A study on the language practices and policies of Singaporean-Japanese families in Singapore

• Main Author: Tan, Yan Kang
• Other Authors: Francesco Cavallaro
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2020
• Subjects: Humanities::Linguistics::Sociolinguistics::Language policy
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/138528
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Despite the potentially sizeable number of binational families in Singapore (Department of Statistics Singapore, 2018, 2019; Department of Statistics Singapore, Strategy Group, Immigration and Checkpoints Authority, & Ministry of Manpower Singapore, 2019), studies on FLP in Singapore have generally focused on FLP in local and immigrant Chinese families (Curdt-Christiansen, 2014a, 2016; Hu & Ren, 2013, 2017). The aim of this thesis is thus that of contributing to the existing body of FLP research by exploring the language policies and practices of one subset of binational families in Singapore: Singaporean-Japanese families. Through interviews with five such families, the author found that Japanese only functioned as a language of communication between the Japanese parent and their children if the parent had put in place language policies to support its transmission and use in their home. This was true of two of the families, and for the other families, English was the main medium of communication amongst family members. The language policies and practices in these families were heavily influenced by the parents’ valuation of the languages within their linguistic repertoire, as well as the beliefs they held regarding language learning. The composition of these families meant that the state’s education policies also posed them with unique challenges. Recommendations for further research are provided in order to obtain a better grasp of the language policies and practices in binational families in Singapore.