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Position

Professor at Institute of Japan Studies

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Field

Japanese Language Education / Applied Linguistics��Second Language Acquisition)

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Developing teaching methods and materials to suit the growing diversity among international students

I have been teaching Japanese to non-Japanese students for over 30 years. It used to be the case that most international students were aiming to find work with Japanese companies or Japanese affiliates or to become researchers. Today, students' goals are becoming ever more diverse, as there are more and more people who are inspired to learn Japanese after coming into contact with Japan through popular culture such as manga and anime or other interests. We take into account the fact that such students are motivated by interests in Japan and Japanese culture and bring this out in our teaching methods and materials as far as possible.

International students want to learn about Japan and make Japanese friends. Our teaching methods therefore place emphasis on the interaction that occurs when international students introduce their own country's culture to Japanese people and are taught about Japanese culture in return.

My own research is on theories of second-language acquisition and interlanguage pragmatics. The term "interlanguage" refers to the language created by a second language learner as they try to express themselves in the language they are learning; in my research this is namely the Japanese spoken by non-Japanese people learning Japanese. When refusing an invitation to go somewhere, for instance, the clear reply watashi wa ikimasen ("I will not go") may be grammatically correct, but if we consider the theories of pragmatics, it would be an inappropriate way to reply to a superior or senior. When communicating in Japanese, it is more important to focus on selecting your words appropriately to suit the situation and whom you are talking to, rather than grammatical correctness. We also compare data on the language used by Japanese language learners with the tendencies of native speakers and incorporate the findings in our teaching methods and materials.

One of the major aims of the Japan Studies program is to train highly capable Japanese language teachers. In the lectures starting this April we will therefore focus primarily on practical research in Japanese language teaching. More specifically, we will look at not only basic elements such as learning Japanese syntax, but also the teaching of conversation skills with a focus on communication. The lectures will also aim to increase students' literacy in teaching materials--in other words, their ability to grasp how to use teaching materials more effectively.

I believe that the foundation of language education is equipping students with the ability to express what they have learned about their own and other cultures in the relevant language. I welcome students to come and develop practical skills that are grounded in theory.