Emotion of a Child Crossing Borders Triggered by "Self-censorship" : A Life-story of a Woman with Transnational Experience across U.S. and Japan

ジコケンエツ　ニ　トモナウ　イドウ　スル　コドモ　ノ　ジョウドウ　ベイニチカン　オウカン　ヲ　ケイケン　シタ　ジョセイ　ノ　ライフストーリー　ヲ　ジレイ　ニ

オバタ, カナエ

Obata, Kanae

The Japanese Society for Mother Tongue, Heritage Language, and Bilingual Education

情動

往還

ライフストーリー

Pierre Bourdieu

The present study investigates the process of linguistic adaptation and language learning in a case study of a female participant who has transnationally grown up in the U.S. and Japan. The research draws on a semistructured interview concerning the participant’s life story to explore her experiences and memories as a “child crossing borders,” with a particular focus on emotion. The findings identify three primary categories that elucidate her emotionally engaged transnational experiences since childhood: “everyday life as a rollercoaster and its associated physical reactions,” “self-censorship, ”and“ imagined self.” It is suggested that emotional experiences and memories are evoked in a form of“ everyday life as a rollercoaster and associated physical reactions” as a result of acts of“ self censorship.” This act of self-censorship serves as a strategic regulatory mechanism over one’s own linguistic production, prompted by the virtual nature of the “imagined self.” In the context of the virtual self, the participant imagines that had she remained in the locality, she might have become a fully integrated member of the community. The significance of this paper as exploratory research lies in its explicit examination of the role and nature of emotions in“ child crossing borders,” a concept theorized by Kawakami (2023).