Siegal 1996

The Role of Learner Subjectivity in Second
Language Sociolmguistic Competency: Western

Women Learning Japanese
MERYL SIEGAL
flolv Names College, California
Downloaded from http://applij.oxfordjournals.org/ at Universitaet Zuerich on May 8, 2015

In this paper, I examine the role of language learner subjectivity in the acquisi-
tion ofsociolmguistic competency in a second language To look at the inter-
section of learner identity, social position, and L2 acquisition, the paper
focuses on a case study of a white woman learning Japanese in Japan A con-
versation between the learner and her professor is presented to show the
dynamic co-construction of identity and sociolinguistic proficiency within con-
versational interactions The discussion of the interaction and implications for
L2 acquisition are contextualized within a social, cultural, and historical
framework
I don 1 think I've found my Japanese persona yet, who I am when I am speaking
Japanese—I was listening to this lady speaking on the telephone in a little squeaky voice
(imitates voice) it's like, no i don't think I can do that, it's not for me—urn-1 don't
know (Karen 25 years old, American, English professor and Japanese language
student, Hiroshima, Japan, 1991)
I cannot stand the way she talks She is so humble all the time I don't want to be that
humble I am just going to stick with the desit/masu ['pohte'| form, it is polite and safe
(Anna, 25 years old, Hungarian, student of Japanese literature and language,
Hiroshima, Japan, 1991 commenting on Japanese female acquaintance)
How does a language learner's conception of her/himself, her/his position in

society, and how s(he) views the second language and culture influence socio-
lmguistic competency 9 Moreover, what are the constraints and resources of the
day-to-day interactions that a learner participates in that both limit and extend
her/his knowledge of a second language 9 For second language acquisition
theory, noting the importance of 'negotiation* within conversations as a step
towards L2 acquisition, the significance of the learner's identity within inter-
actions and her/his place within those interactions (guided by societal conven-
tions) cannot be ignored Just as any person involved in social interaction,
language learners are concerned with their 'face' (Goffman 1967) While
constructing a 'face' within an interaction, learners might experience conflict
concerning sociolmguistic appropriateness in their L2 In addition, concern
with 'face" fosters a concern to be sociohnguistically appropriate even though
basic L2 development may not be at an advanced level
Applied Linguistics, Vol 17, No 3 O Oxford University Press 1996
MERYL SIEGAL 357
To speak any language appropriately, language use must change according to

content For most native English speakers learning Japanese, this point takes on
a particular sahency because of the way register vanation is marked in Japanese
with grammatical and lexical vanation Changing registers involves the ability to
envision oneself in multiple ways It might be that the actual steps of learning
Japanese while living in Japan make learners more aware of language and social
relationships than when speaking a native language such as English Kondo
writes that 'proper use of Japanese teaches one that a human being is always and
inevitably involved in a multiplicity of social relationships Boundanes between
self and other are fluid and constantly changing, depending on context and on
the social positioning people adopt in particular situations' (Kondo 1990 31)

This notion is underscored with Kondo's perception '[while in Japan] I was
never allowed to be an autonomous freely operating "individual"' (ibid 26)
Furthermore, 'awareness of complex social positioning is an inescapable
element of any utterance in Japanese, for it is utterly impossible to form a
sentence without also commenting on the relationship between oneself and
one's interlocutor (ibid 31) Over time, as learners live in Japan and use the
language, learner awareness of how the Japanese language is used in society
develops (Siegal 1994) To understand the learner's process of attaining socio-
lmguistic proficiency in actual language use requires consideration of societal
and individual factors
The nature of second language learners' communicative competence
(specifically, sociolinguistic and pragmatic competency) has been investigated
from diverse perspectives Researchers have compared non-native-speaker
pragmatic usage to native-speaker norms (Gumperz 1982, Blum-Kulka, House,
and Kasper 1989) and examined possible interference from the learner's
linguistic backgrounds (Gumperz 1982, Blum-Kulka, House, and Kasper 1989,
Kasper and Blum-Kulka 1993) Different strands of research have examined
the interaction of learner (non-native speaker) communicative competence with
spcietal factors and the learner's sense of who s(he) is in that society Here, the
focus is the construction of self and identity through a second language (Becker
1983, Lantolf 1993), specifically, learners are 'human subjects with unique
histories, goals, and voices, who actively create and recreate their world and
th4mselves'(Lantolf 1993 232)
In a critique of Gumperz (1982), Singh, Lele, and Martghardjono (1988)
show that the societal subordination of linguistic minorities needs to be part of
ajiy kind of conversational analysis,1 they argue that if an L2 speaker is in a
subordinated position, an analysis that ignores societal factors (such as dis-
crimination) can result m misinterpretation of the data That is, an understand-
ing of language use must be contextuahzed within the power relationships of a
givejft societal structure
Approaches that begin with an awareness of societal factors, such as the
learner's position m a given society and learner consciousness about the goals of
language learning and language use, are essential to adequately represent the
second language learning process Schumann's study2 of Alberto, an immigrant
358 LEARNER SUBJECTIVITY
to the United States, describes social and psychological factors which played a
role in Alberto's competency The characterizations of Alberto's behavior,
however, are approached from a detached observer standpoint, we do not really
know what Alberto believes about his English language learning
he |A!berto] made very little effort to get to know English-speaking people He

stuck close to a group of Spanish-speaking fnends He did not own a television, and
expressed disinterest in it because he could not understand English On the other hand,
he purchased an expensive stereo set and tape deck on which he played mostly Spanish
music Also, he chose to work at night as well as in the day, rather than attend English
classes which were available (Schumann 1978 97)

From the perspective that regards learner societal position as essential to the
language learning process, one would ask. How did Alberto's societal position
in the United States (working class and Latino) influence his language learning 9
How was he treated by native speakers 9 How did he view himself in society 9 In
terms of target language "input' (if one subscnbes to such a theory where the
mind and the language learning process are reduced to mechanical metaphors)
did people address him m a standard English, or use Spanish 9 Indeed, did
people address him in a conversation where meaning could be 'negotiated' (cf
Hatch 1983, Long 1983) 9
While not necessarily focused on L2 learning, research in bilingual and
multilingual contexts reminds us that contextual factors such as the roles of
multiple languages in a society, the use of different language varieties for specific
purposes, and purposeful language mixing (cf Rampton 1991, Zentella 1993)
cannot be ignored when discussing L2 acquisition Bourne argues that 'Using
language in a linguistically diverse society involves making choices, each speech
act becomes an 'act of identity' 3 In making these choices, the form, meaning,
and the subject who speaks are no longer separate' (Bourne 1988 93)
Rampton (1991), in a discussion of "other' language learning among a multi-
lingual adolescent peer group in England, terms the uses of some of the 'ESL/
Indian English' talk by fluent bihnguals, 'a stylized persona' Language choice
and style as a reflection of individual style in a multi-ethnic, multilingual society
has also been investigated in the work of Zentella (1993) Zentella's work in a
Puerto Rican community in New York suggests that the acquisition of stylistic
competence and metalinguistic knowledge of linguistic style among residents in
the community is tied to the concept of 'impression management' (Foley 1990)
In each case, language learning and language use is not simply a case of one
target language variety, but rather a complicated task of discerning power
structures within a social order and power hierarchy Individuals view them-
selves as choosing a code that matches their (desired) identity in a given situa-
tion In Japan, among the communicative situations that language learners
participate in, in addition to the discernment and choice of language register,
code choices also include what language learners select when speaking and what
language is spoken to them For example, a non-Asian 4 is often addressed in
English in Japan, and this could even occur if the individual used Japanese to
MERYL SIEGAL 359
5
begin the interaction Often, western language learners are used to interactions
where the language is mixed, English and Japanese Some long-time western
residents in Japan report that they have the "luxury' to choose which language to
use depending on context, choosing the one that will be more efficacious6
CONTEXT AND SUBJECTIVITY

