Kuniko Yoshimitsu, Lecturer
Background
I began my association with Monash University as a postgraduate student in the area of Japanese Applied Linguistics and as a tutor in the Japanese Program. Teaching Japanese as a foreign language was a completely new area of study and profession for me back then. In my time at Monash, I have developed, taught and coordinated a wide range of Japanese programs from beginner-level to postgraduate. More recently, I have been involved in the development and teaching of content-based advanced-level Japanese programs.
My postgraduate supervision has been in the areas of language maintenance and shift, bilingualism and academic discourse in intercultural contact situations. For my PhD research, I studied the language planning for first language maintenance of Japanese school children in Melbourne. I continued to focus on this area and extended it to the language socialisation of the second-generation Japanese in post-secondary Japanese language classrooms. I am interested in how these students negotiate their identities to fit into a global society where English is becoming an increasingly dominant and demanding communication tool.
Qualifications and Positions
BA (Notre Dame Women’s College, Kyoto, Japan)
MA (Monash University)
PhD (Monash University)
Lecturer in the Japanese Studies Program, Monash University
Contact details
| Room: | 421 Menzies Building (Building 11), Clayton Campus |
| Phone: | (03) 9905 2279 (international: 61 3 9905 2279) |
| Email: | kuniko.yoshimitsu@arts.monash.edu.au |
| Fax: | (03) 9905 5437 (international: 61 3 9905 5437) |
| Mailing Address: | Dr Kuniko Yoshimitsu |
Research areas
- Language maintenance and shift of Japanese school children in Australia
- Biliteracy of Japanese bilinguals in Australia
- Study management of Japanese home-background students at Australian tertiary institutions
- Teaching and learning Japanese for promoting bilingualism within the Australian education system
Selected Publications
2009 (forthcoming) Management of study difficulties of Japanese students at an Australian university. In Language Management, (eds.) J. Nekvapil and T. Sherman.
2008 Japanese language socialisation of second-generation Japanese in the Australian academic context. Electronic Journal of Foreign Language Teaching, 2008, Vol. 5, Suppl. 1, 156-169.
2007 Study management of a Japanese international student in an Australian academic community. In Learning discourses and the discourses of learning, (eds.)H. Marriott, T. Moore and R. Spence-Brown. Monash University, e-Press, 08.1-15.
2004 Japanese home-background students at an Australian university: Who they are and how they manage in university learning situations. Journal of Asian Pacific Communication, 14: 1, 137-151.
2003 Parental role in children’s first language maintenance: The case of Japanese school children in Melbourne. In Nihongo kyooiku to sesshoku bamen (Studies in Contact Situations and Japanese Language Education), (eds.) S. Miyazaki and H. Marriott. Tokyo: Meiji Shoin, 143-164.
2001 Sanyokansatsu ni yoru kenkyuu no shikii o koete (Crossing the threshold of participant observation). In Gengokenkyuu no houhou (Research methods in Japanese language education), (eds.) J.V. Neustupný and S. Miyazaki. Tokyo: Kuroshio Shuppan, 175-180.
2000 Japanese school children in Melbourne and their language maintenance efforts. Journal of Asian Pacific Communication,10: 2, 255-278.
1996 Language maintenance of Japanese children in Morwell. In H.E. Marriott and M. Low (eds.), Language and Cultural Contact with Japan. Melbourne: Monash Asia Institute, 138-155.