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This autoethnographic account of the author’s Japanese as a second language learning trajectory is an important and unique addition to diary studies in SLA and applied linguistics qualitative research circles. In-depth ethnographic details and introspective commentary are skilfully interwoven throughout Simon-Maeda’s narrative of her experiences as an American expatriate who arrived in Japan in 1975 – the starting point of her being and becoming a speaker of Japanese. The book joins the recent surge in postmodernist, interdisciplinary approaches to examining language acquisition, and readers are presented with a highly convincing case for using autoethnography to better understand sociolinguistic complexities that are unamenable to quantification of isolated variables. The comprehensive literature review and wide ranging references provide a valuable source of information for researchers, educators, and graduate students concerned with current issues in SLA/applied linguistics, bi/multilingualism, and Japanese as a second language.
Simon-Maeda’s poignant autoethnography makes a compelling reading, whose significance transcends that of a common autobiography. Interweaving personal experiences with scholarly insights, her feminist account illuminates the socio-political situatedness of second language learning and reveals ways in which a second language self is fashioned both within and against norms prevalent in one’s adopted society.
Andrea Simon-Maeda is an Associate Professor in the Department of Early Childhood Education at Nagoya Keizai University where she teaches English as a foreign language. She has published articles in TESOL Quarterly and the International Multilingual Research Journal and served as a coordinator and editor for the Gender Awareness in Language Education Special Interest Group of the Japan Association for Language Teaching. Her main research interests are bi/multilingualism and gender issues in societal and educational contexts, and her professional educator career in Japan spans 35 years of tertiary level EFL instruction.
PART I
Introduction
Chapter 1 The Postmodern Basis of Autoethnography
Chapter 2 Narrative Inquiry in SLA and Applied Linguistics
PART II
Chapter 3 In the Beginning: Situating the Story
Chapter 4 In the Middle: Love, Marriage, Family
Chapter 5 Career Discourse(s)
Chapter 6 Where I Am Now: Two Days in the Life of an Expatriate
Closing Discussion