This paper examines the case of a white professional woman in her mid-40s
learning, studying, and using Japanese in Japan Mary,7 a Japanese high school
teacher and master's degree candidate back home in New Zealand, had lived in
Japan twenty years ago for one and a half years At that time, she was a mother
and wife and used Jorden's Beginning Japanese (1963) to study with a tutor

Over the years, she had brush-up courses in Japanese, but no formal, lengthy
course Now, she was back in Japan funded by her government and Japanese
concerns She was given a scholarship because she was a Japanese language
teacher, the purpose of her scholarship was to work on her Japanese proficiency
and to do some investigation into pedagogical techniques for Japanese She
became interested in language learning strategies and pursued this culminating
in a small research project focused on learning strategies and LI background
Before beginning her Japanese language studies at Hiroshima University, she
had a short intensive Japanese language course in Tokyo for two months On the
(grammar, kanji, and listening) diagnostic exam given by the Japanese language
department at Hiroshima University, she was placed in the advanced level The
courses she finally chose and attended were at the intermediate level, since she
experienced the advanced level as too difficult
The data I examine, a conversation between Mary and her professor, are part
of a larger longitudinal ethnography of the sociolmguistic competency of white
women in Japan studying Japanese (Siegal 1994) Over a period of 18 months, I
conducted fieldwork in Hiroshima, Japan focused on four case studies of white
western upper-middle-class women between the ages of 21 and 45 of inter-
mediate to advanced Japanese language proficiency studying Japanese At the
time of the study, the women could all be considered sojourners because they
were only in Japan for a year and a half and did not plan to stay longer Yet, they
all had the goal and motivation to improve their Japanese Seven types of data
were collected (1) language learning journals, (2) learner interviews, (3) field
observations, (4) audio tapes of Japanese language interactions in which the
learners were involved, (5) a pre- and post-study 'formal' interview in Japanese
(given by a native speaker) with each learner, (6) interviews with native speakers
of Japanese, some of whom the learners had contact with and some of whom
had no relation to the learners, sometimes using the playback method (Tannen
1984), playing the tape of a learner interaction to elicit native speaker
reactions,8 (7) newspaper and magazine articles dealing with the issue of
foreigners in Japan As for the taped interactions, I analyzed approximately 116
hours of audio-taped naturally-occurring Japanese conversational interactions
that the learners had with native speakers in Japan and approximately 42 hours
of informant interviews (all of the interviews were not recorded) I found that
interactions with professors and participation in specific formal speech events

were the only situations where the student learners (Anna, Mary, and Sally)
could possibly have the opportunity to practice formal and honorific language.
However, only Anna, who participated in these events more than the others,
'benefited' from her participation in them (Siegal 1994)
To focus on sociohnguistic competency requires acknowledgement of the
position of the learners as women, students, researchers, language instructors,
and, in part, as a racialized 'other' In some instances, societal position was co-
created, as illustrated by Mary's re-telling among friends in the international
community of an incident she experienced on a local tram In Hiroshima, there is a
notorious man who lives on the street and dresses in clothes that enclose his body

in a rainbow of colour He is a bit rotund, and his hair hangs down his shoulders in
an uncombed st raggley mass He is often seen around the city wheeling a shopping
cart loaded with all his possessions One day he got on the same tram as Mary The
tram was crowded and they were both sitting next to empty seats Someone soon
sat down next to this man, but Mary's remained empty, and many passengers
continued standing The man was odd, but as odd as he was, she was odder and
such a situation stunned her 'Normal' Japanese would dare to sit next to a social
deviant, but not next to her, a platinum blonde 45-year-old blue eyed 'lady'
foreigner The re-telling is the 'co-creation' of Mary as 'other' Mary's story, like
the stones of sexual harrassment told by other language learners in my study, not
only worked to create group identification among the women as the 'foreign
female other', but also acted as a means to resist the social positioning that was
foisted upon them while in Japan This resistance, in part, influenced their
language use and language attitude while in Japan
Consideration of identity, social position, and L2 acquisition has recently
been discussed by Peirce with a focus on immigrant women in Canada (Peirce
1995) Peirce draws on Weedon (1987) and her conception of social identity
('subjectivity') In viewing the language learners as agents through Weedon's
framework, Peirce focuses on three qualities of subjectivity 'the multiple nature
of the subject, subjectivity as a site of struggle, and subjectivity as changing over
time' (Peirce 1995 15) From this perspective, my work converges with Peirce's
study and theoretical framework Both my work and Peirce's regard second
language learners as active agents whose use (or non-use, 'silence') of their
second language positions them in a particular place in society The women are
viewed as 'others' Yet, subjectivity can be recreated, it is dynamic Learners
learn the language over time A learner's life changes influence his/her sub-
jectivity, language use, and language awareness Different situations call forth a
vaned linguistic repertoire Peirce notes how over time the women in her study
reinterpret their subject positions, in effect, learning has taken place As Peirce
writes, 'the conception of social identity as a site of struggle' (ibid) reminds
those involved in second language teaching, learning, and research that
language learners too are part of a world where power relations (institutional,
social class, race, or gender) are reflected in everyday interactions, language
both reflects and creates position Peirce persuasively argues for the considera-
MERYL SIEGAL 361
tion of what she views as 'investment' (not, 'motivation') and social identity as
major components for a theory of second language learning Importantly,
'although a person may be positioned in a particular way within a given
discourse, the person might resist the subject-position or even set up a counter-
discourse which positions the person in a powerful rather than marginalized
subject position'(Peirce ibid 16)
THE RESEARCH-CONCEPTUALIZING THE INTERACTION

The theoretical construct of multiple subjectivities as illuminated in Peirce's
work does demonstrate the connection between society and the learner There
are other factors linked to conversational interactions that are of consequence

in determining sociohnguistic competency
First, conversations are not static entities, but dynamic, context is co-
constructed by participants within the conversation itself Within this
dynamicity, I view a conversational interaction as consisting of components of
sociohnguistic competency such as 'presentation of self in discourse' (Lakoff
1979 62), language use (appropriate register use in Japanese, among other
linguistic features), and conversational structure These features of socio-
hnguistic competency might, within an actual encounter, be counterpoised, and
result in sociohnguistic inappropriateness
THE INTERACTION, PRESENTATION OF SELF, DEFERENCE AND DEMEANOR

The second language learners I studied in Japan were concerned with being
polite and not causing offense Mary reported that she was worried about her
Japanese language use, in part because she did not think she had the ability to
express the 'subtleties' that she could express in English She desired to be polite
in all her interactions (as she observed others being 'polite' with her) Sometimes
she -would use phrases and speech formulas to accomplish this goal For
example, when Mary introduced herself in Japanese she most often used the
form de gozaimasu (to be), a form which was not used by any of the other
learners in my study The form, sometimes known as a neutral polite form,
'indicates deference and respect towards the person addressed a Japanese
secretary might use it in speaking to the company president, but the president
would definitely not use it in addressing the secretary it would not ordinarily
occur in conversation among close friends' (Jorden with Noda 1987 117) 9
A kinesic parallel to her desire to be (verbally) polite was to cover her mouth
when she laughed, as she saw Japanese women do She often used and, a
conversational interjection, which made her speech sound hesitant (cf Mizutani
and Mizutani 1987 3 0-3 on notions of hesitancy and politeness) She called her
communicative style in Japanese 'a shuffle' style of communication, in other
words, she had created a 'demeanor' embued with what she envisioned as
humble and polite
Goffman (1956 473-4), in a discussion of deference and demeanor, writes
that the rules of conduct in a society are built upon expectations and obligations
He defines deference as 'the appreciation that an individual shows of another to
that other' (ibid 488-9) For Goffman, the symbolic means of deference mark
hierarchical relationships which are defined through an 'actor's' roles and
actions within society Demeanor, in Goffman's theory, is 'conveyed through
deportment, dress, and bearing which serves to express to those in his
immediate presence that he is a person of certain desirable or undesirable traits'
(ibid) A 'well' or 'properly' demeaned individual exhibits different qualities
which depend on the society within which he or she lives Goffman suggests that
in American society, discretion and sincerity are important attributes In Japa-
nese society, important attributes might be not revealing one's true feeling by
maintaining tatemae, and, for women, being cheerful (Lebra 1984) Mary's
demeanor is conveyed through her style of using Japanese (speaking'hesitantly*,

attempting to use polite speech formulas), and her use of Japanese ntual and
customs (which could also be viewed as 'deferential')
THE INTERACTION PRESENTATION OF SELF AND FACE1

