The purpose of this paper is to examine literature teaching materials in Japanese language textbooks by using media literacy methods with a focus on reading classes. The position taken in this paper is that it is necessary for students to study literacy within Japanese language classes, given that media literacy is also being practiced within the classroom in national language classes in countries outside of Japan.
I define media literacy as "the knowledge and skill to understand and interpret information conveyed in different media with a critical point of view. " Understanding that the methods of media literacy are usually used to interpret images and pictures, within my analysis, I also use concepts and tools from cultural ztudies.
Though there are many approaches within the field of media literacy, specifically regarding the methods employed in conducting this study, I draw on the work and methods of Art Silverblatt, which are practical for media literacy on literary works. I also use Sangetsuki, by Nakajima Atsushi, in this study.
One of the aims of ideology analysis within media literacy is to reveal the intentions of the author of a particular literary work. Important practices are to analyze the reason(s) why it was decided to publish the work within a textbook, why the work was published at the time, how much of the original work is published within the textbook, and how much space the work occupies within the whole textbook.
Editing, within media literacy, is the process by which one examines how a literary work is edited by an author. This can be used to analyze, for example, whether the content of Natsumi Soseki's Kokoro, a novel used in Japanese language classes at the high-school level, is different when the work is published for use in Japanese literature textbooks, especially in terms of the language of the work, which is modernized for contemporary textbooks.
Using composition methods of media literacy, it is possible to analyze what kinds of editing have been made to the original work when considering(a) the place of publication, (b)title picture(s) and (c) illustration(s)used in publishing a novel within a textbook. Impressions of the work can change depending on the size, placement, color(s), and font(s) of the title lettering, and how the title picture fits within the layout.
In this paper, I utilize these methods, and I hope that teachers will consider this new approach. This method of reading, using the approaches of media literacy, has the potential to become a new literacy method that teachers could utilize as a means of making reading classes more constructive and concrete for students.
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