I did a presentation about language learning and attitudes towards accented Englishes at McKinley Adult school.

Mainly for immigrant workers in Hawaii.

My purpose of this study in 2022 is to review macro-socio studies regarding World Englishes, and set up a language attitudinal study. The macro-socio studies will be high lightened to elaborate ideological and political issues that English language has burdened. It includes, for example, ‘English and inequalities’, which I discuss, focusing on English ideology in secondary education in Japan.As for the language attitudinal study, though a language attitude study has a rich history, there are few language attitudinal studies about how non-native speakers (NNSs) evaluate other non-native accented Englishes. Researchers have pointed out that NNSs regard NNSs of English as ‘inferior’. My study is an empirical one to investigate how Japanese high schoolers evaluate non-native Englishes vi-a-vis their own Japanese accented English. With reviewing previous language attitudinal studies regarding accented Englishes, I have set up the methodology to gather the data. Because my previous study in 2019 suggests some positive response toward non-native accented Englishes, it is expected that high school students in Tokyo area may react in such way. I will investigate the question using statical technique.

     State of Hawaii is a diverse society, and has a number of decedents of native Japanese, who came to the paradise as sugar plantation workers 150 years ago. 2016 US census reveals that 41.6% people in Hawaii are Asians or Asian Americans, half of whom are Japanese offspring. Now that Japanese Americans play important and crucial roles in the islands, and work as professionals such as doctors or politicians, they have higher standard living than other minority groups. After 150 years, the Japanese Americans speak English or slightly accented English as a mother tongue, which is my primary interest.      Language attitudinal studies are useful ways to investigate people’s feelings to varieties of language. Although there have been a number of researches on Native speakers of English evaluated by NSs, studies of Nonnative Speakers of English rated by NSs and NNSs, have been less documented for many years. As far as I know, this is the first study how Nonnative Speakers of English evaluate varieties of NNSs English in Hawaii.       My primary research questions: How the evaluations of other Asian-accented Englishes (In this study, Filipino accented English) are made in comparison with those of the Japanese-accented English.