Goffman defines 'face' interactionally as 'the positive social value a person
effectively claims for himself by the line others assume he has taken during a
particular contact' (Goffman 1967 5) The presentation of self becomes
complicated for language learners, adults speaking a language that they are not
completely proficient in Learners are confronted with maintaining or
constructing a 'face', that is presenting their selves in Japanese This image is
tempered because of a differential and unstable set of linguistic abilities
Learners might actually be creating a 'face' that is outside the guidelines of
appropriate behavior in the society Reasons this could occur are (1) that they
are not proficient enough to use Japanese in a socio-culturally appropriate
manner, or (2) that they might not accept certain societal rules concerning the
conduct of everyday behavior
Part of a learner's face is his/her position in society For example, in Peirce's
study, Eva, an immigrant from Poland worked in a restaurant A customer
commented on her accent, suggesting that it was 'put on', a way to get more tips
Eva reported that if she did not have the accent she would not be subjected to
such comments (Peirce 1995 25) Indeed, if Eva worked in a white-collar
position, it is questionable whether she would bear the same kinds of insults A
learner's position in society plays an important role in how she will be viewed in
that society, and what kind of language interactions will occur Position within a
society is conferred through institutional affiliations and to some extent can be
constructed In my study, Mary was the only woman to have a meishi (business
card) made Mary's meishi was written in both English and Japanese and listed
all of her professional credentials, and her affiliations both back home and in
Japan Thus, the business card did what Mary's, in some ways limited, Japanese
language ability could not it gave new interlocutors information about her
professional status as a teacher, consultant, and administrator at home and her
societal position as researcher in Japan
Second language learners do not merely model native speakers with a desire
to emulate, but rather actively create both a new interlanguage and an
MERYL SIEGAL 363
accompanying identity in the learning process Language learners are aware of
power relationships within the social order Also, learners are transnational,
this influences native-speaker expectations during interactions (cf Clifford
1992) as do global economic and political factors The economic shifts that
occurred in the 1970s and 1980s contributed both to the large numbers of
westerners desirous of learning Japanese and the funds provided by the
Japanese government and western governments to encourage this process
Notions of superiority and inferiority concerning nationality and race,
historically and socially constituted, are in flux These notions over time
combine to inform Japanese native-speaker expectations of the extent of Japa-
nese language competency on the part of white westerners In the past, western-

ers who spoke Japanese proficiently were viewed as henna gaijin ('strange
foreigners') Today, there are few contexts where that view still prevails Yet,
even though there are several examples (e g television talk show participants) of
non-native-speaker mastery of native-like proficiency in Japanese, there is still a
belief among some native speakers that Japanese is a difficult language and if
any westerner can say anything in Japanese, it is an accomplishment Perhaps
because historically few westerners who lived, traveled, or occupied Japan had
studied the language, low expectations concerning Japanese language ability
grew among native speakers During my observations of Japanese language
classrooms at the advanced level, one professor told the students (upon getting a
question about honorific usage from a western woman) 'you're foreigners and
you don t need to worry about using honorific language *
Gender is another factor that influences differential learning of an L2
(Polanyi 1992) Gender roles which might (even superficially) look different
from one's own culture because of language use and behavior can influence a
learner's competency in Japanese In Japan, among the language learners that I
worked with, there was some resistance toward using language forms (which
they saw being used by women) that mirrored what the learners thought was 'too
humble" a stance or 'too silly1 (Siegal 1994) Although Mary never let on that she
felt this way, she did comment on how polite women were in Japan In Japan,
Mary's group of both international and Japanese female friends swapped stories
of gender-related inequities they had encountered Mary talked about gender
and power relations in workplace relations at home (even suggesting to me that I
wear pink on interviews with a male interviewer because the color would signify
passiveness and femininity), indicating her awareness of these issues Her
beliefs, as evidenced by her interviews, were that in dealing with men in the
workplace, it was important to appear feminine in interactions
FACE FOR A NON-NATIVE SPEAKER OF JAPANESE

Matsumoto (1988 405) reminds us that in Japanese culture, 'what is of
paramount concern to a Japanese is not his/her own territory, but the position
in relation to the others in the group and his/her acceptance by those others'
She stresses that 'loss of face is associated with the perception of others that one
has not comprehended and acknowledged the structure and hierarchy of the
group' (ibid) In interactions between learners of Japanese and native speakers,
could it be the case that a non-native speaker of Japanese can lose 'face' if s(he)
has not followed conventionalized language rituals or could offend someone's
'face' because of improper usage9
Considering presentation of self, language use, deference and demeanor, face
and positionality, Mary's interaction with her professor provides an illustration
of how they are poised in a naturally-occurring interaction To successfully
converse, it is necessary to have an understanding of one's position in Japanese
society as well as an understanding ot how to use language to create or maintain
that position Mary's understanding of her position may or may not be framed
within Japanese cultural discourse Specifically, it is not reductionist to say that

in Japan, students should be deferential to their professors and should use the
appropriate language to show deference (cf Matsumoto 1988) Japanese
students in Hiroshima, especially in the institutional environment of the uni-
versity, did use deferential language when speaking with professors, and this
was true among graduate and undergradute students
I am suggesting that the conceptualization of deference includes a component
that recognizes the power that is conferred upon professors through their
institutional position which is ideologically different from the automatic
deference that is 'appropriate' in Japanese society That is, in Japan, any person
who teaches is a sensei10 and this title confers the right to be spoken to in the
appropriate register even if the relationship between the two interlocutors is not
one of mutual obligation On the other hand, as Bourdieu (1991) argues,
symbolic power must be analyzed not independently, but in terms of the
relationships between members of a society and the practices that these rela-
tionships engender and which subsequently both enable and is legitimated by
those forms Symbolic of the institutional power granted to professors through
the academy are giving grades, granting credentials, writing letters of recom-
mendation, and meting out praise or criticism, which all influence the student's
present and future life Therefore, it is not simply the use or non-use of the
appropriate register that is at stake in this interaction, but the larger societal ref-
lexes of language use
In this paper, my purpose is to illustrate how learner subjectivity plays a role
in second language sociolinguistic competency I view subjectivity as "the
conscious and unconscious thoughts and emotions of the individual, her sense
of herself and her ways of understanding her relation to the world" (Weedon
1987 32) and the learner, as subject, is a participant within a world of social
power relations To underscore the complexity of sociolinguistic competency
for language learners, I draw on several aspects of competency that are seldom
discussed for L2 learners The example that I use is a complicated one
Although we can understand how it would be possible for a learner to use
language grammatically but not be sociohnguistieally competent, the opposite
situation is difficult to visualize, especially when reading a transcript of a 'live'
spoken interaction However, competency mimesis is not unusual Use of
formulaic language can give the impression of competency (cf Wong Fillmore
MERYL SIEGAL 365
1976) and indeed, part of being a competent speaker of Japanese entails the use
of a great deal of formulaic language I argue here that sociohnguistic
competency also includes what I have discussed above as presentation of self
and non-verbal mannerisms such as performing culturally appropriate rituals
Second, the data I discuss opens up several issues within the construct of
sociohnguistic competency, not a single one Indeed, this is the nature of
analyzing naturally-occurring language and therefore different from focused
experimental data
Mary's presentation of self

