Positioning of Students with Foreign Backgrounds in Japanese Class:Focusing on the Joke Utterances of the Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to reveal how students with foreign backgrounds position themselves when they make a joke utterance in Japanese class. I conducted fieldwork, with voice recording and video recording for this project. The primary data for the analysis is conversation data from the recordings. I applied positioning theory of Davies and Harré(1990) for the analysis to find out students’ positioning based on their Actions/acts, Storyline, and Position. There were three types of positioning on the students’ joke utterance, the positioning that the rights and duties as a student were practiced, the positioning that practiced other’s rights and duties, the positioning that the rights and duties as a friend were practiced. The results indicate that the students with foreign backgrounds try to show their ability in the class, and also take an active part in the class to make it enjoyable. It is considered that the students needed to practice their rights and duties to show their ability in the new society, Japan. It is hoped that this study can contribute to understand students with foreign backgrounds in Japan, and also to make us think what is education that considers the independence of the students.