This paper critically examines what constitutes language competency and language education within the globalised society by elucidating ways in which language, culture, ethnicities and identities are constructed in and through... more
This paper critically examines what constitutes language competency and language education within the globalised society by elucidating ways in which language, culture, ethnicities and identities are constructed in and through conversations between` Japanese and` Australians. While Japanese language education is still primarily premised on the monolingual mindset failing to situate Japanese language within multilingual environments, the paper proposes that language education should take into account the newly defined notion of metrolingualism. Metrolingualism is a productive linguistic space which emerges through the interaction between normative and fixed understandings of language and fluid (hybrid) and dynamic understandings. It is suggested that metrolingualism will allow students to develop their capacity to construct their own linguistic environment by manipulating and managing their own diverse linguistic resources and proposes the need to incorporate metrolingual perspectives in understanding linguistic competency and language education theory within globalisation
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The research described in the papers in this special issue is situated in a diversity of contexts: a street market and small shops in Mumbai, a subway in Cape Town, a greengrocer in Copenhagen, Bangladeshi-run stores in Tokyo and Sydney,... more
The research described in the papers in this special issue is situated in a diversity of contexts:
a street market and small shops in Mumbai, a subway in Cape Town, a greengrocer in
Copenhagen, Bangladeshi-run stores in Tokyo and Sydney, a Polish-run shop in London,
Afghan- and Iranian-run stores in a Sydney suburb and markets in Hong Kong. These
diverse studies share several principal concerns: they focus on interactions in markets
and small shops; they all employ a broad understanding of social semiotics that includes
body, space, gesture, senses and objects; they look at the intersecting modes of multilingual,
multimodal and multisensory semiosis; and they rely on complex forms of linguistic
(or semiotic) ethnography as a research tool.
The papers all focus on sites of commercial transaction in what we might call every day,
small, or local sites of transaction (or “extreme locality” in Quentin Williams’ terms, this issue).
It is not so much the commercial transactions themselves that matter for these analyses,
however, but rather the complexity of social, spatial, linguistic, cultural and semiotic
relations. Markets and small shops, more than any other city space, define human engagement
with difference – with different people, different clothes, different goods and different
ways of speaking. Markets, as Hiebert, Rath, and Vertovec (2015, 16) suggest, offer “an ideal
setting to explore the relationship between economy and society, especially when we consider
the ways that these markets reflect, but also shape, the nature and meaning of social
and cultural diversity.” The market, both as a concept and a physical location “is central to
any understanding of intercultural exchange” (Wood and Landry 2008, 148).
a street market and small shops in Mumbai, a subway in Cape Town, a greengrocer in
Copenhagen, Bangladeshi-run stores in Tokyo and Sydney, a Polish-run shop in London,
Afghan- and Iranian-run stores in a Sydney suburb and markets in Hong Kong. These
diverse studies share several principal concerns: they focus on interactions in markets
and small shops; they all employ a broad understanding of social semiotics that includes
body, space, gesture, senses and objects; they look at the intersecting modes of multilingual,
multimodal and multisensory semiosis; and they rely on complex forms of linguistic
(or semiotic) ethnography as a research tool.
The papers all focus on sites of commercial transaction in what we might call every day,
small, or local sites of transaction (or “extreme locality” in Quentin Williams’ terms, this issue).
It is not so much the commercial transactions themselves that matter for these analyses,
however, but rather the complexity of social, spatial, linguistic, cultural and semiotic
relations. Markets and small shops, more than any other city space, define human engagement
with difference – with different people, different clothes, different goods and different
ways of speaking. Markets, as Hiebert, Rath, and Vertovec (2015, 16) suggest, offer “an ideal
setting to explore the relationship between economy and society, especially when we consider
the ways that these markets reflect, but also shape, the nature and meaning of social
and cultural diversity.” The market, both as a concept and a physical location “is central to
any understanding of intercultural exchange” (Wood and Landry 2008, 148).
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Drawing on data recorded in two city markets, this article analyzes the language practices of workers and customers as they go about their daily business, with a particular focus on the ways in which linguistic resources, everyday tasks,... more
Drawing on data recorded in two city markets, this article analyzes the language practices of workers and customers as they go about their daily business, with a particular focus on the ways in which linguistic resources, everyday tasks, and social spaces are intertwined in producing metrolingua francas. The aim of the article is to come to a better understanding of the relationships among the use of diverse linguistic resources (drawn from different languages, varieties, and registers), the repertoires
of the workers, the activities in which they are engaged, and the larger space in which this occurs. Developing the idea of spatial repertoires as the linguistic resources available in particular places, we explore the ways in which metrolingua francas (metrolingual multilingua francas) emerge from the
spatial resources of such markets.
of the workers, the activities in which they are engaged, and the larger space in which this occurs. Developing the idea of spatial repertoires as the linguistic resources available in particular places, we explore the ways in which metrolingua francas (metrolingual multilingua francas) emerge from the
spatial resources of such markets.
