Chisato Danjo

PhD

Chisato completed a Bachelor in Education at Osaka Kyoiku University (Japan) in 2006, and then worked in a Japanese municipal primary school as a classroom teacher. In Japan, the new curriculum, ‘Foreign Language Activities’ (FLA), was about to commence and would see the widespread teaching of English at primary school level. This was what inspired her to come to the UK to study for an MA TEFL in Education (teaching English as a foreign language) at the University of Birmingham (2010-11).

During her MA TEFL studies she became interested in the interrelations between language, culture and identity, and how power and ideology influence them. This interest has led her to engage in further study at doctoral level.

She was awarded a fully-funded PhD studentship in linguistics at Northumbria University, and started the PhD programme in October 2011.

Qualifications

MA TEFL in Education, University of Birmingham, UK (with distinction) - 2011

B. Ed., Osaka Kyoiku University, Japan (UK first-class equivalent) - 2006

Research Project

A Critical Ethnographic Inquiry into Bi/Multilingual Children’s and Parents’ Language Use and Identities

This is a critical ethnographic study, exploring the ways in which bi-/multilingual children and parents perceive and negotiate 1) their language use and 2) identities. I conducted my fieldwork at a Hoshuko (Japanese complementary school) in the UK, and during family home visits. I am particularly interested in how language use is negotiated in the family, institutions and society, and the discrepancies arising between institutional discourses, individual narratives, and practices.

Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

Her research interests lie in the field of sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, linguistic ethnography, critical ethnography, applied linguistics, and TESOL.

Research topics and methods: multilingualism, language and identity, language and culture, language policy, critical discourse analysis, microanalysis of interaction (conversation analysis).

Key Publications

Danjo, C (2014) Complementary Schools in the Global Age: Tackling the Diversification of Students’ Background. In O’Rourke, N. Bermingham & S. Brennan(Ed.), Opening New Lines of Communication in Applied Linguistics: Proceedings of the 46th Annual Meeting of the British Association for Applied Linguistics, Heriot-Watt University, 5-7 September 2013 (pp. 127-132). London: Scitsiugnil Press