大学共同利用機関法人 人間文化研究機構　国立民族学博物館

Objectives

As a result of an influx of immigrants, many immigrant languages are spoken in Japan today. However, the overall picture is not clear in terms of how the languages are being transformed, their forms of usage, or their preservation and education conducted in the languages through their contact with the Japanese language. The premise of this research is to comprehensively research the overall situation concerning immigrant languages in Japan, while understanding the situations for specific immigrant languages, as well as to consider various factors which contribute to the languages including the immigrant communities, language policies, education, and language and gender. Our goal is specifically to understand the following aspects of representative immigrant languages in Japan: 1) the actual state of these languages in terms of language contacts, interference, and code mixing; 2) language usage in terms of language domains and language functions; and 3) conditions concerning language preservation and language education. Parallel with these aspects, we intend to consider language problems encountered by immigrants in actual participation in society and language problems that immigrants encounter when trying to move socially upward, with the focus especially on elements involving gender, literacy and school education.