Paper short abstract:

The Japanese reading ability is important for JSL learners in terms of plurilingual and pluricultural competences. The aim of this presentation is to provide suggestions for the further development of a teaching model for independent reading, to be used for European JSL learners.

Paper long abstract:

The Council of Europe (2018) includes illustrative descriptors for plurilingual and pluricultural competencies and stresses their importance by stating that "The plurilingual vision associated with the CEFR gives value to cultural and linguistic diversity at the level of the individual. It promotes the need for learners as 'social agents' to draw upon all of their linguistic and cultural resources and experiences in order to fully participate in social and educational contexts [...] and in turn further developing their linguistic and cultural repertoire. (pp.157-162)". This view corresponds with the task of foreign language teachers as defined by Byram (2008), which is to stimulate the development of plurilingual competences where each language ability complements the others as needed.

From this point of view, the act of learning Japanese is a process through which learners' plurilingual competences are enriched. The results of surveys taken by Japanese-language learners in Europe have shown that they mainly obtain information about Japan through their reading activities. Therefore, the ability to interpret Japanese texts accurately as well as with a critical reading ability is considered to be of particular importance.

The aim of this presentation is to attempt to provide suggestions for the further development of a teaching model for independent reading, to be used for JSL learners whose first language is a European language. The learners participated in 'Think-aloud experiments' and semi-structured interviews. They did so after having gone through a one year course taught with the prototype teaching model and learning materials developed for this purpose. These collected protocol data were analyzed according to the "Competition Model" theory to evaluate the effects of this teaching model on their way of reading and their level of comprehension. Finally, points of improvement that are required for the future development of the first version of teaching methods will be discussed.

Council of Europe (2018).CEFR-Companion volume. Council of Europe.

Byram, M.(2008). From Foreign Language Education to Education for Intercultural Citizenship. translated by Yamada et al. (2015), Taishukan Publishing co.