2012 Volume 54 Issue 1-2 Pages 1-10
The purpose of this study was to quantitatively and qualitatively examine the teaching units for writing within Japanese language textbooks for high schools. The author surveyed 16 textbooks that were published between Showa
60 (1985) to 62 (1987) by ten publishing companies,21 textbooks that were published between Heisei 6 (1994) to 9 (1997) by ten publishing companies, and 22 textbooks that were published between Heisei 19 (2007) to 22 (2010) by nine publishing companies. The results indicated that textbooks between Showa 60-62 (1) contained many model essays written by professional writers, and (2) contained many teaching units for writing personal narratives and personal responses to literature, textbooks between Heisei 6-9 (1) contained few explanations and model essays, and (2) the number of pages was smaller than those for Showa 60-62 and Heisei 19-22,and textbooks between Heisei 19-22 (1) contained many model essays written by students, (2) contained many teaching units for writing letters,argumentative essays, and book reviews, and (3) contained many teaching units showing how to write for each genre. It was demonstrated that these characteristics reflected the National Curriculum Standards for High Schools. Furthermore,almost all the teaching units did not show that the writing process was recursive.
