| Abstract |
This is a practical report on the Seminar "An Introduction to Japanese Language Teaching". Unlike courses offered in Japanese language teacher training programs in other universities, this seminar is ...offered as one course in general education. Therefore, it doesn't aim to make students acquire professional skills and expertise. Instead, this seminar is designed for first year students belonging to various faculties. It aims to broaden their horizons and to generate new interests by looking at their mother language objectively, reflecting on their language learning theoretically and by thinking deeply about various problems relating to foreigners living in Japan. For these purposes, the seminar is divided into four stages. In the first stage (weeks 1-4), students analyzed Japanese as a foreign language in terms of vocabulary, grammar, phonetics and pragmatics. In the second stage (weeks 5-8), they experienced learning foreign language by direct method and learned three kinds of language teaching methods. In the third stage (weeks 10-13), students learned some second language acquisition theories and applied those to various problems that language learners faced (e.g. the difference between CALP and BICS). In the final stage (weeks 9, 14 and 15), students made their own research questions in groups, carried out investigations (e.g. interviewing the international students), and made poster presentations. The statements in course evaluation and the responses of the questionnaire show that: (1) their interest and understanding of Japanese language, Japanese language teaching and Japanese language learners had deepened and (2) their critical thinking disposition had changed positively.show more
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