Foreign Language Education in Japan: Exploring Qualitative Approaches, Sachiko Horiguchi, Yuki Imoto, and Gregory S.

A qualitative development study of Korean language education in Japan -Focusing on obtaining Korean teacher qualifications-

Language education in Japan: the multicultural challenge

While English has been the primary foreign language to learn in junior high schools and high schools in Japan, it was introduced to elementary schools as an ”optional activity” in 2002. According to the Japanese Ministry of Education, ”MEXT,” about 97.1 percent of elementary schools throughout Japan engaged in some kind of ”English activity” with an average of 15.9 hours per year (for 6th graders) in 2007. Although these figures may indicate an increase in interest in teaching English at elementary school level, additional data suggest serious concerns among elementary school teachers. One of the main sources of the concerns is the fact that most English activities are taught by homeroom teachers who do not hold any formal teaching credentials in English. However, the MEXT has announced that English will become a ”mandatory activity,” not an academic subject. in elementary schools in 2011, which may trigger more problematic situations. This paper addresses the issues related to the implementation of elementary school English in Japan from the following perspectives: (1) Role and relevance of English in an Asian context, (2) Importance of coherent education from elementary to tertiary level, (3) Brief history and current status of elementary school English in Japan, (4) Professional competencies for elementary school English: pedagogical competency and English ability. Although English is recognized as the most widely used language of international communication, there has been no consensus of opinion about the purpose and goal of English education at elementary school level yet in Japan. In principle, teacher training and induction will not be offered to elementary homeroom teachers. In addition, the requirements for teachers of elementary school English have not yet been clarified by the MEXT. Main findings of the survey with 600 elementary school teachers, conducted in 2006 and 2007, and suggestions for designing of elementary school curriculum, teaching materials, and teacher education will also be discussed for further research.

本稿の目的は,初旅外国語としてのドイツ語教育におけるインターネットの役割について示すことである。まず,大学における初修外国語教育が抱える制度的問題点を以下の6つに整理した。制度的問題点 1.不十分な学習時間 2.大人数授業 3.学習言語を実際に利用する機会の欠如 4.言語的文化的な要因に基づく学習対象自体の困難さ 5.不十分で曖昧な学習の動機 6.長期的な学習展望の欠如 次にこれらの問題点の解決のための方策として以下の4つの課題を設定し,そのそれぞれについてインターネットの利用可能性を具体例を挙げて論じた。我々の課題 1.どうやって不十分な条件を補い実質的な学習時間を拡大するか 2.どうやって学習の動機付けを図るか 3.どうやって通常のコミュニケーションでのような本当らしい課題を設定するか 4.自立的な学習の機会をどうやって提供するか 課題1については,オンライン学習プログラムが有効である。主として言語能力の受容的側面に関わるスキル(聴解・読解・文法等)に限られるが,これらを利用することでドイツ語授業のトレーニング機能の一部を授業外に移すことが可能になり,実質的な学習時間の拡大がはかれる。課題2については,一つの事例として電子掲示板の公共的な発表空間としての機能が学習の動機付けに有効である。課題3に関しては,「仮想ドイツ旅行」等のプロジェクトに見られるように,インターネットのTelecommunication機能やドイツ語圏のサイトヘのアクセス可能性を利用することで,言語素材と課題の両側面においてauthenticなコミュニケーション状況を作り出すことが可能である。課題4については,1年半の教養的教育における学習期間を過ぎると継続して学習することが実質的に困難な状況を克服する方策の一つとして, WWW上に教材提示から学習相談までを網羅したドイツ語学習のための統合的なページを開設し運用することが考えられる。CALLというと,今なおコンピュータ上で動く学習プログラムを使って外国語を勉強することだけというイメージが強く,オーディオ・リンガル・メソドに由来する時代遅れの教授法を最新のIT技術で糊塗しようとするものであるかのように誤解されることも多い。しかし,CALLの主たる可能性は,むしろcontent-based learningやtask-based learning, telecommunication等のための認知的な道具としての機能にあり,それらは学習者の自立性を促す有効な手段である。インターネットが生み出した新しい学習状況が外国語教育においても考慮されなければならない。