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There has been a sharp increase in the number of foreigner registrations in Japan with a record of 2.5 million at the end of 2017, which is an increase of 7.5% on the previous year. Japan is going through a rapid transition politically,... more
There has been a sharp increase in the number of foreigner registrations in Japan with a record of 2.5 million at the end of 2017, which is an increase of 7.5% on the previous year. Japan is going through a rapid transition politically, socio-culturally and economically, and this has inevitably had an impact on everyday language life and landscapes in Japan. Drawing on everyday interactional data from Tokyo, a site which has increasingly become socio-culturally and linguistically diverse due to the incoming flow of people, goods, ideas, practices and language, this chapter shows that in order to understand everyday linguistic diversity in the city (in this case Tokyo), or what we call “metrolingualism”, we have to explore both the idea of space and of diversity in greater depth. This chapter argues how metrolingualism’s enquiries into everyday language use from a local perspective and its focus on the dynamic relations between semiotic resources, activities, artifacts and space (i.e., special repertoires, metrolingua francas and metrolingual assemblages) as people go about their daily lives, provide a new way of understanding multilingualism in the city and the sense of affordance brought about by multilingual practices. This approach is particularly important where people are left in an ambivalent space between the Japanese government’s animosity towards the proliferation of cultural diversity and the everyday reality of cultural and linguistic diversity, and argues that metrolingualism can offer Japanese sociolinguistics a new perspective during this critical time of transition.
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もはや従来の固定的対応関係では説明し得なくなっていることばとアイデンティティの関係を、「新しい社会言語学」で討究する。
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Abstract: In this paper we examine different ways in which seemingly joking encounters reconfirm, reinforce and reinscribe participants into particular lines of difference through language play. Our focus here is not only on interactive... more
Abstract: In this paper we examine different ways in which seemingly joking
encounters reconfirm, reinforce and reinscribe participants into particular lines
of difference through language play. Our focus here is not only on interactive
joking behavior in the workplace but also on the ways in which fellow workers
are described, on the significant work that casually humorous language does in
making and unmaking boundaries. Metrolingual conviviality, as people engage
in everyday multilingual practices, and both celebrate and challenge the diverse
environments in which they live and work, is often double-edged. The interaction
between fixity (pre-given fixed ascriptions of linguistic and cultural identities
and practices) and fluidity (creative linguistic and cultural forces that transgress
fixity) that underpins light-hearted banter creates an urban space of doubleedged
conviviality, reconfirming, reinforcing, subverting or adjusting the original
fixity. Playful language works on multiple levels, both constructing solidarities
(of the workplace, masculinity, or ethnicity) and creating potential fissures. This
analysis of the complex roles of language play in the making of conviviality sheds
light on the different cultural and linguistic tensions at play in the city.
encounters reconfirm, reinforce and reinscribe participants into particular lines
of difference through language play. Our focus here is not only on interactive
joking behavior in the workplace but also on the ways in which fellow workers
are described, on the significant work that casually humorous language does in
making and unmaking boundaries. Metrolingual conviviality, as people engage
in everyday multilingual practices, and both celebrate and challenge the diverse
environments in which they live and work, is often double-edged. The interaction
between fixity (pre-given fixed ascriptions of linguistic and cultural identities
and practices) and fluidity (creative linguistic and cultural forces that transgress
fixity) that underpins light-hearted banter creates an urban space of doubleedged
conviviality, reconfirming, reinforcing, subverting or adjusting the original
fixity. Playful language works on multiple levels, both constructing solidarities
(of the workplace, masculinity, or ethnicity) and creating potential fissures. This
analysis of the complex roles of language play in the making of conviviality sheds
light on the different cultural and linguistic tensions at play in the city.
