Sottile, Marco - Appointed in AY2022

My research to date has been in two fields: educational anthropology and French as a Foreign Language (FLE).

In the field of educational anthropology, my research is divided into two periods, but the underlying interest is in the issue of "the relationship between the state, school, and cultural diversity."

The first area of research focuses mainly on "multicultural coexistence" in Japanese public elementary schools. Based on fieldwork and participant observation, this research examines group dynamics and individual identity strategies in classrooms where half of the children are of South American origin.

The second area of research, in order to consider "the relationship between the state, school, and cultural diversity," focuses on colonial education in countries such as Japan and France, particularly the colonial education in French Algeria. From a gender studies perspective, I am conducting research from various angles on the education of Muslim children in the context of French colonial rule, including the educational system, teaching methods, and the socioeconomic impact of educational policies.

Regarding my research in FLE, my main theme of interest is the incorporation of subtitling French films (from French to Japanese) into the educational practice of French language teaching. While I have primarily used films set in France, I am now incorporating films from other French-speaking regions into my film corpus, such as Quebec in Canada, West Africa, and North Africa.

Why should we learn a foreign language? To this question, I answer by borrowing the words of the French ethnologist Germaine Tillion (1907–2008): "From everyday experience, everyone learns that we are born and grow up in a bubble. It is a small, spherical universe, an embryo, whose shell we have never managed to break. Through dialogue, we attempt to transcend and expand, but neither expansion nor transcendence can cross the walls of other universes unless we go beyond the beautiful, enclosed gardens represented by our respective cultures, languages, homelands, and religions." In other words, for all of you who have the chance to be active on the global stage in the future, I recommend that you learn a foreign language to break out of your own "beautiful garden" and engage in dialogue with other cultures.

And among foreign languages, French plays an important role not only in the International Organisation of La Francophonie, formed by countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, and North America, but also in various international organizations such as the United Nations and the International Olympic Committee. Spoken all over the world, the French language will surely be useful in the fields of politics and economics in the future. Therefore, I strongly recommend not only taking French classes but also participating in student exchange programs and the like to experience living French.