Mary went to the office of her professor with the intention of accomplishing

several bureaucratic errands The professor was in his late 30s, a Japanese
language acquisition specialist who, in the past, taught Japanese Although he
was not officially Mary s Japanese language teacher, m his role as her advisor, he
had the authority to write her letters of recommendation and critique her
language learning progress Mary saw this professor once a week in classes, yet
private talk with him was infrequent As for this interaction, both participants
knew they were being recorded for research purposes Mary asked the
professor if he had any objection to being recorded and he said he did not This
interaction occurred in the eighth month of Mary's stay in Japan
In part, due to her knowledge of theories of language learning. Mary often
paid attention to her language use and language learning strategies while in
Japan For example she told me that it was important for her spoken com-
petency, while participating in a Japanese conversation, to manage the
conversation by guiding the range of topics Reviewing the tapes ot her Japanese
interactions reveals that this does not mean that she refuses to discuss topics
brought up bv her interlocutors Sometimes the change would be an abrupt shift
to another topic, or she would quickly acknowledge what was said (with a form
of back-channelling, aizuchi) and then shift topics This control is evident in the
following exchange, not only does managing the conversation assist her in
maintaining a Japanese conversation, but in this conversation, it also provides
her with a way to maintain and create a "professional' identity while speaking
with the professor In the interaction, seven 'speech activities', which are
'thematically coherent and empirically boundable portions of the encounter as a
whole (Gumperz and Berenz 1993 94)" occur An example of how Mary
manages the conversation, that is how the speech activities are bounded within
the flow of the conversation is the following, the first speech activity l2 Here.
Mary has presented the professor with a souvenir for his son from her recent
trip home The conversation takes place as she is showing the souvenir to the
professor In line (19), Mary shifts the conversation to her next order of
business, getting her professors stamp (hanko) on a university document to
receive money for a field trip that she and her tutor participated in, thus moving
to the second speech activity Features of this segment in regard to Mary's
sociolinguistic and general Japanese language competency are Mary s hesitancy
(marked by the use of interjections), inappropriate grammatical and lexical
usage and appropriate deferential behavior (bringing a souvenir back from a
trip)
Activity (I)
M =* Mary P = Professor
(1) M do, okosan wa ikutsu desu ka
(um), how old is your child '
(2) P a yonsai
oh, four years +old
(3) M asodesu ka.jya, (small laugh)
Oh, 1 see, well, (small laugh)

(4) P (vvv)
(xxx)
(5) M daijdbu desho
I wonder if this will be okay
(6) P ee
yes
(7) M jya, ne, and, me wa, (xx) and chotto abunai desho and, *oshiemasu
well, um, as for +his+ eves, it might be a bit dangerous um, *let me show you
how to use it*
(8) P a (aizuchi)
oh (back-channelling)
(9) M =chotto, a, — hai, ki o tsu=ke (te)
um, =yes, be careful
(10) P =a, hai, hai = toranai yd m
= oh, yes, yes =so as not to pull +this+ off
(11) M = hat, hai, hai, hai
=yes yes, yes, yes
(12) P angatd gozaimashita
thank you very much
(13) M and homo, kodomo no Smocha jya nai desho, and
um, well really, it s not a child's &toy. um
(14) P hai, hai (aizuchi)
yes, yes (back-channelling)
(15) M omiyage dake, demo, ano (small laugh )
it's only a souvenir, but, um (small laugh )
(16) P angatd, sumimasen, ne, (nan ka xxx)
thank you, thank you (something xxx)
(17) M te, te, le, te, =*daijdbu
no, no, no, no, =*it\ okay
(18) P angatd •= gozaimashua
thank you very much
(19) M ano, *sono hoka * and, a, kono ryoko
um, 'something else*, um, this trip
(20) P nn (aizuchi)
yes (back-channelling)
In the first speech activity, by presenting the professor a souvenir from her
recent trip home, Mary both shows deference to his position (she did not buy
MERYL SIEGAL 367
presents for everyone) and knowledge of Japanese customs She explains the gift
and the professor thanks her three times during this interchange The second
speech activity is to procure the professor's hanko (stamp) on a university docu-
ment that would provide her and her Japanese friend (also the professor's
advisee), with travel funds The third and fourth speech activities involve both
showing and giving the professor information pertinent to conferences and
articles within his area of academic interest This leads up to the fifth activity
when she informs him she will be leaving Japan for conferences in the United
States and Canada in the upcoming month A discussion of Mary's Japanese
language ability constitutes the sixth activity Here, Mary gets the professor to
articulate that her Japanese has progressed This is necessary for maintenance

of her image in part because she has just returned from a vacation and she will be
leaving again, which implies that she will not be studying the language or using it
dunng this time In the final activity, she returns to a personal note As she had
started the conversation talking about the professor's son, she ends the conver-
sation talking about the tutors the professor had chosen for her to work with
over the year At the end of the encounter Mary thanks the Professor with
chotto domo, sumimasen, angaid gozaimasu ('(hes), excuse me, thank you very
much*) in a manner that I term a 'singing voice, indicated by a slight rise in pitch
in which the two words are said as one musical phrase and the mora ma (in
gozaimasu) exhibits vowel lengthening This kind of singing voice is imitative of
service personnel, it connotes cheerfulness but is not the appropriate demeanor
with which to end an encounter with a professor Throughout the conversation,
it is apparent that Mary is concerned with presenting a 'polite' and 'deferential'
demeanor, she follows Japanese ritual by presenting a souvenir to her professor,
she speaks "hesitantly1, and she ends the interaction in a manner that she believes
signifies politeness (it is probable that she has heard the phrase and accompany-
ing mlonational contours in other contexts)
In addition, the conversation displays Mary's concern that she be perceived
as a professional (other 'displays' include her meishi, as discussed above), in
part differentiating herself from the other exchange students who are much
younger than she I argue that Mary's presentation of self (in part, creation of her
subjectivity in this particular interaction) is established by Mary through the
strategic use of these activities Indeed, all topics and topic changes arc initiated
by Mary In this encounter, Mary tries to establish herself as a serious language
learner and researcher who is progressing in her Japanese language acquisition
By providing the professor with information concerning his field of interest
which implies she is familiar with and knowledgeable about the field, and getting
him to acknowledge her progress in Japanese, she has carefully constructed the
conversation as a means of maintaining her image as an earnest language learner
and researcher on (almost) equal standing with the professor Indeed, one rea-
son why this is necessary is that she is about to leave Japan again Although the
trip is for the purpose of attending an applied linguistics conference, Mary will
be gone for three weeks Leaving Japan for that length of time when she is sup-
posed to be improving her Japanese could, to the eyes of a Japanese professor,
be viewed as 'play' It could indicate that she is a student who is not serious about
Japanese language study since she is only in Japan for a year She informs him
that she is leaving in activity (5) which strategically occurs after she has
established herself as an equal' in activities (3) and (4), and after she has dis-
played her deference to him and her knowledge of Japanese culture by present-
ing him with an omtyage in activity (1)
Although parts of her language use and demeanor demonstrate Mary s pre-
sentation of a polite and deferential face, her intentionally structured sequenc-
ing of speech activities and the very content of her conversation suggest a desire
to reposition herself—from student to researcher (at a higher level, perhaps
equal to the professors) This is reinforced by her lack of honorific language

usage Below, I present another factor affecting pragmatic competence in this
interaction, Mary s use of the epistemic modal desho Similar to Mary s use of a
singing voice' while uttering the last phrase angato gozatmasu Mary uses
desho to display what she believes is a polite demeanor (and possibly showing a
kind of deference to her professor) but because of the polysemy ol this form
her use could be face-threatening to him
Possible face-threatening language the use of desho