Korean Language Education in Japan

Although culture learning is closely connected to language learning and definitely essential to developing students' communicative competence for cross-cultural communication in the global society, the importance of culture learning to EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learning is often ignored by MOE (Ministry of Education) and English teachers in Taiwan. Thus this paper draws upon domestic and international literature to explore the factors that hamper culture learning in a foreign language classroom and the ways that can integrate culture learning into Taiwan's foreign language education. While finding that the stereotypes about culture among the public as well as the limited knowledge of both the target culture and the approaches to culture teaching among educators and English teachers in Taiwan are the main factors that make culture learning separate from language learning in a foreign language classroom, the researcher concludes that with the trend toward globalization and internationalization English teachers in Taiwan need to understand more about the nature of culture learning and shatter the illusion that linguistic knowledge is the most important element in cross-cultural communication. In order to integrate culture learning into Taiwan’s foreign language education, the researcher also concludes that English learning materials and teaching approaches as well as the goals of Taiwan's foreign language education should be adjusted appropriately. 136-Abstract Although culture learning is closely connected to language learning and definitely essential to developing students' communicative competence for cross-cultural communication in the global society, the importance of culture learning to EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learning is often ignored by MOE (Ministry of Education) and English teachers in Taiwan. Thus this paper draws upon domestic and international literature to explore the factors that hamper culture learning in a foreign language classroom and the ways that can integrate culture learning into Taiwan's foreign language education. While finding that the stereotypes about culture among the public as well as the limited knowledge of both the target culture and the approaches to culture teaching among educators and English teachers in Taiwan are the main factors that make culture learning separate from language learning in a foreign language classroom, the researcher concludes that with the trend toward globalization and internationalization English teachers in Taiwan need to understand more about the nature of culture learning and shatter the illusion that linguistic knowledge is the most important element in cross-cultural communication. In order to integrate culture learning into Taiwan's foreign language education, the researcher also concludes that English learning materials and teaching approaches as well as the goals of Taiwan's foreign language education should be adjusted appropriately.

Reviewed by: International Perspectives on Translation, Education and Innovation in Japanese and Korean Societies ed. by David G. Hebert Hansol Woo (bio) and Gerald LeTendre (bio) International Perspectives on Translation, Education and Innovation in Japanese and Korean Societies, edited by David G. Hebert. Springer International Publishing AG, 2018. 347 pages. $119.00 hardcover, $89.00 eBook. This book attempts to provide a new perspective on East Asian societies in a globalized world. In line with works like Okano and Sugimoto (2018), chapters in this book confront the problem of applying social theory derived in the “West.” The authors also attempt to move beyond national society perspectives to provide a contextualized view of East Asian society by including chapters on Korea and Japan. The authors examine a wide range of topics centered on language and culture, with a focus on issues of translation, language research, and language education. The inclusion of such diverse topics is thought-provoking, but the various sections of the book are not well integrated. The volume consists of twenty-one chapters divided into six sections. The first section on cultural change and the final chapter attempt to integrate this diverse collection but otherwise there is little that holds the book together. For example, chapter 2 provides a “deep dive” into how the word “shizen” has come to be the standard translation for both “environment” and “wilderness,” but no connections are made with chapter 4, which analyzes how a popular novel on pollution translated obscure scientific discourse into “ . . . a language that was accessible to the general reader . . . ” in Japan. The issues of “cultural translation” in Part I, would ideally inform the major issues of translation in literature which is the focus of Part II. Instead, chapter 5 moves on to describe the characteristics of Western languages in Japanese novels, and the last chapter of this section explains the emotional discourse analysis methods by analyzing Japanese literature. Part III focuses on key linguistic features of Korean and Japanese. These chapters identify the varying levels of definiteness in the use of articles and plural forms in Korean and Japanese, as well the influence of local dialectics on contemporary language use. Part IV presents a couple of [End Page 157] cases of language education in Japan. Chapter 11 examines the theory and practice of Japanese language education, focusing on the use of the modal verb, while chapter 12 analyzes the common mistakes of Swedish learners attempting to master Japanese. All interesting studies, to be sure, but the reader is left craving a synthesis that would unpack the potential insights that such a diverse assemblage of scholarship must hold. Part Vexplores the use of language in the professions using specific examples from contemporary Japanese law, Japanese trials, and urban planning in Korea. Finally, Part VI concludes with chapters as diverse as essays on learning the shakuhachi, and the aesthetics of the image of “spring rain” in haiku. The range of scholarship in this book is impressive. Each chapter presents a narrow scope of study and attempts to substantiate its conclusions based on empirical evidence. Some of the chapters are under-researched (e.g., the chapter on changing images of masculinity fails to cite major works on gender identity like a study by Borovoy (2005), but there is plenty of creative scholarship on display). For example, Barbara Hartley illustrates the issues and challenges to translation raised by Ariyoshi Sawako’s novel, Fukugô osen (Compound Pollution). While the translated book had a significant impact on environmental problems in Japan, the book suffered harsh criticism from some environmental scientists. Such harsh reception as seen in this case shows a specific dilemma of language transition in the field of science and encourages us to understand its challenges better. Such chapters echo the broader theme that language and translation are a font of innovation in East Asian society. This is a provocative idea, and the book does identify some tantalizing evidence. David G. Herbert, the editor, attempts to integrate these ideas into a new perspective on East Asian countries (although the synthesis does not include China, Taiwan, Singapore, and North Korea). This work goes beyond traditional, geographical, and demographic characteristics, to examine the effects of global interchange...

