Comments on: Where’s the research for Japanese language education?

By: CCSR

CCSR — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 00:26:25 +0000

Trying again: The problem is that researchers can do all the research they want, but that doesn’t mean administrators or school officials (or even teachers) are willing to implement it–or that publishers will publish it. It’s deeply frustrating to me–I have a master’s in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), studied Chinese previously, and am currently studying Japanese. Among the theories I subscribe to are those of Stephen Krashen, who holds that large amounts of comprehensible written input are essential to language acquisition. For ESL/EFL students, there are lots of good “graded readers” written for just this purpose, but for Japanese? Well, there’s only one series as far as I can tell.

You can find some articles on Japanese in specific by searching Google Scholar (probably from an on-campus computer for journal access).

By: CCSR

CCSR — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 00:25:04 +0000

I had a long reply written but I’m getting some kind of error.

By: Tae Kim

Tae Kim — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 17:26:45 +0000

Thanks, I’m going to see if I can visit some libraries at University of Washington.

By: Doran Thai

Doran Thai — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 12:30:11 +0000

Hi there :)

I think I’d recommend the university library, and read up on some materials concerning second language acquisition and language planning.

I do know of a major contributor to linguistics by the name of Shibata Takeshi and he’s written quite a number of material. I think he would be of help to you. Look for him, and it should lead you onto more relevant stuff.

Another area of study I think is important for anyone considering doing second language teaching is the relationship between language and thought. It’s a relatively new area of study – it only really kicked off in the mid 20th century.

I’ll leave it here for now because I don’t want to overwhelm. Good luck!

By: Nick

Nick — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 02:01:20 +0000

I intend to go to school for a Linguistics major (with a Japanese base) this summer ‘08. So if I remember I’ll come back and post what I found out.

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 05:28:54 +0000

Sorry about that respoonse.

They might have it there, too. It’s just typical for universities to publish books, often per department, with prep information for the entrance exams. These are usually on sale at bookstores across the country.

I guess I was being a little too cynical with my response since it was mostly a jab at the entrance exam system and that if you bought the book, you’d have example questions and info that you’d be asked about on the test.

*ahem*

As for actually looking into information about teaching Japanese as a second language, I highly recommend the Japan Foundation.

http://www.jpf.go.jp/

These guys are a fantastic source. And if there’s anything you can’t find on their site, I’m sure you could e-mail them for some links or references.

By: Tae Kim

Tae Kim — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 23:08:13 +0000

Thanks Chris. Do you mean I have to go to the Waseda bookstore?

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 15:53:16 +0000

My guess is that if you go to the bookstore and buy the study guide published by Waseda, it will have all the info you need to pass the entrance exam.

By: Carl

Carl — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 19:02:31 +0000

I believe JSL refers to “Japanese Sign Language” in this case. I have taught deaf Japanese children before with JET, and I can attest that they can have a lot of difficulty with oral/written Japanese.