Japanese Style Shifts and Social Identities: The Case of JFL Learners and their Host Families

For many American college students who study in Japan, living with a Japanese host family is a highlight of their study abroad experience. Many of them report that they learned Japanese most from talking with their host family members. How do learners of Japanese as a foreign language (JFL learners) learn Japanese and acquire new social identities in interaction with their host families? One of the ways in which speakers display their social identities in Japanese is through style shifts between the addressee honorific masu and non-honorific plain forms. In the homestay context, in which style do the participants interact with each other? What social identities are indexed by the use of the masu or plain form in dinnertime talk between the learner and host family? Based on dinnertime conversation data from nine JFL learners and their Japanese host families, this talk attempts to answer questions concerning co-construction of social identities through style shift in the homestay context.