Additive Bilinguals: the Case of Post-war Second Generation Japanese Canadian Youths

This study examined the relations among bilinguality, academic achievement, and socio-psychological factors such as ethnolinguistic identity and beliefs, first language (L1) educational support, and interpersonal contacts. The participants were 42 second generation Japanese Canadian youths living in the metropolitan Toronto area. All had attended one particular Japanese Heritage Language School around the late 1970s; however the lengths of time they had attended Japanese language institutions varied. Students’ bilingual proficiencies were assessed in both English and Japanese. Detailed questionnaires were administered to analyze socio-psychological factors. A strong relationship was found between Japanese oral and reading skills and both were related to a variety of ethnolinguistic identity, belief, and interpersonal contact variables. Japanese reading scores positively predicted both English reading and academic ach ievement (Onta r io Academic Cred i t ) performance. This suggests that L1 academic development enhances not only the development of L2 but a l so educational outcomes as a whole. A great concern for parents is how their children are progressing in school. In general, parents who are first-generation immigrants worry a great deal about children’s academic achievement in schools and their future success in society. Parents whose ethnic backgrounds are different from the mainstream society often have extreme anxieties. They wonder what kinds of linguistic, social, and psychological conditions will help children to be academically successful, and what kinds of school programs are best for them. Other questions also arise: Is it desirable for children to maintain a first language at home which differs from the dominant language in their society? Does maintaining the first language retard the children’s cognitive development and academic achievement? These quandaries have been especially frequent in the United States. Some educational policy makers and researchers have maintained that the “linguistic mismatch” between home and school causes minority students’ academic difficulties (e.g., Imhoff, 1990). Others assert that the “time-on-task” principle or “maximum exposure” theory supports the maximization of dominant language exposure as critical for language minority students, without noting that usually there is little assistance or significant instruction available to minority children in order to help them obtain academic