Journal of Japanese Language Teaching
Online ISSN : 2424-2039
Print ISSN : 0389-4037
ISSN-L : 0389-4037
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Displaying 1-6 of 6 articles from this issue
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Reseach Papers
  • From the Perspectives of Proficiency, Tense and Verb Types
    Shōhei NISHIZAKA
    2021 Volume 180 Pages 1-16
    Published: December 25, 2021
    Released on J-STAGE: December 26, 2023
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

     The present study investigates the acquisition of the -te iru and -te ita in their progressive and resultative meanings among learners of Japanese who are native speakers of Chinese. Using the Simple Performance-Oriented Test (SPOT), 180 students majoring in Japanese at Chinese universities were separated into lower, middle, and upper groups. After administering multiple choice tasks, a high percentage of correct answers was confirmed regarding progressive meaning from the lower group. Moreover, the accuracy rate of responses involving -te iru was significantly higher than for -te ita. Conversely, concerning resultative meaning, regardless of proficiency level, the percentage of correct answers was low, confirming how difficult this aspect was for students to learn. It was observed that there was a difference in the accuracy rate regarding resultative meaning depending on whether the corresponding verb in the learnerʼs first language (L1) could co-occur with an aspect marker that indicates duration. The current study clarifies the acquisition process of the -te iru and -te ita forms among native speakers of Chinese who are learning Japanese and how whether an aspect marker cooccurs in the mother tongue is significant when explaining the degree of difficulty in learning about resultative meaning as indicated through -te iru and -te ita.

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Survey Articles
  • A Case Study of Tutorsʼ and Tuteesʼ Experiences
    Sachiko YASUDA, Zizhen ZHANG
    2021 Volume 180 Pages 17-32
    Published: December 25, 2021
    Released on J-STAGE: December 26, 2023
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

     In recent years, there has been a growing interest in writing centers as a new form of extra-curricular writing support for second language(L2) students. The purpose of this study is to explore how tutors in writing centers support L2 writers, how the support is perceived by the L2 writers, and what kind of learning and awareness L2 writers gain through the dialogue with tutors. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with experienced tutors(n = 3) and L2 graduate students(n = 3) who repeatedly visited the writing center. The verbatim transcripts were analyzed using a modified grounded theory approach. The findings show that from the tutorsʼ perspective, the concepts of “building trust,” “waiting attitude,” and “facilitating noticing” are the keys to successful tutoring. The study also demonstrated that through the dialogue with tutors, L2 writers gained “awareness of their own thoughts” and “awareness of what they do think but do not yet write.” The results suggest that the novel writing support at the writing center, that is, process-oriented and interaction-based approaches to producing better writers, not better writing, could allow L2 writers to unlearn their familiar learning method, while helping them become better writers.

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  • For Japanese Language Education for Technical Interns in Line with the Actual State of Agricultural Work Sites
    Tomoko IIDA
    2021 Volume 180 Pages 33-48
    Published: December 25, 2021
    Released on J-STAGE: December 26, 2023
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

     In order to improve Japanese language education for technical interns, it is necessary to consider whether instruction is in line with the actual modes of communication required at technical training sites. Therefore, to clarify the actual state of the collaborative work between technical interns and Japanese native speakers and their communication in Japanese, this study, focusing on agriculture-related jobs, conducted an ongoing yearly survey to collect and analyze data from four companies that accept technical interns. The results revealed that companies implement communication measures according to their respective collaborative worksites; such as by appointing a leader from among the technical interns to facilitate communication, or by working out communication processes shared in the course of one-to-one work between technical interns and Japanese native speakers, leading to successful collaboration. In some cases, technical interns proficient in Japanese communication, after completing their current internship, go on to acquire the visa status of Technical Intern Training(iii) or Specified Skilled Worker while continuing to train at their host company, which suggests the importance of incorporating the actual modes of communication required at worksites into education.

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Practical Articles
  • A Consideration of Questionnaire Results from Japanese and International Students
    Kayo HAYANO
    2021 Volume 180 Pages 49-63
    Published: December 25, 2021
    Released on J-STAGE: December 26, 2023
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

     This paper reports on an application of the jigsaw technique to online classrooms. In an online flipped classroom using Zoom and Moodle for Japanese communication, two types of group learning were utilized: non-jigsaw and jigsaw, using the breakout room on Zoom. In the face-to-face jigsaw method, there were problems involving movement between groups, variability between groups, and teacher intervention. Movement between groups was improved by adding a new Zoom function, and, inter-group variability was improved by creating questions and quizzes for students on Moodle. Teacher intervention included patrolling the breakout room, and Moodle reflections were handled individually. Student surveys indicated that the jigsaw method was superior in all aspects including preparation, presentation, and understanding. The online jigsaw method was found to be effective, although there were issues such as securing time for group learning and methods of teacher intervention.

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  • Based on the Results of Practices in Beijing and Taipei
    Chiemi YANASE
    2021 Volume 180 Pages 64-79
    Published: December 25, 2021
    Released on J-STAGE: December 26, 2023
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

     This paper aims to integrate the cognitive and social approaches of Second Language Acquisition studies. Specifically, it strives to report scaffolding practices for young Chinese-Japanese bilinguals in promoting language transfer from Chinese to Japanese based on cognitive processing for understand Japanese kanji words using their existing knowledge of Chinese. The face-to-face practices consisting of card-reading tasks were conducted in two cities: Beijing, where simplified Chinese characters are used, and Taipei, where traditional Chinese characters are used. The participants were Chinese-Japanese bilingual children who had completed two years of local grade school, and whose learning of Chinese characters preceded that of Japanese kanji. The results of 20 subjects in Beijing and 14 in Taipei suggest that the form of characters affects the childrenʼs ability to use their Chinese knowledge, and that they process kanji words based, in order, on their form, meaning, and reading while monitoring them in their context. Furthermore, it is found that scaffolding can be successful by supporting students in enhancing such cognitive processing for kanji, while that scaffolding is limited due to their level of cognitive development or the size of their Japanese speaking vocabulary.

     In conclusion, based on these findings, proposals are formulated on scaffolding for learning Japanese kanji among Chinese-Japanese bilingual children with previous instruction in Chinese character-using areas.

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Research Notes
  • Tatsuhiko MATSUSHITA, Ruili LIU, Satoko TOKUMARU, Akinori NAKAJIMA
    2021 Volume 180 Pages 80-88
    Published: December 25, 2021
    Released on J-STAGE: December 26, 2023
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

     The Cloze Test(Taylar, 1953), a fill-in-the-blanks test, has been developed and validated as a suitable test for measuring L2 reading, listening comprehension, and overall language proficiency. In this study, we describe a new web tool that utilizes a vocabulary database to create blanks in a text to fill in, selecting words and characters with certain lexical properties. The test is created by copying text into a window, specifying the conditions, and clicking the “create” button, after which it can be downloaded and processed. Word, character, clause, or sentence can be designated as the segmenting unit. Frequency level, part of speech, word origin, lexical genre, and blank interval can be specified when selecting “word” as the unit. When “character” is used as the unit, the character type, frequency level, and blank interval can be designated. Regardless of whether the word, character, clause, or sentence is designated as a unit, users may also specify whether or not to use furigana (small hiragana showing the pronunciation of kanji), and whether or not to leave the blanked-out units as answer choices. This web tool is expected to have multiple applications, including testing of vocabulary and grammar, autonomous learning, classroom education, vocabulary list creation, and research on inferring the meaning of unknown words. The URL for the tool is: http://160.16.101.253/test/fibt/.

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