Crossing the border: Gender and language learning of a female Japanese student in the U.S. university system

Kyoko Ide, Second Language Studies

Although there are an increasing number of narrative research studies that examine the researchers’ own language learning experiences – and there are an even greater number of narrative research studies on second language learning that lack any inclusion of the researcher  – few qualitative studies on second language learners include the researcher in the analysis.  As such, this narrative study investigates identity construction of a Japanese female international student in a U.S. university system with a consideration of the intersubjectivity between the participant and the researcher by layering the narratives of both. 

    Over a one-year span, four interviews were conducted with an active interview approach.  The interviews revealed how gender, as a system of social relations and discursive practices, was a key factor in the participant’s and the researcher’s investment in learning English.  What has motivated the participant to invest in language learning is not only her reaction to the ideals of women and what English and America could offer her, but also her resistance to the pressure to conform to the perceived gender norms in her home country, Japan; these factors, in turn, intersect with the researcher’s own history and experience. The study examines how language learning and use is an opportunity to gain a different set of subject positions, i.e. to transform the self and to border cross, and to challenge gender norms.  It also considers the relationships between silence, voice, foreign language use, and feminist ideologies of English prevalent in Japan.