If we look at the articles published in the first issue to the latest issue of the Journal of Japanese Language Teaching (Nihongo Kyōiku), we find three discemible periods with respect to the contents of the articles. The former half of the first period (from No. 1 to No. 70) was a groundbreaking period in which most of the articles published in the Journal were devoted to the establishment of the conventional approach to Japanese-language pedagogy. Articles that formed a prelude to the coming change in pedagogy began to appear in the issues published in the latter half of the first period. The communicative approach to language teaching was selected as the specially featured topic in No. 73, issued early in the second period (from No. 71 to No. 125), and pros and cons of the communicative approach were discussed. However, after that issue no serious discussion on the topic continued in the Journal. Articles dealing with Japanese linguistics and Japanese language acquisition in the context of Japanese-language pedagogy were in full flourish in this period. Articles arguing for new directions in research on Japanese language teaching appeared in the third period (from No. 126 to No. 151). This overview concludes with remarks on the importance of research that will pursue and refine the principles involved in the acquisition and instruction of Japanese, whether it concerns curriculum or methodology, in order to bring about substantial results in this academic endeavor.

This essay analyzes 798 papers in the field of Japanese linguistics, or Japanese linguistics and pedagogy, published in the Journal for Japanese Language Teaching. The area with the greatest number of papers is grammar, followed by language acquisition. Some areas that saw a great number of papers published in the past have now greatly diminished. Based on the results of this analysis, I suggest several points that are important for contributors and referees to consider for future development of the Journal.

This essay reviews how papers relating to psychology, published in the Journal for Japanese Language Teaching, have developed over the fifty years of its history. In the first period, from 1962 to 1985, almost none of the papers dealt with psychology, but the few that did are significant for providing the seed for future developments. The second period, 1985 to 1999, was marked by the appearance of papers on interlanguage, and the overall emphasis shifted from instructor-centered to learner-centered approaches, with an increasing variety of research devoted to the strategies, styles, motivations and processes of learning. In the third period, 1999 to 2012, theory was introduced, leading to the pursuit of universality, while research on the verification of theory became important in the attempt to apply theoretical results back in the classroom. The contribution of psychology has been a consistent recognition that language teaching is not the injection of knowledge, but rather involves support for learners to make use of their own abilities and knowledge in language acquisition.

In the course of the publication of Nos. 1 to 150 of the Journal for Japanese Language Teaching, 610 published papers had sociological perspectives. This essay examines how the themes of these papers have changed over the years on the basis of changes in social conditions. In general, the number and proportion of such papers showed a steady increase from the latter half of the 1980s. Thereafter, this trend slowed down for a while, but in the latter half of the 2000s, it reached the highest level seen yet. Initially, most papers focused on explaining conditions with regard to teaching overseas, but in the latter half of the 1980s, more papers focused on learners in Japan, reflecting the diversification among learners here. Additionally, diverse themes were newly developed depending on social conditions. To prevent these newly developed themes from being limited to a transient significance, the author emphasizes the importance of the involvement of other research fields and of the pursuit of universality and generalizability. The author also argues that the Japanese language education community must deepen its discussion on which types of research are necessary and must extend its research vision.

This essay looks back over fifty years of publishing the Journal for Japanese Language Teaching, and discusses developments seen over five periods in its history.

The first period, ten years from the inaugural issue to 1972, can be seen as a groundbreaking work to establish Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language as an academic field. In the second period, lasting till 1988, research tended to focus on the pedagogy itself, and even papers dealing with language increasingly took the classroom as their starting point. The third period continued until 1997, and saw the incorporation of psychology and sociology into research. Pedagogical researchbroadened in scope, with a larger contribution of research on teaching practices. The fourth period was one of an increasingly interdisciplinary approach, with more ties to related fields. The current period, beginning in 2004 is characterized by research of high quality that goes well beyond the discovery of issues. The necessity of a composite pedagogical research program spanning all relevant disciplines is clearer than ever. Future research must strive for a further deepening and broadening of efforts in our field.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the features of psych-adverbials in Japanese. The results, in addition to confirming the results of previous research that psych-adverbials express the feelings and emotions of the agent in the action, also indicate the three following features: 1) psych-adverbials are agent-oriented adverbs; 2) since psych-adverbials express the feelings of the agent performing the intentional action, they can also be seen to express the results of the action; and 3) the emotions expressed by the agents in psych-adverbials have self-controllability.

In addition, this study examines the usage forms of psych-adverbials in a language corpus, showing that psychological adjectives expressing positive emotions can more easily be used adverbially. Moreover, this paper points out that this phenomenon can be explained from a pragmatics perspective.

Service learning (SL) is a method of experiential learning which engages learners in their local community through a service activity with clear academic objectives. Learners apply their knowledge to the activity, acquiring further knowledge through experience. SL has recently been introduced into higher education in Japan. This article is a report on the experimental use of SL in a university course for advanced learners of Japanese, who learned Japanese through a service activity in a residence for senior citizens. I present an overview of the course and an analysis of the course evaluation sheets completed by the learners, individual interviews with them, their journals and their final reports. The results show that the learners felt that not only had they improved their writing skills, but also that the course had influenced their views on life and their sense of values. From SL, they acquired 1) awareness about and encouragement in life from their elders; 2) joy and a sense of achievement in helping other people; 3) insight into and empathy for other people; and 4) the self-recognition of having broken away from prejudice.