This study examined the roles of: 1) ethnic identity, 2) attitudes/motivation toward learning the Japanese language, 3) attending a Japanese heritage language (JHL) school, 4) family support and 5) the perceived vitality of the local Japanese community in the Los Angeles area in promoting learners' proficiency in Japanese.
Five questionnaires were given to 60 JHL learners, from grades seven through eleven, who lived in the Los Angeles area and attended a JHL school there. The questionnaires measured constructs such as the learners' ethnic identity, attitudes/motivation toward learning Japanese, self-assessed Japanese proficiency, attitudes toward their JHL school, perceived vitality of the local Japanese community and family support. Items on the questionnaires were drawn from: 1) Phinney's Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM); 2) Gardner's Mini-Attitude Motivation Test Battery (Mini-AMTB); 3) task-based proficiency questions; 4) Bourhis, Giles and Rosenthal's Subjective Ethnolinguistic Vitality (SEV) questionnaires; and 5) original questions. The questionnaires were distributed in January 2003 and again in July 2003 to examine changes in learners' responses, if any, over the six-month period. In addition, individual interviews were conducted in July with 12 students who responded to the questionnaire both times to obtain supplementary information.
The major finding of this study, consistent with previous research, was that attitudes/motivation toward learning Japanese, JHL school and family support in learning Japanese were significantly related, and that their interactions promoted the development of Japanese proficiency and of Japanese ethnic identity. In addition, the results also revealed that the high-school students identified themselves as more Japanese and had more positive attitudes/motivation toward learning Japanese than the younger students.
Attendance at the JHL school appeared to be increasingly important over time to the students' developing their JHL proficiency - particularly in developing their Japanese literacy skills.