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This chapter looks at the metrolingual practices of students in two tertiary institutions in Tokyo and Sydney. Focusing as much on out-of-class as in-class language use, we look at the diverse repertoires of students as they go about... more
This chapter looks at the metrolingual practices of students in two tertiary institutions in Tokyo and Sydney. Focusing as much on out-of-class as in-class language use, we look at the diverse repertoires of students as they go about their daily university-related lives. The argument here is that a focus only on the medium of instruction, or translingual educational practices, may overlook the diverse semiotic resources students bring to their educational experiences. Contemporary students in particular, with their interlinked online and offiine worlds, their ease of communication in and across the boundaries of educational institutions, inhabit worlds where a diversity of linguistic and other semiotic resources are easily available. They engage in diverse forms of popular culture--from music to TV dramas-and chat to friends elsewhere using a range of creative textual means. When it comes to srudy itself, students' multilingual worlds confer not so much a 'bilingual advantage' as this has been narrowly defined from a more cognitive perspective, but rather a 'translingual advantage' that makes it possible to draw on a range of resources to construct meaning and develop learning
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A man of South Asian-background, who has arrived in his white van at the Kyeemagh market gardens to collect vegetables, walks out into the field to pick bitter melons. The suburb of Kyeemagh (with about 10% Greek, 3% Lebanese and 2.5%... more
A man of South Asian-background, who has arrived in his white van at the Kyeemagh market gardens to collect vegetables, walks out into the field to pick bitter melons. The suburb of Kyeemagh (with about 10% Greek, 3% Lebanese and 2.5% Cypriot overseas born population) sits at the intersection between the north-south line of older Greek and Lebanese migration in the inner west suburbs of Banksia (8% Macedonian, 4% Chinese, 3% Lebanese) and Arncliffe (8% Lebanese, 5% Macedonian, 3% Chinese) or the older Greek-dominated suburbs that run down the west shore of Botany Bay (Brighton-Le-Sands, Monterey, Ramsgate – the names reflecting their British and other early inhabitants), and the Chinese dominated suburbs to the west (Rockdale – 11% Chinese, 8% Nepalese, 4% Macedonian; Kogarah – 12% Chinese, 7% Nepalese, 5% Bangladeshi; Hurstville – 34% Chinese, 5% Hong Kong, 3% Nepalese) (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2016).
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While the ways in which people talk about their everyday language use suggest that they live in a languagised world (a world in which language labels and enumerations are the common stuff of everyday language talk), their understanding of... more
While the ways in which people talk about their everyday language use suggest that they live in a languagised world (a world in which language labels and enumerations are the common stuff of everyday language talk), their understanding of what those language labels mean may be both diverse and flexible. It is important not to make top-down assumptions about the meanings behind language labels. In this paper we are interested in the metrolingual metalanguage people use to describe everyday language use. This is not a question of a disjuncture between a delanguagised realm of academic analysis (such as the recent move towards translingual terminology) and a languagised realm of everyday metalanguage (where languages are named and labelled along normative lines), but rather a call to make visible what lies beneath such everyday terms and linguistic labels. Through an analysis of various discussions of everyday language use, we argue that although people often appear to talk in terms of fixed languages, such accounts are often flexible, negotiable and contestable. This is not therefore best understood in terms of a polarity between fixity and fluidity but rather as a flexible array of entangled language ideologies.
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This book is about language and the city. Pennycook and Otsuji introduce the notion of 'metrolingualism', showing how language and the city are deeply involved in a perpetual exchange between people, history, migration, architecture,... more
This book is about language and the city. Pennycook and Otsuji introduce the notion of 'metrolingualism', showing how language and the city are deeply involved in a perpetual exchange between people, history, migration, architecture, urban landscapes and linguistic resources. Cities and languages are in constant change, as new speakers with new repertoires come into contact as a result of globalization and the increased mobility of people and languages. Metrolingualism sheds light on the ordinariness of linguistic diversity as people go about their daily lives, getting things done, eating and drinking, buying and selling, talking and joking, drawing on whatever linguistic resources are available. Engaging with current debates about multilingualism, and developing a new way of thinking about language, the authors explore language within a number of contemporary urban situations, including cafés, restaurants, shops, streets, construction sites and other places of work, in two diverse cities, Sydney and Tokyo. This is an invaluable look at how people of different backgrounds get by linguistically. Metrolingualism: Language in the city will be of special interest to advanced undergraduate/postgraduate students and researchers of sociolinguistics and applied linguistics.
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From Internationalization to Globalization Ikuko Nakane, Emi Otsuji, William S.
Armour ... of looking at language and identity issues in a transitional Japan by
linking both the local and global as well as the grassroots and policy level.
Armour ... of looking at language and identity issues in a transitional Japan by
linking both the local and global as well as the grassroots and policy level.