Throughout the encounter Mary uses the polite desu/masu torms of verbs, but
does not use honorific language which would be appropriate in this interaction
She frequently uses the epistemic modal desho In Marys case this usage
suggests a compensatory strategy to express a polite (deferential) stance in lieu
of honorific language use That is, Mary inappropriately generalizes the use of
this torm Although there seems to be no negative outcome from this misuse I
present the following analysis as further evidence of Marys attempts at
maintaining a polite stance and creating her subjectivity during the interaction
using an imperfect interlanguage
Mar>r expressed to me that honorific language was a weak point in her
Japanese, as was formulaic speech used to signify a formal tone (and related to
status differentials) often used in workplace environments While studying in
Tokyo, Mary made a presentation on honorific language for her language class
After taking several classes in Japanese in Hiroshima, she realized that she was
not learning what she felt she needed for her career goals and she hired a private
tutor for her last month in Japan to review register use, specifically targeting the
workplace
Desho. an epistemic modal (cf Szatrowski 1994 for a detailed explanation),
has various semantic and pragmatic uses Jorden with Noda describe desho as
the following
Desyoo \desho\ is the TENTATIVE equivalent of desu (boih are distal-style)
indicating probability lack of certaintv imprecision and/or indirectness The last
meaning is particularly common in questioning Like desu, it occurs after nominals and
adjectivals and follows similar accent patterning With question (rising) intonation,
unaccented desho seeks confirmation from the person addressed (Jorden 1987
150)
MERYL SIEGAL 369
The multifunctionality of desho complicates the pragmatic force of Marys
utterances and in some ways undermines them Several researchers have
pointed out the different pragmatic functions of desho It can be used to show
"reserve (cf Mizutam and Mizutani 1987 for a discussion of reserve and
politeness) Along these lines Maynard(1990 85) writes that the conversation
goes more smoothly and comfortably' with the use of desho/daro Furthermore,
women use desho with a rising intonation to indicate conversational harmony,
and most often this is used with other women Johanning (1982 17) finds the
use of desho by mothers to their children "is an attempt to alter their |the
children's] behaviors or thinking and 'it serves to make the child feel guilty that
she is not living up to her mother s expectations, thus indexing a negative affect

One use of desho is to mitigate the force of the speech act That is, desho
allows mitigation of the straightforward declarative as many "tag' questions do
Yet, the fact that desho can also imply information that the addressee must
alreadv know does not put it fully into the category of a traditional hedge or tag.
and rather suggests that the meaning includes properties of evidentiahty, such as
the territoriality of information discussed by Kamio (1979) Part of the
semantic-pragmatic selectional restrictions for desho concerning use by a
subordinate who is imparting information to a superior relate to territoriality of
information
That is. the forms desho/daro should be avoided when speaking to a social
superior because "they ask for confirmation of something that your superior is
assumed to already know (Maynard 1990 144) Haruko Cook (personal
correspondence) further elaborates judging what the meue (person above you)
partner knows and expressing it is an act too judgmental in talking to one's
superior in Japanese society' It might be the case that what causes the problem
here is an implication of the illocutionary force of the speech act signified by
desho rather than its propositional content The use of desho might act to
suggest a forced response from the interlocutor, something which a person in a
subordinate position should not do Therefore, incorrect use can result in
pragmatic inappropnateness such that parts of the following interaction could
be face-threatening to the professor n Language forms that have multiple
semantic-pragmatic uses are difficult for most language learners habituated to
one form with one function Mary seemed to be unaware of the multifunction-
ality of desho, a form that has a high frequency in spoken Japanese From this
interaction, Marys use suggests association of this form with politeness and
femininity Because of the range of semantic-pragmatic functions, it is not
surprising that she uses it to express a polite demeanor
Speech activity (3) exemplifies possible face-threatening usage through the
use of desho and lack of hononfics in this activity, Mary shows the professor a
conference schedule and shares information on pre-conference workshops
Thus, in addition to the analysis presented below, it is important to realize that
she is providing her professor, her social superior in terms of the university's
institutional hierarchy, with information on hisfield,which in and of itself could
be viewed as face-threatening She asks him (on line 30) kono umm, nani um
#institution# and shttteimasu ne (this, umm, what um, #institution*, you know
it, right) The polite form -imasu is used rather than the appropriate honorific
form, either irrashaimasu (for imasu) or substituting gozonji desu for the verb
shiru (as conjugated here, shittemasu) Using the appropriate honorific forms is
expected as an index of .the student/professor social relationship (cf
Matsumoto 1988) The use of ne 'directly indexes an attitude of mutual
agreement between the speaker and the addressee' (Cook 1988 157, Cook
1992) and indirectly indexes a change to a new topic, another one of its
functions in this utterance With a focus on pragmatics, two native-speaker
informants felt the use of ne at this point in the conversation too informal for an
interaction of this nature l4

Characteristics of Mary's language use in this interaction are language mixing
(English and Japanese), hesitancy, and inappropriate usage of several Japanese
words As for language mixing, Mary often used English words when she was
speaking to someone she thought knew English That most college educated
Japanese have some working knowledge of English is not to Mary's advantage
in gaining competency in the language Mary's case is not an unusual one for
native speakers of English
In addition, the data suggest that Marys difficulties in speaking Japanese
influence her use of various ways to attempt sociohnguistic appropriateness and
politeness which are not tied to honorific language use Mary's lack of honorific
language usage in the following segment is part of her limited competency in
speaking the language
Activity (3)
(30) M kono anii, kotto umm, nani, um{lp)#mstttiilion# andifutte imastt, tie
this that, this umm what um(lp)institution
and otnoshtroi and # international^, a and *k\dgt, and mo sugu
and, um nanmasu
um, you know +it, right9 um, there will be an interesting
international 'conference +lhere soon
(31) P a so desu ka =
oh is that so (aizuchi)
(32) M =hai, and.jii.jo, ichi jiuchi gaisu no, suju
ichigatsu no and hajime m**
yes. um, Nov. November, in the beginning of November
(33) P "a (kdgt)
=oh (lecture)
(34) M isuitachi, =sddesu tsiatacfu Kara a
the first, =yes from the first, uh
(35) P shine imasu sfutte imasu
+1 know about +it +1 know about +it
(36) M a so desu ka ja, and,(ip)#pre-conference workshops no
*hdhd ga, um, kono, kono, *zassht m
oh well, um the pre-conference workshop 'directions are in
this *magdzine
MERYL SIEGAL 371
(37) P koredesu
In this
(38) M hai, so ja, dozo
yes well go ahead, please +look at it+
(39) P (xx)
(40) M #and# hat [omoshiroi desho'] (she continues on)
#and# yes its interesting, isn t it (she continues on)
At the end of this speech activity (line 40) Mary hands the professor some of
the information she has and says, #and# hai omoshiroi desho (this is inter-
esting, isnt it) This is marked by a rising intonation beginning on omoshiroi
continuing through to desho when the intonation falls Although the final inton-

