2008 Volume 11 Issue 2 Pages 144-161
Recently, the number of foreign children in Japan has increased and so has the length of their stay has tended to be longer. Consequently, the psychological problems related to their educational issues have become more serious. In this study, we focused on the Japanese volunteer teachers who support foreign students at the JSL (Japanese as a Second Language) classroom in a public junior high school in western Japan. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 7 Japanese volunteer teachers (2 males and 5 females). The Japanese volunteer teachers focused that most foreign students suffered from some psychological instability stemming from their cross-cultural experiences. They offered foreign students language education, psychological cares, comfortable atmosphere and so on. Moreover, Japanese volunteer teachers made good relationships with school teachers through their supports. However, they were reluctant to give foreign students direct psychological cares because of their lack of knowledge and skills in psychological counseling and other obstacles in the school community. We concluded that there were various elements to support foreign students in the JSL classroom and Japanese volunteer teachers took important roles as psycho-sociological resource for them. In order to support foreign students more effectively, a licensed psychologist must be involved as a coordinator for constructing systematic psycho-sociological support in a Japanese school.
