This study examined the academic ability to produce literary argumentative writing through an analysis of literary argumentative writing produced by high school students. The results of this analysis revealed that high school students’ literary argumentative writing has the following three aspects: I. text-interpretation-abduction-synthesis, II. objection-rebuttal-abduction-synthesis, and III. background-abduction-synthesis. Further analysis of this aspect I showed that the academic level of the aspect I is graded according to the consistency, abstractness and comprehensiveness of the argument and the reading.

  The purpose of this study is to analyze “classics” and especially “Chinese classics” contents of the post-war Japanese language education guideline of each edition, in the junior high school and to sort out the official regulations in a timely manner, such as the goals design, selection of teaching materials, and teaching points. To build a foundation for comparative study with China, this study divided the overall goals of Chinese classics education in Japan into two categories, “basics” and “attitudes,” and analyzed them in four periods with a view to forming the overall goals and modifying the goals related to “attitudes”.

  In conclusion, from the first to the fourth period, the overall goal of Chinese classics education in Japan was to maintain the “basics” of “reading and understanding the classics,” while the “attitudes” of “respecting and familiarizing with the classics” developed through “respecting and familiarizing with tradition and culture,” and then developed to “inheriting, creating and developing tradition and culture”.

  Along with this, there are inherent regulations on selection of teaching materials, and teaching points, as well as four major changes: the diversity of the kinds of teaching materials, the importance of reading aloud, the mainstreaming of teaching that links reading, writing, listening, speaking, and the focus of the learners.

  Overall, we summarized that there was a shift in Chinese classics education in Japan from “learning the classics” to “learning with the classics.”

  The purpose of this study was to clarify the factors that inhibit participation in the “scene” in Japanese language classes and to examine teaching strategies to promote participation. The term “scene” in this study refers to “a situation in which students are engaged in learning activities in accordance with the goals of the class.” Throughout the study, we structured ones for students and teachers and examined research methods from the standpoint of clinical pedagogy. The main research method used was “participatory action research with the parties concerned,” in which the parties concerned (i.e., the teachers themselves) narrate their practices, and text mining methods were also used to look into the inner aspects of the students. The central subject of the study was the “individual” with special needs, with a focus on cases of stagnant learning. In this study, during the scenario study of the dramatization of “Run, Melos!” we focused on a situation in which the individual, the central subject of the study, withdrew from the collaborative learning process, examining its causes prior to the case study. As a result, the disharmony of relationships among students was identified as a factor that inhibited their participation in the scene. We then proposed three teaching strategies to fulfill the establishment requirements: “elimination of competitive context,” “presentation of diverse learning methods,” and “recognition of individual characteristics.”

  Focusing on “thrice repeated” episodes, the authors of this study read 505 teaching materials used in Japanese textbooks for elementary and junior high schools to clarify the similarities and differences in elementary and junior high schools. The analysis results revealed that texts composed of a single (unrepeated) episode are more common in elementary and junior high school materials, accounting for 78% of the former and 88% of the latter. Additionally, an analysis of meaningful relationships between episodes showed that in elementary schools, most were based on similarity, accounting for 80%, whereas only 20% were contrastive, and “thrice repeated” episodes developed in five different patterns. In junior high school texts, similarity accounted for about 44% and contrast for about 55%, while “thrice repeated” episodes developed in 11 patterns. The above analyses reveal that the difficulty level for interpreting meaningful relationships between episodes is higher in junior high school texts. Moreover, regarding the conclusions in these teaching materials, our study found that about 80% of the texts for elementary schools had a happy ending whereas only about 6% had a sad ending. For junior school, the ratios were approximately 50% happy and about 40% sad. Interpreting a happy ending is limiting as it tends to focus on a particular value called “happiness.” On the other hand, the interpretation of a sad ending tends to be diverse as it provides an opportunity to question its meaning from multiple perspectives. The analyses reveal that the teaching materials for junior high schools allow for more polysemic interpretation than those for elementary schools do.

  This study examines the support needed to realize learner agency in opinion writing tasks with Bruner’s (1991) discussion of culturalism, focusing on the possibility that learners may find it difficult to demonstrate their agency in opinion writing because of decontextualization of opinion writing tasks under the influence of the learning environment. The analysis reveals the problems of intervention instruction by presenting rhetorical expressions and points out that (1) learners have little opportunity for self-reflection and (2) the master-subordinate relationship between the instructor and learners may decontextualize the opinion writing task and limit the learner agency. In the discussion, this study argues the importance of the instructor’s participation in the dialogue and response on an equal footing so that the learners can face and overcome the difficulties of writing opinions.

  In this study, we focused on middle school students’ pointing and gazing and clarified how their reading behaviors differ depending on the electronic media and print used in the context of the class. The study was conducted at one public junior high school, encompassing 15 days of fieldwork, including nine hours of classroom observation and video data collection.

  We considered that a variety of print media other than textbooks, along with electronic media, are appropriate place for observing the reading behaviors of students who use them, and we targeted classes held in school libraries. Video recordings of each media-sharing scene for total of 33 9th grade students in a class, separated by one second to yield a total of 3,611 images from 31 scenes featuring print media and 2,394 images from 49 scenes featuring electronic media, were analyzed. A total of 6,005 photos were classified into five reading behaviors to capture the characteristics of the patterns of print and electronic media use. Then, we applied micro-ethnographic methods to analyze two case studies to determine how the distinctive reading behaviors patterns of each medium are generated.

  The results showed that pointing, gazing, and co-gazing were important chain patterns and these three reading acts not only occurred frequently, but also occurred for a certain amount of time. Above all, the following two points were identified. First, students adjusted their reading behaviors to their sequential patterns and generation times in seconds, depending on whether they were using electronic or print media. Second, students made effective use of gazing during the action of reading. The study also revealed that the reading behaviors middle school students exhibit when sharing each medium include not only pointing and cogazing, which indicate text comprehension for both students, but also solo gazing, which indicates contemplative thinking and plays an important function in the classroom.

  This study also suggests that consideration should be given to media selection in the classroom, such as using electronic media when having students focus on a specific text and using print media when having students discuss a text based on their understanding of it. Time should also be made for students to interact with the media individually.