ation on desho is not rising, the pragmatic force of the utterance seems to
strongly confirm what she has just said n
After using desho, Mary continues talking yet her professor provides no
aizuchi (conversational back-channelling) or feedback One problem that I
could not control for is that this data was not video-taped nor observed (it was
an audio-recording which I had discussed with Mary) so it is not known whether
the professor gave non-verbal aizuchi The importance of non-verbal behavior
is not to be underestimated, and it is acknowledged that the professor could
have given a non-verbal signal that Mary's conversational style was
inappropriate, or that indeed, he did nod. giving non-verbal aizuchi If he did
not give any aizuchi, this is unnatural for the flow of Japanese conversation, as
Japanese conversational clause structure triggers aizuchi responses (Clancy
1982) Without such aizuchi here, it could be hypothesized that the professor
was uncomfortable at this point in the conversation In either case, Mary is never
aware that there is any problem in the conversation
In the conversation Mary uses desho 10 times, 9 times occur with a falling
intonation and one time desho is paired with ne which has a rising intonation
Native-speaker informants confirmed that in each of these occasions they
would not use desho I will discuss three of the occurrences
In activity (3), more appropriate to the situation and deferential to the
professor than omoshiroi desho (that s interesting, isn't it) might be something
like sensei ga kyomi o o mochi ka to omoimashite (I thought you might be
interested in this) This requires using the honorific form for motsu (to have), o
mochi, marking a tentative tone with the question marker ka, and ending on a
note of hesitancy using the te form of the verb 'to think' omou
In activity (4). Mary uses her limited Japanese as an excuse for not directly
contacting a Japanese professor whose article she had read and was interested
in watashi no, and nihongo wa mada {laugh ) heta desu kara muzukashi desho
('because my Japanese is still poor doing that would be difficult"), a more
appropriate comment might be watashi no nihongo mada heta desu kara totemo
muzukashi n jai nai ka to omounasu ( i think that it might be too difficult
because isn't it the case that my Japanese is still poor") using totemo, a formal
intensifies and negating the proposition, which also adds to formality and
indefiriiteness, and finally ending with the verb omou 'to think'
In both these examples, tentative forms which use self-directed questions (the
ka form in the first one and the ja nai ka in the second) and to omoxmasu ("to
think') are more appropriate than desho Indeed, the native-speaker informants
that I consulted about these forms actively avoided desho precisely because the
interlocutor was a professor
Another example occurs in activity (4) when Mary shows the professor an
article that she wants to give him She says omoshiroi strategy teaching no koto
desho {roughly, 'what's written about strategy teaching is interesting' or 'it s
about interesting strategy teaching') Her use of desho here connotes that Mary
is telling him something that he ought to know More appropriate when
speaking with a professor might be omoshtroi strategy teaching no koto ga notte

ini n desu ga ('there s some interesting things written about strategy teaching"),
ending with hesitancy through the use of ga and making use of no desu As
discussed by McGloin no desu makes a statement more polite by presenting
'information which is held exclusively in the speaker s territory of information as
if it also belongs to the hearer s territory of information" (McGloin 1983 135)
Mary often talked about her concern to speak politely in Japanese She was
unsure of her language ability and did not want to offend anyone Concerned
with her demeanor while speaking Japanese, the interaction suggests she
conceptualized the epistemic modal desho as showing politeness, hesitancy,
fostering a feeling of collegiahty, and included in her conceptualization is that
desho could be used without a problem when speaking to a social superior In
Mary s Japanese language system, desho seems to function as a means of
showing respect, used in lieu of honorifics She often commented that she knew
there were times that she should have used honorifics but she did not quite have
the system figured out Certainly, Mary does not want to irritate her advisor
Indeed, he does not appear to become irritated by her lack of honorific usage or
her misuse of desho
Further instances of pragmatic mappropnateness

In the conversational exchange, there arc further instances where Mary's
language use is pragmatically inappropriate The next example is taken from
speech activity (5)
(148) M sore dake, and watashi no, watashi no nihongo no shinpo wa nakanaka
osot desu ga,
that's all, um, my my Japanese language progress is really slow
(1-19) P le, le =demo
no no — but
(150) M shinpo
=progress
(151) P kaette-ia kara
because you returned home
(152) M im
(atzuchi)
MERYL S1EGAL 373
(153) P nuzirando n kaetie, tsukawanakatta desho-

you relumed to New Zealand and didn t use vour +Japanese, right-
(154) M un un un
ves
(155) P shibaraku no aida m
fora little while
(156) M demo, um, and, shinpo get anmasu ga = sukoshi
but um um + 1 + h a v e progressed = a little
(157) P =yu sore wa so desu \o
=well yes, that is the
case
(158) M un

(aizuchi)
(159) P konomda, no, koko m sfugatsu in ktui loki yon zittto jozu desu \o
compared to the previous time vou came bv in April +you re+ really better
(160) M a so desu ka domo *&unumasen (laughs)
(aizuchi) *thankyou (laughs)
Here Mary broaches the topic of her Japanese language ability She tries to get
the professor to acknowledge her improvement (line 156) when she says, demo,
um, and, shinpo ga anmasu ga sukoshi (but I have improved a little) He finally
does (line 159) kono aida no koko m shigatsu m kita tokiyon zuttojozu desu yo
(compared to the previous time you came by in April, +you're-f really much
better), she answers a so debit ka domo sumtmasen (laughs) (oh, is that so,
'thank you", literally, Tm sorry") She uses the form sumimasen (line 160) to say
'thank you . to express politeness This form (literally 'I'm sorry') can be used to
acknowledge unexpected gifts, but not to acknowledge compliments, so it is
inappropriate here because the form literally means Tm sorry", its use to thank
someone for something humbles the speaker and carries the connotation that
the act performed (or gift given) must have been a burden for the benefactor
Mary's use of the form suggests that she conceptualizes it as signifying humble
politeness l6 Yet, a more appropriate response is either a denial of the
compliment or a straightforward domo angato gozaimasu ("thank you')
However, denying the compliment might be contradictory to her goals since she
had been trying to persuade the professor to comment on her improvement
During each time in the encounter that Mary used pragmatically incorrect
Japanese, she was not corrected by her professor, although the times where
there was a possibility for misunderstanding, he requested clarification l7 In
general, corrections of non-native pragmatically incorrect Japanese are rare In
the above cases, incorrect usage does not fundamentally change propositional
meaning Also, pragmatic inappropriateness is often hard to explain Different
from grammatical inappropriateness, native speakers might not know the
pragmatic 'rule', or delegate pragmatic inappropriateness to non-linguistic
categories At the onset of my study, Anna, one of the learners, used anata
("you") inappropriately to address her professor I queried him as to why he did
not correct her and he responded, 'well, I guess she doesn't understand our
customs' Mary's interaction is significant because of the possible wider

implications 'pragmatic failure* (Thomas 1984) has on Mary's life Specifically,
the native speaker in this case is Mary's professor, a person whose field was
language learning and pedagogy, because ot this position of power he can affect
her future both in Japan and at home
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, discussions of non-native-speaker acquisition of pragmatic
competence must factor in the learners conflicting needs such as the need to
speak the language considering pragmatic appropriateness, the need to get
things done, the need to maintain face and the value that is placed on non-

