issues in heritage language education to better understand this complexity.
9781939755230 English 1939755239 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. 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. He researches how the autoethnographic writing process can be used by heritage language learners to develop a bilingual, bicultural identity and critical consciousness using anthropophagy (cannibalism) as a framework for cultural transformation and the creation of a complex, dynamic sense of identity that incorporates influences from all of the linguistic and cultural heritage that heritage speakers possess; an iterative research method and educational intervention he calls the anthropophagic crafting of the self. He intends to extend this intervention to mainstream language education by using it as a framework in the formation of a bi/multilingual, bi/multicultural self through which the target language and culture are acquired. This is meant to be a more holistic, profound acquisition in which the target language and culture become a part of the identity of the learner., This book is an autoethnography of the writer's experiences studying in a master's program in Japanese to English technical translation as a heritage speaker of Japanese He describes how his self-perception as a Japanese American and speaker of Japanese change through Japanese language study and the ways in which he approached his language study and crafted his sense of identity in relation to his heritage language and culture These approaches to language study and the hybridized, anthropophagic identity he created for himself 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 are contextualized in his early life and general educational experiences, how he perceived them, and how he perceived himself in them to give a sense of how he interpreted my successes and struggles in trying to learn his heritage language over the course of the three years he 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 experiences from his point of view, Michael Allred often presents angles of different lived experiences through various aspects of his 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 his values and positionality with respect to issues in heritage language education The result is a complex text that describes lived experiences throughout his life and relates them to multifaceted issues in heritage language education to better understand this complexity.