2021 Volume 19 Pages 52-73
This self-directed study examines the significance of Japanese sign language as a heritage language for the author, who is a child of deaf adults (CODA). This research is conducted using dialogical autoethnography; the author reflects on his own experience through a comparative dialogue with the experiences of a Chinese overseas student who is also a CODA. Findings show that the author and research participant grew up as third-culture kids, in that they were embedded in dominant spoken language that were different from their parents’ deaf culture. Moreover, their third-culture is influenced by the social identity they developed through social interaction while growing up as members of disabled families. They had hidden their third-culture because it was associated with the negative aspects of discrimination. In conclusion, to make third culture acceptable for them, it is necessary to proactively reconstruct their social identities as a child of deaf adults and accept the inheritance of Japanese sign language as their parents’ native language.