Despite success in many areas of education policy, the Japanese education system has been criticized at home and abroad for poor levels of communicative foreign language teaching. There has been a consensus on the need to improve performance in English teaching in particular among actors in the policy-making process. There has also been a considerable demand for private English language classes throughout Japan for some time. Focusing on government efforts to improve English language teaching since the mid-1980s, this article proposes that obstacles to the improvement of foreign language teaching can best be understood through an analysis of the social norms, values and expectations relating to teaching and learning that permeate school and university classrooms in Japan. The paradigm of ‘small cultures’ (Holliday 1999) is used in order to show how common characteristics of the learning environment in Japan influence the interactions of groups of learners and teachers in ways that inhibit effective communicative foreign language teaching practice.

Book Review International Perspectives on Translation, Education and Innovation in Japanese and Korean Societies, edited by David G. Hebert. Springer International Publishing AG, 2018. 347 pages. $119.00 hardcover, $89.00 eBook. This book attempts to provide a new perspective on East Asian societies in a globalized world. In line with works like Okano and Sugimoto (2018), chapters in this book confront the problem of applying social theory derived in the “West.” The authors also attempt to move beyond national society perspectives to provide a contextualized view of East Asian society by including chapters on Korea and Japan. The authors examine a wide range of topics centered on language and culture, with a focus on issues of translation, language research, and language education. The inclusion of such diverse topics is thought-provoking, but the various sections of the book are not well integrated. The volume consists of twenty-one chapters divided into six sections. The first section on cultural change and the final chapter attempt to integrate this diverse collection but otherwise there is little that holds the book together. For example, chapter 2 provides a “deep dive” into how the word “shizen” has come to be the standard translation for both “environment” and “wilderness,” but no connections are made with chapter 4, which analyzes how a popular novel on pollution translated Korean Studies © 2019 by University of Hawai‘i Press. All rights reserved. 1 obscure scientific discourse into “ . . . a language that was accessible to the general reader . . . ” in Japan. The issues of “cultural translation” in Part I, would ideally inform the major issues of translation in literature which is the focus of Part II. Instead, chapter 5 moves on to describe the characteristics of Western languages in Japanese novels, and the last chapter of this section explains the emotional discourse analysis methods by analyzing Japanese literature. Part III focuses on key linguistic features of Korean and Japanese. These chapters identify the varying levels of definiteness in the use of articles and plural forms in Korean and Japanese, as well the influence of local dialectics on contemporary language use. Part IV presents a couple of cases of language education in Japan. Chapter 11 examines the theory and practice of Japanese language education, focusing on the use of the modal verb, while chapter 12 analyzes the common mistakes of Swedish learners attempting to master Japanese. All interesting studies, to be sure, but the reader is left craving a synthesis that would unpack the potential insights that suchadiverseassemblageofscholarshipmusthold.PartVexplorestheuseof language in the professions using specific examples from contemporary Japanese law, Japanese trials, and urban planning in Korea. Finally, Part VI concludes with chapters as diverse as essays on learning the shakuhachi, and the aesthetics of the image of “spring rain” in haiku. The range of scholarship in this book is impressive. Each chapter presents a narrow scope of study and attempts to substantiate its conclusions based on empirical evidence. Some of the chapters are underresearched (e.g., the chapter on changing images of masculinity fails to cite major works on gender identity like a study by Borovoy (2005), but there is plenty of creative scholarship on display). For example, Barbara Hartley illustrates the issues and challenges to translation raised by Ariyoshi Sawako’s novel, Fukugô osen (Compound Pollution). While the translated book had a significant impact on environmental problems in Japan, the book suffered harsh criticism from some environmental scientists. Such harsh reception as seen in this case shows a specific dilemma of language transition in the field of science and encourages us to understand its challenges better. Such chapters echo the broader theme that language and translation are a font of innovation in East Asian society. This is a provocative idea, and the book does identify some tantalizing evidence. David G. Herbert, the editor, attempts to integrate these ideas into a new perspective on East Asian countries (although the synthesis does not include China, Taiwan, Singapore, and North Korea). This work goes beyond traditional, 2 Korean Studies 2019 geographical, and demographic characteristics, to examine the effects of global interchange in science, literature, music, and the politics and policies of the countries described. In the global...

