In Japan, Miyakoan is one of eight endangered languages announced by UNESCO. 'Japanese' language became the present 'common language ' during the modernization dating back to the Meiji period, due to the government's language standardization policy and its policy of teaching 'national language' in schools. In the late 20th century, after the social economic boom, English became the 'international language '. As a result of these language education policies, some languages on Japan's periphery became endangered languages (Fujita-Round 2016).
This study is aimed at linguistic ethnography. I conducted a longitudinal action research between 2013 and 2015 at a junior high school (12-15 years old) looking at the same 44 pupils for the duration of three years. This action research included 1) special class, given once a year in July, by my research associate, aimed at raising pupil's self-esteem, 2) questionnaire and semi-structural interview, conducted half year later in February, by the present researcher. For this paper this interview data is analyzed. In this data, the behavior of code-switching revealed, and from this behavior, I would like to analyze the relationship between this 'automatic' code-switching and the students' sense of identity as native Miyakoans.
'Language standardization policy' during the Meiji period was a euphemism for 'action for exterminating Japanese dialects' (Fujita-Round & Maher, 2008). I would like to argue the potential of this Miyakoan code-switching by the school-aged pupils should be more marked. To nurture this bilingual behavior, they can "rethink their position in society and their traditional assumptions, then take action" (Sato et al 2015) in their local community. This discussion may well overlap with the topic of bilingualism in endangered languages elsewhere.
Fujita-Round, S. (2016) 'Japanese language education policy from the point of view of an endangered language community' in Katsuragi & Maher (eds). Minority Language Revitalization. Tokyo: Sangensha.
Fujita-Round, S. & Maher, J.C. (2008) 'Language education policy in Japan' in S. May & N. Hornberger (eds). Encyclopedia of Language and Education, 2nd edition, Volume 1. NY: Springer.
Sato, S. et al (eds) (2015) Language Education for Social Future. Tokyo: Koko Shuppan.
