Thesis Chapters by Ai Mizuta
Memories of language lost and learned : parents and the shaping of Chinese as a heritage language in Canada
In this paper, I situate Chinese as a heritage language education within the historical continuit... more In this paper, I situate Chinese as a heritage language education within the historical continuity of Chinese immigration to British Columbia since the late 18th century, and the continuity of discourses about Chinese as social other even as formal anti-Chinese policies and legislation were abolished in the mid-20th century. Focusing on the long term continuity and consequences of Chinese exclusion helps explain how the introduction of official bilingualism and multiculturalism policy in the 1970s and 1980s in Canada reified the English language dominance that had been a product of anti-Chinese practices, even as multiculturalism as an ideal seemed to repudiate a long history of Chinese exclusion.
Examined by:
Supervisory committee: Dr. Patsy Duff, Dr. Ryuko Kubota, Dr. Steven Talmy
University examiners: Dr. Guofang Li, Dr. Mona Gleeson
External examiner: Dr. Xiao Lan Curdt-Christiansen
Doctoral Dissertation by Ai Mizuta
Description Within the complex context of English language dominance and multiculturalism policy,... more Description Within the complex context of English language dominance and multiculturalism policy, Chinese language education is at a remarkable moment in Vancouver where history, politics and the economy are intertwined with demographic changes. This dissertation seeks to understand Chinese as a heritage language (CHL) in Canada through the stories of Chinese Canadian parents’ struggles and choices regarding their own heritage language. This study takes a life history research approach, which understands individuals’ life stories through a historical lens (Goodson & Sikes, 2001). The study consists of 10 parents from two groups of self-identified Chinese Canadians who reside in Metro Vancouver. The first group (Group 1) consists of parents who were either born in Canada or immigrated before the age of 4, had limited exposure to their heritage language, and predominantly speak English. The second group (Group 2) consists of parents who immigrated to Canada in their adulthood from Mainland China, Taiwan or Hong Kong, speak one or more of a variety of Chinese languages, and learned to speak English as an additional language. Beginning with the theoretical framework that perceives language practice as the outcome of the interrelation between socio-historical distributions of capital and the dispositions of individuals that are shaped and reshaped in their situated field (Bourdieu, 1991), this study captures CHL along multiple timescales (Braudel, 1958/2009) to understand the long term historical continuities of Chinese language education in a city shaped by colonial language hierarchies. The parents’ narratives show that despite the increasing popularity of learning Chinese and the rise of the Chinese economy, the challenges of CHL education have largely remained the same over decades. This study argues that English monolingualism as a foundational property in Canada is the root of the problem for CHL education and Chinese language programs in public schools, not the “increasing” presence of Chinese. As long as the unmarkedness of English today is (mis)recognized as natural and neutral, the markedness of Chinese as social other will still remain.
Conference Presentations by Ai Mizuta
Book Reviews by Ai Mizuta
International Multilingual Research Journal, 2014
Papers by Ai Mizuta
Hikma Collective, 2022
As the pandemic rose in 2020, so did anti-Asian racism across North America. In Vancouver, BC, an... more As the pandemic rose in 2020, so did anti-Asian racism across North America. In Vancouver, BC, anti Asian hate crimes increased 717 percent during 2020, and more than half of Asian Canadians suffered from discrimination in 2020. Incidents of Asian women and seniors who have been slapped or shoved to the ground being yelled racial slurs while walking on the street became a regular story. When I moved to Vancouver in 2006, the city had a reputation of being the Asia Pacific gateway of North America. In May 2021, a Bloomberg article named Vancouver “the Anti-Asian hate crime capital of North America.”
Finishing a doctoral dissertation is a long, often difficult journey. Thank you to all of those w... more Finishing a doctoral dissertation is a long, often difficult journey. Thank you to all of those who supported me along the way. I gratefully acknowledge financial support for this dissertation from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and the University of British Columbia (UBC).
MiniJournal Suzuki Association of Americas, 2021
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 19313152 2014 931322, Oct 28, 2014
English has played a significant role as a symbol of crucial change in Japan and its relation to ... more English has played a significant role as a symbol of crucial change in Japan and its relation to the world over periods of time; as a symbol of modernization in the late 19th century, a symbol of democracy and recovery after the defeat in WW2, and finally as a symbol of internationalization (kokusaika) and globalization in the late 20th century to the present . This paper, drawing upon hegemony theory, examines the ideologies of English in Japan over the past decade (1990)(1991)(1992)(1993)(1994)(1995)(1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008), represented and reproduced in the advertisements of eikaiwa (English conversation) schools through a content analysis of over 150 advertisements. Although Japan has experienced tremendous changes both economically and politically since English education was first introduced in the Meiji era , this paper shows that the ideology attached to English has hardly changed. Rather, it has been reproduced and reinforced over the century in a form unique to Japan in which it represents Japanese people's strong sense of inferiority to the Western people, namely gaikokujin complex. However, this paper suggests that recent changes in international political economy have promoted alternative views to eikaiwa, and indicates a possible ideological shift among the Japanese.
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Thesis Chapters by Ai Mizuta
Examined by:
Supervisory committee: Dr. Patsy Duff, Dr. Ryuko Kubota, Dr. Steven Talmy
University examiners: Dr. Guofang Li, Dr. Mona Gleeson
External examiner: Dr. Xiao Lan Curdt-Christiansen
Doctoral Dissertation by Ai Mizuta
Conference Presentations by Ai Mizuta
Book Reviews by Ai Mizuta
Papers by Ai Mizuta
Examined by:
Supervisory committee: Dr. Patsy Duff, Dr. Ryuko Kubota, Dr. Steven Talmy
University examiners: Dr. Guofang Li, Dr. Mona Gleeson
External examiner: Dr. Xiao Lan Curdt-Christiansen