Hitomi Oketani, an associate professor in EMU's Department
of Foreign Languages and Bilingual Studies, has been named
one of five fellows with the Hakuho Japanese Language Research
Fellowship Program.
Offered in connection with the National Institute for
Japanese Language (NIJN), the program recognizes outstanding
scholars, researchers and instructors of Japanese by
inviting them to Japan to engage in research and studies.
Oketani will spend the next year conducting extended
research in her areas of specialty: bilingual education
(Japanese-English) and Japanese heritage language education.
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LOVE OF LANGUAGE: Hitomi Oketani,
an associate
professor of foreign
languages and bilingual studies,
has
been named a 2007-2008 fellow with
the
Japanese Language Research
Fellowship Program.
|
"I am very excited as well as honored to receive this
opportunity," said Oketani, who will be a fellow during
the 2007-2008 academic year. "I will be doing my research
here (at EMU and in the U.S.) as well as in Japan and Canada."
The NIJN, under the jurisdiction of the Japanese Ministry
of Education, Science and Culture, was founded in 1948
to provide scientific research of the Japanese language.
Conducting such projects as developmental studies of language
use by children, the NIJN has, in connection with the Center
for Teaching of Japanese Language, been active in instructor
training, development of teaching materials and contrastive
linguistic research.
"My work focuses, in part, on the multicultural education
in Japan as well as here in North America," said Oketani. "There
are so many facets that have to be taken into consideration
when looking at bilingual education — how language
choices are made in the household, social and psychological
interaction, identity — that it is difficult to
make general statements about bilingual education.
"Other factors include the location where bilingual education
is taking place and how it is being implemented," she explained.
For example, foreign language immersion education is virtually
nonexistent in Japan and very scant in the U.S. But, by
contrast, bilingual education has a different emphasis
in Canada.
"We are very proud of her and are happy to see her work
recognized," Betsy Morgan, head of the foreign languages
and bilingual studies department, said of Oketani.
Oketani is the editor of "Raising Children as Bilinguals," which
will be published in its second edition later this year.
She joined EMU as a lecturer in 1995 and has served as
an associate professor for nearly six years.
