Prosodic features of spoken language play important roles in oral communication. Careful examination of how learners of Japanese perceive and process the semantic implications of prosodic variations in Japanese will, therefore, help improve the quality of instruction in teaching Japanese as a foreign language. This paper focuses on the syntactic function of prosody in Japanese and examines how prosodic cues are used to disambiguate potentially ambiguous sentences by three subject groups: native speakers of Japanese, learners of Japanese at advanced level, and learners of Japanese at intermediate level. The data that were obtained from the empirical examination showed that learners who were at both advanced and intermediate levels were sensitive to the prosodic cues to a greater degree than our original prediction, and that they were using the prosodic cues systematically to arrive at the interpretation of utterances that were consistent with their prosodic structure. This paper further discuses application of the findings to classroom instruction. Specifically, we suggest that Japanese teachers should provide explicit explanation of the syntactic function of prosody along with corresponding structural patterns to encourage learners to use prosody as a tool for better comprehension of spoken Japanese.

This paper aims to indicate how the image of a good Japanese teacher held by two Japanese teaching assistants changed in the course of their overseas teaching experience, dispatched from a university TJSL course, based on PAC analysis and semi-structured interviews.

The following results are reported in this paper: The image of a good teacher changed in the course of their experience abroad to after returning from abroad for both assistants. The post-return data shows strong influences on each assistant by their mentoring Japanese language teacher. After returning from abroad the assistants' common image of a good Japanese teacher includes class management ability and a cheerful personality. Both assistants show common and different characteristics in the process of their development. Furthermore, experiences such as a home stay could be related to their growth in addition to their activities as assistants.

These results could contribute to the training of assistants before they are sent as an extension of the teaching practice of a university TJSL course, especially in the identification and development of necessary qualities for becoming a successful assistant.