Construction of Linguistic Repertoire and Identity of a Japanese Child in Multilingual Luxembourg through Lived Experience

Abstract

The study investigates how a multilingual Japanese child resident overseas exercises, interprets and represents heteroglossic practices, repertoires and identity. Based on a poststructuralist approach which posits that identity is shaped by historically determined power relations and the subject, the study investigates how a Japanese child living in a multilingual environment brings together personal history, experience, values and practices to form linguistic repertoires and identity. In addition to interviews, use is made of a language portrait as a research tool in order to visualise linguistic repertoire. The result is a detailed analysis of a 10year old Japanese girl living in multilingual Luxembourg revealing the child’s multilingual repertoire, complex emotions and positioning formed through lived experiences in a multilingual environment. Of particular note is the use of translanguaging to represent the child’s heteroglossic repertoire. Analysis also reveals that, for the child, language is experienced primarily as capital for socialisation. However, the existence of a fixed elite multilingualism made it difficult for the child to develop proficiency and to increase social participation.