Learning Japanese as an Additional Language An Investigation into Second Language Identity Development

Given the pressure on learners to achieve high second language proficiency, one question worth asking is, what are the consequences of additional language on the sense of self? To experience personality and emotion, hold values and to display norms of the host society, even the desire to assimilate into a target culture are not influence free. This book attempts to make a contribution by investigating the social, linguistic and philosophical dimensions that promote Japanese language learning. The four purposes of the study motivated a qualitative approach using an edited topical life history technique to collect data. Four Caucasian Australian women and two Caucasian Australian men where chosen from a pool of Japanese language learners using Japanese in the workplace. Emerging from the analysis of the data comes the term identity slippage which is discussed throughout the book.