Echoing with the developments of globalization, the Ministry of Education in Taiwan, to cultivate the international perspectives of Taiwanese teenagers, has recently worked on a series of policies about foreign language education. As the revolutionary policies gradually come to successes, it is necessary to re-evaluate the Japanese educations which are aimed at beginners. The college Japanese courses following Japanese curricula of senior high school are especially worthy of being thoroughly examined.JF Japanese proficiency criterion places an emphasis not only on what aspects of grammar are taught in ”College Foreign Languages: Japanese,” but also on what activities learners are able to use Japanese to conduct after their language learning. Therefore, the present study, based on ”JF Japanese Education Proficiency Criterion 2010,” incorporates advertisements into curricular designs for ”College Foreign Languages: Japanese IV” of China University of Technology, and conducts innovatively tentative teaching activities. The results show that the Japanese proficiency of the learners in the course differs. However, with this proficiency gap, some of the original low achievers benefit from the curriculum and make progress. The causes can be analyzed as follows:First, since advertisements can provoke affect ional and cognitive resonance, compared with textbooks, advertisements are more capable of helping learners acquire interesting and useful Japanese. Second, the scoring criterion takes individual proficiency into consideration. Learners can choose, analyze, and interpret the advertisements based on their own competence, which helps promote learning interests. Third, the emphasis on the achievement of issue mastery facilitates the attainment of learning objectives.

The transmission of indigenous languages was much hampered by the ”Mandarin Policy” that was implemented by the Chinese in 1945 when sovereignty of Taiwan was ceded from the Japanese Empire to the Republic of China. In 1956 the problem was further exacerbated when the ROC government stipulated a rule that made Mandarin the official public language. As a result of this ”single language” policy, the transmission of indigenous languages has been severely hindered.In order to preserve these precious indigenous languages, a language-learning program for Indigenous Taiwanese has been in place since the 1990's. Also an ”Indigenous Language Certification” was created, which over time has become an important index for the academic evaluation of indigenous students. However, even although small progress has been made, this language-learning program and certification system are at present still in need of improvement.In this article I will explore possible improvements to the Taiwanese indigenous language-learning program by looking at the example of Korean-Japanese ethnic schools in Japan. Through analysis of teaching materials, teachers and curricula, I will examine the way in which these schools deal with language education. Although there are many differences between Korean-Japanese and Indigenous Taiwanese as far as their historical, political, economical and cultural backgrounds are concerned, I think that the successful Korean-Japanese example of setting up ethnic schools from kindergarten to graduate school in order to safeguard the transmission of the Korean language is worth considering as a possible model for the reorganization of Indigenous Taiwanese educational policy.

The pursuit of global competence (GC) is heavily promoted as part of university education in Japan, where the government exhorts universities to equip graduates with skills that will enable them to function as global citizens. Foreign language (FL) educators are often expected to cultivate these globally competent individuals. However, there is little consensus on what GC actually is, and limited evidence that existing models of GC are actually applicable in the Japanese context. This study used a qualitative survey targeting professionals, researchers, university teachers and students to determine the attributes that are seen to comprise GC, and the challenges faced in achieving GC in the Japanese context. Findings highlighted the primacy of FL communication skills, as well as openness, extraversion, emotional stability, and a willingness to engage. To overcome challenges to the achievement of these attributes, we suggest that FL educators need to tap into learners’ individual identities and aspirations, rather than pursuing generic and decontextualized approaches to the development of GC.

As this book explores the links between ideology and foreign language education in Japan, it is necessary to provide a historical view of broader educational and political realities shaping particular periods of this history , as well as particular ideological structures within this history. This facilitates the conceptualization of Japanese JHS English education as a context for ethnographic inquiry, and provides a background from which subsequent analyses of nihonjinron, native-speakerism, and ICC-oriented education in the Japanese educational context can take place.

The era of Asia has been felt in foreign language education in Japan, with more and more youth reportedly opting to study Chinese and Korean as the second foreign language. The shift in popularity, from European to Asian languages, not only reflects the societal demand for the institutional rearrangement of academic staff but also stirs teachers of European languages to appeal for the continued study of their language. The present discussion paper, drawing from secondary statistics and scholarly knowledge, first reviews a series of Japan’s foreign language education policies from the 1990s to 2012 that have been affecting the organizational structure of foreign language education in Japanese higher education. The study then addresses an array of issues that emerge with the changing needs of the times: the waning popularity of European languages, the Japanese government’s policy shift to English and Chinese, English language professionals’ detached attitudes toward other language education, and the dominance of university language teachers with little to no language teaching training. By addressing these pending yet gravely overlooked issues that merit due attention from language teaching professionals beyond Japan, the present study hopes to provide insight into the traditionally one-sided, English-centric discussion on foreign language education in Japanese higher education in a matter that is informative for international scholarship.

This paper presents an analysis of English language (EL) education from the perspectives of Japanese and non-Japanese professionals in Singapore, based on their experiences of “doing business” in Singapore. As established career business people, the perspectives of Japanese participants offer a retrospective evaluation of their experiences of EL education in Japan over a range of years. The findings resonate with reforms attempted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT, 2002). The study also reveals a discrepancy between skills these Japanese professionals learned in the EL education system in Japan and actual EL skills required for their work in an international business environment.