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Chapter 1 Morning markets and metrolingual multitasking The Produce Market: Salamu alaykum mate Languages of the market: lingo-ing in their own language Multilingualism from below Metrolingual multitasking in a restaurant Beyond... more
Chapter 1 Morning markets and metrolingual multitasking The Produce Market: Salamu alaykum mate Languages of the market: lingo-ing in their own language Multilingualism from below Metrolingual multitasking in a restaurant Beyond monolingualism: Niemand ist Einsprachig Research notes and emergent themes Chapter 2: Constructing affiliations and growing foreign vegetables Gwai Lou Coi: Growing foreign vegetables Metrolingualism, the rural and the urban 'People are basically from everywhere': Ethnicity and language at work Ethnic business and ethnolinguistic repertoires Ethnography as process Chapter 3: Mobility, rhythms and the city Catching a train in Sydney The breathing city Metrolingualism, space and mobility: 'chef, iedi efu iki kishu' Research: Languages and the unexpected Chapter 4 Kitchen talk and spatial repertoires The Pizzeria: 'it's all part of the Greek culture' Kitchen repertoires Spatial repertoires: "Pizza mo two minutes coming" Loc...
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Foreword Nanette Gottlieb 1. Languages and Identities in a Transitional Japan Ikuko Nakane, Emi Otsuji and William S. Armour Part I: Cultural Transition 2. National Identity and the Transition from Internationalization to Globalization:... more
Foreword Nanette Gottlieb 1. Languages and Identities in a Transitional Japan Ikuko Nakane, Emi Otsuji and William S. Armour Part I: Cultural Transition 2. National Identity and the Transition from Internationalization to Globalization: "Cool Japan" or "Closed Japan"? Chris Burgess 3. The Geo-Politics of Japanese Soft Power and the Japanese Language and Studies Classroom: Soft Power Pedagogy, Globalization and the New Technologies William S. Armour Part II: Ideological Transition 4. Paradoxes of Learning English in Multilingual Japan: Envisioning Education for Border-Crossing Communication Ryuko Kubota 5. "Internal Internationalization" and Language Ideologies in Japanese Criminal Courts Ikuko Nakane 6. Metrolingual Tokyo: "C'est un Peu Difficile, mais it's very Fan desu yo" Emi Otsuji Part III: Pedagogical Transition 7. "To Know What It's Like to be Japanese": A Case Study of the Experiences of Heritage Learners of Japanese in Australia Robyn Moloney and Susan Oguro 8. Transcending the Role of Japanese Language Education: A Humanistic Approach in Australian Learning Contexts Jun Ohashi and Hiroko Ohashi 9. Assimilation vs. Multiculturalism: Struggles over the Meaning of "Tabunka Kyosei" in Education for Language Minority Children in Japan Sumiko Taniguchi and Cheiron McMahill Epilogue 10. Japan-in-Transition: Reflections and Futures Ikuko Nakane, Emi Otsuji and William S. Armour
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Abstract: In this paper we examine different ways in which seemingly joking encounters reconfirm, reinforce and reinscribe participants into particular lines of difference through language play. Our focus here is not only on interactive... more
Abstract: In this paper we examine different ways in which seemingly joking encounters reconfirm, reinforce and reinscribe participants into particular lines of difference through language play. Our focus here is not only on interactive joking behavior in the workplace but also on the ways in which fellow workers are described, on the significant work that casually humorous language does in making and unmaking boundaries. Metrolingual conviviality, as people engage in everyday multilingual practices, and both celebrate and challenge the diverse environments in which they live and work, is often double-edged. The interaction between fixity (pre-given fixed ascriptions of linguistic and cultural identities and practices) and fluidity (creative linguistic and cultural forces that transgress fixity) that underpins light-hearted banter creates an urban space of doubleedged conviviality, reconfirming, reinforcing, subverting or adjusting the original fixity. Playful language works on multiple levels, both constructing solidarities (of the workplace, masculinity, or ethnicity) and creating potential fissures. This analysis of the complex roles of language play in the making of conviviality sheds light on the different cultural and linguistic tensions at play in the city.
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Research Interests: Art and Multilingualism
While the Japanese business community continues to be perceived as male dominated, the majority of students of Business Japanese in Australian universities are female. This paper examines Business Japanese textbooks from both macro... more
While the Japanese business community continues to be perceived as male dominated, the majority of students of Business Japanese in Australian universities are female. This paper examines Business Japanese textbooks from both macro (social practices) and micro (linguistic ...