2021 Volume 90 Pages 17-25
This study considers the unique background of high schools and reforms, emphasizing “composition ability” in establishing the new high school “Modern Japanese Language” and clarifying its goal. In particular, we focused on the information and problem awareness that the government had at that time, and the views of the researchers involved in the revision.
We clarified the existence of research materials showing the low level of writing education in high schools in a country aiming to become a science and technology nation. We also clarified the existence of the “Conant Report,” which has attracted attention in the United States with its emphasis on writing. It is shown as a mixture of Kenji Morioka’s view of essay education, which was devoted to introducing composition theory, and the opinions of Motoki Tokieda, who attempted to build his own essay education theory based on language process theory. It was Japan’s unique view of “composition ability.”
