Reconstructing the Contours of Japanese Language Education

Extension and Intension

Abstract

　In order to reconstruct the contours of Japanese language education, this paper attempts to expand the conventional view by applying the “extension and intension” scheme.

　In the second section, I categorize various activities related to Japanese language education along the three axes of educational activities, social activities, and research activities, and attempt to expand the existing image of the contours of Japanese language education in order to reconstruct it. In the third section, by a thought-experiment analysis, I examine the internal structure of language acquisition, which is considered to be part of the intensive matter of Japanese language education. I extract through this examination the fields and issues related to the development and strengthening of social activities, cultural understanding, and the formation of the ego and the subjectivity that support those activities, in addition to the fields and issues related to the development and strengthening of language use, in order to expand and transform the existing image of the contours of Japanese language education, and I try to present a new perspective for reconstruction.

　In the process, I have made some reference, though insufficient, to the contours of academic discipline of Japanese Language Education and to the philosophical mission and future vision of The Society for Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language.