native-speaker pragmatic competence within the larger society It is necessary
to consider that both the native and the non-native speakers are engaged in the
act of impression management in conversational interactions and that through
language use and behavior one s subjectivity is co-constructed Language learn-
ers are, after all, individuals engaged in social interaction and as Weedon writes
*as individuals we are not the mere objects of language but the sites of discursive
struggle, a struggle which takes place in the consciousness of the individual
(Weedon 1987 106) The act of modifying behaviour in different social situ-
ations for language learners who have an incomplete control of their second lan-
guage impinges on the sociohnguistic appropriateness of their L2 use Language
learners will use various means to convey face' and structure their subjectivity
in ways that non-native speakers do not At times, this might be at odds with
socio-cultural norms Significantly, intonation and frequently-used forms are
picked up by learners without regard to polysemous meanings or slight context-
ual variation
Recognizing that power and positionahty are inherent in linguistic inter-
changes, language learners manipulate conversations to create face, their image
within a particular conversational interaction This manipulation occurs using
an imperfect interlanguage and involves modality, honorific language, and topic
control A learner's 'pragmatic incorrectness' might be attributed to a desire to
buck societal conventions For example, in Mary's case, her use of topic control
seems to follow from her desire not to be perceived as a mere student, but as a
knowledgeable researcher on a semi-equal basis with the professor It is also
important to note that Japanese conversations are most often successful when
the interaction is co-constructed (Szatrowski 1993) and interlocutors 'go with
the flow' of a conversation (Yamada 1992)
Analysis of the conversation shows Mary attempting to create an image
appropriate to her desire to be polite (and perhaps, also 'feminine') without
displaying an understanding of polysemy, especially regarding the epistermc
modal desho This contributed to (possible) inappropriate language use
Conversely, Mary did understand the 'appropriate demeanor* necessary for a
woman in Japanese society This is indicated both by her hesitancy in speaking,
which is a form of polite behavior and she, herself, termed her 'shuffle style of
communication, and her cheerfulness, manifested in her use of a 'singing voice
MERYL SIEGAL 375
Unfortunately, while this 'voice does index cheerfulness, it also indexes a

service encounter, and is inappropriate for her meeting with the professor
Lantolf notes that in order for the learner to construct a voice in his second lan-
guage, he had to violate the constraints of the abstract grammatical system of the
language* (Lantolf 1993 227) Whether it is intentional that Mary is violating
cultural and linguistic conventions to create a voice' is not clear, yet further
research along these lines is needed
Secondly, language learner pragmatic inappropnateness in Japan is not
necessarily viewed as failure during actual conversational encounters,
especially by those in positions of power and authority Interactional encounters
are places where the learner s identity is co-constructed Although researchers

have shown that contextuahzation cues, in particular, intonation, can create
grave misunderstandings in communicative interactions, in the present situation
this does not seem to be the case
Indeed. Mary's advisor wrote an outstanding evaluation of her Japanese
language progress to be presented to both funding and work-related authorities
at home As many have argued (cf Singh, Lele, and Martohardjono (1988) and
Bourne (1988), among others), it is not just the way language is used, but who
(societal position, including gender, race, social status and class, and so on) is
speaking which acts to construct what might be seen as 'appropriate' in specific
situations 18
To understand why Mary s professor was not offended by her 'pragmatic
failures' it is necessary to consider his conception of Mary and of western
language learners in general Was it the case for Mary's professor that because
she was only under his wing for a year, he considered her 'soto , outside of the
group of students he mentored9 Non-western foreign students in Japan who
plan to stay for several years do report that their pragmatic inappropnateness
has caused them some discomfort in their communicative interactions with their
professors |IJ In addition, included in my data are areas where Japanese
language professors decide to sidestep 'pragmatic failures' entirely Sally, a 21
year-old learner with two years of intensive Japanese study before earning to
Japan, consistently tried to speak Japanese with her professor to no avail as he
would switch to English when he was conversing with her Low expectations of
western language learners are historically apparent in Japan For example, in the
early 1980s, a project to design 'abbreviated Japanese' (kan, yaku mhongo) in
order to make Japanese easier and quicker for foreigners to learn was funded
for three years under the auspices of the director of the National Language
Institute in Japan A striking feature of this project was that foreigners were to
be taught one register of Japanese, desu/masu (the so-called 'polite* style)
disregarding other registers used in spoken Japanese Obviously, register use
serves to position the speaker in a social and cultural world and signal language
competency The advanced Japanese language classes which Mary was origin-
ally placed in at the university ignored the intricacies of face-to-face com-
munication Bourdieu writes that 'the educational market is strictly dominated
by the linguistic products of the dominant class and tends, to sanction the
pre-existing differences in capital (Bqurdieu 1991 62, my italics) Capital, in
Bourdieu's sense is linguistic competence My concern is that in cases of
language learners such as Mary, the linguistic capital with which to become
proficient in Japanese is limited through educational institutions Furthermore,
language teaching and educational systems as institutions imbued with the
ideology inherent in national discourse (which includes how foreigners are
viewed in Japanese society, how the Japanese language itself is viewed by native
speakers and whether non-native/native speaker disparity in linguistic capital is
advantageous in the wider society) must be acknowledged However prob-
lematic, it is the case that these discourses are multiple, and not stable, indeed
Ivy's (1995) characterization as phantasm' reminds us that the construction and

creation of a national identity includes accounting for the multiplicity of 'dia-
logues' within discourse At the time of my study, the university had begun a
move to a small rice-farming village east of Hiroshima Only part of the campus
was constructed, new foreign students were sent to live and study in this new
environment, living sequestered in an all foreign-student dormitory, on top of a
mountain, close to the university but separated from the local Japanese com-
munity This was remedied approximately two years later when a new mixed
(Japanese and foreign student) dormitory was built, close to the railway station
and local community, off the mountain
It is necessary to examine how the larger society views non-native pragmatic
competency In a study of native English speakers in the corporate workplace in
Japan Japanese colleagues of these workers seemed to have 'little concern
regarding foreigners' usage of polite and honorific language at least within the
office (Falsgraf Fuju. and Kataoka 1992 12) However workers who were
characterized as "advanced-high and above' in their language skills felt that in
addition to vocabulary and expressions, 'discourse strategies' and 'conveying
nuance' still frustrated them when using Japanese Another area of frustration
was 'shifting from honorific to casual speech and back again" (ibid 15)
Interestingly out of 34 workers interviewed, 4 did not use Japanese on the job,
and only 6 had positions that were no different from their Japanese colleagues
Many of the interviewees did work related to English or were foreign liaison
workers and, thus, had different corporate positions from their Japanese
cohorts
Without a doubt, for the foreigner who is in Japan over a long period of time
the inability to speak pragmatically appropriate Japanese would increase
alienation in terms of social contact and economic opportunities Not
concentrating on pragmatic language ability in classroom teaching and ignoring
pragmatic inappropnateness in everyday interactions is a 'cost' to the learner
and disables the learner in, as Bourdieu terms it the amount of "cultural capital
(Bourdieu 1991 61,62) the learner has access to
If it is the case, as Bourdieu argues that the social power of dominant groups
lies to a great extent in their ability to employ discourses that deny or mask their
social and political content, in the case of Japanese language learners and their
professors in Japan the silence concerning inappropriate pragmatic usage
MERYL S1EGAL 377
needs to be further examined and related to the position of foreigners in

Japanese society As a step toward understanding that position in my larger
study (Siegal 1994), analysis of the discursive practices of foreigners in Japan
suggested the instantiation of a foreigner (or "other) identity occurring through
participation in specific speech events
The case presented in this paper focused on a white western woman learning
Japanese in Japan It is situated in a particular historical period, within a
particular culture and language, and focused on individuals However, the
concerns raised apply to understanding non-native-speaker sociohnguislic
competency in all language learning situations Formal language classrooms can
contribute to language learning (in particular, sociohnguistic competency)

through focused discussion of how the language is used in the target language
society Such a discussion needs to include the intersection of language, culture,
society (and all that reflects and creates power relations such as nationality,
race, gender, social class, age, and so forth), history, and the learner's position in
that society The classroom can be a place where dialogues' are created and
discussed, symbolic of the dynamictty of social position The poini is for
learners to develop a 'critical cultural literacy (Kramsch 1993) so that they can
most effectively use their L2, this knowledge will include both a conceptualiza-
tion of their position in the society where the language is spoken and an under-
standing of how language can be used in interactions to co-create individuals
subjectivity
(Revised version recened December 1995)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
1 presented an earlier version of this paper at the 4th International Pragmatics Associa-
tion Conference in Kobe, July, 1993 1 am grateful to the Japanese Ministry of Education
for the funding of the initial fieldwork from 1990-1992 and to the National Foreign
Language Center in Washington, DC for awarding me a Mellon Grant to carry out the
completion of the project from September 1993 to December 1993 I am deeply indebted
to Kyoko Hirose Ohara Katsuva Kinjo and Aiko Akiyama for their native-speaker
intuitions and insightful comments I am also thankful for the help and encouragement of
all attendees at the Japanese linguistics on-going seminar at U C Berkeley, including
Charles Fillmore Yoko Hasegawa, Kojiro Nabeshima, Tomoko Yamashita, Takashi
Sugimoto Natasha Warner and guest Yukmon Fakubo In addition, I would like to
thank Haruko Cook, Linda Harklau, Claire Kramsch, Van Ges»sel, Lily Wong Fillmore,
and anonymous readers for comments on this work However, I take full responsibility
for all that is written in this manuscript
NOTE ON ROMANIZATION
Japanese is rendered in the Hepburn system of romanization unless directly
quoted from another source Macrons are used to indicate long vowels
NOTES
' It should be noted, however, that this is a point that Gumperz would not contend-
yet, in the early stages of conversational analysis the link between macro social processes
and micro social processes was not yet definitive
:
Richard Schmidt's work on Wesley is another in-depth case study looking at social
and psychological variables in L2 acquisition (Schmidt 1983)
3
"act of identity is from Le Page and Tabouret-Keller (1985)
4
This is generally true with non-Asians who are white
s
I use the term 'western' to connote particular commonalities with obvious regard to
the social, historical, and political implications of one's view of the world (cf Said 1978)
In the main body of research I am reporting on, the women came from New Zealand,

Europe, Australia, and the United States
6
An English professor at a four year college in Japan reported that when he needed to
talk about his research, he used English, when he needed to request something at a faculty
meeting, he would first compose the request with the help of a Japanese fnend and make
his presentation in Japanese The strategic use of language in the public domain is a choice
that he has partially because of his placement in his institutional hierarchy and partially
because of English hegemony, especially in the scientific fields
7
Some learner identifiers such as name were changed to protect anonymity
11
These native speakers were graduate students, professors, and individuals outside
the academic community
y
The form de gozaitnasu (gozaru + masu) brings up issues in Japanese sociolinguis-
tics that need further research Note that this is always used in the polite form (teineigo)
I e gozaru is not appropriate It is not a humble form (kenjogo), but shows deference to
the addressee Many would call it a "formal' form because it is used in specific formal
events such as speeches Above all, it connotes the (social, e g work-related) position of
the user of the form Many informants related its use to 'service personnel' Neustupny
reminds us that among the 'semantic' features to consider in using Japanese is 'ascribed/
achieved features' (Neustupny 1978 220) (i e created status or position) Thus, it is
imperative not to merely rely on conventional notions of social class, but to understand
the use of language by specific groups within Japanese society For example, throughout
Kondos study (1990) are examples of how this works in small factories, such as the
following i n a work setting like the Sato factory, however, ichtnmmae [lit 'one complete
portion of a person'] and kuro |'hardship'| are implicated in a particular artisanal system
of apprenticeship (Kondo 1990 235)
1(1
This is literally "teacher1 yet the term can be used to address other esteemed individ-
uals For example, in the recent film The Mystery ofRampo, Edogawa Rampo, a fiction
wnter, is addressed as sensei
1
' I choose the term 'activity' because it connotes movement and dynamicity, although
Gumperz and Berenz use the term 'event
12
The transcript of this interaction takes up seven pages Because of constraints on
space, I have not included the full transcript with this paper I would be happy to supply
the full transcript to any reader who desires one In addition, i remind the reader who is
not familiar with Japanese and is relying on translations, that this is interlanguage speech
1 have regulanzed it in the translation with the following constraint even though it might
be thought to be incomprehensible in the wntten form (which, in this paper is rendered in
romanized spelling) this was an ongoing conversation, and the responses of the professor
show, for the most part, that he has comprehended what Mary was saying It is this
MERYL SIEGAL 379
comprehension that I am attempting to re-create with the translation The translations do

include the symbol * to show inappropriate usage
13
Objections could be made that it is impossible for Mary to threaten the professor's
face precisely because of her inadequate control of the language overall I refer readers to
Niyekawa's (1991) discussion of the effect on native speakers of non-native-speaker non-
use of honorific language
14
I played this tape individually to three native speakers of Japanese and I asked them
to listen especially to desho, the use of pragmatic particles, and other features of
competency such as (avoidance of) hononfics Calling their attention to these features
was necessary because of the several different kinds of inappropriate language which
could be focused on All three of the native speakers were bilingual and had expenence

teaching Japanese, two were graduate students in linguistics and the third was a translator
15
This is suggested by native-speaker informants It appears that more research is
needed m the analysis of desho and how use intersects with intonation My main point is
that the native-speaker informants who listened to the tape said they would categorically
avoid this form when the interlocutor is a professor
16
One question that was brought up by an anonymous reviewer was whether, indeed,
Mary is apologizing for imposing upon the professor In this case, she would not be
inappropriate in her use According to several Japanese informants, this analysis does not
hold Yukinon Takubo, in a recent informal seminar, suggested apologizing for an
imposition in this case can only be understood if there is a preceding clause (to establish
context) before the sumimasen, such as in the following
kabun na o home o itadaite, sumimasen
(undeserved) (noun m) (obj m) (praise) (humbly received) sumimasen
'Thank you very much for over-praising me'
17
Throughout my data, there are instances where learners are corrected by native-
speaker interlocutors in intimate interactions, but these corrections are not for pragmatic
incongruities
18
For example, the alleged difference in perceived communicative intent of white
male employees who are seen as 'assertive', female white employees as 'pushy', and
African-American employees as "uppity'
lv
I interviewed several non-western students (from Africa, Korea, and China)
studymg in graduate degree programs (which take several years to complete) in
Hiroshima A Korean student reported that he realized when he was speaking to his
advisor at the university, the professor, through a certain facial expression, displayed
discomfort when the student used a particular verb form The student attributed this to
the particular verb form, and realized that perhaps he had not been using the correct
register level
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APPENDIX
Transcription conventions
6 Japanese lexical item incorrectly articulated
* usage inappropriate (grammar or lexical item)
#XX# English word used
Ip low pitch
(laugh) bracketing parahnguistic information
= used to signify overlap and latching
(x) bracketing uncertain rendition, but has one syllable
nse/fall intonation
lengthening of a sound
7
used for question intonation
+xx+ in translation used to provide what is naturally ellipted in the original Japanese
holding intonation
falling intonation
~ wavenng intonation
Because some of the translations deal with tnterlanguage speech, the utterance's meaning
was interpreted using the context in which the utterance occurred

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The Role of Learner Subjectivity in Second

Language Sociolmguistic Competency: Western

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How does a language learner's conception of her/himself, her/his position in

To speak any language appropriately, language use must change according to

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he |A!berto] made very little effort to get to know English-speaking people He

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CONTEXT AND SUBJECTIVITY

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interactions with professors and participation in specific formal speech events

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THE RESEARCH-CONCEPTUALIZING THE INTERACTION

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THE INTERACTION, PRESENTATION OF SELF, DEFERENCE AND DEMEANOR

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THE INTERACTION PRESENTATION OF SELF AND FACE1

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FACE FOR A NON-NATIVE SPEAKER OF JAPANESE

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Mary's presentation of self

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Possible face-threatening language the use of desho

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Further instances of pragmatic mappropnateness

(153) P nuzirando n kaetie, tsukawanakatta desho-

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customs' Mary's interaction is significant because of the possible wider

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Unfortunately, while this 'voice does index cheerfulness, it also indexes a

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needs to be further examined and related to the position of foreigners in

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comprehension that I am attempting to re-create with the translation The translations do

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